SRP Prizes and What to Do With Them

From Sara Pope, 8:19AM:

If you have any SRP prizes left at your location, with the exception of Whataburger coupons, please go ahead and send them back to Corey Johnson. Please make sure your branch is indicated as where it’s coming from.

If you have Whataburger coupons, give them away at checkout to kids until you run out.

Michelle already sent an email, but please send any leftover SRP books to Michelle Johnson, so she can inventory what we have for Winter Reading (coming soon!)

Winter Reading Starts Today!

From Rebecca Denham, 12/18:

Winter Reading starts today!

Details can be found on HPL’s public site here: http://houstonlibrary.org/learn-explore/winter-reading-program. Further details for staff can be found on the YS Blog here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U2EGqV4gYnloY37bR1dJyO3FYhFtCccjfLdLU4fpylA/edit

This is our first program tracking days instead of books/minutes and we’d like customer and staff feedback.  Please add this form to your customer facing computers and make sure location staff know where the bookmark is located. The form should be submitted as customers give feedback: https://goo.gl/forms/MoKPPWXW60OmAHOF3. Staff are also welcome to submit their thoughts via the same form.

If you have any questions about Winter Reading please contact Sara or myself.

Winter Reading Program Information

From Mary Wagoner, 11/14:

Tis the season for Winter Reading!   Please help our customers enroll in Houston Public Library’s free Winter Reading Program!  Youth, ages 0 to 18, may read 10 minutes a day for 10 days from December 18, 2017, to January 8, 2018, to earn a sweet prize of a book and a lollipop.

Registration is easy!   Beanstack information is on the Youth Services  blog (including a reminder about the login for staff in Beanstack and the Beanstack manual). On the top left sidebar there is a picture link.  Managers, if any staff need training on Beanstack, please contact Sara Pope (832.393.1628) or Rebecca Denham (832.393.1691) and they will gladly see that training is provided!

Youth may claim their prize of a book and a lollipop at Central; or your neighborhood library from January 2^ndthrough January 13th, 2018. The Youth Services team is assuring that a shipment of lollipops will be coming to your neighborhood library before the first day that prizes will be awarded, January 2^nd.  The program is set up for “while supplies last”, however if we run out of the 5” lollipops, we’ll be sending out smaller lollipops.  If you run low on supplies, please contact Corey Johnson at (832.393.1314).

Please check out Houston Public Library’s website: http://houstonlibrary.org/learn-explore/winter-reading-programThere’s a card on the front page “Winter Events” and cards on the Kids, Tween, and Teen pages. It will be advertised through social media as well, and it is in the seasonal brochure. There is no separate print material for it.

You may receive some questions about reading for 10 minutes a day for 10 days.  The days do not have to be consecutive days.  It can be a combination of any 10 days between December 18^th and January 8^th.

A lot of families are struggling through the holidays this year.  I am so inspired by your commitment to putting a few smiles on some faces by sharing this fun, free holiday program with your customers.

SRP Prizees Update

From Kallie Benes, 2:53PM:

Just some SRP prize updates: We are sending out more Family Prize Packs, along with other prizes as you request them now.  So send us your request if you need more prizes.  Please include the audience, prize level, & qty. needed. Ex. Baby/Toddler 10 level- 20

As of Friday, we had nearly 17,000 registered participants in SRP (we had 18,000 at the end of July last year), so you can see our numbers are really up.  That’s fantastic!!! Keep up the great work!  This has caused a slight hiccup, in that we’re currently out of bibs/teethers and only have 5 toddler/presc. Meal sets left.  We are working to get another shipment of these prizes sent out asap.  If you need more of these, let us know and we will send you some as soon as they get in, but please let your patrons know that more are on their way and if they could stop back in in 1-2 weeks, we should be back in stock.  Thanks so much for your understanding, we appreciate your help in conveying this to our customers.  Please make sure all staff are awarding the correct prizes to the correct age group (0-2yr. get bibs/teethers, 3-4yr. get meal sets).

One additional reminder, a customer mentioned that she was told she had to print the Hermann Park and Raising Cane tickets/coupons online herself.  This is incorrect.  All tickets for the family prize pack are in the stapled bags.  Please ensure staff are awarding the correct bag for the correct age of the child (label on bag).  The astros tickets are also inside the pixelated bags at the 30 level (for kids/teens).

Also, I’m attaching the prize distribution chart again, for you to display for staff’s use.  You may want to put this near your prizes.

Thanks again for all of your amazing work in making this one of our most successful SRPs to date!  You’re all awesome!  Keep it up for our last month.  Here’s a virtual hug!

Glitch with SRP Certificates

Reebecca Denham, 11:04AM:

These was a glitch with the digital certificates for the 5 Hour level of Kids & Teens SRP.  I have talked with our vendor and it should be resolved shortly. Customers will get a link to the PDF of the certificate in the email informing them of their prizes.  I have also linked the PDF to the SRP 2017 Information Page located on the YS Blog.  If a customer comes in asking for their certificate to be printed please do so at no cost.

As of this email we have 1566 babies and toddlers, 5175 kids and 1807 teens registered for summer reading and we’re less than a week into summer!  You are all doing a fantastic job of promoting our programs – thank you!  Please continue to promote SRP and encourage reading and program attendance throughout the summer. 

Brain Chase Library Challenge

From Liz Sargent, 12:32 PM:

The Houston Public Library is excited to announce that we are participating in the Brain Chase Library Challenge! Brain Chase invites several library systems each summer to participate in a fun library treasure hunt challenge for kids between the ages 6 to 16. We are participating along with Dallas Public Library and Lubbock Public Library in a mini-treasure hunt.  The Dallas Public Library challenge kicked off on 5/9/17 and is already solved. The Lubbock Public Library challenge kicked off on 5/16/17 and is also already solved.

Our challenge kicks off today at 3:00 pm and ends on June 30, 2017 or once someone solves the riddle and finds the key.

Kids are provided with a riddle to find a key in a book at one of our library locations. The key opens a treasure chest worth $1,000. The key was hidden this morning. No one is aware of the location. Again no one at HPL knows which HPL location or which book the key was hidden in. The key is attached to instructions on how to redeem it. Brain Chase takes care of redemption with the kid who finds the key and their parents/guardians. Children of HPL staff are unable to receive the prize.

The riddle for the Houston Library Challenge has been released.  If you are curious about it please visithttps://brainchase.com/2017-houston-library-challenge-riddle/ or see below:

UPDATE: From Liz Sargent, 5/25, 5:21 PM: Exciting news. The riddle has been solved and the key found and verified with Brain Chase. The only details we can give you right now is the key was found at the Meyer Neighborhood Library.A media event will take place next week at the Meyer Neighborhood Library with the winner. Stay tuned.

Comics Plus

From Sally Bates, 10:22AM:

Just a reminder that we still subscribe to Comics Plus forLibraries and that it is also available through the HPL app (under e-books and more).

CPL is a streaming service that includes such favorites as Big Nate, Peanuts, Bone, My Little Pony, Adventure Time, Plants vs. Zombies, as well as a bunch of popular teen and adult titles available from such publishers as IDW, Dark Horse, and Image.  Customers can check out up to 25 titles at a time and keep them for 7 days.  They just need their library, library card number and PIN to check out through our website and our app stores their information if they check out that way.

NOTE: It can be found in the alphabetical list of databases and in the category "Books and Readers". Karen