Someone please do the Holds

Would someone be kind enough to do the Holds today and count them? And possibly tomorrow (Thursday) too...not sure yet.

Thank you!

-Eric

Customer Satisfaction Survey Promotion - April 2010

FYI,

Thuy

From: Davidson, Veronica - HPL

Good Morning,

This is a reminder that we are asking you to promote the LibSat online Survey on a particular day of the month. In April that day will be Thursday. We ask that you encourage customers every Thursday to complete this survey and when possible, staff should distribute the survey bookmarks to customers. Please let me know if you need more bookmarks.

Thank you.

Out of the Office

I will be out of the office attending the Public Library Association conference in Portland from March 24th to 28th. I will return to the office on Monday, March 29th.
In my absence, the following Interim Team Leaders will be in charge of Neighborhood Libraries:
Tuesday, March 23 to Wednesday, March 24 - Suzy Benton (Office: 832.393.1505 / Cell: 713.447.1469 / Home: 832.243.1958)
Thursday, March 25 to Sunday, March 27 - Shammi Gill (Office: 832.393.1511 / Cell: 713.447.0914 / Home: 281.240.1108)
In case of an emergency, you can still reach me on my blackberry. 281-217-7990 Thanks and have a wonderful day,
Edward
832-393-1442

Dotting, labeling or taping Floating uncataloged Paperback collection

FYI,

Thuy

From: Swalley, Lin - HPL
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 5:18 PM
To: HPL - COMS List; HPL - Library Assistants; HPL - NL & Express Managers; HPL - Circ Senior LA's; HPL - J LIST
Subject: Dotting, labeling or taping Floating uncataloged Paperback collection

Hi. I am writing to advise you of a recent decision to stop, immediately, all labeling practices involving tape, dots, sticky labels, etc., presently being used to identify groups of uncataloged paperbacks, such as romances, mysteries, etc

Some locations at HPL continue to use dots, labels or other materials taped to these books to identify the various subgroups. The problem is, uncataloged paperbacks float and, therefore, do NOT remain in your collection. The inevitable result of such practices is books with multiple labels on them, as they float from location to location.

A committee got together and agreed on a striping system using colored marker pens. The attachment describes the committee’s decision, considerations and the new striping system which should be used system-wide, so that customers and staff can find materials wherever they go. An additional benefit is that striping takes less time. An illustration is provided regarding the striping and the use of lettering for those who wish to alphabetize their books etc.

Note: Some locations do not separate the materials, do not mark books in any way—these locations do NOT need to apply the stripes. If they want to separate and mark the books in the future, they need to use the striping system—not dots, labels, etc.

PLEASE DO NOT WASTE TIME doing retroactive striping. Simply apply this system to materials as you receive them from here on.

Thanks for your attention.

Lin Swalley

Coordinator of Materials Selection

Assistant Chief of Technical Services

Houston Public Library

832-393-1479

Library Card Incident

Hello All,

I would like to relate to everybody an incident that occurred this afternoon. A patron came in to return a sack of books, Perla asked him his name and he told her his name, she noticed that the name he gave her did not match the name on the account that the books were checked out to but she did continued checking them in since he was returning the books and not checking them out. The patron also asked for two Computer Use Card applications for the two older guys that were with him. Perla gave them the applications and they proceeded to fill them out. When she checked the names to see if they already had an account she realized that the name the first patron had given her was the same name as one of the ones the second patron had written on the Computer Use Card application. She asked him, the second patron, if he knew that he had a library card and he said that he did but that he had lost it. Perla checked the account because she noticed that the first patron had returned books that were checked out on the second patron's account. Perla then asked the second patron if he knew the first and he stated that he did and he called him over. The first patron walked over and the second asked him if he had his card. The first patron admitted that he did have the card and stated that he found it and that he and his cousins had been using it to check out books. Unfortunately he did not have the card with him and he did not bring back all of the materials that were checked out on the card. We informed him that he needs to bring those materials back as soon as possible and that he needs to return the card to the second patron or to the staff here at the library. The first patron stated that he will, I instructed Perla to put a block on his account and that of his cousin's since they were using the account of another patron without his knowledge. A note was placed in all of the involved patron's accounts to see a staff member. If you want to know the names' of these patrons please ask either Perla or myself for more information.



Thanks,
James

Monday Visit

Hi all,

Monday, March 15 2010 around 2PM, Dr. Lawson and her guest will visit HPL Express Southwest.

Please wear business casual attire (no jean or flip flop).

Thanks,

Thuy

---

From: Lawson, Rhea - HPL
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:28 PM
To: HPL - All Employees
Cc: Chan, Waynette - MYR; Boesel, Minnette - MYR; Bischoff, Susan - HPL; 'Cathryn R Selman'; Maya Houston
Subject: CEO and VP of Urban Libraries Council to visit HPL

Dear HPL and Friends

I am so pleased to share with you that on Monday March 15, 2010, Susan Benton, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Veronda Pitchford, Vice President of Membership, for one of our industry’s premier national organizations, the Urban Libraries Council (ULC), will pay a special visit to HPL. Susan and Veranda are excited to see in person the great things they have been hearing and reading about the Houston Public Library. They will only have a short window of time in Houston so their visit will include just a few locations: Kendall, HPL Express Southwest & HPL Express Mobile, Gregory, and Central/JIB

You can visit the ULC website @ http://www.urbanlibraries.org

Attached are brief bios on our visitors

All the Best,

RBL

Laptop Charger cords for Computer Classes

When we opened over 2 years ago, we started with 17 laptops and chargers, mostly for class, and set aside a couple of laptops for checkout inside the library. Since then, the charger cords have become ruined (wires sticking out of the socket end), and some no longer charge the batteries in the laptops during class while the laptop is on. Other chargers make the computers operate very slowly.

We used to set up at least 14 laptops for class. Currently we can only set up 9 laptops for class students and 1 for the instructor due to a lack of properly operating chargers. Of these 9, many of the charger cords are in disrepair and wires are becoming (or are already) exposed. Some obviously are not working, as some laptops are still shutting down during class.

Also, there are some bad batteries that will no longer charge up properly.

Any chance of at the very least getting new charger cords? At best, new chargers? This issue has been reported to various IT people that have come by the library, and they have said new cords would not be a problem to get, but none have made their way here, as far as I know.

FYI.


-Eric

Health IKE Permanent Repairs-Southwest MSC

FYI,

Thuy

----- Original Message -----
From: Diaz, Solly - HLT
To: Wilkins, Roberta - HLT; Bisase, Nicholas - HLT; Diaz, Abigail - HLT; Melton, Edward - HPL
Sent: Wed Mar 10 14:02:39 2010
Subject: FW: Health IKE Permanent Repairs-Southwest MSC

FYI…. There will be repairs going on some time next week and possibly into the next, depending on how long it takes to finalize.

Proper safety precautions will be ensured, but please plan for this and please cooperate with any possible changes we might have to endure during this time.

Solly