Friendly reminders

Please, remember to write down all Open Job Labs stats. Let's show our work by writing our stats down.

HEARs are due by the end of July 2017

And

When giving a new card to an Online registration, remember to verify their address and write a note stating this was an online registration.

Online Library Card Registration | Update

Online Library Card Registration | Update

Catalog/database computers now show a "Registration Location" dropdown menu. Customers can select the location where they are submitting the form. This will provide a better report of library card registrations by location. Note: this change only shows up on the catalog/database computers. All staff computers will still show the name of their location. Customers submitting the form outside the library will not see this change.

Please share with your staff.
Questions? Email me.
Saima

__________________________________________________________________________

Online Library Card Registration

Hello again,

Firstly, thank you for the feedback we received from your staff! We have already made some changes based on their questions.

Secondly, while we prepare staff training, an FAQ document has been added to the Training Portal (hover over Learning Resources tab then select Library Functions and look for MyLink Online Library Card): http://training.houstonlibrary.org/library-function

   

We are using two locations to pilot the project: Central and Jungman. Because our locations vary so much, we need to figure out a designated workstation (desktop or tablet) that will function as a library card registration spot. In most cases, it will be the catalog/database computer. Once we have gathered enough data and tweaked the form, we will have a better idea about a roll out plan. In the meantime, please continue to use the paper application form (except Central and Jungman). Of course, you are welcome to direct your customers to the online form. Already about 44 customers in Texas have registered online and the form’s been live less than 2 days!

A few reminders that are necessary for staff to know:

·         There is a built-in address verification however this may not always work so you may have to use the traditional method to verify address;

·         Form will recognize a duplicate;

·         Youth registrations will take place on-site (HPL location) only;

·         Check if customer is already using Overdrive; if yes, then proceed to submit the Overdrive merge account request;

·         This is what staff will need to do to update the user record in Workflows:

o   From the Circulation tab, under the Users group, use the Modify User wizard to update the user record:

§  User ID - replace it with the 77422… barcode number;

§  Library - change it from HOU-ONLINE to your location or customer’s preferred location;

§  Profile Name - change it from PUBLIC to one that applies to the customer;

§  Change History Rule: ask the customer if they want to keep a checkout history; then change it from circrule to allcharges; remind them to opt in when they log into the library account at home. Not changing it will NOT prevent the customer from checking out items or placing them on hold;

§  If customer agrees with device checkout policy, then change user cat2 to laptop-yes under the Demographics tab.

Please continue to send your questions and suggestions to Virtual Library Services (hplvirtuallibrary@houstontx.gov).

Please share this information with your staff.

Sincerely,

Saima

Please, ask our customers to give a book for our boxes at both locations.

KHOU Turn the Page Book Drive

HPL is partnering with KHOU Channel 11 for its annual Turn the Page Book Drive, starting Monday, June 12 – Friday, June 30, 2017.

KHOU has a partnership with Books Between Kids, a local non-profit organization who provides books to children of elementary to middle school age to help them start their own home library. Books Between Kids works with HISD to host book giveaways to 63 elementary schools throughout the school year. The Turn the Page book drive helps supply for the year-round book giveaway.

HPL as partner of this book drive will host a book collection box (campaign-branded with HPL and Star Furniture logos) at 15 locations (see below). The book collection boxes are scheduled to be delivered today, Friday, June 9, 2017.

KHOU has planned for a courier service to pick up the book collections weekly, last day being Friday, June 30, 2017. If your box overflows prior to your scheduled pick-up, please contact the KHOU Community Marketing & PR Specialist, Alexandria Williams.

PARTICIPATING LIBRARY LOCATIONS

Bracewell

Heights

Kendall

Jungman

Looscan

Stella Link

Park Place

Acres Homes

Oak Forest

Stanaker

Carnegie

Collier

Central

Vinson

Smith

Young

Alief

Online Library Card Registration Form | Updates 6/16/17

Online Library Card Registration Form | Updates 6/16/17

Both English and Spanish forms now have the SSL certificate, making it secure. This caused a brief accessibility issue yesterday on the catalog/database computer which has been fixed. 

Also, from now on  the form will only display for IP addresses inside the US. If someone tries to access it from overseas, they will receive an error message: Online Registration Unavailable - AIP (41.76.196.34) where the 41.76… will be the actual IP address detected. If you are contacted by a legitimate Houston/Texas resident who is overseas and wishes to get a library card, connect them to Circ Admin. This was done to control some nefarious activity that was detected coming from foreign IPs. 

Please contact me if you have any questions. Again, your feedback is much appreciated as it allows us to improve the user experience.
Saima 

Storytime Craft

This is just one of the many crafts we had the toddlers do during our toddler storytime program at OAK.  The theme behind this storytime session was "good manners."  Thanks Tangela, for your creative talents!

-Jesus Villegas

SRP Infro (Part 3): SRP Programs @ ACR

These are all the programs taking place at ACR.

Children's program: 11:30 AM.
Summer Food Program:  12:00PM
Teen Programming: 1:45PM

More Information about each program will be provided later. Please look at the list of events to see which program you would be interested in supervising.

SRP Info (Part 2): SRP Prizes

Summer Reading Program Prizes
*while supplies last

Level	Babies, Toddlers & Pre-K (0-4)	Children 5-10	Teens 11-18
May Early School Registration (only for students who register at school)		Alley Theatre tickets, first 250 to sign up (no children under 6)	Alley Theatre tickets, first 250 to sign up (no children under 6)
Registration	Free Book	Free Book	Free Book
5 Books/Hours Read		Sunglasses & certificate	Sunglasses & certificate
10 Books/Hours Read	Finger Puppets	Chipotle meal	Chipotle meal
20 Books/Hours Read		Rice University Athletics ticket	Rice University Athletics ticket
30 Books/Hours Read	Mario Brothers bibs, baby teethers (babies 0-2) Mario Brothers meal set (toddlers 3-4)	Astros tickets Pixelated bag	Astros tickets Pixelated bag
Top Readers (2 per location)		Retro game gift set (Pac-Man connect, Pattern Play 3D)	Retro game gift set (Pac-Man connect, sticky note art)
5 Programs Attended	Children's Museum Family Pass	Children's Museum Family Pass	Alley Theatre tickets
Family Completion	Hermann Park Train & pedal boats Raising Cane's meal	Hermann Park Train & pedal boats Raising Cane's meal	Hermann Park Train & pedal boats Raising Cane's meal

SRP Info (Part 1): Beanstack Training

Here is the training instructions which were found on the Dixon\Moody blog.

Use the Demo Account to Practice with the software after the training session. Begin by creating an account.
Make sure the first name begins with HPL_ Youth Services will delete the test accounts later on. Example: HPL_Richard Then test the following functions:
1. Logging books/minutes (babies and toddlers default to Books everyone else defaults to Minutes)
 2. Switching Account Creators (the Creator is the adult or main account that the rest of the family is logged under)
3. Attending programs (enter special codes) Animal program (code is ATOZEBRA)
4. Award prizes to your test accounts

 Here is the link from the Youth Service Mtg I tried to simplify it and some of the links didn't work at the time of our training, but you can go back and review it when you are trying the demo out later YS PP Training Staff Account 
USERNAME-OAK (or ACR)
PASSWORD-library (lowercase)

BeanStack Link

-Jesus Villegas

Important Electronic Resource Issues and Reporting Procedures from LMS

Hello:

When you are forwarding an electronic resource issue to either the IT Helpdesk or I, please be sure to indicate if the patron expects a response and what the patron’s preferred contact information is. While we might have a patron’s library card number there is a good chance the contact information on their account isn’t up to date. Additionally patrons have a bad habit of borrowing other peoples’ library card numbers (i.e. child or spouse) to use when accessing and checking out an electronic resource. If which case the contact information will not be for the patron having the issue.

Sincerely,

Marianne Lorio

Multimedia Specialist

Houston Public Library

marianne.lorio@houstontx.gov

832-393-1514

Procedure Reminder - Subscription Plan books

Important Message from LMS 

Regarding books with the Yellow Spine

SUBSCRIPTION PLAN Items – Return to LMS

Subscription Plan (S-Plan) books are easily identified by their bright yellow spine labels.

NOTE: **NEVER stamp Subscription Plan books and DO NOT check them out to CEN or an NL unit’s “xxx-Discard” account in Symphony Workflows (wet/moldy/bugs exception: see pg. 3).

• Send all surplus and damaged S-Plan books directly to the LMS Float Team.
• Attach a brief note to individual copies regarding any damage (wet/moldy/bugs exception: see pg. 3).

• When pulling surplus copies of titles that HPL has both as regular HPL copies (white spine labels) and S-Plan copies for possible withdrawal, it is preferable to send in S-Plan copies first rather than regular HPL copies if condition is comparable. The Float Team may redistribute surplus S-Plan items rather than withdrawing and returning them to the supplier, depending on system-wide needs.

LMS Division staff will handle ALL S-Plan withdrawal tasks for damaged items and surplus copies being returned to the supplier (wet/moldy/bugs exception: see pg. 3).

Thanks in advance,

~Sara

Important Information about OverDrive

Hello:

Recently patrons have had a couple of issues with OverDrive so I just wanted to provide some “insider” information. Frankly most issues with OverDrive aren’t really “fixable” either the cause is unknown or it is due to operator error. However, let the patron know that we will look into the matter. If the patron is willing to provide their library card number, e-mail address, and the title and format of item involved we will make sure the next available copy goes to their account. Please e-mail this information, as well as a description of the issue, to the IT Helpdesk and me.

Sincerely,

Marianne Lorio

Multimedia Specialist

Houston Public Library

marianne.lorio@houstontx.gov

832-393-1514

Staff Birthday Celebration

The Staff had a great time celebrating one another on Friday.

The luncheon for the staff was from Olive Garden 

Everyone had more than enough to eat with mini desserts and 

Special Cakes for all of the birthday people. 

We also said farewell to Gloria. 

We will truly miss her smile and presence around 

ACR and OAK.

Special Thanks to everyone for sharing in this event!! 

Online Card Registration Information for Customers

Hello again,

Firstly, thank you for the feedback we received from your staff! We have already made some changes based on their questions.

Secondly, while we prepare staff training, an FAQ document has been added to the Training Portal (hover over Learning Resources tab then select Library Functions):

We are using two locations to pilot the project: Central and Jungman. Because our locations vary so much, we need to figure out a designated workstation (desktop or tablet) that will function as a library card registration spot. In most cases, it will be the catalog/database computer. Once we have gathered enough data and tweaked the form, we will have a better idea about a roll out plan. In the meantime, please continue to use the paper application form (except Central and Jungman). Of course, you are welcome to direct your customers to the online form. Already about 44 customers in Texas have registered online and the form’s been live less than 2 days!

A few reminders that are necessary for staff to know:

·         There is a built-in address verification however this may not always work so you may have to use the traditional method to verify address;

·         Form will recognize a duplicate;

·         Youth registrations will take place on-site (HPL location) only;

·         Check if customer is already using Overdrive; if yes, then proceed to submit the Overdrive merge account request;

·         This is what staff will need to do to update the user record in Workflows:

o   From the Circulation tab, under the Users group, use the Modify User wizard to update the user record:

§  User ID - replace it with the 77422… barcode number;

§  Library - change it from HOU-ONLINE to your location or customer’s preferred location;

§  Profile Name - change it from PUBLIC to one that applies to the customer;

§  Change History Rule: ask the customer if they want to keep a checkout history; then change it from circrule to allcharges; remind them to opt in when they log into the library account at home. Not changing it will NOT prevent the customer from checking out items or placing them on hold;

§  If customer agrees with device checkout policy, then change user cat2 to laptop-yes under the Demographics tab.

Please continue to send your questions and suggestions to Virtual Library Services (hplvirtuallibrary@houstontx.gov).

Please share this information with your staff.

Sincerely,

Saima

Slice of Life: Shepard Acres Homes

Gwen set up a creative display at Shepard- Acres Homes.  Customers are encouraged to write what they like about using our library and take a picture, so that they can be displayed on our board for the remainder of the month!  There are some more "Slice of Life" posts coming but if you have an idea, you're more than welcome to pass it by!

-Jesus Villegas

SPACES NOTICE

JHJ: Office Moves

9 February 2017

  

The Spaces and Communications Division will be moving to their new offices beginning Thursday, February 9 and anticipate being back up and operational by the end of the day on Monday, February 13. During this time our connectivity to phones and emails will be greatly limited.

During this time, if there are any emergencies, please contact the following:

• Spaces Division: Karrington Burnett - 713-837-6473
• Communications Division: Marjorie Gonzalez – 281-936-9760
• Administrative Offices for Community Engagement, Outreach and Cultural Initiatives: Sharon Fletcher - 832-654-6415

Please communicate this information as usual and as necessary. 

John Middleton

Houston Public Library | SPACES

ACR/OAK Team members, please be advised of the information below regarding your Homelessness training for proper credit, please follow the instructions below.

Greetings,

The vendor of this training has moved the course to a new platform. Moving forward, please click on this  link to access the training. 

Once on the site, follow the steps below for access to the course.

·         Click on Practical Tips for Difficult Homeless Patrons

·         You can view the intro without creating an account, if desired.

·         Once you click on the first lesson in Module 1 – Rules with Compassion, you will be taken to a Locked Content page.

·         From this page, click on Enroll Private and follow the prompts to create an account.

To date 157 employees have completed this training. If you have already completed the training, you don’t have to do anything else... you are good if you have already sent your certificate of completion to hpltraining@houstontx.gov so that we can update your training record. If not, please send your certificate in!   

For those that have not completed the training, please use these new procedures to access the course. Those team members accessing the course via the new link do not have to send in your certificate of completion as we can pull Completion Reports via this new platform.

Additionally, it has come to our attention that some of you completed the mini-course and not the 2 ½ hour full course that we subscribed to. We will reach out to those on our list so that you can get the full course and quiz completed.

Please complete this training by COB on Monday, February 6^th, 2017.