This just in

All,

I want to remind you all that with the implementation of our newest revision of the Library Security section of our policy and procedure manual (Policy 2.3), we no longer restrict the use of cell phones to specific areas. People are free to use cell phones as long as their doing so does not create loud, unreasonable or disturbing noises. We also state that "Respect for other library users shall prevail at all times." Cell phones are a part of our user's life, and to disallow their use would not help us with our goal to provide excellent customer service. Too often our customers are using their phones in ways that enhance their customer experience, whether it's being talked through the use of a website or finding out what they were really sent to the library to get.

This policy, procedure and notice to users can be found on the Intranet under https://hplnet.hpl.lib.tx.us/policies.html under the Planning and Facilities tab. This policy and procedure are ones that you and your staff should review frequently.

Please remove any signs you may have in your location banning or restricting cell phone usage.

Thank you,
Gina

It's official!

We have just been informed by Facilities that we are now a LEAD Certified building, the first one in Houston!

We will soon be getting a plaque that will be mounted at a to be determined location in the building.

It's December

Hello everyone,

I have updated the calendar. Starting on Monday the 1st, we will be taking reservations for the mmeting and conference rooms through the end of March 2009.

Thanks,
Brandon

Employee Credit Union

On Tuesday, December 2nd, there will be a representative from the City Employee Credit union here at Looscan.

She will get here at about 9:30AM and is here to answer questions about what they can do for us.

I've reserved the COnference room for her, but I think we could possibly set her up in the break room too.

Brandon

Its November!

Its a brand new month!

I have put up the monthly Calendar for November.

I have also updated the meeting calendar through the end of Febuary. That means we are now accepting reservations for the meeting room through February of 2009.

This month, several things are happening.

First, we are a voting site for Precinct 135 on Nov. 4th. Be prepared because it is likely that will be a *very* busy day.

2nd, we are gearing up for the installation of the Bert Long Mural. As part of that, LeAnn has emptied the shelves on the aisle where the painting will be installed. The Beginning Readers and the Holiday Books are on carts over by the Holds Shelves. The Picture books are on carts over by the board books. Carpenters will be in on the 6th to start altering the tree. The actual art installation will occur on the 11th while we are closed for the holiday. The formal reception and grand unveiling will be on the 15th from 7-9. Workers will be in on the 14th to set up tables for the reception.

If anyone asks about the paiting, tell them that it is supposed to be installed the week of the 10th.

Brandon

My Desk

In the future, when you need to leave paperwork for me to look at (or anything for that matter in my office), please be certain that you include a *note* that lets me know what you want/need me to do with it.

Do not just assume that I'll know off the top of my head.

Thanks,
Brandon

Thanksgiving and Christmas time off

Hello everyone,

People have started turning in requests for time off at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

To make sure that everyone has a fair shot at time off during this time period, I need everyone to start to look very carefully at their calendars to decide what, if any, time they want off.

If you want to take time off at multiple holidays, please prioritize which is more important in case we have too many people wanting time off on the same day.

If I have not heard from you by August 15th, any vacation requests you turn in will be given lower priority to those who request it before that deadline.

Also, it has also been brought to my attention that one of the weekend shifts will get both Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends this year. To try and make things a bit more fair, in January, we will all be switching our weekends. That means that those who have off the weekend after Thanksgiving and the weekend after Christmas this year will *definitely* be working those weekends next year and those who have to work them this year will get time off next year.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Brandon Pope

Looscan NL Manager

Phone messages

A reminder to everyone.

Public Phones should be answered as follows:

Thank you for calling the Houston Public Library System.
This is the Looscan Neighborhood Library.
How can I help you?

Thanks,
Brandon

Employee Recognition Day

This Thursday is Employee Recognition Day

Everyone needs to either attend the party or work the night shift. Administration is closing all facilities from 9 to Noon to allow staff to attend the event. If you are unable to attend the event due to transportation issues AND cannot work the evening shift, please let me know immediately. People who are working the evening shift should not enter the building until 11AM at the earliest.

I am on the decoration committee for the event. I'll be there from 6AM to noon and then be here by about 5PM for my evening program.

Thank you,
Brandon Pope

Meeting With Gina and Mellor

This is to let everyone know that there is a meeting scheduled for the entire staff with Mellor and Gina on Tuesday July 8th from 4PM - 5PM.

This is a mandatory meeting and takes precedence over anything else.

We are going to be getting staffing assistance so that everyone can attend.

The meeting is going to be in the large Meeting Room upstairs. There is an SRP even scheduled to be in there until 4 so we will go in as soon as it lets out.

If you are currently not scheduled to work on that Tuesday, we need to change your schedule so you can attend. Considering that this is about 6 weeks away, I expect everyone to be able to adjust their schedule to be there.

Thank you,
Brandon

Incident Reports

I am stealing this from the Central Chief's blog because I think its important and everyone needs to know!

Fill out an Incident report for anything you encounter during the day that "causes a disturbance to library property, staff or patrons, or any illegal activity".

The "disturbance to...staff" bit should include anything that causes a staff member to be upset or become uncomfortable. This is especially true when confronted with an abusive customer whether it be on the phone or in person.

We need to document these so that we can prevent abusive customers from continuing to act inappropriately. Be sure to, if at all possible, get the names of those involved!

If any thing happens out of the ordinary, it is always safest to do an Incident Report.

After completing the Incident Report, please submit it to the "HPL - North District Incidents" distribution list, which can be found in Outlook in the Global Address List.

If there are any questions, please let me know.

Brandon

Exercise!

The City of Houston is encouraging everyone to do 15 minutes of exercise tomorrow, May 13th.

They are hoping to get 100% compliance. If you are able to exercise tomorrow, let me know and I'll give you the email address to which to mail your info. Alternatively, you can check your email for a message from Marlana Mitchell with all of the relavent information.

Thanks,
Brandon

Phones Calls

I had hoped to not have to do this, but recent events have made it clear that I need to remind everyone of an existing policy.

Some people on the staff are spending entirely too much time on the phone. By this I am talking about cell phone conversations, text messaging, and calls on the actual library phone system.

As part of this, I need to ask everyone to do (or not do) several things.

First, unless it is an emergency situation of some sort, cell phones need to be left in the work room. If it *is* necessary to carry one on you, it needs to be in your pocket on vibrate at all times. I know I am just as guilty as anyone else, but I am going to try and do better.

Second, when people call you for personal reasons, time spent on this call is part of your break time. Furthermore, if you are on the desk, you need to take the call in the back. If we are too busy, it will be necessary to tell the caller that you will have to call them back (after you get off the desk).

I'd still like to keep things loose about phone calls, but we've had a customer complain to me about it once already. I am going to start enforcing these changes in the way things have been done starting on Monday.

Thank you,
Brandon

Meeting Room Schedule Policy changes

I wanted to write down and make sure everyone knows the new policies for scheduling the meeting room.

First Change: The old policy said that we would only schedule a room 90 days in advance. This is changed. We will now schedule meetings up to three months ahead. What this means is that you do not need to worry about the exact date of a meeting, just the month it occurs. For example, on March 2nd, we get a call wanting to reserve a meeting room for June 12th. Under the old policy, we would have told the patron to call back in 10 days. Now, we just check that the meeting is going to occur in June (3 months from now), and go ahead and schedule it.

Second Change: Meeting forms are not to be scratched out every time someone wants a change made. For example, Ms. X comes down after her meeting and wants you to schedule a meeting for next month. Under the old system, people would frequently just scratch out the old date/time and put in the new date/time. Now, Ms. X will need to fill out a new form each time she meets in our meeting or conference room. The reason we do this is because it was causing record-keeping nightmares when I tried to get our stats ready for the prior month. The only time someone can fill out multiple meetings on one application is if it a) all occurs within the same month and b) is all scheduled at the same time. If Ms. X wants to schedule a meeting on the first Thursday of every month, she will need to fill out a form for *each* month she wants to meet. If Ms. X wants to schedule a meeting on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month for the next three months, she can put the two meetings that occur in the same month on the same sheet, but will still have to do a separate sheet for each month. If you have any questions about this, please ask me immediately!!!

Finally, please be sure you are using the correct colors for each meeting. If its a phone call or someone who schedules it but does not fill out the paperwork, use blue as a background color. If you have the form filled out so that the patron's meeting is confirmed, use yellow as a background color. If it is a Library program, these do not need to fill out paperwork. Just mark these as purple.

Thanks,
Brandon

Shelving

As some of you know, last week we lost Matthew and traded Cedric for Blair.

That means we went from having 54 hours of dedicated shelvers to 20. They are going to try to fill Matthew's position, but until then all of us will have to help shelve.

I expect everyone, reference and circulation alike, to participate in these duties. At a bare minimum, everyone should shelve one cart load a day. Furthermore, if two people are assigned to work on the desk and it is not busy, one of you should go ahead and start shelving.

For reference, I have adjusted the schedule so that one person is assigned most hours to assist in shelving this week in the hopes that we can get caught up.

Finally, please try and be diligent with your shelf reading. If possible, try and combine this with your shelving duties.

Thanks,
Brandon

Signing in

I want to remind everyone to please sign in everyday that you work!

If there is not a sign in sheet, let Cindy or myself know and we will put one up immediately.

Also, I've noticed that some of you are coming in and signing in and signing when you *think* you will be leaving ansd sometimes even immediately signing in and out for lunch.

Please stop doing this. I need you to sign in when get here and out when you *leave*.

Thanks,
Brandon

Digital TV Transition and/or Government issued coupons

From the Remote Reference Blog

Contrary to what Channel 11 reported, the coupons are NOT available at the library!!

The coupon program website is https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Households can apply for the coupons at that site -- limit 2 per household.

More information on the program can be found at http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/woissues/techinttele/dtv/dtv.cfm

Requests must be received by March 31, 2009.

People may also apply by:
PHONE1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009)
TTY: 1-877-530-2634 (English)
1-866-495-1161 (Spanish)

MAILPO Box 2000Portland, OR 97208

FAX1-877-388-4632

Name That Book List

Mary Jo has gone through and looked up all the books on the Name That Book List.

She went through, labeled the call numbers and whether we have a copy here at Looscan. The results of her work are located on a clip board set to the right of the printer at the reference desk.

Welcome to the new Blog!

Hello everyone, welcome to the new blog for Looscan Library staff.

I've met most of you at this time, but in case I missed you, my name is Brandon Pope and I am the new manager of the branch.

This blog will exist for three purposes.

1) It allows me to make a general announcement without having to track each of you down.
2) It collects useful links in one place.
3) It provides a place for the monthly calender, the reference desk schedule, and eventually the circulation desk schedule.

Thanks,
Brandon Pope