Laptop Cabinet

We have a new laptop cabinet.

We will be getting some new laptops soon as well. For now, we are just going to house the old laptops in there. This is subject to change as we move forward.
We will keep the laptop cabinet closed and locked at all time. The keys will be in the lost and found drawer in a glass container for now. This is also subject to change. After you take out a laptop, please lock the door behind you and place the keys back in their proper place.

Thank you
Patrick

Upcoming Events

Children’s events:

Storytime: This Thursday at 11:00:
“Join us for fun stories, songs, rhymes and more. Ages 5 and under.”

Children’s Craft: This Saturday, Dec 31.
“Special craft activity for kids. Supplies may be limited”

Special Storytimes:
Pajama Storytime: “ Bring your teddy bear and pajamas to a Bedtime Storytime of snuggly stories and songs” by Venus. Wednesday, January 4 at 7:00 pm

Book Clubs:
Stella Link Book Club (hosted by Tim): January 9 at 6:30: “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.

The Inprint Book Club meets the first Wednesday of every month:
January: no meeting
February 1: “The Year of the Flood” by Margaret Atwood

Computer Classes:
This week:
Thursday: Computer Basics at 1:30 with with Greg

Thanks,
Renee

Requesting Time Off in Advance

Whenever you are requesting time off in advance, you must ask me first to get permission to take the time off. Once you have done that, then you can go and input the request into the Kronos system.

I reserve the right to deny permission for requests in the best interests of the library.

I have never denied a request for time off, nor do I envision myself starting to deny requests now, but I do need to be asked about the time off before it's set into Kronos.

Patrick

Computer Class this Thursday

There is a computer class this Thursday that is not on the calendar. Greg will teach a Computer Basics class at 1:30 this Thursday, December 29.
Thanks
Renee

ILL Holds

ILL holds that are processed "Ready for Pickup" and wrapped need to be placed behind the reference side of the service desk. ILL's are the ones with the purple sticker on the front cover. Please process all ILL holds at the beginning or end of a hold cart and immediately shelve them behind the desk. Do not file them with regular holds on a cart that is ready to shelve.

Fuel Economy

We were sent some information about fuel economy of different vehicles.
This information has been placed in the Consumer Reports bin out at the information desk.

A lot of this same information and more can be found at www.fueleconomy.gov.

Patrick

Events at Stella Link for the Week

Children’s events:
Although, we don’t stress specific ages the descriptions on the website
calendar is in parentheses:

Baby Lapsit: Tuesdays at 11:00 in large meeting room is listed as Baby Time (Infants to 12 mo) on the website. This is limited to 15 babies.
“An interactive storytime featuring books, songs, and finger plays with playtime afterward. Open to infants to 12 months who are not yet walking.”

Toddler time: Tuesdays at 11:00 has a craft after the stories.
“Provide parents with books and activities to increase their ability to help their children learn. The program includes storytime, games and activities for young children, which emphasize the development of motor skills and prepares them for reading. Ages: 18 months to 4 years.”

Storytime: Thursdays at 11:00:
“Join us for fun stories, songs, rhymes and more. Ages 5 and under.”

Children’s Craft: every other Saturday at 11:00 am. Next one is Dec 31.
“Special craft activity for kids. Supplies may be limited”

Special Storytimes:
Season’s Readings: “Opera Cat” by Tess Weaver, December 22, 11:00 am will be
performed by Houston Grand Opera singers.
Pajama Storytime:“ Bring your teddy bear and pajamas to a Bedtime Storytime of
snuggly stories and songs” by Venus. Wednesday, January 4 at 7:00 pm

Book Clubs:

Stella Link Book Club (hosted by Tim): December 19 at 6:30: “Three Cups of Tea”
by Greg Mortenson and “Three Cups of Deceit” by Jon Krakauer

The Inprint Book Club meets the first Wednesday of every month:
January: no meeting
February 1: “The Year of the Flood” by Margaret Atwood

Mystery Book Club (hosted by Lois Falk) : Questions can be referred to Lois at
Jungman, 832-393-1860

The Broadway Musical Book Club: Jungman, Tuesday, Jan 3 at 1pm, book: TBA

Computer Classes this week:

Tuesday: Digital Photography at 1:30 with Greg
Thursday: Intro to Publisher at 1:30 with with Greg
If someone doesn’t know how to operate a computer at all, they may attend one of
Greg or Patrick’s classes.

Other events:
Chinese Class No class this Thursday. Thursdays 10:00 – 12:00 by Carol Wu
Crafternoons with Candace for Teens and Adults (Listed as DIY Revolution on
the website) every other Saturday 2 – 3. Next one is Jan 7.
Reel Teen Film Festival : Deadline for submissions is March 17. See the flier
and website for guidelines.

Let me know if there is an event you would like included in this weekly posting.
Thanks,
Renee

ESL & GED Classes

Good Afternoon,

I have put a link on the right hand side of the blog under Helpful Links to schedules for ESL and GED classes in the Houston area.

If someone asks about where to take one of these classes, feel free to reference that link and print them out the information.

Patrick

2012-2013 Texas Bluebonnet Nominees

It looks like the 2012-2013 Texas Bluebonnet Nominees are coming in little by little. Some of them may also already be on the shelves. I posted a Master List of the nominees on the board by the two computers that are closer to the kitchen for your reference. Please keep an eye out for the new nominees and make sure there is a Texas Bluebonnet sticker on the spine. If there is no sticker, please place the item on my desk. Also, I placed a few of the 2012-2013 nominees on the bottom of the Bluebonnet shelves. Pretty soon (once more of the newer nominees come in), I will be moving the 2011-2012 nominees out to the regular shelves.

Thanks,
Nhu

TaxAide Training Jan 14

We will have some AARP tax help people coming here for training on Saturday, January 14th at 8:30 AM.
They have been instructed to come to the back door and ring the door bell. They will be using our computer lab.

Just letting everyone know to be expecting them and that it is ok to let them into the computer lab that day.

We are not part of the training at all. They simply reserved our lab.

Patrick

Overdrive E-books

Good Morning,

Renee will be giving us a tutorial soon about how to browse and download the e-books.

Marianne Lorio also sent out an e-mail with a link to some tips to help us out in the meantime.

Link to Overdrive Tips Click Here

When you see the word "Over" on your schedule tomorrow, I would like for you to go to this link and spend the entire hour browsing through their resources. Under View Now there are videos and slide shows with demonstrations. Under Resources, there are powerpoints as well.

You are getting an entire hour to work on this, so use it wisely. Spend the hour taking in the information and educating yourself on the e-book procedures.

Patrick

Meeting Room

Good Morning,

Make sure when you do a meeting room reservation that you take into account what our hours are.
We do not want to make a reservation for 6:30 pm on a Tuesday when we close at 6pm.

Thanks
Patrick

Events at Stella Link for the Week

Children’s events:

Although, we don’t stress specific ages the descriptions on the website calendar is in
parentheses:

Baby Lapsit: Tuesdays at 11:00 in large meeting room is listed as Baby Time (Infants to 12 mo) on the website. This is limited to 15 babies.

“An interactive storytime featuring books, songs, and finger plays with playtime afterward. Open to infants to 12 months who are not yet walking.”

Toddler time: Tuesdays at 11:00 has a craft after the stories.
“Provide parents with books and activities to increase their ability to help their children learn. The program includes storytime, games and activities for young children, which emphasize the development of motor skills and prepares them for reading. Ages: 18 months to 4 years.”

Storytime: “Join us for fun stories, songs, rhymes and more. Ages 5 and under.”

Children’s Craft: “Special craft activity for kids. Supplies may be limited” which is

every other Saturday at 11:00 am. Next one is Dec 17.

Special Storytimes:

Season’s Readings: “Opera Cat” by Tess Weaver, December 22, 11:00 am will be

performed by Houston Grand Opera singers.

Pajama Storytime: “ Bring your teddy bear and pajamas to a Bedtime Storytime of

snuggly stories and songs” by Venus. Wednesday, December 14 at 7:00 pm

Book Clubs:

Stella Link Book Club (hosted by Tim): December 19 at 6:30: “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and “Three Cups of Deceit” by Jon Krakauer

The Inprint Book Club meets the first Wednesday of every month:

January: no meeting

February 1: “The Year of the Flood” by Margaret Atwood

Mystery Book Club (hosted by Lois Falk) : Heartsick by Chelsea Cain at Meyer, Dec 15 at 1pm. Questions can be referred to Lois, Jungman Branch, 832-393-1860

The Broadway Musical Book Club: Jungman, Tuesday, Jan 3 at 1pm, book: TBA

Computer Classes:

This week:

Tuesday: Intro to Word at 1:30 with Greg

Wednesday: Database class on downloading books from Overdrive at 1:30 with

Renee and Computer Basics at 6:30 with Patrick

Thursday: Powerpoint at 1:30 with with Greg

Friday: Website design with Bob

If someone doesn’t know how to operate a computer at all, they may attend one of

Greg or Patrick’s classes.

Other events:
Chinese Class Thursdays at 10:00 – 12:00 by Carol Wu
Crafternoons with Candace for Teens and Adults (Listed as DIY Revolution on the
website) every other Saturday 2 – 3. Next one is Jan 7.
Reel Teen Film Festival : Deadline for submissions is March 17. See the flier and
website for guidelines.

There is a Reel Teen Festival workshop on December 13 at 4:00 in the large meeting room. This will take the place of the after school zone for the day.

Let me know if there is an event you would like included in this weekly posting.
Thanks,
Renee

Staff Meeting 12/06/2011

Good Evening,

I just wanted to summarize the staff meeting here for hose that were not able to attend, as well as for future reference.

We are going to have shelf-reading responsibilities from this point forward.

Venus and I are responsible for adult fiction and the large print collection.
I am responsible for uncataloged paperbacks.
Renee and Jarele are responsible for adult non-fiction and biographies.
Nhu is responsible for juvenile fiction and uncataloged paperbacks.
Tim and Candace are responsible for juvenile non-fiction and biographies.
Carol Wu is in charge of foreign languages and A/V.
Jesse is chanrge of the YA.
Kristain is in charge of the picture books.

This will not affect how you normally shelve items. You will shelve the same as you always have. These responsibilities are for those hours in the week when things slow down relatively speaking. You can go and shelf read your area.

Everyone is authorized to give closing announcements. If Tim or I forget to give an announcement, anyone on staff if eligible to give an announcement. The last thing we want is to have closing time roll around and have 25-30 people thinking we are open for another hour.

Self-check percentage is up to 87% for the month of October. We will not see November's numbers until the end of December. We are number one in the system, well ahead of any other locations that are similar in size and circulation to us.

Remember to check out items that you have at your desk or that you are taking home.

Everyone keep doing what you're doing, because we're on the right path.

Patrick

Events for the Week

I will be posting events at the library every Monday for the week.

Children’s events:

Although, we don’t stress specific ages the descriptions on the website calendar is in parentheses:

Baby Lapsit: Tuesdays at 11:00 in large meeting room is listed as Baby Time (Infants to 12 mo) on the website. This is limited to 15 babies.

“An interactive storytime featuring books, songs, and finger plays with playtime afterward. Open to infants to 12 months who are not yet walking.”

Toddler time: Tuesdays at 11:00 has a craft after the stories.

“Provide parents with books and activities to increase their ability to help their children learn. The program includes storytime, games and activities for young children, which emphasize the development of motor skills and prepares them for reading. Ages: 18 months to 4 years.”

Storytime: “Join us for fun stories, songs, rhymes and more. Ages 5 and under.”

Children’s Craft: “Special craft activity for kids. Supplies may be limited” which is every other Saturday at 11:00 am. Next one is Dec 17.

Special Storytimes:

Season’s Readings: “Opera Cat” by Tess Weaver, December 22, 11:00 am will be performed by Houston Grand Opera singers.

Pajama Storytime: “ Bring your teddy bear and pajamas to a Bedtime Storytime of snuggly stories and songs” by Venus. Wednesday, December 7 & 14 at 7:00 pm

Book Clubs:

Stella Link Book Club (hosted by Tim): December 19 at 6:30: “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and “Three Cups of Deceit” by Jon Krakauer

The Inprint Book Club meets the first Wednesday of every month but there is no meeting in January. December 7 at 6:30 is “The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Other book clubs:

Mystery Book Club (hosted by Lois Falk) : Heartsick by Chelsea Cain at Jungman,

Dec 8 at 1 pm and Meyer, Dec 15 at 1pm. Questions can be referred to Lois at Jungman

The Broadway Musical Book Club: Jungman, Tuesday, Jan 3 at 1pm, book selection is TBA

Computer Classes:

If someone doesn’t know how to operate a computer at all, they may attend one of Greg or Patrick’s classes.

Bob Langoria teaches the LinkedIn, Social Networking and Web Design

Greg Palmer teaches the Microsoft Office, Digital Photography and Computer Help classes.

Patrick teaches Computer Basics on Wednesday evenings at 6:30.

Renee teaches a computer Database Class every other Wednesday at 1:30. December 14 is on downloading digital material from Overdrive.

Other events:

Chinese Class Thursdays at 10:00 – 12:00 by Carol Wu

Crafternoons with Candace for Teens and Adults (Listed as DIY Revolution on the website) every other Saturday 2 – 4. Next one is Dec 10

Reel Teen Film Festival : Deadline for submissions is March 17. See the flier and website for guidelines.

Let me know if there is an event you would like included in this weekly posting.

Thanks,

Renee

New ILL Procedures

New procedures for ILL holds: Please note the changes below about return items from this previous post.

• Check in but place a b in front of the bar code and print wrapper
• Holds will only be kept for 5 days and the expiration date prints out on the wrapper
• Keep behind desk and check out through III like a regular check out placing a b in front of the bar code
• Tell patron they only have a 3 week check out and fines will accrue of $0.20/day with no renewals
• They may return the item to any HPL branch
• They may NOT return items in the book drop since these are not HPL items and we want to make sure they are returned to lending branch in good condition.

Thanks

Renee