Circ desk hours during exams.

During the exam and reading period the circulation desk is staffed from 7:30AM to 11PM seven days a week. Please sign up for extra hours if you can, and especially please let me know as soon as possible if your exam and study schedule will prevent you from working your regular hours. If you know when you want to work next semester, let me know ASAP -- see this blog post for details.

All exams hours have been worked!

Thanks to all who worked during exams!

How to evacuate the library, in a few easy steps.

Do you know what to do in case of fire in the Matricaria building?

Here's a quick summary of what you should do if you're working in the library during an emergency that requires you to evacuate.

1. If the fire alarm goes off in the library, encourage students to exit through the fire exits at the corners of the library. There is one fire exit located behind the last row of shelves in the quiet study area, and another at the end of the aisle with the librarians' offices.


2. If you are working after 4PM or on the weekend, we will need your help to clear the library. When the fire alarm goes off, the supervisor will ask you to walk out through the exit at the librarians' offices end of the library (behind you as you sit at the circulation desk). As you walk, tell anyone studying that they need to get up and leave through the fire exit at the end of the library. If someone is refusing to leave, tell your supervisor if possible, or tell a member of the security staff or a firefighter after you leave the building. Make sure the study rooms and the corner conference room are empty.
   
   Alternately, your supervisor may ask you to stand outside the main library entrance and encourage people to exit through the White Building. If you notice the door alarm going off, encourage students to leave reserve and reference materials behind, but in an emergency getting people out of the library is much more important than keeping books in.


3. If students exit through the front library doors, they should cross over to the White Building and exit from there -- no one should use the elevators, and the main Matricaria lobby stairs should be kept clear if possible.


4. Upon exiting the building, proceed to the Boston Latin parking lot on Palace Road or the Brigham and Women's Lying-In Hospital parking lot on Longwood Ave. Do not stand around the building and/or block the entrances, exits, and street. Do not re-enter the building until the Fire Department issues an all-clear.

A few more helpful tips:

1. Stay calm! Although it is part of your job to help clear the library in case of an emergency, we do not expect you to do anything that would put you at risk. If you are concerned that you might not be able to execute the emergency procedures detailed above, talk to Kyle or Marcie and we will find a way to accommodate you.


2. Know your safety equipment -- there are three fire extinguishers and two pull boxes (where you can manually set off the fire alarm) in the library, and two emergency exits. Learn where they are and, if possible, how to use them (MCPHS runs occasional classes on how to use fire extinguishers -- learn important safety information while making a big mess and lots of noise!).


3. Learn what the fire alarm sounds like. Fire alarms in the White Building are audible in the library, but we don't need to evacuate for these alarms (in fact, usually we close the library doors so that the alarm doesn't disturb studiers). If the library needs to be evacuated, horns and strobe lights in the library will activate, and a loudspeaker will say something (I've never actually heard the loudspeaker, so unfortunately I can't tell you what it has to say).

Marcie and Kyle will be giving "Safety Tours" of the library over the course of the next week or so. Make sure you get one! We are always happy to show you all the library's exciting safety landmarks.

Stay tuned next semester for info on how to deal with non-evacuation emergencies, from fainting students to leaking ceilings!

Thanksgiving Hours

Thanksgiving is next Thursday (November 22nd). I, for one, am thankful that I have so many awesome student workers working at the circulation desk.

Here are the tenative library hours for Thanksgiving weekend:

Wednesday: 7:30AM-5PM
Thursday: Closed
Friday: Closed
Saturday: 11AM-9PM (regular hours)
Sunday: Noon-11PM (regular hours)

If you are regularly scheduled to work any of these days, please let me know if you are not going to be working (some of you have already talked to me -- thanks!). If you would like to pick up any extra hours on Wednesday or over the weekend, let me know.

We may end up closing earlier than 5PM on Wednesday -- President Monahan sometimes closes the school early before holidays.

Have a great Thanksgiving break!

Time to start thinking about next semester!

Another semester is almost over! Pretty soon you'll be studying for exams (yikes!) but after that it's not long until you get a well-deserved break.

But that also means it's time to start thinking about when (and whether) you want to work next semester. Please let me know what hours you're interested in working and how many hours you're interested in working each week. And please be specific! Don't say "Monday mornings" -- say, "Mondays between 9AM and noon" (or whatever -- just please use HOURS, not concepts like morning, afternoon, evening, and night, which are kind of vague).

Specific hours requests (i.e. requests that ask for specific hours, none of this "afternoons and evenings" stuff ;) received before the beginning of exams will receive first consideration. I will attempt to fill nonspecific requests and requests received after the beginning of exams, but they will be lower-priority.

Exam Period Hours
Please also let me know when you will be leaving for the semester, and whether you would like to pick up extra hours during the exam period.

The library will be open 24 hours a day during the exam and reading periods. We don't staff the library 24 hours a day -- security guards are here from 11PM to 7:30AM -- but that does leave us with some extra hours to cover on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you are interested in picking up extra hours during exams, let me know. If you already know you will not be able to work your regular hours during exams, let me know about that, too, as soon as possible!

Have a great day and a great rest of the semester!

Study Room Policies

Everyone who works at the circulation desk should be aware of these policies -- they're also posted on the front of the study room reservation book.

1. Study rooms cannot be reserved more than three days in advance. There should only be three days worth of sheets in the book at any time. The only exception is Fridays -- on Friday you can make a reservation for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, while on Monday you can only make a reservation for Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
2. Study rooms cannot be reserved to the same group for consecutive time periods. If for example there is a group of four or six people, and one or two of the people in the group are different for the two time periods, this is still considered the same group. When in doubt, ask a supervisor.
3. Always give a receipt for every study room. Put your initials on the receipt, and put your initials in the study room book next to the reservation. So far you're all being very good about this. Please continue to take this seriously.
4. Do not abuse the study room system. If you are found to be signing up yourself or your friends to use the study rooms in a way that violates study room policies (this may include, but is not limited to: signing up for a room more than three days in advance, signing up for consecutive time slots, or signing up for study rooms under other people's names), you may lose your job at the library. If you are not sure whether something is OK, just get a supervisor's OK before you sign up.
   
5. There are no special rules for student tutors. If they need a room, they need to sign up for it in advance just like everyone else, and they cannot use the rooms by themselves.
6. Staff and faculty may not reserve study rooms. If a staff or faculty member asks for a study room, have them speak to a supervisor to make alternate arrangements.
   

This year we have more students and fewer study rooms than ever before (since one of our study rooms is now the printer room). Stick to the policies above to ensure that the rooms we do have are used in a fair and equal manner. If you have any recommendations for improvements to the policy, let Kyle or Marcie know!

Hours available this week and for the rest of the semester

We need to fill the following specific shifts:
Thursday 9/13, 5 or 6 to 11PM
Sunday 9/16 12-5PM
Sunday 9/23 4-11PM

We also still have a few shifts open for the semester:
Monday 7:30AM-11AM
Tuesday 7:30AM-11AM
Wednesday 7:30AM-11AM
Friday 7:30-AM-10AM

Introduction to the MCPHS Circulation Log for fall workers

Hi everyone, and welcome back to school.

There have been a few semi-major policy changes in the library.

• Reserve books may only be removed from the library between the hours of 10AM and 5PM on weekdays. Even during the 10AM-5PM time period, you should not offer to let the books leave the library; don't get the books desensitized unless someone asks.


• Books should not be desensitized at the desk -- ask a regular staff member to desensitize the books for you at the machine in the office. (Student supervisors should not need to desensitize books, since they are usually not working during the hours of 10AM-5PM.)


• Resensitize all books before they are shelved, even if you did not have the book desensitized. Assume that the person working before you forgot to resensitize anything.


• No drinks other than bottled water are allowed in the library. If you see someone with coffee, soda, juice, etc., ask them to take it outside or notify a supervisor.

If you have any questions, please ask Kyle or Marcie!

Lots of hours available next week!

Hey everyone, please let me know if you're interested in working part or all of any of the following shifts:

Monday, August 27th, 7:30AM 10:30AM-5PM

Wednesday, August 29th, noon-8PM

Friday, August 31st, 8AM-noon

Shift available today -- Thurs. Aug 16th

If you're interested in working today, please give me a call, drop me an email, or just come by. We need someone from now until 4PM. Thanks!

Library extends hours

Starting in the Fall semester, the library will be open until 7:00PM on Fridays and until 9:00PM on Saturdays.

Fall '07 Library Hours

Monday: 7:30AM-11:00PM
Tuesday: 7:30AM-11:00PM
Wednesday: 7:30AM-11:00PM
Thursday: 7:30AM-11:00PM
Friday: 7:30AM-7:00PM
Saturday: 11:00AM-9:00PM
Sunday: Noon-11:00PM

Some policy changes for Fall '07

Please read and initial/comment on this entry.

This year, we're revising the way we schedule circulation desk coverage. Last year, we had 40 people working at the circulation desk, some for as little as one or two hours a week. Although we love to give students jobs, this hasn't been the most efficient staffing model for the library -- training and shift changes take up way more time than they should. Other libraries in the FLO system that are open for a similar number of hours have more like 10 or 20 students who cover the desk.

This doesn't mean we're instituting layoffs or anything -- if you worked for us in Spring '07 and you want to continue working in the library, we want to schedule you this Fall. We are getting a bit pickier about what we expect from you, though.

Scheduling policy
First, we're making a few changes to the way student workers are scheduled.

• Students will be expected to work for at least six hours a week.
• No more one-hour shifts. Students will not be scheduled for shifts of less than two hours.
• Some exceptions may be made to these rules for exceptional workers or in cases of exceptional need on the library's part, but overall we'd really like to stick to this.

Communication
At the beginning of the Fall semester student workers will be asked to fill out a contact information form. If you wish to work at the library, you must provide at least one way to contact you that you check at least once a day. Preferred contact methods would be:

• Frequently-checked email address, from MCPHS or another provider
  
• Mobile phone number (and provider, if you are willing to receive text messages)
• Local home phone number where we can leave messages that you will actually receive
  

But if you don't use these services regularly we might also consider an IM screenname that allows offline messages or something else that works for you. If we're having trouble getting in contact with you, we will ask for additional/other methods of reaching you.

Student workers will also be expected to check this blog. Please plan to take a look at it whenever you work at the circulation desk, or if you use an feed reader, consider picking up our feed here. Some blog entries are more important than others, and the most important ones will be tagged must-read. You are expected to read all must-read entries and leave a comment with your initials to indicate that you have read them (you do not need to log in to leave a comment -- leaving an anonymous comment with just your initials is fine, although if you want to leave a more extensive comment or log in, that's great too).

Welcome back!
We're planning to have an excellent Fall semester in the library, and we can't do that without excellent student workers. For many MCPHS community members, the circulation desk is the only place where they interact with library staff, so it's important to the whole library that the people behind that desk are as knowledgeable, professional, and helpful as possible. Thanks for being part of a great library -- let's try and make it even better!

Shifts available for the rest of the summer

If you're interested in working between now and when classes resume, the following shifts are available:

Monday, 2PM-5PM
Wednesday, 2PM-5PM

Also, if you have your fall schedule, let me know when you're interested in working!

Available shifts -- tonight and for the rest of the summer

Let me and/or Marcie know ASAP if you can work tonight (Monday, 7/16) from 5-8PM (or any part of that shift).

Also, there are still openings for regular shifts from 2-4 on Mondays (but not today) and 2-5 on Wednesdays.

Available shifts this week

Hi everyone, we have two one evening shift available this week:

Tuesday 7/10 (tonight), 5-8PM
Wednesday 7/11 (tomorrow), 5-8PM

Let me know if you're interested.

Please also note the changes to the previous post about upgrades to Voyager.

Software upgrades and manual chargeouts

Please read this entry and leave your initials in a comment.

Sorry everyone, it looks like the date has changed again, to this coming Thursday (July 12th); the catalog should be available from Friday on, but charge out functions may be unavailable for the whole weekend.

We are going to be getting an upgrade to Voyager, which as you probably know is the software that we use to check books in and out (among other things). This is going to be a huge pain, but it has to be done.

What it means for you: On Thursday and Friday, all Voyager functions will be down. This means all books will need to be charged out manually (I will make sure we have a fresh supply of manual chargeout sheets). Please fill out the manual chargeout sheet completely -- this means you need to copy down the book title, book barcode, patron name, patron barcode, date and time. The online catalog will not be working either while the upgrade is going on, so that means you will not be able to look up titles in the MCPHS/FLO catalog on Thursday and Friday. If you have any questions about doing manual chargeouts, ask me (Kyle), Marcie, or anyone else in the access services office.

Why: The Voyager software needs to be upgraded periodically. This upgrade will solve some problems you may have noticed, such as the way the online catalog sometimes displays several identical images of the cover of a book and squashes all the text over to the side of the page. It would be great if we could upgrade Voyager at a time when school is not in session, but we share our catalog with several other schools and it's very hard to find an upgrade time that works for everyone. (This time works great for me, because I will be out of town on Thursday and Friday, but that's no help for everyone else, of course.)

Sorry about the inconvenience, and thanks in advance for your patience!

Upcoming holiday

As you all probably know, this coming Wednesday is July 4th, and the school and the library will be closed. The school is officially closed on the 5th and 6th, but the library will be open and staffed by some of you from 12-5.

Regular library staff will not be around during this time, and I for one will be out of town with bad cell reception and limited access to email, so if you anticipate any problems with working your scheduled shifts on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday of next week, please let me know by Tuesday morning.

If you are not scheduled to work but will be around and potentially available to be called in a staffing emergency, let me know about that, too.

Two shifts

We're all set -- no extra shifts are available right now. Thanks to all who responded!

If anyone wants to work anytime between now (10AM Thursday) and 4PM, drop me an email, give me a call, or come by the circ desk. Thanks, we're all set.

We're also still looking for one person to work Thursday, July 5th, from 12-5. C'mon, we're getting desperate!

Available Shifts

If you want to work this afternoon (shift available now until 5:00PM, this Tuesday), just come on in. This one's taken -- thanks!

Other available shifts

This week:

Thursday 6/28, 4-8 Gone!

Next week:

Monday 7/2, 2-8
Thursday 7/5, 12-5 (supervisor shift also available)
Friday 7/6, 12-5 (supervisor shift also available)
Possible weekend hours -- ask!

Email me or comment if you are interested in working any of these hours.

New Reserve Policy

As of June 25th, we are no longer allowing reserve books to be taken outside the library. Do not desensitize books from the reserve collection for any reason.

Please read this and leave a comment with your initials and any comments.

Why: Firstly, books are much more likely to be kept overdue when they are taken out of the library. Some people have even kept reserve books out for weeks. Sure, they have to pay a $25 fine when they finally bring the book back, but that doesn't help all the people who needed the book while the book was overdue. Secondly, we hope that not allowing reserve books to leave the library will cut down on theft; last semester we lost multiple copies of the organic chemistry textbook, among others. Thirdly, this is the way most libraries do this; we were the only library in the CoF that allowed people to take reserves outside the library.

What it means for you: When you charge out a reserve book to someone, don't ask if they want to take it out of the library. If they ask to take the book out of the library, tell them our policy has changed and show them the sign (signs are located to the right of both circ desk computers). If they give you a hard time just ask me (Kyle), Marcie, or anyone else in the back office for help. Never desensitize any reserve materials.

Let us know how this is going: As I said above, I want everyone to leave a comment with their initials to indicate that they've read the post, but if you run into problems enforcing this policy, please let us know! You can talk to us about this in person, drop us an email, or leave a comment here with your feelings about the policy change (you can even comment anonymously if you want). We believe this policy is the best choice for the library right now, but it is not set in stone and if it doesn't work, it can be changed. You guys are the ones on the front lines dealing with the patrons' responses to the policy, so your opinions count.

Welcome to the blog!

Hi MCPHS Boston Circulation Workers!

This blog is here to help you keep up-to-date on current happenings at the circulation desk, including policy changes, available shifts, problems, etc. From now on, reading this blog is part of your job at the library, but don't worry, we'll keep it short, sweet, and highly relevant to your work -- no quizzes, memes, or lolcats.