Self-Checks

Self-check

Have you been to the Eastern Avenue Branch Library yet? If not, you haven’t seen our new self-checks. And they are easy to use. My 2 biggest problems are remembering to push START and remembering to push CONTINUE. Start brings up the screen in order to scan your barcode. There I am putting my barcode under the scanner and wondering why I cannot then check out my materials. Once I push START in the lower right hand corner, the correct screen is displayed. Putting an item on the black pad is easy for me because green is my favorite color. And to actually finish checking out the item, the line needs to turn green. I also have time to make sure the system is reading the RFID tag. I get into a rhythm of using my left hand to put the item on the pad and my right hand to take it off and stack them up. When I am finished, I need to remember to CONTINUE and tell the system if I want a receipt or not. At this time, email receipts are not available. But pushing the continue button disconnects my card so the machine gets ready for the next person. Come try the self-checks and let me know if you are more successful than I am!!

July 27, 2010 · sschulte · One Comment
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Statistics

Statistics is how we spread our great news. The Eastern Avenue branch, is doing well. Here are our statistics for the past 2 weeks for all three buildings:

Main                              Fairmount                  Eastern                              Total

5615                             7235                             9029                                    21879                 July 19, 2010

4996                            7034                              8744                                    20774                July 26, 2010

But we don’t want you to think everyone is going to the Eastern Avenue branch so here are our statistics for Main and Fairmount from last year:

6082                           8934                                                                              15016                   July 20, 2009

6884                           8723                                                                              15607                  July 27, 2009

If you haven’t stopped by to see our Main library or one of our branches, please come visit and check out a few items.

July 26, 2010 · sschulte · No Comments
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Plants

Each day we come out to the library, we get to see all of these beautiful plants. Since I am just learning gardening,  I asked for the names and I appreciate all of you gardeners that just know them.

I am so naive about gardening, that I cut a piece of a plant in my garden and took it to a garden shop to find out what it was. It is not a potentella like I thought, it is a barren strawberry. Next to each other, they look nothing alike except they both have a yellow flower and green leaves. That is like saying a barn and a house look alike because they both have a roof and a door! But inside I know where to find the gardening books. Start with 635.9 and remember you can always ask at the information desk for more assistance.

Be sure to look around outside and see if you can find these plants.

July 14, 2010 · sschulte · No Comments
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Grand Opening July 10 2010

What an exciting day we had for our grand opening. The weather was just perfect with sun and warmth but not too hot. I know some people think high 80′s is too hot, but for me it was perfect. We had people lining up at the door by 7 am for our 9:30 am opening. By 9:25 am, the line was down to Olde Brandy Lane and people were still coming. By 10:30 am, the line was gone and people were able to come in as they arrived. You can see the crowd in the library as you look at the picture, yet everyone was pleasant, polite and patient. For that, we thank all of you!

Statistics for that day showed 6,000 people came through our doors. If people just came to the bookstore/cafe or went only to a program, they might not have been counted. We had 5999 items checked out. The bookstore and the cafe also had an excellent day. Now you have 3 places to come check out materials. Main, Fairmount and Eastern staff all look forward to serving you.

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July 13, 2010 · sschulte · No Comments
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Through the windows

I am always looking in windows to see what is inside. So I did the same for you. These are pictures taken from the outside and through the windows. Some places had the shades down so those rooms are not in the “walk around” of the building. You will see the shadows and reflections in some of the pictures, but they will give you a concept of what you would see if you took a peak inside.

I started on the west side of the building in the fiction area. The next picture is looking in from the park side of the building. There are several looking in through the children’s side because they didn’t cause as much reflection and got deeper into the library. The cafe/bookstore is the section right on the ellipse of the front of the building. The book sorter is in the Customer Service workroom. Enjoy your tour and we will see you inside on July 10th.

June 25, 2010 · sschulte · 3 Comments
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Entrance sign

If you drive up Eastern Avenue, you can now see the entrance sign. As part of our LEED process, the letters are backlit. This means we will not be polluting the surrounding area with lights but you will see the letters announcing the library.

It is hard to believe we only have 3 more weeks to have the library ready for you to come visit!

June 22, 2010 · sschulte · 2 Comments
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Copper wall

Contractors were out several days ago polishing the copper wall. Now it can age gracefully without any excess materials that might have been dripped, splashed or blown against the wall with the construction of other parts of the building. Doesn’t the rock look nice along the bottom? This will help the water drain when it rains. Just the rain basin to finish and this part of the job will be complete.

For some trivia, look at the picture of the rocks on the west side of the wall. The drain in the wall is called a lamb’s tongue. Use that bit of information at your next meeting or social function!

June 17, 2010 · sschulte · One Comment
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The Roof

It has been quite a while since I have shown the roof and when I did you could actually see through to the ground. What a difference. Here you can see the butterfly portion which is white. The flat part of the roof, covered with the rocks, covers the cafe/bookstore and meeting rooms on the east side and the workroom and garage on the west side. The people on the roof are the project superintendent, the library director and the architect.

June 16, 2010 · sschulte · No Comments
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Training

Staff training

For all of those who missed us while we were training, here we are in the community room at Eastern Avenue branch. We learned what is placed where and how all of our new technology works. Actually we didn’t even learn all of our technology. There is too much to learn in the 2 hours we were there.

We have some wonderful additions to our community rooms. If you have both rooms, the speaker system will play in both. If you only have one room, the wall separates the systems so only the room you are in carries your information. The other room’s system is totally separate.

Some of us had a chance to learn how to move the wall that separates the rooms. This is a manual procedure of sliding the sections down a track and into the storage room. This will take some practice! Actually it is too bad I didn’t think to take a picture of this. We did look pretty funny trying to move these partitions.

We all had a chance to practice on the computers, try out the self-checks and return materials to see if the auto-sorter was working correctly.

So why are you seeing only a picture of us all sitting? LaWanda, our director, was thanking the staff for all the hard work they have done to get this building ready so far. The staff also learned procedures in case of emergency and had a chance to meet some staff that have started working in the past couple of weeks.

After our training, we were able to show our families the new building. Less than a month and you too can see the inside of Eastern Avenue branch!

June 11, 2010 · sschulte · One Comment
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Inside the Library

The inside of the library is finally looking like a library! We have all the books on the shelves except for the NEW books and teen books. We are missing the shelves so those are sitting on top of units or around the edges of the building. With our capable staff, we have already finished putting all the adult fiction and non-fiction books in the correct order. We are still working on the juvenile materials. These are taking a bit longer because they are narrow and each item has to be pulled out to look at the call number. But the shelves look so nice with all those shiny covers.

But that is not all that is happening. We are also getting all the computers set in place. Here are the pictures of the computers in the children’s area. Don’t you think they will be appealing to the young ones? Adults, you get the same old black keyboards and a regular size mouse.

In the pictures, you can see the blue divides on the tables. This will make each computer have its own section of the table. Nice when you are trying to keep your items corralled.

June 9, 2010 · sschulte · One Comment
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Book Collection, Computers