No Smoking Zones

Hello, HPL!

Mayor Annise Parker announced today that smoking and the use of other tobacco products will be banned at all Houston Public Library and Houston Parks and Recreation Department properties.  This new policy will build upon existing City regulations banning smoking indoors, and is an expansion of action taken previously by the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.

For HPL, this is a move that continues our efforts to provide library spaces that are safe, healthy, family-friendly and welcoming environments in all communities and for all customers.

Currently, smoking is not permitted inside Library facilities and within 25 feet of any Library entrance. The establishment of No Smoking Zones extends the existing rule to include all HPL premises and mobile units including any plaza, walkway or green space around a Library building. Today’s announcement designates all HPL locations and mobile units as No Smoking Zones.

For HPL, the No Smoking Zone rule goes into effect on Thursday, July 24, 2014 at our downtown properties -  the Central Library and the Julia Ideson Building.  Signs will go up on the downtown properties tomorrow. All other HPL properties will become smoke and tobacco-free by Tuesday, September 2, 2014 (the day after Labor Day).  Signage announcing the change to our customers will be posted as required by City ordinance, during the month of August.

Customers and staff who wish to smoke should move to areas off of library premises, which in most cases is the sidewalk portion of the property.

HPL staff are asked to enforce this smoking ban in the same manner as any other rule – upon seeing someone smoking, the customer should be asked to extinguish the product or leave the property. If the customer refuses, he or she will be subject to suspension from HPL premises, following existing policies and procedures.  

Please note that I do not expect you to go outside the building and confront a customer or staff member who is in violation of this rule.  Instead, I would encourage you to mention the rule to the customer or staff member when they return to the building, so that they can abide by the rule in future visits. 

Additionally, the posting of signage on our properties will allow HPD to issue a citation if they see someone violating the no smoking ban. Your supervisors will be speaking with you about this new rule and will be available to answer questions you may have about this important change. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to help make our libraries safe, healthy, family friendly spaces. And thank you for providing services to our customers  with a smile,  respect, and professionalism. 

Best Regards,

Rhea Brown Lawson

Rhea Brown Lawson, PhD, Director
Houston Public Library
500 McKinney| Houston, Texas  77002

832-393-1300  

Rhea.Lawson@houstontx.gov 

Sick Time FAQs

Hello,

Now that the review period has ended (or is ending) and the benefit year is ending soon (runs September 1st-August 31st), I thought I would remind everyone of the guidelines for sick leave and the number of hours.

• A supervisor must require a doctor's statement for all sick hours used in excess of 64 hours in a benefit year.  
• If you use 16 or fewer sick hours during any full benefit year, you will accrue up to 3 personal days (once you have been employed a full year).
• You may use sick time for a family member.  You must complete a form for each family member that you use sick time for.
• When you use sick leave for a family member, the same rules apply and if you use in excess of 64 hours, then you must provide a doctor's statement each time sick time is used. 

See Sick Leave for a Family Member FAQs and City of Houston Benefits Page for more information.

If you have any questions, please speak with your Team Leader.

Thanks,

Laurie

Language Stats

Hi - This is Shammi and I am just checking to see if there are any questions or concerns about collecting stats related to different languages.

I want to stress that we are counting the number of customer interactions and not the number of questions answered in every language. So for example, you helped a Spanish only speaking customer in person who asked you 2 directional and 3 reference questions.You will mark this as one Spanish language interaction and count the reference and directional questions as you have counted before. There is no change to that part of stats collection

Brandon had a good suggestion to have Print Shop print the Stats sheet. Please send me your feedback on how the current form is working. Do you have any other version that might work better.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Best regards,

Shammi