Citizenship Week Program at SWX

Greetings all,

We will have the Law Office of Anuj A. Shah will speak on the legal issues regarding becoming a citizen & show a short DVD on Thursday, November 18 @ 6:00PM. He will be speaking to the citizenship class that is held that day. He will need a tv/dvd player (which should be available in the room)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,
Justine

Customer Satisfaction Survey Promotion - November 2010

FYI.

Thanks,
Justine

Good Afternoon,

This is a reminder that we are asking you to promote the LibSat online Survey on a particular day of the month. In November that day will be Tuesday. We ask that you encourage customers every Tuesday 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.

http://hpl.countingopinions.com/

Veronica T. Davidson
Houston Public Library
Communications Division
832-393-1335

Change in Copier and Printing Services

Greetings all,

As discussed in our staff meeting, the date for the removal of OCE copy, payment, and printing system is Friday, November 5, 2010. Information regarding the upcoming change in copy/printing services is available at the customer service counter and on the HPL website located here.

Copier/Printer Access Instructions and FAQ are located at the customer service desk. An electronic version of the FAQ's are located here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
Justine

Coast2Coast RX Card - Low Cost Prescription Drug Program

Greetings all,

We here at SWX still have some of the Coast2Coast RX cards available. They are located in the area for promotional materials by the front door.

Once we no longer have any cards available, we can refer customers to the website where they can print out cards and find additional information.

Posted below is additional information regarding the Coast2Coast RX card as per an email from Roosevelt Weeks.

Team –

The City of Houston has partnered with Financial Marketing Concepts to offer a free discount prescription card for the general public, you and your family. In some cases, the prescription card can lower the cost of purchasing prescription medications and may provide savings up to 65% on brand name and generics. HPL has been asked to make these cards available to the public. Information regarding the prescription cards will be delivered to neighborhood library locations beginning next week. The cards are free and are ready to use – simply take the prescription savings card to one of the participating pharmacies to obtain savings on your needed medications. A website was created for city residents to print a card and get more information, please visit: www.coast2coastrx.com/houstontx

A frequently asked questions sheet has been attached for your review and may be useful in answering any questions. If you have any questions, please give me a call.


Regards
Roosevelt Weeks
Deputy Director of Library Administration
Houston Public Library
832-393-1327

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Justine

2011 CMC Contributions

Greetings all,

This year CMC wants every city employee to find your cause and show your support through donations and fundraisers. Sign up ends October 29, 2010. Southwest Express Staff thank you for your support. Mobile Unit Staff if you could please let me know how you will donate so that I can let the HPL CMC coordinator know.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Justine

Items found on shelf and fines/fees

Greetings all,

Here is an email from Fred Schumacher regarding items found on shelf and fines.

Hello all.

When an item is missed at check in and is subsequently found on the shelf, all fines and fees that result from our error should be waived and an explanatory note added to the customer record. This includes Collection Agency Fees that result from items that are mistakenly reshelved before being checked in. It is not necessary to refer customers to managers, district LA Supervisors or Circulation Administration for these fines/fees to be waived. Every HPL public service employee is empowered to take the appropriate action in these situations. Referring customers to others to take the right action in these situations leads to unnecessary frustration for customers and colleagues and undermines the customers’ trust in our ability to competently perform our duties.

Accounts in collection remain so until the amount owed on the account is paid/settled to $0.00. When an item is found on the shelf and the account to which it is checked out is in collection, all charges on the account must be settled before the account will be removed from collection. As already stated, charges related to the item found on the shelf should be waived. If waiving the fines/fees associated with the item found on the shelf resolves all of the outstanding charges on the account, the update will be reported to UMS (our collection agency vendor) and the account will be removed from collection the following weekday morning when the III Collection Agency Module is run. If there are other legitimate charges on the customer record, you should politely inform the customer that the other charges remain due and that the account will be removed from collection and privileges restored once the other charges are settled.

In no instance should any staff member simply remove a “c” Collection Agency block from the MBLOCK field in the customer record. Doing so prevents updates and payments being reported to UMS and may lead to greater difficulty and frustration for the customer. Collection Agency blocks are automatically removed by the III Collection Agency Module once all fines/fees on the account are resolved and the amount owed is $0.00.

If you have any questions or uncertainty about any of what is communicated here, please do not hesitate to contact me, Connie Moore or Cynthia Howard. We will be happy to discuss your concerns with you and assist you in discovering the correct action to take.

Fred Schumacher
Circulation Administration, Manager
Houston Public Library


If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Justine

Door Count (October 17-23, 2010)

Greetings all,

Starting October 18, if you are scheduled at the front desk, please make sure to input P Numbers, In-House Materials Use, and Early Literacy Stations Use (every hour) onto the following spreadsheet.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
Justine

October 2010 Door Count

September Self-Check Percentages

Greetings all,

Here are the September Self-Check Percentages for the HPL system. This might be interesting to those who enjoy healthy competition (like myself) Keep up the GREAT WORK. Let's try and get our percentages up to 80% for the month of October.

LIBRARY	% CIRC ON SELF-CHECK
Central Library	62%
Alief	41%
Bracewell	87%
Collier	10%
Frank	79%
Hillendahl	11%
Jungman	43%
Kendall	43%
Looscan	45%
Park Place	12%
Robinson	50%
Stella Link	67%
Southwest Express	58%
Vinson Branch	69%

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Justine