Staff Meeting 6/25/14

• Everyone is doing a fantastic job! With Bertha being out yesterday and her online status still unknown, staff is doing an excellent job taking care of the extra work load.

• Please continue to carefully check bookdrop. Only check in books through the thumper. Be sure to check for tags and holds.  Do not rush through bookdrop as it may cause issues later.

• If you still have a Personal Day, please use it by the end of August.

• Our benefit year is from September 1- August 31.

• If you have a Floating Holiday, please use it by the end of the year.

• The Fiscal Year and the Evaluation is now the same time period : July 1- June 30

• If you have any concerns or questions about your HEAR, please meet with Patrick whenever you like. You can talk with Patrick about it in your monthly meetings with him or at another time if you like. Theodora is still going through the HEAR to approve them. She has a lot to go through so it will take some time. HEAR is given at the 5 month and 11 month period for new hires and after the 11 month period, you receive your HEAR on a yearly basis.

• There will be a new spreadsheet on the blog for noting numbers of Processed Items (expired, in transit, holds, etc). There will be a link to the spreadsheet on the blog and Mark will post a link on the favorite bar on Google Chrome.

• Nhu will be in charge of collecting and safely keeping the donated funds she will receive from the staff for staff parties (birthdays). You do not have to donate. It is up to you if you want to. If we do not have the money, we will just not have the party.

• Excellent job everyone on your Kronos last week. There were very few issues and red boxes. Keep it up!

• There is training on Thursday morning. Please be here at 9am sharp. We will get out of here as close to 6pm sharp as we can so that your Kronos will be correct. Nhu and Patrick may stay past a little if we have to and let everyone else go home on time.

• If you can think of anything that you may need the volunteers to help with, please let Jesse know. Jesse is currently not taking any more volunteers for our location. Those who wish to volunteer can apply online at our HPL website within the VOLUNTEER link at the top of the page. They can still volunteer at other locations. HPL does not take court ordered volunteers.

• Disk repair schedule for Stella Link is September. Please continue to put problem disc (with a note attach about the issue with the disc) in the cardboard box on the shelf and Mark will figure it out. If you have a disc without a case, please put it in an empty plastic case before putting it in the box.

• Please do not staple passport to application ahead of time. Please let the person in the office do the stapling of the passport to the application to avoid rips or tears that may occur.

• Kids may be bringing in a printed page of their Wonderopolis badge/card to receive their S.T.E.A.M. badge. Please place that S.T.E.A.M. badge in the badge log and then note in the badge log next the the S.T.E.A.M badge the following: Wonderopolis received @ STE. Kids may only receive 1 S.T.E.A.M. badge for Wonderoplois. 

Manager's Meeting 6/26/2014

Good afternoon,

The following topics were discussed in the managers' meeting today:

• New policies and procedures for library cards
• 30 holds maximum now - includes ILL holds and any holds waiting on the shelf to be picked up
• Reordering the hold queue - Designated staff only
• Text message alerts are not available yet for hold pickups, but could be soon
• Holds are now cancelled after 365 days if they are not fulfilled
• Holds on the hold shelf expire after seven days
• Consular ID - Good for ID, not for address verification
• Temporary Resident Card - Good for 30 days, only check out three items at a time
• Staff Cards - Need an address in the information
• Texshare - Circulation administration issues them - Application is on blog
• Patrons can now check out as many CD's as they want up to the total item limit of 50
• Do not give out pins over the phone
• If they return a DVD disc with no case, just check it in and do not charge them for the item
• Pop Up Library is different from the Summer Reading Program
• Friends warehouse is out of space - Our discards will not be picked up for a while
• Self Check Percentage for the month of May was 91% (Great job everyone)
• Michelle Gorman, from Charlotte, NC, will be starting July 7th as our new Deputy Director of Customer Experience here at HPL
• When giving a customer comment form to someone, please give out the most recent version.  It is located on the blog under cheat sheets. Make sure to write down a staff response and then pass it along to me. 
• When someone has a complaint, please come and get me to see if I can satisfy the customer here at this level
• If a customer wants to call someone to complain, give them the 3-2707 number for administration.  If they insist on talking to the director, give them the 3-1300 number
• Language Access Committee - Shammi is part of a committee to ensure equal access for those that might not speak English as a first language.  The city has 311, which we can use as a translator.  They subscribe to a language program.  There may be customers coming in with cards with them that explain what their first language is, at that time, we will try to help them either with 311 or the best way possible.
• Important: We need to start tracking every time we help a customer that involves a foreign language interaction.  This will go up front with the reference marks.  This starts July 1st
• If you want to be on a committee, please run it by me first.
• If a performer needs to submit an invoice, then the contact for that is Tiffany Hoover.  Please e-mail Tiffany.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Patrick

Staff Meeting Notes

• Staff is doing a great job pitching in and helping each other out on Tuesdays and Thursdays with increase flow of patrons after programs are let out.

• Thanks to Lauren and Loni for stepping up and taking care of Storytime and SRP program on Tuesday.

• Please continue to follow up with patrons if they set off the alarm (beep) when leaving the building. Please check their books and receipt and resolve the issue. If there is a long line at the desk and we are busy, it is not the end of the world to let the patron who set the alarm off to go through without checking their receipt.

• All books need to continue to be checked out at the self check out machines or at the staff computer station next to the self check out machines. Do not check out at the desks. All items should be returned through book drop or Bertha with exception of Flip Kits and books that are too large to fit through Bertha. If patrons come to the desk with books to be return and say that Bertha is not working, take a walk over to Bertha and assist them in returning the books. Most likely the patron did not return the book properly.

• If you have any suggestions/issues for or about administration, please bring it to Patrick’s attention first. If the suggestions/issues are about Patrick, you can speak with Theodora.

• If you are asked a question by a patron that you feel is beyond your scope, you can come get Patrick, Nhu, Tim, Mark, or Jesse to assist you.

• Always finish your interaction with your patron. Do not leave them hanging; always come back to them with an answer. Example: Patron is looking for a book that our catalog says we have, but the shelf does not have it and you let them know you will check the back room. The book is not in the back room. Please do not end your interaction here. Go back out and let the patron know you could not find the item and give them options such as placing the item on hold.
• Please continue to give the three part greeting at all times when answering the phone. You never know who is on the other end. As a reminder, the greeting is:

Thank you for calling the Houston Public Library System. 

This is the McGovern-Stella Link Neighborhood Library. 

How may I help you?

• Brandon will no longer be with us. He has transferred to Mancuso.

• Lauren and Mo will begin their training in passport in the coming weeks.

• Volunteers are doing 95% of our shelving. Please keep an eye out for miss shelved items. Items may be in the wrong section.

• Patrick, Tim, Jesse, and Nhu are currently piloting Mobile Cir and Barcode Generator on the Galaxy Tab while roving.

• Please empty out the black metal cart used for emptying out the Others Bin before moving onto your next task. Do not leave holds or items to be transferred to other locations sitting on the black metal cart for the next person.

ELT Plus Meeting Notes

Good afternoon,

Here are some points of interest from the meeting this afternoon.

We will be rolling out a new library card in the month of September.  There is no need at this time to make the public aware of this, but just for your own information.  HEB will be sponsoring the card.  There will be a lot of cross-promotion involving HEB trucks, sales papers and in store advertising for HPL.

The Children's Book Celebration program had over 500 people in attendance.  This was the best showing yet.

Camp Stream had 100+ registered campers this year.  This was a program at Central for school-aged children that was held in conjunction with the Summer Reading Program.

Everyone is very pleased with the job we are doing here at Stella Link.  The passport services particularly were mentioned.

Keep up the great work everyone.

Patrick

New Assignments

Good Evening,

With Renee leaving, her duties have been re-assigned.

Mark is now in charge of the discs with problems.  There is a box that is now on the back wall below the discs with problems.  Put them all into the box at first, then once he processes them, he will put them on the appropriate shelf.

Jesse is going to be the point of contact for our deposits now.

Mo will be our point of contact for evanced, which is the software we use to get the programs into the online calendar.  If we have any issues there, we should speak with him.  I will be supporting him in this endeavor.  When a program is going to be cancelled, we should let Mo know so that he can remove it from the online calendar as quickly as possible.
Mo will also be in charge of making new labels for the books.  If you see any that are too faded or that new labels should be made.  We will make a shelf in the back, against the wall, next to the shelf with the missing discs.

Lauren will be cleaning up the meeting room calendar online from now on.

Thanks,
Patrick Atkins