JANUARY 2011 Suggestions & Questions from Our Library Users JANUARY 2011 1. More DS games. 2. More PS3 games. 3. More video games. 4. Have more Rick Riordan books. Get a lot more copies that are not “Percy Jackson” or “The Red Pyramid.” I’m happy to receive your requests for the addition of more items to our collection, as they indicate to me how much you value what the library has to offer. We try to achieve a balance between all the different formats in the library and funding we have available to purchase them. Video games are very popular, and since this is a new, growing collection for us, we are slowly but surely adding to that collection. Rick Riordan writes both adult and juvenile/young adult fiction. We have at least two copies of each of his books, sometimes more. He is a very popular author, and we constantly monitor the demand for his books, as we do for all popular authors. If the number of holds on an item passes a certain threshold, we will order an additional copy, up to set limits on the number of copies we can have for a particular title. After all, again, we have to consider all the items needed in the library’s collection when we select one item. 5. Please review shelving. Your shelvers cannot always get books in proper Dewey Decimal place on shelves. Fiji has become an island in the State of Hawaii. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Not only are our shelvers put through extensive training in shelving our collection, they work very hard to maintain our library collection in exact order. Unfortunately we do not always have control over members of the public who put materials back in the wrong place on the shelves. That is why we constantly read our shelves to correct misplacements. That is also why we encourage our visitors to place items they’ve used in house back onto specially marked carts, so that library staff can reshelve them in their proper places. I would remind you that the Dewey Decimal Classification system organizes items in the travel book section by geography, not by country, and that the DDC was instituted before Hawaii became a state of the USA. Thus, Fiji (919.61) comes before Hawaii (919.69) in the Dewey Decimal scheme. 6. New web access does not allow “remembering” user name and number. Please add remember “box” name and number on log-in for access from home computer. Thanks! We recently made improvements to our new catalog login page to require only your library card number and personal identification number (PIN). On some web browsers, this has resulted in the ability to save your login/PIN on your computer to speed up the process the next time you log in to our catalog. We will continue to work with our catalog provider to expand this feature to work with most, if not all, popular browser brands. 7. For years the self-checkout machines do not read my bar code but the circulation desk readers always do. Please repair or replace the self-checkout bar code readers so that they work! I have suggested that I be issued a new library card with a new bar code sticker, but have always been advised that my card is not the problem. We are sorry to learn about your problems at the express checkout, or self-check machines. We want you to have a positive experience when using them. When using your library card at the express terminals, you must carefully place your library card’s bar code at the correct height under the scanner. If you place it too close or too far away it may not be able to read your bar code. 8. Do not like the new renewal phone system which requires you to put in the numbers of books, not the names. Try our web renewal, which only requires your library card number and a PIN to access your account. You will be able to see your list of materials checked out and simply place a check mark on the items you would like to renew. Check it out on our library website, www.wnpl.info, under MY LIBRARY ACCOUNT with the link to “Check Your Account and Renew Items”. 9. Children playing with check-out machine. Parents not keeping tract of their children. No supervision. We do our best to monitor behavior in the library to ensure that it meets our standards of public conduct, but as you have experienced, we cannot always be at the spot where a disturbance is taking place. Please don’t hesitate to bring disturbances to the attention of any staff member, and we will do our best to intervene when and where we can. 10. You should really get your security check fixed before you spend all your money rebuilding. I presume you are referring to the security gates we have at the entrance to the library proper. We have checked these gates and have not been able to locate a problem with them. You might be hearing the security alarm at the gates going off to alert us to an incomplete checkout at the express terminals. When that happens, library employees are ready to respond and correct the checkout error. Our new building will make it easier for you and all patrons to use the express terminals and easier for the staff to assist you at those terminals. Watch for the new arrangement of the circulation department this fall! Thank you for taking the time to help us improve our service to you. Stephen Bero, Director Patron comments appear here unabridged and unedited.