Customer Experience Blog: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Monday, January 30, 2012

Project Updates: Passports and Faxing

Greetings,

I wanted to provide brief informal and unofficial updates on two ongoing pilot projects that we are currently conducting at HPL. Both of these projects are six-month pilots that began in September. They will wrap up in March and there will be a full assessment and recommendations for how to proceed at that time. For now, I can share what we know at this stage:

Passports (Alief and Central)

This service began slowly but seemed to see an increase in October as folks needed to get passports for the holidays and the word got out about the service. Both Central and Alief have seen a significant increase so far in 2012. Staff at both locations report that it is not as cumbersome a process as was originally thought. On average, each application takes roughly 15 minutes. They both share that the biggest challenge tends to be Saturdays, which are by far the busiest day for the service and do present staffing challenges. Here are some quick statistics on where things stand now: Central has processed 136 passports w/ 43 of those in January; Alief has processed 109 passports with 63 (!) in January. As mentioned above, there will be a full report completed at the end of the pilot that looks at staff time, customer usage, and revenue generation.

Fax Service (Scenic Woods and Central)

Full statistics on this service will be provided at the end of the pilot period by Coin Copiers and shared with IT for completing the final report. Anecdotal reports from Central are that it is popular and requires very little staff assistance. At Scenic Woods, staff share that the service is quite popular but has required more staff assistance. As with passports, there will be a full report completed on this project in March.

If you have questions about either of these projects, please feel free to contact NL Administration or the managers at the locations engaged in the pilots.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Friday, January 27, 2012

Locations by Council District

The Communications Department has put together a handy guide that identifies library locations by the new council districts. This is also available via the Communications page of the intranet site, under the Government Relations tab.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Monthly Reports?

Greetings all,

I wanted to put another question out there for NL Managers (and staff). Is there a benefit in bringing back some form of monthly reports? I know that these required a little work and after the shift to the spreadsheet and then the bulleted lists, they kind of became merely a restating of statistics. However, the versions we used to do were helpful in that they provided managers a chance to share all of those intangible and unquantifiable things that are accomplished at their locations.

Please share if you feel it would be useful to reinstate monthly reports in the near future. If there is a strong opinion in favor of this, I would also like to seek a team to develop a report format that is not too cumbersome and can easily cover what locations need (and want) to share with NL and HPL Administration and their colleagues. If we do this, I want to make sure that the format is useful and as little burden on staff as possible.

I look forward to your input on this.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Cigna Weight Management Class

Greetings all,

I encourage anyone who is interested in this Weight Management program (details below) to participate. This is a service that would normally cost several hundred dollars and is being made available free to HPL employees who have CIGNA health insurance. Neighborhood Libraries Administration will work with your manager to ensure that your location(s) have adequate coverage during the time that staff need to commit to attend these sessions.

Thanks,

Mike Van Campen

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Team –

Do you know what it takes to manage your weight and stay healthy? Join us for a 12-week weight management program led by CIGNA health professionals trained in behavioral and coaching techniques.

If you are interested in participating in the program, please email Marie Stephens at marie.stephens@cityofhouston.net no later than February 01, 2011. The program is FREE, however, you will be required to commit to attending all scheduled classes to successfully complete the program.

Onsite Class Schedule:

Tuesdays, starting February 7, 2012 @ 2pm – 3pm

Location: Central Library, 6^th Floor Training Room

Participation in the program is on a first come, first serve basis. We are accepting the first 40 employees. Please note that you must enroll to officially be a participant of this class. Individuals who have been accepted into the program will received an email confirmation along with a link on how to proceed with registration.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Technology Survey

HALAN is beginning the process of creating technology plans for HALAN and Houston Public Library for FY13 through FY15. We would like all staff to provide input about how staff and the public use technology available from the HALAN libraries. As a first step please complete the survey available at this link :

http://www2.houstonlibrary.org/cgi-bin/survey/halan/tech_plan.pl

The link is also available at the Houston Public Library intranet from the homepage and the IT page.

Deadline for completing the survey is February 3, 2012.

Email me or call me at 832-393-1476 if you have questions.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Judith Hiott

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SOPA/PIPA & Wikipedia Shutdown

Today there will most likely be a lot of discussion about the 24 hour Wikipedia shutdown in protest to two anti-piracy bills. Below is an article from the New York Times that details the gist of these bills and the response from the Internet community.

Protest on Web Uses Shutdown to Take on Two Piracy Bills

Interestingly, although the rest of Wikipedia is shut down all day today, the entries for both SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act) are available today. In addition there is an FAQ page that can be accessed from the black-out screen when you attempt to access Wikipedia.

Mike VC

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

E-books and Libraries Articles

Here are a couple of interesting articles from The Washington Post about e-book demand and libraries. The first link is the article itself; the second is a look at the availability of e-books of titles on the Washington Post bestseller lists at some D.C. area library systems.

I would be curious to hear what people think about these issues. How should libraries proceed in light of publishers limiting e-book availability to libraries? Should public libraries refuse to purchase from publishers that limit content? If so, should that be limited to their e-content or their print titles as well? Or, should libraries purchase whatever is available to meet the demands of our customers? These are definitely interesting and fluid times as libraries and publishers work through these issues. Please feel free to comment on this and discuss this issue.

Mike VC

LJ Librarian of the Year 2012

Greetings - Interesting article with picture of Edward Melton!

Shammi