Laptop Woes

Hello All,

Several of our laptops recently became infected with a virus that prevented them from accessing certain sites (Microsoft, McAfee, etc.) . This made it impossible for the virus definitions to be updated as well as impossible for the Office Products to access the Office server to download templates, ClipArt, or what have you. Tree from the IT department took them and will re-image the laptops with a fresh image of the OS and up to date virus definitions (also maybe Office 2007). Please be aware of any kind of strange behavior on the laptops as our machines seem susceptible to these types of infections. If you notice a machine is acting strange or not accessing these sites please shut it down and let me know.

Also, we will be sending in our laptops group by group to the IT department for updates as our laptops don't seem to be automatically doing it. After they are updated we will need to dedicate a day of the week to leave them on and plugged in, it has to be outside of class time as it seems that the two hours during class are not sufficient for them to update.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Thanks,
James

Computer #11

FYI: IT has taken computer #11 to central to work on it.

-Perla

New Google Presention

Hey all,
I've revised the Google presentation and uploaded the results to Google Docs. Many thanks to Aaron for his mad translation skillz.
Rachel

Bilingual

English

Pharos Remote

This pertains to any staff who asist patrons with printing or copying.

The Pharos Remote icon which is still on many of our reference computers no longer works. There is a new service called Pharos UniPrint that performs the same functions and is accessible from any computer using Internet Explorer.

Please take a few moments to look at the online documentation on the HPL intranet.
https://hplnet.hpl.lib.tx.us/depts/it/pharos-uniprint.doc
Here is the URL for Pharos UniPrint:
https://192.168.132.21/Pharos/Logon.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fpharos%2fremote.aspx&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
It is fairly complex so you will want to add it to your IE Favorites.
If you have any questions please call the Help Desk.


David Cleveland
HALAN IT Help Desk
832-393-1570
e-mail: hpl.helpdesk@cityofhouston.net

Did you know?

You can link to some powerful TexShare databases that provide some pretty amazing information! If you have not already taken the time to explore, when you have a free moment click on the research tab and take a look around.

One thing I used frequently at my previous job was the Dallas Morning News Historical Archive 1885-1977 * What was neat about it was actually seeing a ditigal image of the newspaper from 1885, 1925, or 1965 as it appeared on the day it was available in print! You can also see how the look of the paper evolved.

In Dallas I did not have access to this, but I found it (and the others like it) very useful to our patrons at DG--no space to keep older news editions :
Houston Chronicle (Digital Image Edition) *

The latest 45 days are available.

These are just 2 of many sources from one category---there are so many more!!

Each library system participating in the TexShare program implements their own methods to access TexShare databases. Most libraries I have worked with have had a special password patrons must obtain from their library in order to access this information from home.

I was curious about how HPL handles this, and after a little investigating yesterday (Thanks Eric, Dionne and Patricia Bustamante for your assistance!) I was informed that the databases are directly accessible if patrons are at the library, but in order to access it from home, a patron would need to enter their library card number and last name.

I haven't tried accessing from home yet, but I will. If you get a chance to do so, I would appreciate it if you let me know if you were successful. I just want to know what to tell patrons when I inform them of the powerful tools they have at their fingertips via the HPL Library webpage.

ENJOY YOUR DAY!

Carolina


For more info on TexShare:

TexShare is a cooperative program designed to improve service to Texans. Members include public libraries that belong to the regional library systems, academic libraries, and libraries of clinical medicine. TexShare enables libraries to offer a broader range of materials and services than any single library can provide for its constituents.

Hey! I need your powerpoint slides ASAP!

Hey Everyone

I sent an email on monday about the powerpoint project and time if really running out. Can you please send those slides to me ASAP! or Call me Directly lol

Thanks Again

See ya soon

-Anthony

A Couple of Quick Notes

Hello All,

Just a couple of quick notes:

1. We do not accept volunteers under the age of 15 here at our location. Also, people that are over the age of 18 years old will have to agree to a background check prior to volunteering here. So as a practice we usually do not accept people over the age of 18.

2. We had a couple of questionable individuals attend our Computer Basics 2 class on May 5th. Supposedly two other students saw these two questionable individuals watching pornography on the laptops. I did not see them doing it so I was unable to address it at the time. Please be aware of the activities of the students if possible. This will more than likely fall on the assistants, so if you are assisting in a class please try to look at the screens from time to time.

If you have any questions about either of these please feel free to ask me.

Thanks,
James