Don't Delete Your Evanced Stats

Kathleen Smith, Headquarters

Here's some helpful information that supervisors, librarians, SLAs and Community Branch staff should share with all staff at their branches who have responsibilities for entering Evanced events.

Staff recently discovered an important point when entering events and statistics into Evanced that we should all be aware of. Attempting to add programs to the Evanced calendar by adding more occurrences will generate a message that says "There are individual attendance or statistics within this recurring series. Click 'Cancel' to go back or 'OK' to proceed with overwriting them." If this happens to you, select 'Cancel' to keep your stats intact.

Choosing "Yes" will erase all the stats you have entered for this event so far. There is no way to retrieve this information - even from the Archive. To avoid this problem, here's some tips from Jennifer Kish:

If you want to add more dates to a recurring event, make a new event by clicking on “Add New Event” or by copying the old event and updating the information. This is really the best way to handle this.

If you want to make a change midway through a recurring event that’s already been entered, delete the dates that have not occurred yet and create a new event with the new dates. That way, your stats remain intact.

Avoid altering dates or times in recurring events that already have stats entered (unless you’re prepared to copy all the stats down and re-enter them).

So to sum it up, adding events to a recurring event is not a good idea. Just make an entirely new event. Let me know if you have any questions.

Making the Case for Friends Support

Terry Sterling, Community Libraries

Sara Gibbs made a presentation to the Fowler Friends of the Library last Thursday evening on programming at the Fowler branch. As a result of Sara's presentation, the Fowler Friends authorized $525 for fall programming at the branch.

Branch librarians who work with FOL groups could use this same strategy to show the impact of FOL contributions in the branches. It was particularly impressive when the FOLs were told that the program cost averaged to only 49 cents per participant! The 30 percent program reduction was also noted, which helped make a strong case to the FOL.

Patron Misconduct is Down

Cindy Freeland, Headquarters

It may not always feel like it when you’re out there on the front desk, but reported patron misconduct has decreased dramatically. From January through July we had only 90 Problem Patron Reports filed – compared to 122 the same time last year. That’s a decrease of 25%!

When you consider that reporting went up between 2007 and 2008, we know staff aren’t shy about reporting patron misconduct. The Rules are out there and so are the wiki Procedures for Enforcing the Revised Rules of Conduct. Library staff know what to do and they’re doing it.

We’d like to commend all those front-desk folks who are setting the standards, enforcing the Rules of Conduct, and making sure that the Library is a friendly, inviting place for everyone. So, keep up the good work and if anybody gives you a hard time, well, you know what to do.

A combination of factors probably contributed to the decline in behavior problems: Are people who come to the Library just being nicer? Is the Library atmosphere just more conducive to appropriate behavior? Are staff dealing with and diffusing situations and just plain quicker to squelch bad behavior? Are we getting tougher? We want to know what you think has lead to the decline in reported patron misconduct. Please post your ideas or observations on the FCPL Wiki (http://fcplcentral.pbworks.com/), and we will share your comments in a future Booknotes article.

Random Acts of Kindness

Arturo Mendoza

Even during the toughest times, there are those out there making a difference...one person at a time. Anything is possible! My experience at the Woodward Park branch on August 19 inspired me to share with others.

What is this??? I sat outside the Woodward Park Library to make a call and noticed this small Warner Co. Jewelers gift bag. My first reaction was to wait for the owner to claim it, a few seconds later I felt obligated to take the small bag into the Library lost and found. While on my call I noticed an envelope peeking out from the tissue and could make out the letters...e e p e r s... I raised the envelope to read the inscription; the complete letters spelled "Finders Keepers!” I finished my call and cautiously opened the envelope, the first line read…’Congratulations! This gift is for you...yes, YOU!’ Well the rest was obvious, or was it? I had mixed emotions...part of me felt like Charlie Bucket finding a Golden Ticket and another felt a bit nervous, could this be a prank? I continued to read the message in the envelope, as well as follow the instructions for the finder of the gift bag. I then contacted the Warner Co. and they did confirm that in fact this was a gift - no strings attached. The message in the envelope ended with this sentence; ‘Never forget that joy can be found when you least expect it’ Well I totally did not expect it…what a wonderful element of surprise. With times so tough for all of us and for a Company to take the time of thinking…as well as doing something special for others…well, what a wonderful Random Act of Kindness! This gesture and gift is deeply appreciated…Thank you!

To read about more random acts of kindness, go to www.warnercompany.com/FindersKeepers.html.

Juneteenth

Karen Maj, Bookmobile

Tisha and Nancy at the Juneteenth event on June 20 at Eaton Plaza with the Community Bookmobile in the background. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

Carpool and Win

Roberta Barton, Headquarters


Carpooling is not only good for the environment - it can also qualify you to win fabulous prizes, including a monthly $1000 cash prize. Plus, each entry qualifies you for an annual Grand Prize Drawing to win a clean fuel car and other prizes! Go to www.valleyrides.com to learn more.

NOYS: SRP Survey!

PLEASE fill out the SRP survey.

We will begin planning for next year soon and we would really like as much branch input as possible.

Tell us what worked and what didn’t in your branch, and what you’d like for next year….this is your chance to tell us how you’d like to see next year’s summer reading program planned, from performers to prizes. Make sure your opinion is counted!

Thank You!

Service Upgrades

Marie Stanley, Headquarters

Part of the Central Library underwent a makeover this summer in an effort to provide better customer service and acknowledge the changing needs of Library users. The former Readers Services space was reorganized to consolidate public computers and computer assistance functions in a new, more spacious area. A new Computer Help Desk and self-service print release kiosk are now located on the first floor near the Mariposa entrance next to Central’s 30 minute computers. The information finding and periodicals assistance functions of the old Reader’s Services Department have been added to the Reference desk. The Career Center was also relocated nearer the Reference Desk. Additional hour-use computers remain in the Lab on the second floor.

Coming this fall will be the addition of the new Foundation Center collection in the Reference Department area. The Central Library was recently designated a Cooperating Collection and will receive many new publications on grant research and non-profit organization management. The Library already subscribes to online grant research databases from the Foundation Center.

By the Numbers

Roberta Barton, Headquarters

Literacy Services recently submitted its year-end report to the State Library, and the numbers were inpressive as well as interesting.

• 243 active learners remaining at end of reporting period

• 203 active tutors remaining at end of reporting period

• 10,936 total volunteer hours contributed

• 66 learners met at least one goal, including 11 who passed part or all of the GED, 21 who got a new library card, and 47 who found a job

• 108 families served by Families for Literacy program

• 993 children's books given to Families for Literacy families

• 624 parents served by the AprendoVan

• 1,693 children's books given to AprendoVan families

• 134 English as a Second Language adults served in Mendota

Especially notable are the learners who passed part or all of the GED and who found new jobs. Both achievements set new records for the library. The fact that so many learners were able to find employment in this devastating economy is definitely a testament to the value and success of our hard-working Literacy staff and volunteers. Keep up the great work!

NOYS: And the Winner Is...

With the end of summer reading program, so wraps up our first annual staff summer reading program. We are amazed at the work you all put into it. In the course of eight weeks, staff read more than 500 books. Wow!

And now, the winners:

1st place: Gina, Woodward Park (123 books read; 369 points; pictured left)

2nd place: Roberta, Sunnyside (81 books read; 243 points)

3rd place: Lisa, Sunnyside (74 books read; 222 points)


Thanks to everyone who participated. And for those of you who didn't, the website will still be available for you throughout the year. It's a great resource for staff who need to recommend books to teens.

A special thanks to the Staff Association, who helped to supplement the prizes donated by Youth Services staff. We're already looking forward to next summer--in what kind of staff SRP would you like to participate? Children's books? Adult? Audio?

NOYS: Fun Stuff for Teens

In these times of budget crisis, it’s even more crucial to spend every dollar wisely. Just as Adult Services has changed their approach to collection development, Youth Services is making some changes in selection as well. To view areas of responsibility among the YS Collection Development Team, go here: http://intra.fresnolibrary.org/com/child/index.html.

Among the changes in our approach to youth collections is the emphasis on selecting more fun nonfiction for teens. Circulation stats reveal that the majority of curriculum-based teen nonfiction rarely circulates, while entertainment-based nonfiction has a much higher turnover rate. This doesn’t mean we’ll stop buying homework-type books altogether, but it does mean that those books will primarily reside in bigger branches. Meanwhile, smaller branches will slowly transition into more of a popular browsing collection, much like their fiction counterparts. As always, ready reference resources and our complete set of online reference tools will be available at all branches.

This is just one of the changes we’re making in order to serve our community better and spend our money more wisely. We’ll keep you updated in further NOYS posts about other ways we’re working to create useful and well-used collections.

For samples of "fun nonfiction", check out these staff summer reading program reviews or our recommendations on read.watch.listen.

NOYS: SRP 2009 wrap-up

Sunday was the final day of another successful Summer Reading Program for FCPL.

Now that everyone has been so creative and had such a fine time expressing themselves, it's time for us to begin planning for 2010. Your input is very important during the planning stage. Please take a moment to complete the SRP survey this year. The survey is completely online and hosted by Survey Monkey.

Please be sure to enter all the registration slips and grand prize drawing slips into Summer Reader as soon as possible. If you will not be able to accomplish this at your branch, please send all the slips in to Youth Services. We do need your grand prize drawing slips…the grand prize drawings for each branch will be done by Youth Services. Please do not hold the grand prize drawing for the Borders or Barnes & Noble gift cards at your branch!

Thank You!