Manager's Meeting April 26, 2012

Good afternoon,

I just wanted to share a little with you about what was discussed at the manager's meeting last Thursday.

• Telephone Doctor

Telephone Doctor is a new customer service program that HPL is trying out.  This is an online program that has different modules for staff to help improve our customer service skills.  At this time, this program will not be used at extended hours locations such as Stella Link.  So, we do not need to worry about it yet.  If this changed in the future I will let you know.

• Virtual Library Services

Virtual Library Services is in charge of program registration.  Sarah Borders is our contact for any questions we have in regards to that.  They are working on an app for the library.  It is in the testing stages of development.  This app will be for iPhone, Android, Windows and other platforms.  The mobile ap will have a library locator to locate nearby libraries using GPS.  It will have a barcode scanner, where a patron can find a book at Barnes & Noble, scan the barcode and see if the library has the book.  The patron will be able to chek their account, view the programs, and pretty much anything else that the normal website would let a customer do.  The library's website will be switching to Drupal, which is a content management system.  They will be re-designing the entire website over the next few months. 

• Service Area Maps

We will be receiving some maps in May to hang on our walls.  These will be on our walls in the month of June for the entire month.  IT is to help us figure out the location of the customers that the library serves.  These maps will be 42"X42", and we will have push pins available for customers to denote where they live.  This will help us better determine the demographics of our users, providing us with more precise information on how to best serve the library's users.

• Project for Public Spaces

The library has partnered with a group to try and come up with a plan to better utilize the area out in front of the Central Library.  Brainstorming sessions will occur over the next few weeks.  Each library will be required to send one representative.  Renee has agreed to be our representative.  

If you have any questions please let me know.

Keep doing what you have been doing.  

Patrick

Pre SAT Tests

The Princeton Review was scheduled to hold a free Pre-SAT Test here on April 28 and May 5ish. Due to overcrowding they decided to cancel their reservations and hold the test at their facility. If anyone asks their location is 3730 Kirby Dr Suite 1188. Thank you.

ESL Class

Mary had the following to say concerning a new ESL offering at Carnegie Library,.

Literacy - ESL

Please share with our customers that they are invited to register for Free Adult ESL (English as a Second Language) Classes at Carnegie Neighborhood Library, 1050 Quitman, Houston, 77009

Registration will be held onTuesday, April 17 at 5 p.m.
Literacy Advance of Houston requests that children not be brought to registration.
Class sizes are limited.
Classes will begin on Tuesday, April 24th.

Thanks.
Mary

Open Enrollment Information E-mail

If you need to attend but are not scheduled to work tomorrow, please let me know so we can make arrangements to have you come in and get some comp time later.

Greetings HPL,

Please remember that Benefits Open Enrollment continues through April 17, 2012.

Tomorrow is the final HPL on-site Open Enrollment meeting:

It will be here at Stella at 10:30 AM.

For open enrollment questions and assistance you may contact Ceasar DeLaRosa at 832-393-1341 or Linz Estrada at 832-393-1472.

For specific Aflac information you may contact Ed Waters, Aflac Agent, at 281-440-1133 or 713-823-3481 or by email at edward_waters@us.aflac.com

Thanks,

Ophelia

World Book Yearbook

Information from Sara about a shipment we may receive.

Managers and all staff,

Please be on the lookout in your unit's mail for a box from World Book containing a copy of World Book Year Book 2012 and a bill for $30.00. This was not supposed to happen.

If your unit recieves it please give it to your manager to hold and keept the box it came in. DO NOT do anything else with this item until you receive further instructions. (Please DO NOT send in the bill or throw it away, put the book in booksale or box it for Friends, send it in for cataloging or anything!)

Despite our local World Book rep's effort to stop this mailing from the World Book HQ's PR department it appears that they have been shipped to individual units anyway. I will be contacting her immediately. As soon as a decision is reached re what to do with them I will send out an update.

Please make sure all staff members in your units/groups get this message.

Thanks,

~Sara

Wi-Fi Access

Good Afternoon,

Just wanted to point out this bit of information from an e-mail today.

"Ron reported that the Public Works and Engineering Department and HPL’s IT division are working to tighten access to our wifi network. Beginning in the next few months, access will require an HPL card. Details are still being worked out; more information will be shared over the next few weeks."

I am sure we will be fielding a ton of questions once they switch to the new system so be prepared.

Patrick

Staff Meeting 04/04/2012

Good Morning.

I just wanted to summarize what all we went over in our staff meeting yesterday for future reference.

Open Enrollment

Open enrollment has begun for City of Houston employees. If you would like to make any adjustments to your benefits plans, you must do so before April 17.

Paging

On days where we open at 10am, please wrap up the paging list and have all books off the front desk by 10am. On other days, you can go a little bit longer and be more thorough, but I would prefer to not have books on the desk and staff checking in paging once we are open to the public.

Being Late

The tardies count starts over at the beginning of April. Everyone is back on zero again, and we will progress from there. Everyone is doing better at being here on time, so please keep up the good work.

EPE

We will not receive an EPE this year. We will have new EPE plans presented to us that we will be required to sign to verify that we have received them. That will be within the next month.

FAFSA

We will continue to provide FAFSA help for prospective college students in the computer lab from 5pm-6pm on Wednesdays. Grace will be in the room, and if anyone comes in for FAFSA help, Nhu and I are trained to provide help.

Schedules

When you want to switch out with someone on the schedule, please let me know. I don't mind if someone wants to switch for whatever reason, but I would just like to know.

Gaming

We will soon start a Monday night video gaming program for the children. This will be with the XBOX 360 and Kinect and possibly mixing in some Wii as well. These games will be for the smaller children, not the Pershing kids. The pajama story time crowd that comes on Wednesday night is the age group we can expect for the Monday night gaming.

I am also about to start a board game program for all ages on Wednesday night. I say fr all ages, but it will mostly be adults I imagine. The game will either be Go which is a popular board game in China or it might be Scrabble. Children will be welcome to come, but there will be no children board games necessarily.

Professionalism

Remain professional on the floor. Save the off-topic conversations and loud voices for the back to the best of our ability. Always, always maintain situational awareness. Some things are better left to the work room.

Thank you for working together as a team. We are really becoming a cohesive unit more and more each day which is nice to see.

Keep up the good work.

Patrick

Open Enrollment

Open enrollment link below. This is where you can make change to your medical and dental plans and choices, etc.

Starts April 1 and ends April 17.

http://www.houstontx.gov/oe/

EPE's

Good Afternoon,

Just letting you know if you have not heard already that EPE's will not be required for this year. We will be receiving new EPE plans and signing those over the next couple of months.

Thanks,

Patrick