Mask Mandate Lifted for Staff Areas

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Mask Mandate Survey. There were 68 responses.

Here are the results:

• It should be an individual decision and the mask mandate should be completely lifted. 30 votes
• Only in public spaces when the public is present 21 votes
• In all public spaces and staff spaces 14 votes
• Only in Youth and Family Services sections of the library or in settings where the population is especially vulnerable, like assisted living facilities. 3 votes

No one vote got a majority, but there are clear messages: 

51 (75%) of you want to stop wearing masks in staff areas.

38 (56%) of you want to continue wearing masks in public spaces.

So, effective immediately, All KPL staff will continue to wear face masks when working directly with the public. Face masks are optional in staff areas of our libraries. 

I strongly recommend that you carry a mask with you wherever you go so that if you meet a staff member who is masked you can graciously apply your mask as a way of saying you care about that person and their personal health decisions. We continue to have positive cases on staff, so it remains your decision to wear a mask at all times if you want that extra protection. 

Sometime today the CDC is expected to announce a change in recommendations for face masks when indoors. The changes will be for counties where there is a very low incidence of infection and where hospitals have the capacity to handle any additional wave of infections. The vaccination rate in Kenosha County remains low (58%). It is unlikely that the recommendations will apply to our county. Should our county health department  adopt the CDC guidelines anyway, we will lift all remaining mask requirements for KPL staff at that time.

Again, thanks for participating in the survey!

Barb

 

Yes, we make a difference, sometimes we even change someone's life

Zander shares this touching story from a patron interaction reported by Amy Rae this week that reminds us all we are a lifeline for so many people in our community! Next time you need inspiration to come to work (yes, we all feel like that sometimes), remember this story.

"Patron is currently living in long-stay motels with her infant daughter and has to move to a motel without WIFI. She said that someone told her that the library checks out hot spots, and that she wanted to know if that was a real thing. I confirmed that it was, and she began to cry. I placed her on hold (gently) and came back to let her know she could check out a laptop and hotspot at any of her libraries. I told her to ask for the Chromebook and hotspot kit at the checkout desk. She thanked me profusely and let me know that I'd just made her day. arw 02.16.22"
The availability of these is making a difference.

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If you are carrying student loans, and you don't know about the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, I highly encourage you to look into it. Working for KPL means you get credit toward loan forgiveness. There are lots of rules, and the process is tedious, but with 10 total years of FT public service, you can wipe out any balances left on your student loans. The rules have been somewhat relaxed for a limited time including the rules for what loans qualify, so take a look.

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We have a couple of job opportunities available, one for a Branch Manager and one for a CSS. You are encouraged to apply!

This week's Bright Spot Awards from Barb:

• The election day staff at SW. Thanks to Amy, Gina, and Lisa for starting their day at 7am, and for the fun crew that worked with me till close (Jessica, Alex, Catie, Rosa). A special nod to Alex who gave a young patron superb service that evening trying to track down an elusive hold. 
• Jennifer and her team for putting together  terrific lineup of programming for the Who Gets to Vote series starting March 1st.

Bright Spot Awards from Amy Rae:
I'd like to nominate Hilary, Jessica, and Linda for a Bright Spot. When families came in to pick up a Grab & Gather box that wasn't quite ready, Hilary and Jessica leapt into action to figure out what happened. (Linda was ill all week and thus unable to put it together.) Not only did they call around in search of information while I covered the desk, Jessica volunteered to call families and let them know that their boxes would be ready soon-but-not-yet, and Hilary put the reserved boxes together based on instructions Linda gave us from home. I haven't been in YFS long, but I can tell that my colleagues' all-in-a-day's-work attitudes towards problem-solving are something special - and I know our patrons appreciated the effort they put in today.

Bright Spot Award from Jeremy:
I would like to nominate Sandy for a Bright Spot. Being the perpetual team player, she was out at 8:00 shoveling a pathway in the parking lot to help the maintenance people out!

Southwest Paging System

The new paging system for the Southwest Library is now live! There are a couple of ways that it can be used: 

1. By Phone. Dial 6319 from a KPL phone (external phones are blocked), wait to hear 2 rings, then make the announcement. 
   
   
2. By the Microphone at the Circ Desk. Hold the blue button (on the right) and make the announcement. 
   
   
3. Automated Closing Announcements. At 15, 10, and 5 minutes to close and at close, you will hear Zander make the closing announcement in English and Jessica make the announcement in Spanish. 

Thank you to Gina for helping with testing; Jessica & Zander for lending your voices; and Amy H & Jessica for the Spanish translation of the announcement. 

What's next? The company doing the installation, Advanced Communications, has gone to Northside to map out the speaker installation there. They are determining the path the wires should take in the ceiling, where the junction points should be, and speaker placement. They are expected to begin work at Northside at 8am on Monday, Feb 21. The total installation time should take around 5 to 8 business days. Please reach out if you would like to volunteer or nominate someone to do the announcements for Northside. 

There are additional improvements coming, such as automated Activates Room AV controls, and Smart Displays but we will save those for a later post. 

-Rob

Uptown Children's Library Breaking Ground This Spring

This is a rendering of the Uptown Lofts that will be built on the corner of 61st St. and 22nd Ave. (across the alley from Family Dollar.) The top 3 floors are affordable housing units. The first floor is retail. The end section with the sign Corner Cafe is the site we are looking at to create a new children's library for the neighborhood. It's about 5,800 sq. ft. (The current Uptown Library entire 1st floor is 2,274 sq. ft.) The unit next door is probably going to be a small Mexican restaurant and on the other side of that is the grocery store the neighborhood has asked for. That store will be just under 11,000 sq. ft. There is underground parking on our side , a parking lot on the side and in the back. The side facing the alley won't be windows as shown. 

The project will break ground in spring. The city will purchase our space and we will need to staff it. The city has allotted $450,000 to complete the interior. We'll be doing a lot of fundraising to enhance that budget. I'll share more as I know more.

Next month we'll be offering Public Services staff trauma informed training with Professor Debra Kelly from Carthage College. This training will increase our confidence when interacting with people affected by trauma. Look for training dates and locations soon.

We're also partnering with 10 other libraries in the 11 member City Library Collective on a Whole Person Librarianship training program for staff. Sara Zettervall, the librarian who wrote Whole Person Librarianship, will be our trainer. We'll work in groups with similar libraries to understand how we can better serve people needing social services. We'll offer that training sometime between March and June. Oshkosh local television did a quick video interview about the project. Take a look.

Congratulations to Shawn and Erin who were accepted to give two presentations for this year's UW Whitewater Early Childhood Education Conference! The conference is virtual again and they will be recording their presentations in advance.
The presentations that were selected are:
1) Diversity: More Than Just Holidays (This will focus on diverse books.)
2) Having Fun with STEM and Early Literacy

Our latest Bright Spot nominations both come from Karen:
"I'd like to nominate Alejandria for a Bright Spot Award. Last Friday afternoon, she gave up everything she needed to do and started bagging up masks. Circ was already out of masks and she tirelessly just kept working until after 6pm. "

"I'd like to nominate Aaron Gunderson for a Bright Spot award. I was unable to make a couple large color copies. Aaron went out of his way to find out exactly what I needed and made it easy for me to finish the project. Thank you, Aaron!!"

New Book Circ is Soaring!

As many have noticed the new fiction and nonfiction shelving at SW is looking a little empty. I checked with Collection Services and it's not a factor of no new books- it's a factor of the way we've displayed them since our space consultant gave us advice. Here are the updated circ % increases since the front facing change:
New Adult Nonfiction: Increase of 231%
New Adult Fiction: Increase of 200%

It's working! Thank you to the Circ staff for getting this together.
Please feel free to pull books for the table displays, as well. They are going like hotcakes!

Next, we're going to experiment with converting one column of nonfiction to garden books from the main collection and see if they, too, fly off the shelves. 


I'm taking off for a few days and won't be back till Monday, so I wanted to be sure to share this message of gratitude for Tessa's team spirit:

From Janet:
"A big thank you to Tessa who tackled a huge cart of children's items for shelving this weekend. I really appreciate all your help! I'm sure it made Monday morning easier for the morning crew."


I'll be away from my phone for much of my vacation, so please work with Linda and Rob in my absence to solve any major problems.
Have a great rest of the week!
Barb

ECF Chromebooks & Hotspots

KPL received Federal funding to purchase 100 chromebooks and hotspots thanks to the Emergency Connectivity Funding grant. The first batch are starting to arrive, being processed, and distributed to the branches for checkout. Because of the funding for these items, there are some rules that have to be followed: 

1. Only 1 checkout of a Chromebook & Hotspot per person.
2. A family can checkout multiple chromebooks and hotspots, as long as the checkouts occur on different cards. For example, a parent can check out one set on their card, and another set on a child's card. 
3. A certification notice must be initiated by the patron. A parent/guardian may initial on behalf of a child. 
4. There are no age restrictions on check out, so if a child wants to initial the certification, they may.
5. The hotspot internet is filtered to block adult content and runs on the T-Mobile/Sprint cellular network. 
6. The checkout is for 1 year and holds cannot be placed on the items. 
7. If the patron has over $15 dollars in fines blocking their account, please direct them to Linda to discuss their account. Otherwise, please override the checkout block so the patron can checkout the kit. 

The EFC Certification template can be found on Google Drive. Please print it off in duplex and send completed copies to me. Because of the grant, this notice must be kept for 10 years before it can be destroyed.  

If you know a patron that could use this, please encourage them to pick one up. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

-Rob