Printer Issues

Whenever a customer sends a file to the public printer and the document does not print, please check to see if the "communication" diamond-shaped icon on the left of the printer is blinking. If you see this icon blinking and no pages come out after several minutes, you can try turning the printer off and turning it back on. According to IT, this should trigger the printer to print out the documents.

A customer by the name of Oscar attempted to print out tonight and was unable to. Eventually, the print job was released. Jacob is keeping the pages at his desk if the customer returns. Last night, an African-American woman also tried printing 3 pages and I promised to comp her for the pages next time she comes. If any of these customers come in and state that the printer has taken their money and not printed their files, please print out their items.

Any other future customer issues with Coin Copiers unrelated to the printer not releasing their files, (for example, if the card dispenser machine took their dollar or if the copy machine took their coins) we can assist the customer as best we can or direct them to contact Coin Copiers at 281-565-0805 for a refund. Try to use your best judgment when determining what to do.

STE Staff Meeting 11/25

Host: Edgar Fuentes

Attending: Patricia Tucker, Jesse Farias, Carol Wu,  Marjorie Hackley, Lauren Holmes,  Ade Odusanwo, Mo Ahmad, Amethyst Taylor, Nhu Le, Ray Williams, Jacob Hornbeck, Mark Hall

Thank you to Carol – new labels on computers to inform customers to log off their session and for sending out 20 boxes of discards.

Thank you to Jesse – He paused his lunch time to assist a Spanish speaking family with passport.

Needlework Club
The December 26 Needlework Club session has been canceled. The volunteer is currently recovering from a surgery procedure and hopes to do the November 28 and December 12 sessions. She will call the library to inform us in case she is unable to attend.

ESL
The ESL classes for the month of December is canceled. Chengcheng Yang, the ESL instructor, will be on vacation. She will return on Monday, January 4. Please inform any customers who inquire about the class, particularly if they call about the class.

Calendar

If there are changes (addition/subtraction) of programs/events to the monthly calendar, please e-mail Mark so that he can make the proper changes to the calendar and Evanced.

Checkouts
Make sure that customers are getting green check marks when they are checking out using our express check machines. When they do not, please walk over to assist them. To get the green check mark, all you have to do is click “OK” on the screen if it says “Take the item to the desk,” and place the item on the pad again for the red x to turn green. If it shows an error message such as “Item not discharged,” use the computer to the left of the check out machines to discharge the item (and waive any fines if it shows any) and then allow the customer to check the item out on the express check machine. If the item has an available hold, please apologize to the customer and let them know it’s currently being held for another customer. If the item has a hold (not currently being held but someone has requested it at another location), the machines should automatically allow the customer to check out.

PIE
Remember that PIE is a time to get high priority projects and planning done. Those of you who do not have programming or special projects should prioritize shelving and assisting customers.
Prioritize – Look at what needs the most work right now. Assisting customers and shelving are top priorities.
Initiate – Don’t wait to be told what to do. If you see a bin is full, get on it right away. If you see discards are full, start discarding. If you see newspapers needing to be checked in, process them. If you see DVDs needing to be shelved, shelve them.
Execute – Get the work done correctly, the HPL way.

Overflow
Over the next few weeks, we will try to eliminate the Overflow items. Either we need to FLOAT the items out to other locations or we need to get them on to our shelves so that customers can have access to the item. It makes it difficult for us to see an item that says “check shelf” and the item is not on the shelf and we have to come back to search the bins, the carts, and sort through overflow AND FLOAT to see if the item is here.

Items from Other Systems
Make sure you continue to use the spreadsheet on the blog for items that belong to Bellaire Public Library, Harris County Public Library, Mark Twain ES, or any other library. The link to the spreadsheet is on the right hand side of our blog labeled as “Items From Other Library Systems”.  Remember that for Harris County items, you put a sticky note with the date the item was returned and HCPL .

Open Carry
- Beginning January 1, 2016, customers can open carry their guns in a belt or shoulder holster.
- Citizens can open carry in libraries, City Hall, community centers (or any government building and/or institution). Libraries are government buildings.
- We cannot ask the customer for their Concealed Handgun License (CHL).
- Customers cannot remove their guns from their belt or shoulder holsters. If they do, please call 911 immediately.
- Suspicious behavior reported by customers or observed by staff should be reported to 911 immediately.
-School-sponsored activities in the library (such as field trips) is an exception. We can inform the customer that they cannot open carry their gun in the building at the moment, because we have a school- sponsored activity in the library.
-Staff are to keep their guns locked in their cars even if they have a Concealed Handgun License.

Meeting Rooms
The library’s website gives full information on what is permissible and what is not permissible.
http://houstonlibrary.org/find-it/meeting-and-rental-spaces/neighborhood-library-spaces/neighborhood-library-meeting-room
Everyone has been given a copy of these guidelines.

Please look over the guidelines and familiarize yourself with the policies.

When stating to the customers that drinks or allowed, please state non-alcoholic drinks are allowed.

Workers Comp
The City has hired a new Workers Comp company. The number to the City of Houston’s Workers Compensation/Safety Hotline is 832-393-SAFE, and select Option 1.

No Smoking Signs
The No Smoking Signs they will be installing on our sidewalks should be coming after the holidays.

Smoking is not allowed on City premises. At Stella Link, smoking is not allowed on our parking lot or the front or side of our building. The sidewalk next to the street is okay for smoking.

Non-Discrimination
While HERO (The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance) has been repealed; City buildings are still protected areas for both customers and staff. We cannot impede access “to a city restroom facility that is consistent with and appropriate to that person’s expression of gender identity” (Executive Order 1-50).

Julia Ideson Fund

Established for employees in need.  The process is discreet and the application is reviewed by a panel.
https://hplnet.houstonlibrary.org/forms.html# (Found in Inside HPL > Forms > Human Resources)

Systemwide Programs

Besides promoting in-house programs, please also promote system wide programs when interacting with customers. If a customer is looking for poetry books, you can mention/give the customer a flyer about our Poetic Voices program.

Weather Emergencies
If we get an email saying “Turn Around Don’t Drown” or “Severe Weather expected” that doesn’t mean we get to stay home. Make an effort to come to work if you can come safely. If the City delays operations or closes for the day, you will be notified.

My Link Campaign

We are still trying to reach our goal of 1 million library cards. Please continue to encourage customers to get a library card. If they only have a computer use card, you can offer them the opportunity to apply for a library card.

TLA & PLA

If you want to attend TLA or PLA, please note that applications are due December 1^st.

Sprocket

Sprocket is a system we use to report facility issues that need to be fixed such a broken door. If you are not familiar with this system and need to report a facility issue, please ask from help from your supervisors or co-workers.

SMM (Smart Money Manager)

If you have a SMM error and need to void the transaction, please void the entire transaction and start the transaction over again. Do not do a partial void of the transaction.

We should be getting new telecheck machines. Once the new machines arrive, please let Dimitri know or let Edgar or Tim know so they can let Dimitri know. Our current telecheck machines cannot read the smart chips on credit cards. There is a blog post on 11/24 about the different ways to assist the customer if they are using a credit card with a smart chip. 

Credit Cards With Chips

We have had several customers coming in to the Stella Link Library to try to make payments using Telecheck machine with their new credit cards with the smart chip inside. Our existing Telecheck Machine does not seem to recognize these cards because when we swipe the card, the screen asks us to “tap” or “swipe” card again. When we try to swipe again (as we cannot tap since our machine is not yet equipped with the technology), it asks us to tap or swipe again. This keeps going on again and again.

Financial Services has been notified.

If you encounter this issue, you have several work-arounds:
FINES OVER $1
Direct customers to the Self-check machines if they are making a payment on their library account.(Remember that customers can also pay online from their computer, but there will be a .50 cent fee, so be sure to let them know about this other option)
FINES UNDER $1 OR BOOK SALE
Kindly ask customers for another form of payment (cash, check, or another credit card)
PASSPORTS
We can only ask for another form of payment (cash, check, or another credit card). 

Christmas/Winter Holiday JUV Books

The Christmas/Winter Holiday JUV books are now out on the floor where the holiday books are usually shelved (Shelf 4B).

There are still plenty of Christmas/Winter Holiday JUV books left in storage. These books will go on the floor once there is more room on Shelf 4B. Please do check storage for holiday books if a patron ask for a holiday title that you do not see on the floor.

Please continue to keep Thanksgiving books on the Shelf 4B along with the Winter Holiday books until after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving books can start going back to storage in the gaming closet Nov. 30th.

Thanks,

Nhu

3M Express Checkout Receipt Printer

The Express Checkout on the far right is currently not able to print out a receipt. A note has been attached to the device. A customer is still able to email a receipt if an email is listed on the account. The 3M Tech will be back on site Wednesday 11/25/15 to replace the printer with a new one. He said he would arrive before we open.

Tim S.

LMS Contact Guide

I have added a link under the "Helpful Links" section of the Stella Blog for LMS Contact Guide to better assist you with who to contact regarding a number of issues (such as ordering new call number labels or questions regarding World Language materials, for example). Please take a look at the link when you get a chance to familiarize yourself with some good points of contact.

-Edgar

Phone Issue

If you answer the phone at the customer service desk and you place a customer on hold and are unable to retrieve the call or the customer is unable to hear you even when you resume the call, there's a good chance the call has "jumped" to another phone. Try retrieving the call from another phone (may even be in the work room), and apologize to the customer for our phone issues.

Tim has reported the issue. This is a minor inconvenience until the issue is resolved. Please bear with it. Thanks.

-Edgar

New Cards and Overdrive

When new library cards are issued the user’s Overdrive account does not automatically convert over to the new library card number.  The merge has to be done manually, and the Digital Strategies Help Desk has the tool and permission to do it.  In order to merge the accounts, we need the following information:

  n  Old library card number

  n  New library card number

  n  Contact e-mail address

  n  Name of customer                         

The account merge should be active within 24hours.  The Overdrive user should use the new library card number to access the service.

Passports for Minors

Thanks to Jonathan for reminding Passport Agents about the newsletter information sent back in February 2015:

"If the applicant is a minor, encourage the applicant to notate the guardian's name on the In Care Of field."

-Edgar

2016 Bluebonnets

We will continue to display 2015 Bluebonnets until voting is over for 2016 Bluebonnets. As new 2016 Bluebonnets arrive, please make sure to display those in the Bluebonnet display wall.
Just a few reminders about the date labels: The date labels should be blue, they should say 2016, and they should be affixed to the top of the spine of the book, 1/4" from the edge. Let's make sure our labeling looks consistent, since we have a floating collection and items travel from location to location.

-Edgar

Pulled & Processed

Please remember to count items cleared from the holdshelf in our Daily Stats.

·         Pulled:  Items on the paging lists

·         Processed:  Items received in delivery, items that come across the desk as holds for customers (both in house and to send in delivery), and items cleared from the holdshelf.

-Edgar

Personal Days

To clarify, Personal Days expire at the end of the Benefit Year, not the end of the calendar year:

The City rewards good attendance. The benefit year for sick leave is Sept. 1 – Aug. 31. On Sept. 1, you will receive an award of personal leave days (8 hours) if you have good attendance in the previous benefits year, as follows:

Sick Days Used (Eight-Hour Days)	Personal Leave Days Earned
0	3
1	2
2	1

Personal leave days must be used during the benefit year in which they were awarded and may not be carried over.

The City of Houston Employee Guidebook can be accessed here.

Staff Meeting Notes November 18, 2015

Hosting/Presenting: Edgar Fuentes

Attending: Patricia Tucker, Jesse Farias, Carol Wu, Rex Mohammad, Marjorie Hackley, Jonathan McFarland, Francis Saldana, Lauren Holmes, Nhu Le, Ade Odusanwo, Mo Ahmad, Amethyst Taylor.

Absent: Jacob Hornbeak (COH Orientation) and Ray Williams (Defensive Driving

Phone Greeting: Please remember to answer phones using the current standard greeting: “Thank you for calling the Houston Public Library. This is the McGovern-Stella Link Neighborhood Library. How may I help you?”

Bertha: Please avoid placing books on top of Bertha’s clear plastic surface.

Holding Items: Please put “Hold Until” and a date on any items we are holding behind the desk for customers so that we know when to remove them.

PIN Numbers: When customers sign up for a library card, make sure you allow them to WRITE down their PIN number on the yellow “All About Your Library Card” sheet. This makes it easy for them to remember, and they have a sheet of paper with more information about their library privileges. You want to avoid keeping the default number, and avoid setting it as the last 4 numbers of their telephone. You may also turn the keyboard over to the customer to allow them to type a new PIN number.

Computer Cards: If a customer does not have his/her computer card, we can look up their number using their identification (ID or DL, etc). The same is true for library cards.

Meeting Rooms:
As a reminder, we have a new meeting room policy that states:
- Meeting Rooms are allowed if there is no registration fee, no fee charged offsite, and if the meeting is open to the public.
- Bookings can be done up to 90 days in advance (that’s 3 months from today’s date; so today we can take reservations up to Feb. 18, but not Feb 19); no more than 6 bookings within a 90-day period.
- If the group is doing publicity advertising the event at our location, they must bring in the publicity to the library at least 72 hours before the meeting.
- No open flames or candles; Order of the Eastern Star is a group that has in the past held private meetings with swords and candles; they are unable to reserve a meeting room since they do not meet the guidelines.
- $25 must be paid the day of the meeting if the group is bringing in prepared food (casseroles, pizza, sandwiches, etc). Prepackaged snacks such as chips and drinks in a covered container are acceptable. We must indicate in the completed paperwork that the group has paid the $25 fee unless they booked before the policy update went into effect. A new category will be added to Smart Money so that we can take the fees for prepared food.
- Only the equipment available in the room can be used by the group. We cannot provide laptops (unless they check one out) or televisions. The group can use our built-in projectors (and remote).

Passports: Make sure you give a separate oath for each application.

Phone Use: Please limit your personal phone use while on desk. If you need to make an important call, please use the staff break room so that we set a good example for volunteers and our peers. We also want to avoid using our phones when on the floor or especially on the desk. I understand emergencies happen, so please come to the break room to take care of any personal matters as quickly as possible.

Stats: Book Drop/Others stats are counted for any holds or items that go to Central. The rule of thumb is if it goes in a bin or on a cart from B/O, the item should be counted.

Seating: I have updated the seating arrangement to help accommodate everyone, as we share desks. Please let me know if this arrangement does not work for you and we can work something out together.

Credit Cards: We do not accept American Express on our Telecheck.

Floating Holiday & Wellness : Please be sure to look at your Kronos accruals. If you have a floating holiday, please be sure to use it before December 31. Also, remember that you need to submit your Floating Holiday request at least 30 days in advance. If you have any personal days, you should also use them up before December 31.

Coin Copiers – Card Dispenser: There is a new bill accepter in the card dispenser machine. This new accepter does not light up like the previous one did. It should be working fine now, but if you experience any issues, you can always call the Coin Copiers phone number, which is listed on the copy machine and also listed on the blog (281-565-0805).

Suspect: There is a customer who has frequented the Walter Neighborhood Library who is a sex offender. If you see the man, please alert the person in charge immediately. He generally comes to libraries on Saturdays, so please be vigilant as you walk around the library. We have been asked to call 911 if he is in the building. Everyone has been emailed the information (along with the customer’s photo).
1. If he is in the Adult section keep an eye on him but make sure police are called so we can have a patrol unit rolling as soon as they have one available.

2.  If he is in the children’s section (which seems to be his area of choice). We need to make sure we keep an extra close eye out, This is also something to mention to dispatch, because it will move you up on the priority list, to get a police unit faster.

3. If he leaves and the police have not arrived yet. If possible try and get a license plate number without out putting yourself in danger. This will be important information for me and the police once they arrive.

STE Youth Service Team Meeting

Attendance: Amethyst Taylor, Frances Saldana, Nhu Le

-Continue to inform patrons attending our program that we will not have programs next week. Signs of canceled programs have been put up throughout the library. Programs are not listed on NOV calendar.

-If you plan to be out on a day you have a program to do, please be considerate and ask for coverage for that day.

-As a reminder, if there are special events that HPL Youth services ask for volunteers and you are interested in helping, please let me know. Do not let scheduling steer you away. I will work with you to figure out a solution if scheduling is a problem.  

-If you have a special program you want to do in-house, let me know. If it is something that is do-able, as a team, we will assist each other to make it happen.

-Seasons Readings …

- We have story times for the young ones. I want to have special programs aimed at the older kids…ages 5 and up.

- Special programs during the Winter Break / If you want to do a special program, please decide on a date and time so that it can be ready for Mark to input in evanced and our calendar. Advertisement can go up too.

            - Gingerbread House Workshop - 15 kid limit. must sign up in advanced. Saturdays - Dec 12th & 19th 

- Gaming ? Jesse agreed to do a 2 hr gaming program for one of the days during the Winter Break.

- No Story Time programs Dec. 21-23, but we can still have special programs if you choose to do it on one of those days.

- Think of program(s) to do during winter break and let me know as soon as possible.

Open Discussion: Updated Amethyst on Friday's HPL Youth Meeting.

Talked about asking program dept. for Santa to come to STE if possible. Amethyst mentioned that HPL has a Santa costume that we could try to borrow for a program. She will send out an email to see if that will be possible. If not, we can dress as elves, give out candy canes, and have kids write letters to Santa to be delivered by the elves since Santa is busy making toys.

Collection Mgmt Mtg

17 Nov 2015:

J. Farias attended the meeting for the first time and we explored utilizing Volunteers to both weed and to cull most of STE's collections. Selected Volunteers would weed on condition throughout the branch, looking at all collections.
Addtionally the Volunteers would be looking to keep duplicate copies of titles at two. These volunteers would not enter the picture book collection, where more than three copies of a single title are not rare.
P. Tucker will train J. Hornbeak in weeding by condition.

Axis360 Webinar

From Marianne Lorio:

The recorded Axis360 webinar is now available at http://training.houstonlibrary.org/Axis360. This training is required for all front line staff by December 18th. The managers/supervisors are responsible for submitting sign-in sheets for their team members once the webinar has been viewed.

The demo site is currently live, and the the app was scheduled to go live on Thursday. Due to the nature of apps it will be available to patrons as well as staff even if it is not on the HPL website. So please take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the service.

UPDATE: Please keep in mind that the e-book collection is a work in progress. This means there aren’t as many titles in it as in OverDrive. Therefore we ask that you be considerate of both your fellow staff members and the library’s patrons. Please check out what you wish but be sure to return it so that others can “play” with the collection. We also don’t want to go live next week to patrons only to have all the titles checked out or with long holds lists. If you wish to check out a title for personal reasons or place holds, please wait until you receive an e-mail from me informing everyone that the link is live on the website. Barring any problems this will happen on Monday.

I am still in need of FAQs so please send me any questions you have.

Computer Reservations - Troubleshooting

Whenever you notice the reservation computer show a "Workstation has lost communication with the server" or if the reservation program is not showing, turn off the computer and unplug from the back. Count to 30 seconds before plugging the computer back in and turn it back on. If you see "Would you like to start computer normally" message, hit enter and when the computer loads it should automatically reopen the reservation program.

If this doesn't work, call IT for assistance.

Coin Copiers – Card Dispenser

FYI: The bill accepter in the card dispenser machine for priting has been replaced. The old one was having trouble accepting dollar bills. This new bill accepter does not have lights like the previous one did. Just be aware that it should be working correctly now.

HPL Masquerade Ball

If you are planning to attend the HPL Masquerade Ball on Saturday, December 12, 2015 (7PM-11PM), please RSVP via email to hplholiday@houstontx.gov by Friday November 13, 2015!

Processing Numbers

All items going on the hold shelf and in the transfer bins by the back door must be counted and entered in the Daily Processing Stats spreadsheet as listed on the blog. This includes all items scanned from the exceptions/others bin and items received in delivery for our hold shelf.

Tim S.

Items with an XX as Call Number on paging list

When HPL receives an ILL item from another library system, a temporary account will be created specifically for that item to facilitate checkout. These will show up on our catalog and sometimes on our paging list with the call number as XX(12357). When the item is returned, the record will be placed into discard status and will be deleted from the system.

If you encounter an item with the call number XX, please disregard this item. Do not place in missing status as the ILL office will handle this account record.

Thanks,

Tim S.

Floats from BLU

From Sara Karow:

In preparation for the upcoming remodeling of BLU to add a WIC clinic, which will result in a loss of much shelf space, The LMS Float Team is floating many of the picturebook duplicates from BLU out across the system this week.

These picturebooks are in excellent condition and have been placed directly into delivery bins without routing labels.  Most units can expect to receive 6-10 books - please check them in just like any other incoming Float items and add them to your shelves.

-Edgar

Harris County Book Check in

Harris County Public Library (HCPL) will be migrating from SirsiDynix Horizon system to SirsiDynix Symphony system beginning on Monday, November 9, 2015.  What this means for HPL staff:

     ·         Starting Monday, November 9, you can no longer check in HCPL items at HPL locations;

     ·         Customers may return HCPL items at HPL but staff need to inform them that the items will stay on their account until they are discharged at HCPL;

     ·         Staff are encouraged to place a Post-it note on the item with the date returned written on the note;

     ·         Staff will continue to use the same procedure for labeling HCPL items and send them in delivery to Central. 

This change will be in effect until further notice. We will implement a new procedure for checking in HCPL items at HPL locations in the near future.

-Edgar

Cyber Security I / Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

Several of you asked about Cyber Security I, and I promised to give clarification. Suzy Benton's email should clear up any confusion, but please let me know if you have any questions:

All COH employees are required to complete both Cyber Security I and Workplace Discrimination and Harassment on an annual basis. These mandatory trainings can be accessed via the TMS.  Be sure to conduct a keyword search to find each training and launch the training to complete it.

Please use Internet Explorer when launching these sessions. Please complete both web-based trainings by 11/30/15  to remain in compliance with City policy. 

-Edgar 

Volunteers for Three Doctors Event

Jennifer Schwartz is looking for volunteers to work our Three Doctors event tomorrow at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The most crucial time that we need help is 7:30 AM – 10:15 AM, and I would happily take volunteers just for that time frame. Please let me know ASAP if you can help out.

-Edgar

Monthly Report

Team: if you have not yet submitted your monthly report, please do so at your earliest convenience so that I may compile them for Stella Link's monthly narrative, which I hope to complete and submit by the end of day Thursday.

-Edgar

Blog Layout

Please take a look through this blog when you get a chance to familiarize yourself with the new layout, as some things may have moved. I hope this new layout is cleaner, and more intuitive to use. I welcome your feedback.

-Edgar

League of Women's Voters Guides

Please keep the Voters Guides you currently have for the public through December 12, 2015 which is when the Houston Runoff Election will be held. I have ordered more from HPL Print Shop for our customers.

The League of Women Voters will publish a new electronic Voters Guide to the Runoff. It will only be availble through their website at www.lwvhouston.org. The traget date for this “digital” publication is 11/23/15.

-Edgar

Back Door

For everyone's safety, please make sure you keep the back (staff exit) door locked at all times, even when workers are coming in and out of the building.

November 04, 2015 Staff Meeting

Stella Link Staff Meeting Notes

November 4, 2015

Hosting/Presenting: Edgar Fuentes

Present:  Tim Siegel, Nhu Le, Ade Odussanwo, Ray Williams, Jonathan McFarland, Patricia Tucker, Jesse Farias, Mark Hall, Carol Wu, Frances Saldana, Marjorie Hackley, Lauren Holmes, Mo Ahmad, and Amethyst Taylor.

Not Present: Jacob Hornbeak

Thank you:

Everyone who everyone who participated in the Fall Festival and helped create items for the booth.

Jacob for helping out with shifting the picturebooks and relabeling the end caps to reflect the new letters in each range.

Weeding:

As you shelve, and put items on your cart, it’s important and more efficient to check the condition of the items so that you can pull those that are damaged, stained, or falling apart. This way, they don’t make it to our cramped shelves.

Training:

Everyone should complete the following webinars:
Axis360 (be on the lookout for the link to the recording)
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt 

Executive Order/Discrimination and Harrassment
These are due by November 30, 2015.                                                                                                      

Kronos:

When you submit time off requests, please be sure to use the new Navigator, not the Classic View Kronos. We cannot have others clock us in or out (called “buddy punching”) and you also cannot use cell phones to clock in or out, and please don’t clock in, then run out to your car to park.

Bertha/Sorter:

Once you have tagged items, please be sure to run the item through Bertha again to ensure that the item doesn’t have any other issues with the record.

Others Bin:

Items that fall into the wrong bin should have their record looked at. If the record is incorrect (For example, if it say it’s a picturebook when it’s really a chapterbook), we can flag the item and send it to Collection Development.

Air Conditioning Issues:

Please continue to report issues with the A/C. If the temperature ever reaches 80 degrees, that’s when we can begin a discussion of closing the building if repairmen are not present. If there is a major program, we will try to work around it and close immediately afterward. Staff is expected to report to a nearby library and most likely be asked to return once the A/C is fixed. The tower fans on loan to Alief were retrieved by Patrick Atkins.

Laptops:

Mark Hall has put labels on the laptop cart to help us keep the laptops organized. HP laptops 1-6 and Mac laptops 6-11 have been clearly labeled. When you check out to a customer, it would be a good idea to write MAC or HP so that the customer’s ID is kept in the correct place.
Please remember that we are to hold only the customer’s ID and the customer must have their library card in order to check out. If they do not have their library card, we can offer to put them on a public desktop computer or reissue them a new library card.
The laptop checkout policy states that customers “must present a valid Houston Public Library card,” have no fines, and have had the card for at least 30 days before they are eligible to check out a laptop. You can check one laptop per card, and the laptop may only be checked out to the cardholder, except in the case of minors. They may use their parent’s ID to check out since they are responsible for their child’s account.

You can verify the date the account was created by clicking on the customer name after scanning card in Checkout. A popup window will appear and it will be listed after “date User created.”

When issuing a new or replacement card for minors, please make sure the parent/guarding has indicated yes/no for laptop permission. The default will always be no and previous permissions will be deleted.

It is important to verbally ask the customer to state their name to ensure it matches the ID before handing it back.

Dress Code:

The dress code committee is working on rules for HPL employees. Some guidelines that I think we should all follow until the rules are finalized: Please avoid wearing religious, political, or images or text that may create conflict with other employees or customers. Keep that in mind when deciding what to wear. Ray Williams suggested a guideline from Community Engagement to avoid any clothing with words or letters.

Express Checks:

Anytime the machines go offline, you will notice that the customer’s receipt will only display barcode numbers, and not the titles of books. That’s normal, as the machine automatically goes into offline circ. Once the connection with the server is reestablished, our machines will automatically send the transaction information to the server.

IPADs:

We have a staff IPAD that we should think of ways to use it in our everyday tasks. For example, we can begin using it for paging, for use in the after school zone, and on outreaches to demonstrate the library’s apps. Be thinking of other ideas, and please share them with Edgar.

Forms:

If customers question why we have a particular book, there is a Reconsideration of Materials form, which can be found on Inside HPL forms under Library Materials tab (https://hplnet.houstonlibrary.org/forms.html#). If customers want to suggest we order a book, there is a link above the catalog for “Suggest a Purchase.” If customers want to complain or submit a compliment, there is also a customer comment form that they can submit (or use the “Contact Us” page on the website.) Please remember to use each one according to its intended purpose.

IMPORTANT: Online Payments

Important Message from IT:

Yesterday’s Enterprise upgrade successfully implemented our new product called ProPay for paying fines and fees online using a credit card.  Here’s what you need to know:

•    ProPay is SIRSI's PCI Data Security Standard compliant product which means it is more secure;

•    paying through PayPal will no longer appear as a payment option;

•    there is a non-refundable $0.50 transaction fee charged to the customer;

•    minimum online payment is still $1.00.

If you have questions about this change, please address them to Judith Hiott (Judith.hiott@houstontx.gov / 832-393-1476) or the Digital Strategies' Helpdesk.

Thank you for your cooperation as we implement this change.

New Books

From Fred Schumacher:

A number of locations have reported a problem with the Library and Current Locations fields not updating properly when new items received in delivery are discharged.  This is an issue that HALAN and SirsiDynix are aware of.  Until this is fixed by SirsiDynix, please be aware that when you check in new books, you will need to scan each barcode twice to make the system update the current location and the item library in the records.  The first scan will update the Call Library field to your NL location; the second will update the current location to match the home location.  Failure to do so will result in items continuing to display “In Transit,” rather than on your shelf, and holds for those materials may be missed.

Please note that this message means that when we run these items through Bertha, they may land in our "Exceptions/Others" bins and may need to be run through a second time until the issue is resolved.

Axis360 Info

What is Axis360?

·         Axis360 is a new e-book service that is provided by Baker & Taylor.

·         Axis360 is not intended to replace OverDrive or the new Hoopla e-books.

Why do we need another e-book service?

·         OverDrive content is purchased through a consortium of libraries to meet the needs of all the consortium members.

·         The content of Hoopla is determined by the agreements between Hoopla and the studios. The library has no control over what titles are offered through this service.

·         Axis360 will allow us to provide access to titles we don’t get through OverDrive or Hoopla that are more focused on the needs of Houston Public Library’s customers.

Will there be overlap between the titles offered by all three services?

·         We will attempt to purchase unique titles for each service but there may be overlap in titles.

·         Please note that it is likely we will get requests to purchase titles in one service that we already have in another. We don’t have the resources to duplicate content so in general we will only purchase a title in one service.

What is the circulation policy for Axis360?

·         We will try to make the circulation policy for Axis360 as close to OverDrive as possible to minimize confusion.

·         Check out limit:  10 items.

·         Check out time period: 2 weeks.

·         Holds limit:  10 items.

·         The time period a patron has to check out a hold after a hold fulfillment notification has been sent:  3 days.

Cyber Security I and Workplace Discrimination and Harrassment

Team, please see the message Suzy Benton sent out regarding these two trainings:

All COH employees are required to complete both Cyber Security I and Workplace Discrimination and Harassment on an annual basis. These mandatory trainings can be accessed via the TMS.  Be sure to conduct a keyword search to find each training and launch the training to complete it. Please use Internet Explorer when launching these sessions.

Please complete both web-based trainings by 11/30/15  to remain in compliance with City policy.

Thanksgiving JUV Books

All the Thanksgiving JUV books are now located at the end of shelf 4B. The Halloween books are no longer to be shelved on the public floor. The Halloween books will go back into storage in the game closet in the large meeting room.

By mid November, I will put out some of the Christmas books on shelf 4B right under the Thanksgiving books.

Thanks,

Nhu