Season's Greetings

Here is wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

Neighborhood Library Administration

Tip Sheet from the Department of Homeland Security

I would like to thank Michael Van Campen for sharing this information that gives some general guidelines on what to do in the event of someone calling in a bomb threat. Please contact the Librarian-in-charge (if unavailable, contact next highest ranking staff member)as soon as the call ends, who will call and gather security and HPD to make decisions about next steps.


Click here for a brochure from Homeland Security regarding bomb threats.

Mini-Grants for Neighborhood Library Programs deadline 12/19/08

Here is your opportunity to apply for the second annual mini-grant to fund programming ideas at HPL Neighborhood Libraries.

This is the second year we have used this process to award Friends programming money. The total funds available this year from the Friends remains $18,000.

• Grant amount will be between $500 -$1000
• Programming can be targeted for families, children, teens, adults or multicultural events.
• Final reports on how the program helps meet HPL goals and objectives will be required.

This funding is to provide programming for any age group at any time of the year. Funds could be used for a series of programs such as videogame tournaments, science programming for youth during the school year, a program each week of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, funds for refreshments and craft supplies for an after school Teen craft, or hiring a Tai Chi instructor for an adult series. Branches can group together to present a series of programs at multiple locations, or apply on your own. Programs should support HPL goals and objectives. The mini-grants are available to Neighborhood Libraries, HPL Express Locations and the Kids and Teens rooms at Central.

Application forms and other supporting information are attached.

Applications must be received in the Office of Neighborhood Libraries by December 19, 2008.
Awards will be announced by January 9, 2009. Program funds must be encumbered by June 30, 2009.
Questions? Contact Ana Shearon at 832-393-2705 or Ana.Shearon@CityofHouston.net

Checklist for coverage

• Neighborhood Libraries submit their Monthly staff calendar to the Regional Branch Manager and LA-Supervisor of their district.
• NL Managers always attempt to cover any gaps in their schedule with their own staff by making schedule adjustments such as changing days off, working split shifts, flex hours or switching nights & weekends.
• Coverage requests should only be made after all attempts at adjusting schedules have been exhausted.

Checklist to Request Coverage:

• The coverage is requested by the Manager of NL or person in-charge via email to the Regional Manager (RM) for Reference and LA-Supervisor for Circulation with a cc to the District Manager.
• RM or LA Supervisor gets the coverage request and schedules Regional Branch staff to provide the coverage.
• RM and/or LA Supervisor copies the District Manager on all Coverage Requests received and completed. RM includes the total hours of coverage (Reference+ Circulation) provided to the district by the Regional staff in the Monthly Narrative.
• If the RM or LA Supervisor can’t provide the coverage, he/she checks within the District to see if coverage can be provided.
• If all efforts at providing coverage fail, the RM contacts the District Manager to seek approval to go outside of the District.
• Any coverage request from Central should always go through the Chief of NL.

Checklist when Receiving Coverage:

• When the staff member reports to a work location needing coverage, NL Manager or person in-charge gives a brief orientation to the guest staff, including a tour of the facility; introduction to staff; Security Guard; a place to keep their belongings; schedule for the day and other expectations.
• NL Manager adds up all the hours of coverage received or provided for the Monthly Narrative in the format of date, hours, reference or circulation.

Credit Card - close out receipts

If your NL has a credit card machine, please look out for the close out receipt every morning.
If you are not getting a closing out receipt, the credit card transactions aren't going through even though you got an approval code.
Please call Isis Mathoslah in Financial Services at 31350 or email her if you have any questions about this.

Thanks,

Shammi

HPL Holiday Celebration

The Holiday Celebration Committee will deliver invitations to each neighborhood library on Monday, December 01, 2008. The arrival times for invitations will vary.

Guest tickets are $10.00 each and will also be available for purchase on Monday, December 01, 2008. At the time your location is visited, please see a committee member to purchase tickets instantly.

The deadline to RSVP is Monday, December 08, 2008. Please RSVP to the following email address: hpl.holiday@cityofhouston.net.

Mary Wagoner has raffle tickets. They are $1.00. All persons will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win FANTASTIC prizes.

Happy Holidays!!

Thank you for your continued commitment to bringing the best services possible to our customers at all Neighborhood Libraries!

Here's wishing you good health, safety, and happiness and a terrific Thanksgiving Day spent with those you love best.

Fines - Update

Greetings - Please read below email from Fred Schumacher about forgiving fines until 10/31/08 and resume assessing fines effective 11/1/08

After some consideration, the ELT has decided that we will continue to forgive fines through the end on this month. HPL will resume assessing fines beginning November 1.

I apologize for the late notice.

Thanks.

Fred Schumacher

Door Count Starts Sunday

Greetings,

Here is an important message from Ann Otto about door count:

"October Door Count starts this Sunday, October 19th and continues through Saturday, October 25th.

As a reminder, you will be counting Visitors and In-house Materials Use. Count the number of adult and juvenile visitors to the library per hour. Age 17 years and younger are considered juveniles for this count.

Any item that is removed from its usual location by staff or public is counted as “in house use”. All formats are included and each physical item is counted as one. This count is made as frequently during the day as the unit manager determines is necessary.

We rely on you for accuracy and thoroughness, so if you have any questions, email or call me.

Many thanks,

Ann"

HPL Update 9/19/08

Four HPL locations are offering Blue Roof Program and will be open from 8 am - 7 pm on 9/20 & 9/21 (Saturday & Sunday). These four locations are: Central; Clayton; Kendall & Stella.

Neighborhood libraries & Central participating in the Blue Roof Program will continue to open from 8 - 7 and other locations like Robinson Westchase & Stanaker from 10-7

Childcare will not be offered at Central Saturday & Sunday and this service will resume on Monday; 9/22/08. Employees working at Central this weekend can park in the garage downstairs.

Bracewell & Carnegie locations are scheduled to open on Monday and additional locations will open as power is restored.

I will have more details after 11 am conference call with ELT and Dr Lawson.

Shammi

HPL Update 9/18/08

The word of free child care for COH employees got out and about 50 kids were hosted today and the number is expected to go up tomorrow.

Other locations opening tomorrow include: Robinson Westchase; Stanaker and HPL Express-SW.

Additional locations will open as power is restored and clearance is given by IT for network connection and by GSD/PFD that facility has been inspected and is deemed safe to open.

Stay tuned for further details as they become available.

Shammi

HPL update 9/17/08

ELT, Chiefs and District Managers spent most of the day in meetings to finalize the logistics of providing child care to school aged child/children of all City of Houston employees. An email was sent out to all HPL employees by Dr Lawson with related information and registration form.

McGovern Stella Link opens tomorrow and they have 12 additional staff (8 circ & 4 ref) to help this week. Here is what has been planned with stella Link opening tomorrow by John Merullo:
* The computer lab will be reserved for people applying for FEMA assistance, making insurance claims and doing other things related to hurricane recovery. Patrick Atkins will be in charge of the computer lab.
* The small meeting room will be used for children’s programming: storytimes, crafts, board games, etc. Carol Rico will be in charge of this area.
* The large meeting room will be used for teen programming, similar to what we have during the After School Zone. Erik Wilbourn will be in charge of this area.

The hours of operation for Stella are: Thursday & Friday from 10-7; Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday from 1-5

In addition to this Robinson Westchase is scheduled to open on Friday, 9/19/08 from 10-7 and Saturday from 10-6. ROB staff will be reporting to ROB tomorrow to get the location ready for opening on Friday. I will be looking for volunteers to fill in at Robinson Westchase library. please contact me if you live by this location or would like to help.

Thanks,

Shammi

Another HPL Update 9/16/08

Hello - Thanks a lot for helping at Central today! Please continue to follow your schedule unless told otherwise by your supervisor.

Kendall and Discovery Green will open tomorrow as scheduled. However Acres Homes can't open due to sewage backup in the neighborhood. An updated press release is being sent by Sandra Fernandez to the media.

McGovern Stella Link staff will be reporting to their home branch tomorrow, 9/17/08 to get it ready to open to the public on Thursday, 9/18/08.

Robinson Westchase staff will be reporting to their home branch on Thursday, 9/18/08 and get it ready to open to the public on Friday, 9/19/08.

Some important things to keep in mind -

*Please open your computer labs to help customers complete their FEMA and/or insurance claims.
*We will not be charging for printing in the labs for those locations with labs.
*The fines for laptop and for items not returned that were due during the hurricane Ike time period will be waved until further notice.Items damaged due to hurricane will be coded with special code in Millennium. UMS, collection agency for HPL has been told to give our customers a two week break and not call them about their charges. Tech services team is working on developing FAQ.
*The entrance ramp on Lamar side is operational and public will be allowed to park there. The parking fee at Central will be waived until Tuesday (9/23/08) of next week.

If your temporary work location is Central, you can park at Marston and a shuttle will transport you to Central. The shuttle will operate between the hours of 8:15 am - 7:15 pm. We also checked Metro's website and they are resuming normal operation effective tomorrow, 9/17/08.

Please don't worry about completing the time sheets this week. Everyone's hours will be sent in according to what they were scheduled to work and 605's will be sent next week for corrections.

HPL Update for the week of 9/15/08

Greetings,

Central and JIB will be open from 10-7 the rest of this week. We need folks to work either 9-6 or 10-7 shift. If you can come in, please do so. Please call to let your supervisor or District Manager know if you will be coming in and what shift you will be working. If you cannot come in please call your supervisor or District Manager and let them know why you cannot come in. If you drive in you can park in the garage. However, there is lot of debris on the Lamar side of entrance to the garage. Please use McKinney side exit as entrance and exit. If you can take a bus, please do so. if you can carpool, that is great. You can also park at Marston and carpool from there. All staff will report to the Concourse Meeting Room to check in and get information about their assignments and orientation to the Central location.

Kendall and Acres Home Neighborhood library locations will be opening Wednesday and additional locations will open as power is restored. Please check back this blog regularly for updates.

If you have questions, the best number to reach me is 713-447-0914. I will call you back if I miss your call.


Thanks,

Shammi

Resource Directory for the Homeless

There is lot of useful information on the Resource Directory for the homeless.

Please click here for link to print Help Cards for the homeless.

New Employees

We will very soon have some new employees and some who have recently joined us. Please give them a warm welcome when you see them -

Robert Wright - Manager - Tuttle NL
John Brower - Manager - Heights NL
Charles Murray - Manager - Jungman NL
Karby Johnson - LSS 29 hours - Alief
Ghulam Markhiani - LA - Blue Ridge
Celeste Diaz - LSS 20 hours - Meyer
Christy Chang - LSS (Temp) - Robinson Westchase
Emanda Campbell - LA Stella Link
Palwasha Sharwani - LA Stella Link

Congratulations to Crystal Shiver and Mark Hall for their recent promotion.

COH Administrative Procedure 2-3

Please review COH Administrative Procedure 2-3 relating to severe weather and other emergency conditions

Reminders

Regina's goal was for all the NL to start using the revised Telephone Greetings by 7/21/08. I am attaching it here for your reference. If you haven't shared this information with your staff, please do so.

We are in the middle of hurricane season, please make sure that you have a copy of updated Staff Contact list.

Financial Office wants Mileage completed every month even if it is under $10.00. Managers only initial the mileage requests and they are signed by their respective District Managers.

All staff must sign in every day and completed sign in sheets stay in the Time Sheet binder.

Please complete Daily Deposit and if there is any discrepancy, it must have an explanation and Reconciliation Form attached to it.

Amanda Blackmon in HR is our Workman's Compensation coordinator. Notify Amanda when an employee gets hurt on the job and always copy your respective District Coordinator.

Denise Warren in HR handles FMLA related issues. Please call her if you have any quetions relating to FMLA.

Important Deadlines

Here are some important deadlines to keep in mind every month.

• Stats are now due without the circ numbers by the 5th of every month to Ana Shearon.
• Narrative Reports are due to your DM's by the 10th of the month with stats that include the circ stats.
• Complete your Goals & Objectives report by 15th of every month. include something in the comment box at bottom of the page that will help you write annual summary.
  
• Monthly staff calendars are due to your regional Branch manager and a copy to your DM by 25th of the previous month. For example, August 2008 calendars are due by July 25th.

Shammi

IT updates

District Managers met with Ron Strauss on 7/17/08 and he shared IT enhancements, some are complete and others are coming to you soon.

• All the computer terminals in the Neighborhood Libraries should now have flat screens.

• IT will continue to station IT personnel in the Regional Branches for IT support.

• By the end of July, we will be back to 5 digit dialing.

• City is giving additional funding to have lot more bandwidth that will improve the speed of our network connection.

• Thin clients, causing problem with Flash Drives etc will be replaced in the next 3 months with fat clients.

• Please continue to call or email IT help desk for any IT related problems.
  

Shammi

COH General Plan

Houston’s General Plan is a compilation of plans, regulations, strategies, projections and resources that provide the direction and guidance for Houston’s growth and development. The goal of the General Plan is to provide decision makers with the most up-to-date, useful information and tools to manage our growth. The General Plan provides a way to view and conduct planning efforts in a more cohesive, integrated manner.

It is available at:
http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/GeneralPlan/GPHome.html

New cell phone numbers

Suzy Benton 713-447-1469
Shammi Gill 713-447-0914
Mary Wagoner: 713-447-1545