Staff of Instructional Resource / Materials Centers using KLAS met for a virtual session on Thursday, October 9 during the Online American Printing House for the Blind's 2020 annual meeting. Below is the PowerPoint presentation Keystone shared in both PPTX and PDF formats:

• 2020 APH KLAS Users Meeting - PowerPoint
• 2020 APH KLAS Users Meeting - PDF

This week's post shares some insider info about our Software Development Project Lead. Read on to learn something new about Brian...

Basic Stats:

Name of Staff Member: Brian White

Year Hired: 2004

Current Job Title: Software Development – Project Lead

Getting to Know You Q&A:

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?

A: Piecing together the parts of a software process to make something that will make someone's job easier.

Q: What did you do before working for Keystone?

A: Worked for a programming staff supplement service. I worked at 2 customer sites over the 20+ years there.

Q: What are your hobbies outside of work?

A: Singing in a church choir, playing handbells.

Q: If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?

A: Australia

Q: Do you have any pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

A: We are currently without pets. We have had dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and a rabbit in the past.

NLS has requested that we (and the other NLS providers) extract and submit some data for them to review. For each of our NLS Libraries, we will be providing NLS with the following statistical information on October 1.

We will be generating these data files for NLS and submitting the information to NLS directly, so you don't need to do anything. We will also send a copy to each library, so you know what was sent to NLS and can review the data for your own information.

Readership: a list of all patrons that received materials from the library during Fiscal Year 2020. The list will include the Patron PIMMS ID, whether they are marked Individual or Institution, and whether they received at least one of the following during FY 2020:

• Digital Audio book
• Hard Copy Braille book
• E-Braille brook
• or Network Library collection item

Note that audio and hard copy braille readership activity includes both books circulated by the library and magazine subscriptions sent by NLS. Network library collections include large print books, descriptive videos, and local magazines. BARD download activity is not included, as NLS already has that information.

Circulation: a count of all circulations this year broken out by library and by medium: Talking Books on Cartridge; Hard Copy Braille; and E-Braille on Cartridge. Circulation counts include counts for book/monograph circulation only. Local magazines/serials sent on cartridge are not part of these counts.

Note that Audio circulations are a count of the number of titles sent on cartridge instead of the number of cartridges sent. Hard copy braille circulations count the number of volumes sent, e-braille is the number of titles sent.

A note about the Readership & Circulation Report: Be aware that the number of people in the Readership list we provide to NLS probably will not match the total from your Readership & Circulation report. The R&C report total includes all accounts that you have updated that year, even if they did not receive something. With that in mind, if you have questions about how these lists do and do not line up with your R&C report, please let us know.

A couple of years ago now, we started offering webinars to help keep the Users’ Group informed and connected, from the open forum KLAS Q&A with Katy webinars to library-specific Duplication training webinars. As we transition to an every-other-year conference format, we’ve ramped up the webinar schedule, including user-led sessions and roundtables in addition to our Keystone-presented sessions.

COVID has only increased the need and popularity of these sessions—and not just for us, but for everyone who uses webinar platforms.

For most of the past few years, we’ve been using Join.Me and had mostly positive experiences and feedback for its ease-of-use and reliability. However, with offering so many more webinars to a broader selection of our users, and with Join.Me’s servers a bit bogged down from increased use, there was a definite shift.

This was particularly apparent in the Keystone Updates and New Features in KLAS sessions that we held in place of our usual Users’ Group meeting during the online NLS conference. The turnout for those sessions was fantastic, but unfortunately caused a few technical issues as our platform and our moderator struggled to keep up with the turnout.

In light of all that, we started the search for a replacement.

This month, we are officially making the switch to Google Meet. From our testing in-house and with a few pilot meetings, we’re confident that it will be easier for us as hosts, and will see a lot less of the lag that was plaguing our attendees.

It also has some features that we think will prove beneficial, including automatic captioning, and the ability to show attendees’ webcams in a tiled display for a better “round-table” feel. You’ll be able to enable or disable the captioning and change views any time to suit your preferences, so give it a try!

You do not need a Google account to join us using Meet! However, if you are logged into a Google account, it’ll automatically bring you into the meeting with that account name. If you don’t want your personal or otherwise irrelevant Gmail name visible make sure to log out or switch accounts before joining the meeting.

We hope you’ll try it out and join us at the upcoming Virtual Programming roundtable this Thursday or at one of our other upcoming webinar sessions! Hopefully, this will be an improvement for everyone who had technical difficulties or bandwidth issues with Join.Me. If you do have any feedback about the new platform or difficulties joining a session, please let us know as we keep working to provide excellent online sessions!

Here in North Carolina we usually think of late summer / early fall as the start of hurricane season. Well, this year is different (as is everything else in 2020) and we've already had a couple of named hurricanes develop, with one hitting Outer Banks in late July. Therefore, we wanted to go ahead and review what we do ensure we can continue to serve your library, your staff, and your patrons after a natural disaster, and share the additional improvements we've made this year to our Disaster Preparedness and Recovery plans. We've spent a significant amount of time building infrastructure, reviewing procedures, and planning for an untimely incident.

In fact, much of what we put into place as part of our disaster preparedness plan is what allowed our staff to begin to work from home in March and continue to do so even today and for the foreseeable future.

Our September 11, 2018 Key Notes Blog Post was written as we faced the threat of Hurricane Florence and shared details about we'd implemented at that point including a combination of both procedural and physical preparedness such as:

• A gas-powered generator at our office
• Redundant internet providers, firewalls, and network routers
• Daily backups of data to our on-site servers
• Weekly data backups stored offsite
• Encrypted database backups on AWS S3
• VOIP Telephone system to allow staff to work remotely
• Keystone Status Page to communicate database availability, even if we’re unreachable
• Contingency plans and equipment needed for remote database and customer support

On August 15, 2019, Katy posted to share the news of some additional steps we'd taken to further enhance our disaster preparedness and recovery efforts including:

• Back-end changes to KLAS 7.7 to it quicker and easier to create and store database back-ups
• A move to storing back-ups in the cloud, so they are safe and retrievable no matter where disaster strikes

A new monitoring app so staff can be notified right away if something goes wrong with the servers and any emergencies can be dealt with as quickly as possible

Today I'd like to share this year's improvements to our disaster recovery and preparedness process and infrastructure, which include:

• Cloud-based databases running in multiple regions, to better place the system geographically near the library
• Incremental transaction data backups happen every 10 minutes
• Database backups are saved in the local region, as well as to a separate region. If a database hosted on the east coast has a disaster, there is a copy of the database backup in another region.
• Database backups are saved to the local server, as well as copied to S3 storage
• Database backups are also copied from Amazon's data centers to Google Storage
• A new automated system restoration process which had been manual prior to the beginning of 2020. As an automated process, it takes about an hour while the previous manual process took 10-12 hours at a minimum.
  
  
  
  

One of the new features in the 7.7.36 update is the ability to Shuffle a Service Queue.

This feature was suggested by Arizona Talking Book Library staff, and I think a lot of you who are have transitioned to a Duplication service model will definitely be interested in it

From the Release List:

A function has been added to shuffle a Patron's Service Queue. This will place all titles currently in the Queue into a new, random sequence order, then rearrange titles that are in an Ordered Series to ensure that they are in order relative to each other.

This update is scheduled to be released at the end of the week, so let’s take a look!

The idea behind this feature is knowing that when patrons submit Talking Book Topic requests they come in with everything grouped by genre Duplication means that all these titles are available to everyone and patrons will get all of those requests in order (i.e. all of their Mysteries in a row, then all of their Romances, and so on).

Additionally, adding a long request list straight to the queue using Quick Request will add the list to the top and push down any outstanding requests still waiting to be duplicated. A patron may want some of the new titles right away, but they also might be looking forward to the other titles.

The Shuffle function allows you to mix things up without the need to manually rearrange all the titles. After you use Quick Request to add a patron’s TBT requests to their queue, use the Functions menu, and select Service Queue > Shuffle Queue. The new requests will get mixed into any previous requests that were still waiting in the queue, and everything will be randomly ordered without regard for genre. You're essentially doing an automated card shuffle of their queue.

For example:

If they have any book from an ordered series in their queue when you shuffle it, KLAS will add an extra step to the process.

After the whole queue is put into random order, it will then re-arrange just those series titles to put them in sequence with each other, while leaving them scattered through the other results. The patron won’t necessarily get them all in a row but will get the books in the right order.

 This will also work if a patron has multiple series—the different series can get interspersed with each other. For instance, “Series A Book 1” will come before “Series A Book 2,” and “Series B Book 1” will come before “Series B Book 2.”

Finally, you can still use the arrow buttons in the toolbar (Or Ctrl plus the Up or Down keys) to make manual adjustments. So, if one or two requests are starred, circled, and / or have a great big “Send this first!!!” written next to them, you can easily bump them up to the top once the rest have been shuffled.

I hope this helps you understand how the new feature works and when you might find it helpful!

Keep an eye out for the full 7.7.36 Release List later this week. Finally, be sure to let us know if you have any questions about this or the other new features, improvements, and bug fixes.

Last week we updated you on how our Washington, New Mexico, and Kansas talking book libraries are faring as their staff and patrons continue to face the ongoing challenges of keeping themselves healthy and safe while operating during COVID-19. Today we want to bring you a similar update from Keystone. 

Since mid-March our staff has primarily been working from home and continues to do so. This would not have been possible without using our established VPN and VOIP services. These have allowed us to access necessary documents and information and continue seamlessly answering customer phone calls. We hope you have not seen a dramatic change in our customer support or development process other than the occasional dog bark or child interruption which I am sure we've all come to expect at this point. If you've had any degradation in service of any kind, please let us know ASAP so we can address it.

Also, this was the first year without a physical KLAS Users' Conference and we sincerely hope the online programming brought to you by your fellow KLAS Users and our Keystone staff have helped to keep you up to date on the latest happenings with Keystone and KLAS as well as continue to hear what you're fellow KLAS Users are up to. Speaking of these ongoing efforts, our next KLAS Users Roundtable will be held at 3:00 PM EDT September 17 and will focus on Virtual Programming for Patrons. More info will be forthcoming shortly. Keep an eye on the KLASusers listserv and our Webinars & Roundtables article for more info.

A new initiative we've undertaken is to move our planned September KLAS Administrators' Training online. For the first time, we will be offering this training for your staff members to be able to attend remotely, eliminating the need to travel to our office. We're revamping the schedule, rethinking the sessions offered, and talking through the best way to conduct this training so attendees can fully benefit from it. This first session will be kept to a small number of participants, so we can try to encourage the discussions and dialog that have made face-to-face Administrators’ Training so successful. The price per person for this online admin training is $600.00, but there obviously are no travel costs to incur. Please let us know if you may be interested in attending a future online KLAS KLAS Administrator Training session.

Previously, we've shared a number of guest blog posts on how COVID-19 is affecting KLAS libraries and resource centers. Since then, there has been plenty of re-opening, re-closing, and re-evaluating as each state and all of their associated agencies work to find the best course of action.

We recently reached out to our original guest bloggers for an update on their situation. Read on to see how things have progressed in Washington, New Mexico, and Kansas.

And if you would like to share how your library / organization is faring, and what policy, service, or other changes you have enacted in response to Covid19, we still welcome submissions from any KLAS user. Please contact Chandra Thornton, Past President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Sam Lundberg, New Mexico State Library for the Blind & Print Disabled

I said in my original post that New Mexico would be able to hold at current levels, and that's basically what we've done. Books are going out and coming in, processed by two staff members who are never in the building at the same time. We're also answering the phone live thanks to call forwarding and Google Voice, providing full RA service from home. Small, random things like sending out a paper application are more difficult than they were before, but we're in a sustainable place.

The only real change we've had is that we're finally wrapping up our conversion to DoD. After 9+ months of slowly transitioning patrons one conversation at a time, we're finally bulk converting our remaining patrons. It is very exciting to finally be going fully to Scribe for book delivery, although the fate of our carousel system is now very much an open question.

(Read the original New Mexico post)

Danielle Miller, Washington Talking Book & Braille Library

On June 2nd, our Governor approved a waiver request for the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library to begin circulating books and materials during Phase 1 of our “Safe Start” plan. On June 4th, we resumed circulation with four staff returning to work to join the director. We had over 40 mail bins of returned books and equipment that still needed to be checked in and thousands of patrons waiting for books. Working as a team, everything was checked in and everyone was served in record time. Circulation was operating normally, with all staff wearing PPE and following safety protocols. The director was still checking voicemail daily and responding to patrons, and most staff were still working remotely.

When our county moved into Phase 2, on June 29th, more staff were able to return to the library. We were able to start answering the phones and resume regular readers’ advisory. Some staff continue to work from home and the library is still closed to the public and to volunteers. We are busy answering phones, circulating books, continuing work in our Audio and Braille Departments, and all staff at the library are helping with book inspection daily. We are looking forward to the time we can have all of our staff together and slowly bring our volunteers back. Ensuring everyone’s safety is the highest priority, and we want to do what we can to avoid another disruption in circulation.

(Read the original Washington post)

Michael Lang, State Library of Kansas, Talking Books Service

Present: Still Doing the Best that We Can

We are still working with the model we implemented in April.

The circulation staff and I are working on site. We are allowing returned books and machines to sit untouched for a minimum of three full days in our library before handled by staff. The good news is that mail is again being delivered and picked up at our building by the USPS. No more daily runs to the post office in my mother-in-law’s truck.

RA staff are still working remotely; answering phone calls, emails, updating catalog records, editing audio, creating book lists, and looking for online continuing education opportunities. Our VOIP phones and splashtop connections are saving us from the early frustrations we were having. If there is something they need to do onsite, they can schedule a time with me to come in to work. They will return onsite fulltime when the following criteria have been met:

• The ESU Memorial Union is open
• Lyon County enters the phase out stage of Gov. Kelly’s Ad Astra recovery plan
• The State of Kansas enters the phase out stage of Gov. Kelly’s Ad Astra recovery plan
  
  

Our volunteer recording program is on hold until further notice. Circulation staff are recording our local magazines to keep them as current as possible.

Cases are currently trending upward in Kansas. On July 15, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced that public schools will not reopen until after Labor Day.

Emporia State University buildings are scheduled to reopen to the public on August 3rd, masks will be required for everyone on campus. Students will return beginning August 12th. They’ve shut off the water fountains in our building.

I feel like we’re managing to serve our patrons pretty well. The turnaround time is a little slower for books, but increasing cutoff limits for underserved patrons keeps most people in books. Most patrons have been very understanding. I think our biggest loss will be outreach. All outreach events for the year are cancelled. Trying to find new avenues to reach prospective patrons is difficult. If you’ve got any advice, we’d love the help.

(Read the original Kansas post)

I hope you are all well and in good spirits. It is my honor and privilege to announce that Michael Lang of the State Library of Kansas, Talking Books Service will serve as KLAS Users' Group Vice President for the 2020 - 2021 year. Please join me in congratulating Michael on this new and exciting endeavor. Michael will officially step into this role on August 1, 2020.

Thank you to all that voted!

Best Regards,

Chandra Thornton
KLAS Users' Group President

In March of this year, Katy and I undertook a rather large project that we're now happy to see come to fruition. For the past few years, we've been discussing updating the look and feel of Keystone's website with the goal of creating something more modern, with some additional features, but still maintaining our commitment to providing info on an easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate site. To help us with this endeavor, we chose to work with Alison Meeks of AM Graphix. We're excited to say that as of yesterday, the new and improved klas.com is now live!

The content we previously provided is still available, but we hope we've enhanced it and made it all easier to find. One of the great new features we added for current KLAS Users is the ability to submit a "Support" request from any page on the site using the "Support" button in the right-hand corner. Also, the whole site is mobile-friendly and responsive to the size of your browser window.

Below are some additional screenshots of the shiny, new klas.com. We invite you to spend some time checking it out!

The Current Customer OPACs page has been updated to a modern, graphical style, showcasing the logo of each library or organization in addition to the text name. It has also been broken into new sections: Featured, Talking Book Libraries, and Instructional Resource Centers. (Note: Prefer a text-only approach? We've added that version of the list to the KLASusers.com menu!)

The Products and Services: Scribe Duplication System page is new! It includes information about the Scribe, as well as some photos.

We've included some new testimonials from KLAS users on the home page. Thank you to everyone who provided a quote for us--we appreciate your kind words and support!

Finally, this is and will be an ongoing effort. Now that the new look and new organization is in place, we have plans to edit much of the content, so we'd love to hear your feedback!

COVID-19 has thoroughly upended almost all of our "typical" workdays, routines, and daily lives. It's affected each of us in very different, but very substantial ways. This Spring brought changes to how Keystone and many of our libraries operated. We've seen shifts in patron service models, circulation policies, and staffing scheduling and environments. In the last month, some agencies began to open back up and deal with the repercussions of limited staff, quarantining materials, backlogged items waiting to check-in, etc. while others may be facing another shift as state reevaluate their plans to reopen with the newest surge of cases. No matter where your organization or staff are in this process, we're doing our best to continue supporting you. Yet, we also know we aren't the ones dealing with the day-to-day, and only others in similar circumstances can relate and offer the best advice for you at this time. Therefore, today I am taking some time to again share relevant COVID-19 related KeysNotes blog posts from our staff as well from other KLAS Users.

The posts are in order from oldest to most recent.

Keystone Authored KeyNotes COVID-19 Related Posts:

• Important Coronavirus Info
• Working Remotely Tips & Tricks
• Working Remotely Tips & Tricks Part II
• A Note from James, plus Tips & Tricks Part III
• Tips & Tricks - Back to the Stacks

Yet, we also know we aren't the ones dealing with the day-to-day, and only others in similar circumstances can relate and offer the best advice for you at this time. Therefore, here are the words of your colleagues written in response to our request for input about what policy and procedural changes they've made in response to this unprecedented shift in how we all function.

KLAS Users Authored KeyNotes COVID-19 Related Posts:

• COVID-19 and the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library
• COVID-19 and the Florida Braille and Talking Book Libraries
• COVID-19 and New Mexico State Library, Library for the Blind & Print Disabled
• COVID-19 and the California Department of Education Press
• COVID-19 and State Library of Kansas, Talking Books Service
• COVID-19 and TN RCVI
• COVID-19 and the Arizona Talking Book Library & Instructional Resource Center
• COVID-19 and NC LBPH

• Bonus Post

In March, Keystone staff shared something a bit more lighthearted and published some of their favorite recipes to cook in their home kitchens while self-isolating. You can check them out in this post: Keystone Quarantine Kitchen

Since this is an off-year between KLAS Users' Group Conferences (and what good timing that was!), we've been working with the Programming Committee and your fellow users to bring you periodic online content to help keep you connected and tide us all over to the next conference.

We hope this is a good opportunity for folks who can't usually attend the conferences to get a taste of them, and that they've helped you keep up-to-date and involved. But to make sure we're succeeding--and to get even better--we need to hear from you!

If you haven't yet taken the KLAS Users' Online Programming Survey, please take a few minutes to provide your feedback. It's incredibly valuable, and will help bring you even better online content in the future. We've done our best to keep the survey short and sweet, and it'll inform not only our Fall programming, but maybe even online offerings at future in-person conferences!

Of course, if you have more opinions on the matter than you can fit into the survey, we're always happy to add more voices to the Programming Committee. As Erin says in her invitation for new members, "Being a part of a conference planning committee is a terrific way of getting to know other colleagues and putting a voice to the names!" If you're interested, or just want more info, shoot an email to .

Finally, you know what one of the best things is about online content? That you can always catch up after the fact!

So if you've finished the survey and still find yourself with a little down-time, make sure you're logged in and then follow these links to catch up on what you've missed:

• 5/19/2020 Online KLAS Users' Meetings (Includes links to the Overview of Keystone Systems Updates, KLAS Updates & New Featuresfor Talking Book Libraries, and KLAS Updates & New Features for Instructional Resource Centers sessions)
• 04-23-20 KLAS IRC Users' Roundtable
• 03-19-2020 KLAS Users Roundtable: Duplication on Demand
• 02-20-20 KLAS Q&A with Katy Recording
  
  

I wanted to take some time today to write about a group of our users' that I get to spend more time with than most -- our KLAS Users' Group Officers. In the nearly 18 years I've worked for Keystone, I've had the opportunity to collaborate with a number of different persons and personalities who y'all selected to fill these positions. I've facilitated in-person and online elections, been the Keystone representative to committees they lead as the chair, watched as the Users' Group became more fully involved with and proactive about helping to create and produce programming at the Users' Conference and now beyond. I've seen the Users' Group Bylaws evolve and a whole new officer cycle was instituted last year. We're now in the first election under this new model, and I'm excited at the prospect of having someone new with whom to plan and work.

With that in mind, I'm taking this opportunity to thank you all for teaching and inspiring me. Officers Meetings are places where we get the hard work done, but also connect with one another and sometimes have a good laugh. I know that the personal relationships I've established have led me to better understand the challenges you face in your day to day operations. I've even been lucky enough that I now call some of y'all friends. Keystone and KLAS are here to support you, but you're also here to support us. Your input as officers, committee members, presenters, and even conference attendees helps shape the future of what we're doing so we can better serve you and your patrons. Thank you.

So, now it's time for the Users' Group to select a new Vice President who will become your President in a year's time. No matter who your nominees are and final selection is, I welcome them and hope they will also gain from their experiences working as part of this group as much as I have. To help everyone better understand what role they are stepping into, I asked our current KLAS Users' Group Vice President to share some insight into her duties and responsibilities over the last year. This is what Jen Buzolich, California Department of Education Clearinghouse for Specialized Media & Technology, shared:

For me, the role of the Vice President has primarily been about learning how the Users' Group functions and our roles in supporting all KLAS users and helping to bridge the users and Keystone. I have appreciated being able to bring a voice from the IRCs, while at the same time learning more about the DTBLs. Having balanced representation in the Users' Group between the two groups has been, in my opinion, very beneficial. 

Therefore, I ask you to take some time to read over the bios and statements of purpose from your nominees for KLAS Users' Group Vice President once they are published and seriously consider who you want to become your new Vice President and eventual President. They will help shape your experience as a user, the future path of KLAS and Keystone, and be part of a great group of individuals who have shared and learned much from one another in the act of serving your KLAS Users' Community.

Hello everyone! Today, I'm bringing back (and updating!) a post from 2018. This is important info we want to make sure you know about and remember, so let's dive in...

Keystone, KLAS, & Accessibility

Easy access to all features and functions within KLAS has been integral to all phases of the design process since the first version of KLAS, and continues through our ongoing work developing the next generation of the program.

From our first library customer, North Carolina Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Keystone has had a commitment to develop library software and provide support services for all of our users. Now that KLAS is installed and being used by nearly 2/3 of the network libraries that are part of the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped as well as a number of Instructional Resource / Materials Centers, we have a multitude of staff (as well as public catalog users) performing a multitude of tasks and requiring varying levels and types of accessibility. To help meet the needs of our users, Keystone offers some additional support and services. Examples include:

• Keyboard shortcut access to KLAS
• Testing and troubleshooting of assistive technology software in conjunction with KLAS
• Customized accessibility training for the workflow and AT used by a specific staff member
• Keeping accessibility in the forefront of design as we move toward developing new versions of KLAS

Keyboard Shortcuts

KLAS is fully navigable both by a mouse and by a keyboard. In fact, we have seen that it's faster to use a keyboard than a mouse when performing tasks such as entering a new patron or entering multiple subject codes to an item.

To help users learn KLAS-specific keyboard commands and shortcuts, we created a KLAS Keyboard Shortcuts Quick Reference Document. You can download it in either Word or PDF format from the "KLAS Keyboard Shortcuts" article.

Update: For those of you implementing Duplication service, make sure to check out the QuickRef - Duplication with AT document for all the Duplication-specific shortcuts! It's available on the Duplication Info page.

AT Testing and Troubleshooting

We do ongoing testing of various types of assistive technologies (AT) and their interaction with KLAS. If you are using AT with KLAS and find you are having trouble, please contact both your IT as well as our customer support staff. We may have seen the problem before with another user and already have a solution, or we may be able to help you figure out what's going on at least from the KLAS side.

Update: You may also want to grab the latest AT Reference Document and/or the QuickRef - Duplication with AT document from the Duplication Info page.

Accessibility Training

Another service we offer is assistive technology user training and workstation configuration. This service is for any staff member(s) that use assistive technology such as Jaws, ZoomText, WindowEyes, etc. It is a 5-day intensive one-on-one training session done at your staff person's workstation based on their job responsibilities and the adaptive technologies or software they use with KLAS. Please note, your staff member should already be familiar with and using the latest version of their preferred AT software, this training is specifically to configure it and KLAS to your users' specific workflow and needs. Please contact us for pricing and availability.

Designed for All from the Beginning

Accessibility is a core part of our design process. As we look toward developing the new KLAS features and functionality, our commitment to accessibility from the beginning continues. The consideration of how to make all of KLAS' screens easily navigable and all its features intuitively presented will benefit those both those who use AT as well as those who do not.

The move to a Duplication on Demand service model opens up the full collection of download-only titles to your patrons... but patrons who receive books by Subject will only get them if the titles have local subject cataloguing.

If you haven’t been keeping up cataloguing those download-only titles, if you are considering adding a brand-new subject heading, or if you’re just interested in some sprucing up... We have a new tool to help!

Added in KLAS Version 7.7 build 11, the Change Headings tool allows you to batch apply a subject heading to (or remove it from) a query set of titles.

Step One – Define a Query

Start the process by building a query to find the titles to apply the heading to. For example, you could search for adult, fiction books that have “Amish” in the Annotation, or for books with an author in a given list (you may want to add Codes to author headings you want to use for this, or the list will quickly get unwieldy).

In the query results, you may notice a new tab! In this view, the new tab is inactive—it will appear greyed out, and cannot be selected.

Double-click (or select and Enter) any title in the results to enter the query set. We highly recommend clicking through at least a representative sample of the query set to make sure it is working as you intended.

Already have a list of titles you want to work on, such as a list of locally produced books that all need your local interest subject heading, or a list of sexually explicit titles from the Rating Unrated Books project? You can Import a Query Set from a notepad .txt file of KLAS IDs!

Step Two – Confirm Query Set

Once you have reviewed the query set and are confident that it is correct, or only needs minor tweaks, launch the “Change Headings – Query Set” tool.

Note: Many libraries restrict the Tools Menu to administrators. This is an easy way to ensure that tools like this, which can quickly make a lot of changes to your data, are only used as intended. If you need help tweaking your permissions to control who can access these tools, contact Keystone Customer Support!

If you are not already in a Query Set, the tool will open a Define Query window. Otherwise, it will take you straight to your query results, now with the Add/Remove Headings tab activated. Before switching to the new tab, take another look through your search results!

If there is an odd title here or there that you want to remove from the query set, select the title and use the Delete button (or Ctrl+D).

Even a well-made query may turn up something here or there that doesn’t belong—use the delete button to clear them out so that your Query Set includes only the titles on which you want to change headings.

Step Three – Add / Remove Headings

On the Add/Remove Headings tab, Add a New Line using the button in the lower left, or the functions menu.

Find the heading to apply using either the Code or Full Description. This tool was primarily intended to work with Subject headings, but it can apply Author or Series headings as well if the need arises.

Use the Action combo-box to select whether the heading should be added or removed. If you Add a heading to a title that already has it, or Remove a heading from a title that does NOT have it, no change will occur to that title. The rest of the query set will still be updated as needed.

Save the line. If you want to make additional changes to the same set (such as adding "contains violence" PLUS removing "unrated"), just add more lines.

When you are ready, use the Apply Headings Changes button to batch update the entire query set.

Final Thoughts

We hope this tool makes it easier for you to do catalog maintenance and get ready for Duplication!

However, as with many administrator tools, it is possible for this to go awry if it isn’t used with care. Please always double check that you are applying the correct heading to the correct titles before clicking Apply.

If you do find that an error has been made, please contact Customer Support as soon as possible for assistance with backing it out.

(Not on 7.7 yet? Don't worry, you haven't been forgotten! We have been fixing bugs as the first previewers find them, and will continue rolling out preview databases to the rest of the libraries on our list. If you missed our July Progress Update, make sure to check it out to learn more about what's involved!)

As states ease restrictions and some staff are returning to large pile-ups of returned books (or a suspicious absence of returned books), and things are still far from “business as usual”, how is everyone handling it?

I’ll discuss some approaches that have come into our support inbox so far, but everyone has a little bit different situation, so remember these are just a few ideas to get you started. Please continue to contact us as needed to help strategize and determine the best workflows to get you back on track.

Albany called in reinforcements from other departments and raised their card limit while they get caught up. Their strategy was to start by checking out the waiting Mail Cards and then focus on check-ins knowing that they had the extra staff to handle the surge of assignments this would cause the next day.

Libraries that don’t have reinforcements to call on likely want to take a somewhat different approach.

Braille Institute, for example, is working to get caught up on check-ins but is not ready to start sending outgoing mail again. They set their Daily Circulation Cutoff to zero, but that control stops Nightly from assigning books... not Reserves, which are filled on check-in. So, once they’ve finished checking in books each day, they are then Unassigning the whole batch that has been generated this way from the Mail card Review screen. Because the titles have only been Assigned, not checked out, the reserves will stay on the patron records. However, this approach helps to keep assignments fresh—if the patron downloaded the title from BARD in the meantime, the reserve will be cleared when Braille Institute loads their BARD Stats. They are also taking this time to shelve everything that was currently on turnaround, clean the shelves, and start the check-ins with a new shelf order and set-up.

Oregon Talking Books is returning to sending outgoing books, but only by Duplication. Because switching a patron to Duplication service shifts KLAS to only counting duplication orders towards the NS Cutoff, it won’t matter that they are catching up on check-ins more gradually. As an added complication, they are required to send all outgoing containers inside a manilla envelope due to the life of the virus on plastic. We’re working with them to generate these additional mailing labels, which will allow them to greatly ramp up the number of cartridges they can send per day.

Nevada is also making the switch to Duplication. They've started with a nightly Duplication Order limit of 100, though they may need to increase it as they get more of their patrons converted and more experience with duplicating. We helped them unassign the large batch of outstanding Physical service mail cards, and like Braille Institute, they will be unassigning the new ones generated each day as Reserves are made available. However, because those patrons are likely to be great candidates for duplication, we’ve recommended they export the list from the “Mailing Cards – Review” screen before unassigning the batch. They can then save the list of Patron IDs to import as a query set and convert them to duplication using the “Batch Update Patron Profile” tool.

We hope this gave you some things to think about—both in terms of approaches to take and complications to consider. Please reach out any time you’d like some help, or if you just want to confirm something will work the way you expect it to.

Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our next guest post in this series is from Craig Hayward, Systems and Digital Services Librarian at NC LBPH.

North Carolina in a time of COVID 19

North Carolina started hearing about what was happening in Washington State, and their library staff, in late February-early March and thanks to the information that the library there provided, we started preparing for how to quarantine items and figuring out how staff could work either from home or in socially distanced situations in the library. The most difficult part of the situation in planning would be with our circulation staff of 5 who most of what they do is handling physical items and have to work in close physical proximity for some parts of their work? Still a plan was set in motion and we prepared to transition to whatever we would be presented. The second week of March, the library closed to the public officially. This also meant the volunteers were not allowed into the building, making some of the work we do, in inspections and audio narration more difficult.

On March 23, 2020, the Governor of North Carolina gave the Stay At Home Order, mandating that all employees were to work from home, or go on administrative leave, if they could not do any work at home. A week prior to that, my own county (Durham) had issued the order which meant that I would have to start working from home sooner. At the time, 5 of us had already begun teleworking, leaving most of our staff of 25 in-house working, while plans were made to bring our work home for real. There was a large backlog with the state in getting laptops so staff could work from home, so a number of staff brought in their own laptops, while waiting frantically for the state to get them something more “official”. All of this was so that KLAS could be installed and work could happen from home. This would mark a new chapter for many of what work looks like now.

Needless to say there was a big shock to the system, both for staff and patrons. No one is there to answer the phone, just reply to voicemail and email. Ironically, the library is getting a new phone voice over IP phone system, but the shutdown happened at the absolute worst time in this project, since the old system offers no way to forward calls on. The new system will allow you to easily forward your office number to your cell phone. The only time I’ve been back to the library since the shutdown began was this past Tuesday to test out a new piece of hardware to make sure it worked. In the meantime, special arrangements have been made to get the library’s main phone line to ring to another one at the State Library so voicemail could be collected and accessed by our staff.

Without anyone available to run duplication on demand orders on cartridge, that service sits awaiting our return. Our only answer is to get patrons setup on BARD and / or use the local downloading resources we have. To keep chaos at the post office as minimal as we could, we asked patrons to hold onto their materials until we were open again. But patrons can only respond as they do and material piled up in the mailing facility. As a result we then started an occasional truck run to pick up mail hampers. The first run, amazed our driver with the number of hampers sitting and waiting to return materials to the library.

Since our shutdown, only 3 staff members, myself included, have even entered the building at any point for any amount of time. No one is allowed back in until we open. Even once we open, the number of people allowed in the building will be done in phases. Phase 1 allows for a max of 8 people in the building at any given time. Staff will rotate days in and out. At the time of this writing, we are closed to the public and staff until further notice, potentially until the end of May.

Staff working from home pick up voicemail messages from a central voicemail box, setup temporarily by the State Library, and return calls. They also monitor and answer the library’s email box. For anyone answering we ask that they block their phone numbers for privacy. If the patron does not accept blocked calls, we do our best to work to relay information. One option we have looked at for greater transparency is a Google Voice number that would be branded with State of North Carolina to keep it private. But that’s temporary and may take some time. We look forward to the day we get our new voiceover IP phone system to help keep our teleworking experience more normal by allowing our office numbers to connect while out of the library, but our temporary solution has allowed us to continue serving our patrons during a difficult time.

Once a week either the Director of the library or the State Librarian makes a trek to the library and retrieves new patron applications, faxes, and bits of other mail. These items are worked on by our Public Service staff from home.

Our volunteers will return when the public does. Book and magazine production in our local recording studio has been put on hold. However, a couple of us on staff are using home recording as an option (voice recording apps on mobile devices, Audacity on laptops) to produce "Tar Heel Talk", the library’s newsletter. This is a particularly popular publication for our readers. We have also turned to revamping our audio offerings with making "Tar Heel Talk" into a podcast and creating a new podcast that showcases locally recorded books and magazines available for download. With "Notable On NOBLE" we give listeners a bit of the annotation and the first 2-3 minutes of the first chapter of a book or a magazine articles to encourage patrons to try out some more materials and at least offer them something to read. This joins the already popular "Heard Any Good Books Lately?" Podcast and a couple of new offerings are coming soon.

Our machine unit sits and waits to fulfill machine requests, until the library opens again. Machines are received by mail and brought into the library with other items from the post office. All machines have a 7-day quarantine period, so the time away has helped in this regard.

On this topic when we were opened the standard quarantine period for books was 3 days. This will continue once we return and for the foreseeable future. One benefit of the shutdown is that we have decided to ramp up duplication on demand efforts and when we return many individual digital talking books cartridges will be withdrawn from the collection and set aside for recall rather than checking them back in.

Some bright spots have come out of this situation, also. First off, we have the implementation of Live Chat on our library’s homepage. In these times when it’s hard to reach staff directly by telephone and email, this service acts like a kind of instant messaging service to allow staff to help patrons get books and directly answer questions about our service and happenings in real-time. Staff were hesitant that patrons wouldn’t use it, but it has been well received. It also has helped strengthen our collaborative efforts with the State Library by adding our library to this service. They can now more easily direct people that come to their side back to ours, and it allowed us to evaluate the product they use for accessibility. It also has led to some interesting real-time conversation with patrons and their appreciation of having a way to connect.

Most of our staff have been working on the larger NLS Unrated Books project while working at home. This time out of the library has meant having to fill in gaps and this situation is useful.

Another project that this pushed forward was a mass migration of groups of staff-direct, non-automation, service patrons. Having the time out of the library to do this has been a real help. The bulk conversions to duplication service have happened and then the reader advisors (when not answering questions) have been able to go in and tailor first run service queues for a batch of around 1800 patrons new to this type of service. This has made this project more manageable.

This has also been a chance to update parts of our website to better serve our patrons. Things like our local download site, NOBLE, and creating new service spaces with an expanded and better organized podcasts section.

On the topic of local collections, we’ve been able to have time to transfer our collection in totality from our local network attached storage device to books.klas.com for better access by our 3 Scribe units once we go back to open operations. At this writing we have just gotten approval (in record time) for adding a 4th Scribe unit, so that we will can keep up with the demand of daily orders (which average around 300 per day) and keep a walk-in service for patrons, once we are allowed to reopen our building to the public.

It has accelerated the use of communication tools like Microsoft Teams. Prior to this situation no one really saw a need for it, other than our administrative team since they were having meetings and they had been communicating daily. Now everyone in the library uses Teams at various levels. Some of us talk daily through it directly with various people the way we would normally go down to each other’s offices and have conversations. Having my Director call me through Teams the first time was quite a surprise in my house.

Zoom meetings have become a more regular happening, rather than a special occasion. They are just the way we have larger meetings of groups, from the entire staff of the State Library to Departmental meetings within our own building, and for planning events like an upcoming retirement party.

The other avenue that opened up for communication has been a regular Wednesday check-in for groups of staff by text message. This is something that will stay around while we continue to telework and probably beyond as we operate with greatly reduced staffing in the library building itself.

Overall, I can’t say that the situation happened at an ideal time. Conferences got postponed and face-to-face time with staff is missed greatly. But perhaps this situation could be a catalyst for changes to the program that were already starting and maybe for a change in attitude about virtual (non-physical) materials services, like downloading and talking to staff through a website for our patrons.

Every major event that happens and changes us culturally has an impact of how life goes on after ward. Once you get used to this way of working and living, it’s hard to go back to the way you did things prior.

Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our next guest post in this series is a collaborative one from Erin Pawlus, Assistant Administrator, Arizona Talking Book Library, and Jared Leslie, Director of Media Services, Foundation for Blind Children.

Our teleworking adventures at the Arizona Talking Book library began on March 23, 2020. At that time, we had about half our staff working on site on an alternating schedule, with the rest working from home. Since then, we have managed to pare it down to about 5 people in the building at a time. Other than the regular trill of phone calls, it has been remarkably quiet. At the time of this writing, we are closed to the public through May 15, 2020, so we encourage our readers to contact us by phone or e-mail.

So, who will you find if you were to tour our library? A supervisor is always on site, as well as someone to forward phone calls. Staff who work from home pick up their voicemail messages and return calls. They are currently using their cell phones and we ask that they block their phone numbers for privacy. If the patron does not accept blocked calls, someone from the office will act as the messenger in those cases and relay information. We are exploring our options for improving phone service while teleworking, but our temporary solution has allowed us to continue serving our patrons during a difficult time.

The Certification Specialist, and staff providing backup, review incoming applications to confirm eligibility a few times a week instead of daily. Since the Reader Advisors are not in the office to receive the applications, basic contact information is entered into KLAS so that the librarians have enough information to call and set up service.

Our volunteers have not yet returned to the library, so book and magazine production in our local recording studio has been put on hold. However, our Studio Manager is back in the booth to narrate Arizona Highways magazine. This is a particularly popular publication for our readers.

The machine agents are available by phone at their home offices to accept requests for equipment and to assist with BARD. Twice a week, the Machine Services Supervisor comes in to prepare mail shipments.

While mail service for books has continued, it has been necessary to decrease the number of materials that we send each day so that we can limit on-site staff and maintain social distancing in the mailroom. We started with a maximum of 650 books a day – a far cry from the 2000 we typically allowed. With a little tinkering we were able to move the needle back to 1000 and have struck a decent balance. We also quarantine books and machines for seven days before they are available for the next patron, which is another important step that has nonetheless slowed down mail processes.

We were soon alerted to an interesting consequence of not serving all patrons needing books every day. While we understood that it may take several more days to ship, patrons were calling in who had not been served in weeks. When we reviewed the issue with Keystone, we discovered that it was because we were giving priority to patrons who were Nightly List Only and being served from specific book requests, leaving the Nightly Autoselect patrons being served by general reading interests to languish and the end of the list. In a normal world, this makes sense – if a patron has specific requests, they should be served before the patron who is happy with what we have in stock. However, this is not a normal world. We switched the order and gradually chipped away at our backlog.

The sudden and unexpected changes to our schedule and workflow have accelerated other projects, however. For example, our agency had provided training on Microsoft Teams starting late last year, but we were not quick to make it a part of our daily routine. Now, we all stay in regular contact through chats and virtual meetings.

Our library has also received the Scribe for duplicating multiple books on a cartridge. We had completed a staff and patron pilot and were starting to introduce it to patrons as they called in with book requests. As our traditional mail service slowed, we offered it to our patrons as a quicker option - we have been able to maintain a next-day turnaround for these orders. While it has been a unique challenge to launch a new service during an uncertain time, many patrons were willing to give it a try. Since early March, we have transitioned over 900 patrons and currently mail out an average of 160 cartridges a day!

We stay in contact with others in our community and partner organizations. Our Instructional Resource Center for Arizona, The Foundation for Blind Children, and the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind, continue to request print/braille books that are produced by the National Library Service. Our Youth Services and Engagement Librarian has worked with Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) to create weekly virtual programs for their students. She also plays with the recently purchased Cricut machine to prepare tactile cut-outs for the upcoming Imagine Your Story Summer Reading Program.

We asked for an update from the Instructional Resource Center for Arizona and they informed us that they began teleworking on March 16, 2020. At a full capacity, they have nine people that are on site supporting thousands of students throughout the state. Most of the team utilizes a desktop computer, so like most organizations they had to secure more laptops to allow for remote access. However, their tech and inventory department was able to secure them the weekend before telecommuting began. Within a day of their tech department receiving the much-needed workstations they were able to get one in the hands of every team member.

Onsite they limited the number of staff to two and had the remaining seven work from home. Each day the staff members on site rotate. This system has allowed for many unintended benefits. They have two main functions: 1.) Producing physical braille and mailing that to districts and customers. 2.) Pulling federal quota items and mailing them out to districts and students. Having rotating team members allowed for cross training for every team member, and those that had specialized roles now were coaching how others could jump in and help.

Everyone has found a way through with trial and error and continue to discover new or different ways to do business. We are not sure what everything will look like in the future, but we have picked up some valuable new skills and a shifting perspective on what is possible... more than we could have imagined. I am encouraged by my staff and our patrons, who have demonstrated amazing grace and resiliency during a high-stress time. Listening to the voices, and sometimes the tears, of our patrons on the line has made it clear to me how truly essential this program is in the lives of the people we serve.

Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our next guest blog post in response to this request is from Kathy Segers, Director of Accessible Instructional Materials and Outreach Services, Tennessee Resource Center for the Visually Impaired.

TN RCVI COVID-19 Plan Implementation

As a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Tennessee RCVI and Outreach Services, has developed a detailed action plan to support local school districts to be able to continue to serve students with visual impairments, by providing accessible instructional materials and devices to the district and or the parents. The following is an outline of the activities that have been put in place.

• A copy of the TN RCVI COVID-19 Guidance was sent to all Directors of Special Education and Teacher’s of the Visually Impaired in March of 2020.
• A copy of the TN School for the Blind Outreach Department Guidance was sent all Directors of Special Education and Teachers of the Visually Impaired in March of 2020.
• TSB Outreach teachers are working with each local school district that they serve and are offering support for the students on their caseload which focuses on providing access to the instructional materials that the district is using. This is based on guidance from the TN Department of Education.
• Local districts were asked to share their home contract information to facilitate communication while everyone is working from home. This was well received.
• Local districts were asked to order materials needed by their students at home using KLAS. They were asked to submit the parents address where the student materials needed to be shipped before placing the orders so we would have time to enter the data in KLAS. Students names were not used to protect privacy. This has worked very nicely.
• TN RCVI has shipped on demand APH Materials and equipment that students were previously using in their local school districts to the homes of students for them to use to have access to the materials used by the local school districts. For example, if they used a Perkins Brailler or Matt Connect prior to the Pandemic, we would ship one to the home if the student could not gain access to the one at school. No new devices that the student has not previously used are being sent at the present time.
• TN RCVI has sent daily information out the parents, TVI’s, and LEA’s about accessible trainings for teachers and students, i.e., free JAWS/Zoomtext for student until June 2020, APH ExCEl Academy Training for Students with VI, Etc.
• RCVI just launched its May Newsletter, ACCESS VI with instructions for ordering and returning materials.
  New protocols for sanitizing equipment and books that are returned to TN RCVI have been developed are being used following EPA and CDC guidelines
• All staff at TN RCVI are wearing gloves and masks when in the building and are socially distancing, We are trying to have only one or two staff members in the building at one time for now.

If you have any questions about our COVID-19 Response, please contact me at

Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our next guest blog post in response to this request is from Michael Lang, Director, State Library of Kansas, Talking Books Service.

March 16 – March 20: The Scramble

Kansas Talking Books began quarantining incoming items on Monday, March 16th. Our initial procedure was to disinfect all incoming items, scan them into a quarantine shelf, while wearing gloves, and let them sit for seven days. We did this for one week.

On Tuesday, March 17th at 4:00 p.m., Kansas Governor Laura Kelly held a press conference announcing the two week closure of all state offices beginning Saturday the 21st.

We emailed all of our residential facilities and individuals to alert them to our closure and encourage them to order more books and/or sign up for BARD. We identified heavy users and assigned them more books. We encouraged any patrons who called to order extra items. We discussed increasing out nightly cutoff for all patrons but weren’t sure we could get that many books pulled. For the next three days, we pulled twice our daily average. On Friday afternoon, Keystone ran a second round of nightly autoselect, and we did a full second pull.

Regrettably, this left patrons without email addresses and who didn’t call in underserved during, what would become, a four-week period with no outgoing items. Many of our patrons also don’t realize we are part of a state agency and might not have realized the governor’s order to close applied to us. This news was also overshadowed in the same press conference that she announced the closing of all school buildings for the rest of the school year.

March 21- April 5: The Shutdown

For the following two weeks, staff went home with instructions not to work. Our voicemail message started that we would reopen on the 6th. Our mail was delivered as usual to Emporia State University, where we are located, and held in the mailroom separated by date received. During this time, Emporia State University closed all buildings to the public.

I monitored emails and signed patrons up for BARD when possible.

April 6 – April 19: The Reset

State employees were instructed to return to work on April 6th, remotely if possible or on site if not possible but deemed safe, to provide missions essential functions. I returned to work with a skeleton crew of rotating circulation staff. Circulation staff checked in the books and equipment that we received during our two week closure.

RA staff began working from home, accessing their voicemails and returning call from their cells phones using blocked numbers. Eventually, we were able to get 3 of the 4 remote staff’s VOIP office phones hooked up in their homes. They are able to receive and return calls from their office numbers. The fourth person has a work issued cell phone so that she no longer has to call from a blocked/unknown number. RA staff continued to assign and reserve books for patrons during this time. They also encouraged patrons to try to use BARD as uncertainty in our operational status remained.

Additionally, with all campus buildings locked down, the postal service is not delivering to campus. ESU staff pick up the mail on Monday and Thursday. We were informed on April 13th that they would no longer be picking up our books and equipment but will still pick up our paper mail on Mondays and Thursdays. I must go to the post office to pick up our items.

April 20 – Present: Doing the Best that We Can

On April 20th, we began mailing out books and machines. In those first two days, circulation staff prepped and pulled almost 5,000 items and I delivered 56 bags of mail to the post office using my mother-in-law’s Ford Ranger. I am now delivering and picking up mail at the post office daily. We are allowing returned books and machines to sit untouched for at a minimum of four full days in our library before being handled by staff. Monday’s mail is sorted on Friday, Tuesday-Thursday on Monday and Friday’s mail gets sorted on Tuesday. It’s really messing with our daily procedures but we’re making it work.

The State Library has a contract with Splashtop, which provides remote access to desktop computers. During the week of April 20th we were able to get remote staff set up so that they can work on their desktop computers remotely from home. This allows them to access our network drives, networked printers, and some of our audio editing software. RA staff are also prepping for summer reading, cataloging, and editing audio as time allows. They will be working remotely until at least June 1.

Our next guest blog post in response to this request is from Maureen Dorosinski and the various regional librarians of Florida.

FL1A

The Library is part of the Division of Blind Services, which is under the Florida Department of Education. First the school closings came, then the stay at home order. We were told to telework as much as possible. We were an 'essential service'. Our circulation and production staff core duties are not able to be performed remotely, while reader advisor services and other responsibilities could be performed remotely. Others applied for telework, trying to find a way to be out of the library around people, but without enough leave to cover the duration of the stay at home order. We have vulnerable category staff. Additionally, our OPS part time staff in circulation, had decided to simply take unpaid leave. This left circulation extremely short handed. About half staff, when we were already two positions short. The outlook is bleak and morale is low because now there is a hiring freeze and one position is on hold. One production staff member worked in both areas simultaneously.

Then, COVID came to the library. We were told "someone in the building tested positive", and were given the last date they were in the library, the details were not clear but then, the staff just cleared out. We are behind and had been shifting quarantine back, and also, had been operating day to day as to who was in and able to do what.

All we can do now is wait until April 30 and see if there are any changes. Staff have contacted me frantic and desperate to get more information...and I have none to offer. I wonder myself what if someone tests positive in this time. Do I trust these results will be disclosed? What do I do for myself, and my family, if I have vulnerable people in my life?

After I wrote this, I opened it up this morning, Friday, April 24. Some else on campus has tested positive, and now we are out until May 7. That above scenario was again repeated when we were told we needed to close because someone else tested positive on campus, rehab center staff, and then we adjusted the reopening times twice. Luckily KLAS staff as well as subregional staff were able to help button up the day, and redistribute service throughout the rest of the open libraries. A good deal of patrons will be able to be served with the FL network pulling together!

Rereading my notes, everyone is even more confused, and my morning was consumed with getting information and timesheets and testing sites, and creating telework tasks for those who do not have any sort of technology at home, nor a job that has a real remote counterpart and looked up and breathed and just hoped everyone turns out okay.

On service to patrons: Kim Peters at FL1D had a great idea, to ask for a report of patrons who have met their limit so she could go into their accounts and raise their limits right away. John Owen pulled together such a report, and she was able to raise many patrons so service would continue. He then did a similar thing for FL1A, and we are applying it as well. Thousands of patrons will now have service continue uninterrupted, while their returns wait at the post office, or on our loading dock in quarantine, until we get back into the office. For patrons that had reached their NSCutOff after January 1, 2020, we would raise their limit by 10 books. This would target those patrons most likely to benefit from the increase, those that are most active. Patrons not at their NSCutOff yet are being served by open libraries now and books received after April 22nd will be from those branches. Once the books are returned and checked in these patrons will be eligible for more service.

All of the SRLS who are open, are to be commended for their willingness to help by raising their card run limits in order to serve Florida. We are so grateful for their dedication and extra work during this time:

• FL1G, Sarah Smedley and her team in Palm Beach County
• FL1H, Bill Forbes and his team in Broward County
• FL1K, Debra Martin and her team in Brevard County
• FL1M, Megan Magee and her team in Pinellas County
• FL1L, Greg Jackson and his team in Escambia County, West Florida Public Library

The same gratitude goes to the entire KLAS team as well, especially John Owen and Nancy Honeycutt.

-Maureen Dorosinski, FL1A Librarian

FL1C

Meeting patrons needs by mail during Coronavirus

Due to the high rate of COVID-19 cases in Miami-Dade County, the Miami-Dade Public Library System closed to the public on March 18, 2020. On Thursday March 19th my supervisor contacted me about the possibility of using our Borrow-by-Mail service to send out the backlog of holds that customers were unable to pick up due to branch closures. Borrow-by-Mail is a fee based service that allows patrons to place requests from our catalog and have them mailed to their home address for a $4.00 fee. It was decided that we would waive the fee and start asking branches in groups of 3-4 to call the patrons, ask if they want their holds shipped and ship the books to our Books-by-Mail and Borrow-by-Mail Departments called Connections. Connections is located at the North Dade Regional Library right next to our Talking Books Department. I supervise both departments.

We manage Borrow-by-Mail using Polaris and a Neopost machine. It is a slow process but we can incorporate tracking numbers which are listed in the patrons record. It is also nice because Polaris generates mailing labels and a letter with instructions. It was decided we would eliminate tracking numbers to speed up the process since we were not charging for the service at this time. We processed about 140 items over three afternoons before we were sent home on March 24th. After we were sent home, a team of employees were asked to report to the Main Library and branch staff were asked to check out the holds that patrons wanted and send them to Main to be mailed out. They decided to bypass the Borrow-by-Mail function to expedite the processing. Hundreds of holds were sent out by the staff working at the Main Library.

While that was happening, one of my staff from Connections, one from Talking Books and myself were set up with a laptop with remote access to our desktop so we could start placing requests for patrons. We discovered KLAS and Polaris worked surprisingly well this way. The first day I was able to access KLAS, I began having the Talking Books phones forwarded to my personal cell and I received over 30 calls. Many of the patrons were extremely concerned about the well-being of the staff. They were also tremendously grateful that we were taking requests and that other libraries around the state would be shipping items out.

Unfortunately, I began receiving calls and emails that some of our patrons had not received the Borrow-by-Mail holds they had been expecting. As it turned out, a large shipment was sent to Connections shortly before we were sent home and arrived after we had closed up. Doris, my Connections Manager and I ventured back into North Dade Regional and shipped 178 items to 76 customers in 7 hours. Then, I started receiving calls from Talking Books customers stating they weren't receiving their cartridges. Well as it turns out, some of the Talking Books has been assigned to FL1C by mistake. Maureen Dorosinski from Daytona and John Owen from KLAS ran a report for me and we were able to assign the items to an open library.

On Friday April 17th, Post Office informed us that they had to start delivering our mail at North Dade Regional again due to the large quantity of items. Twenty crates of cartridges were delivered on Friday morning and two more shipments were on the way. Four of my staff (3 pages and one librarian) and myself plan to report to North Dade Regional on Monday April 20th to get a handle on the backlog. More to come....

-Jennifer Shipley, Library Operations Manager
Miami-Dade Public Library System

FL1D

The list John prepared for me is excellent as it identifies all those already maxed out. I've already increased NS cutoff for about 70+ patrons and have about 200 more to go. Most are folks who only get a couple of books a week and had low cutoffs of 12 books. I am catching it in time as most got their last delivery last week.

I've been so worried about my patrons having books and this is a blessing!

-Kim Peters

FL1M

Our policy changes have been: no one except staff in building (including volunteers we have had to pick up their work), stay 6 ft apart, Wednesdays off except printing and mailing the run, we also had to suspend our cleaning service and have been assigned many cleaning duties to keep the building running.

Our stats have changed because we no longer are having people "walk-in" as patrons, but our phone number and email count have been through the roof. Way higher than normal. The staff have been slammed with so many patrons asking for 10, 20 books at a time because they are locked in their rooms in nursing home facilities and it is the only thing they have to do. Staff have been doing their best to keep up with the new high demands, but they are definitely feeling a strain and are having to push through the weariness. One of our staff has been out for 10 days because she had a fever. She was tested for Covid-19 and the test results came back today, four days after her test as negative.

Personally, it has been a strange transition with new information and policies changing daily. It is mentally taxing, and there is so much work to be done. I am sad to say there are even times I have felt unsafe at work simply by having to leave my house and see coworkers from a distance in the building due to what the media and CDC have deemed as safe. It is tiresome because I live with one other person who has been working from home since March 12th. I am the only person in my household who interacts with other people. I will be fully responsible if I get my household sick. This is a scary weight I have been carrying everyday I come to work. I had to decide what was worth it to me. I decided my job was a worthy cause worth doing and that as long as we were expected to show up, I would. I know every person who is working during this time is probably going through something similar.

One silver-lining has been the patrons are more grateful than ever. They claim we are saving their lives by providing something to do while they are stuck in their nursing home rooms with no one and nothing to do. Hearing them be grateful has been the best part of this whole experience.

Thanks!

-Meagan Magee
Talking Book Library Services Coordinator
Pinellas Public Library Cooperative

Good morning. Emails and phone messages sent on Wednesday are answered on Thursday due to limited Wednesday service. We have 3 office staff currently pulling now, so we are fine! We are more than happy to help out. A mail card limit of 1500 a day is fine. 1200 yesterday and 606 today.

Phone is off the hook nowadays and I do about 20 patron ILLS a day now and there are 3 of us!

We are staying afloat. God Bless you guys in Daytona!

-Juliet Relyea
Public Services Specialist
Pinellas Talking Book Library

FL1K

We are still operating as usual. Our volunteers are not allowed to come in.

FL1L

With the exception of a dip immediately following the WHO's pandemic declaration, circulation has risen on a year-to-year comparison by week.

Stay well, everyone!

-Chris Hare
Senior Librarian
West Florida Public Libraries