Fire Drill Procedure

Good Afternoon,

Renee raised a very good point about ensuring that everyone had an idea of what needed to be done during a fire drill.

If a fire alarm happens to go off, real or drill, we should be aware of the steps to take to make sure everyone leaves the building in an orderly fashion.

The order of rank will be me, Renee, Jesse and then Nhu. Whoever is in charge of the library at that time will also be in charge of the procedure of getting everyone to exit the building.

The person in charge should designate one or two people, depending on number of staff present, to be outside and make sure that everyone has gotten far enough away from the building. The customers should be on the other side of the bushes in the parking lot. So they should be at least where the parking spaces start. If yu have any confusion as to what this means, then please ask me. They cannot simply walk outside and sit on the bench or stand by the bike rack.

The remainder of the staff should check the meeting rooms, computer lab, restrooms, maintenance room, work room, break room, staff restrooms and the entire floor area. Ask people to leave in an orderly fashion. If it appears that this may be a false alarm, they must still leave the building. In that case, they should all leave out of the front door. If there is an actual emergency, and the front door is inaccessible, then we have fire exits in the magazine area as well as the large meeting room. If those are inaccessible, then we also have exits in the computer lab as well as through the workroom.

Once it is evident that the customers have all exited the library, all of the staff should also exit the library and stand in the parking lot to wait for the fire truck. The person in charge should be the one communicating with the emergency personnel.

We cannot under any circumstances leave customers in the building while the fire alarm is going off, regardless of how certain we are that it may be a false alarm.

Thanks and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask. I know we have a staff here that is well-able to handle anything thrown at them. Just keep your heads in an emergency situation and maintain a level of professionalism.

Patrick

Neighborhood Libraries Blog Feed

Good Afternoon Everyone,

On the right hand side of the blog, you will notice that I have replaced the picture of the library with an RSS feed to the neighborhood libraries blog. This will show the titles of the last five blog postings from the neighborhood libraries blog.

I figured we already knew what our own library looked like, and the blog is for internal use only.

Thanks,
Patrick

Manager's Meeting Notes 1/26/2012

We had a meeting this morning at Central.
The following was discussed.

Substitutes

Request when you know someone will be out in advance. Only request up to two weeks in advance. Call 32707 for substitutes. On Saturdays that will forward to someone in administration. Make sure the timesheet is signed by the substitute and staff as well. You can use one timesheet if you have one substitute working multiple days in the same week. Just get the substitute to sign it earlier in the week in case they call in sick and can't show up the last day, it will be signed.

***We need to use blue ink on everything. This goes for substitutes and everything else for that matter.

Programming

Jennifer Schwartz has taken over programming. Michaela will still be involved with children's programming. Our point person for juvenile programming is Nhu. Our point person for the adult programming is Renee. They did not ask for a point person for YA, but if they do that will be Jesse.

Virtual Services

There will be a group of people working as the virtual services team moving forward. A website overhual will be included as well as a library app for smartphones and a mobile website at some point.
Saima Kadir, Somer Newland, Sarah Borders and possibly others to be named are haeding up this initiative. They are reporting to Ron Stauss.
Thuy Vo will be working with Suzy Benton on training. This will integrate in with the virtual services team.

Staffing

Interviewing will take place on Friday and next Monday for the Library Service Supervisor position. This position is effectively the equivalent of an L2 position. This position will more than likely be headed to Kendall. The competition for this position was extremely high. There is a possibility for more positions moving forward, but there is only one position at present.

Announcements

The evaluation process, currently known as the EPE, will be undergoing major changes in the near future. There is a proposal going to the mayor this week.

Volunteer Services has a new coordinator. That e-mail should have gone out recently. It is Andrea Lawrence.

Renee and I will have a training for volunteer services coming up in February.

Tim Hardy is no longer working with the library HR team. Any worker's comp claims should funnel through Sharon Alvarez at this time.

Workforce Solutions

Workforce Solutions is going to partner with HPL for a pilot program of computer classes centered around workforce development. These will start at Hillendahl and Central. They will be displaying brochures at locations around Houston as part of this program.

IRS Forms and Booklets

We have received the instruction booklets now to go along with the forms.

We have the instructions for the 1040, 1040 A and 1040 EZ.

They will be on the table with the forms. Th extras that we have are located under the table, in the silver cabinet in the far corner, in the silver cabinet next to the printer and also the last two cabinets to the right under the automatic self-chceck machine.

Please feel free to print out IRS forms that we do not have. We cannot print out instruction booklets, as those are too long. I would keep it at a maximum of 6-8 sheets we can print out. If they need more than that, set them up on a computer and show them how to print them out and have them purchase a print card.

Thank you and keep up the hard work.
Patrick

Video Gaming and Laptops

Just so everyone knows, we are doing ASZ video gaming again.
The Games should stay in the old laptop cabinet that we are using to house the consoles. You can open the cabinet to change games or to fix the console, but immediately lock it back up when you are done.

Same goes for the new laptop cabinet with the actual laptops. It should remain locked until such time that you need it open to retrieve a laptop, then close and lock it once you have removed or replaced the laptop. The key is in the top drawer where the lost and found is located.

Links on Blog

Please note that the "Events of the Week" post is now a link under "Stella Link Staff" to the right and the tax forms link is now under "Helpful Links" to the right.

Thanks

Renee

Updated AV Policy Discards

Good Morning,

All AV should be kept separate and put into its own box when discarding per HPL's new policy. Also, stack the AV boxes separately from the book boxes.

Thanks,
Patrick

Cigna Health Directory

Good Morning,

We received a directory for Cigna physicians, hospitals and other facilities. If you would like to take a look at it, I will keep it in my office.

Thanks,
Patrick

Tax Forms and Instructions

The tax forms are on a table where the new books are located. We do not have the instruction books in yet and hopefully they will be here by next week.

If someone needs a form we don't have, you can print them out one from the IRS link below:

IRS tax forms

We can't print out instruction booklets since they are too long but we can print out instructions for forms that are only a few pages long.

Forwarding calls

We are going to start forwarding calls at the end of the day and unforwarding them when we open. The person that is at the desk when we close will forward the calls and put tie a ribbon (for now) onto the receiver. The person on the front desk when we open will unforward the phone and take off the ribbon. I will get a bright colored scarf to use instead of the ribbon next week. Thanks to Kristain for suggesting the idea.
This will roll the calls over to messaging for the customer so they don't have to listen to 4 rings first and we won't either.
Forwarding calls: press call forwarding then messages, a blinking arrow will appear after the 2630 ext.
Unforwarding calls: press call forwarding, the blinking arrow disappears
Ask me if you have questions.

Thanks,
Renee