Saturday Assistance - x32707

Greetings all,

When you have a question or need assistance on a Saturday, NL Administration now offers one simple contact telephone number, 832.393.2707. A Team Leader; or a Coordinator of Extended Hours will answer your call. If the telephone is not immediately answered, please leave a message and your call will be returned as quickly as possible. Once again, we invite you to begin calling 832.393.2707 for Saturday assistance beginning Saturday, February 18, 2012.

If it is an emergency; or when calling through the week, please directly contact your Team Leader. Thank you so much.

Mary Wagoner

Houston Bank on Education

Houston Bank on Education is a program designed through partnerships formed by the Mayor’s Office of Education, the Houston Public Library and other agencies to assists customers who need it with free help in filling out application forms for the federal student aid (FAFSA) and also provide free tax preparation to help families who qualify for student aide to get their taxes prepared. (Please visit http://bankoneducation.org/ for more information)

This program is taking place at Kashmere-Gardens Neighborhood Library, Heights Neighborhood Library and Vinson Neighborhood & Express Library this Saturday, the 11th of February 2012. There is the possibility that the partnership between HPL, the Mayor’s office and other agencies to provide this service will continue in the future. Please refer all questions about this to Heidi Daniel or Theodora Ume-Ezeoke.

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,
Theodora.

Substitute FAQs

Hello,

I have updated the Substitute FAQ that was discussed at the manager's meeting on January 26th. It is also on the Substitutes Tab under Substitute Documents. Please share the information with all staff that work with the Substitutes.

There is also an updated version of the Substitute Timesheet. Please start using this version of the timesheet and update any links that you have on your own blog or bookmarks.

Continue to submit the Person-in-Charge Survey and encourage the Substitutes to do the Substitute Survey. We are using this information to improve the substitute process.

Finally, please let the Substitutes know about the change in Laptop Policy that occurred this week. We are working on sending something to the Substitutes, but please make sure they are aware of the changes.

Let us know if there other suggestions for the Substitutes.

Thanks,

Laurie

New Laptop Procedures

Greetings,

As I shared in an e-mail, there has been a change to laptop check-out. Effective as of my communication earlier this morning, customers with any fines at all on their record will not be allowed to check out laptops. There is work being done to adjust policies and forms to reflect this new practice.

Several folks have called and asked about signage relating this change. I have spoken with Communications and the feeling is that this needs to be communicated verbally and (in the spirit of anti-clutter) we do not need to post a sign. If this becomes a major issue at your location, please let us know. Also, staff are free to share the "effective immediately" e-mail I sent out earlier today if needed as support/evidence for the change.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me or anyone in NL Admin with questions/concerns as we work our way through this change.

Thanks,

mvc

How to Add an RSS Feed on your Blog

It is really easy to add RSS feed to your blog. Here are the steps:

1. Sign in to your blog.
2. Select "Design" in the upper right hand corner.
3. Select "Add a Gadget" This is where the RSS Feed will appear on your blog. It can be draged and moved within the page.
4. Scroll down the list to select "Feed: Add content from an RSS feed to your blog."
5. Configure the feed. Add the URL of the blog you want to get RSS feed from. For example, you may want to add: http://hplnl.blogspot.com to get RSS feeds from NL blog.
6. Save the changes. After clicking on "Continue," a dialog box will open showing the option to select how many items you wish to display. Make selections and review how the feed will look on your blog. Select "Save Changes" when satisfied.
7. The above URL will only provide feeds from the posts on the "Home" page of the NL blog.

I hope this is helpful. Please post your questions here and if you have a simpler way of doing this, please share that too.

Thanks,

Shammi

Booksale

Hi,

I wish to share some background on booksale with newer members of our team.

1) Programming: More centralized programming was put in place as a result of Manager input about the amount of time it took to book programs, complete invoices, track vendor payments, and handle calls from vendors if payments were not timely. Heidi played a central role in these discussions. NL has allocated funds annually to Programming specifically for Neighborhood Library programs. Please share suggestions for new programs, a specific program for your location, or a change in program content with Programming.

2) Mad Money: All funds are subject to audit. For example, auditors find expenditures for food or staff celebrations highly questionable. In addition, “mad money” requires a return to petty cash reimbursement. This is no longer available.

3) Wish Lists: This is your money so please let us know how you want to spend it. The easiest way to communicate your needs is to send Linda and me an email. It is easier to follow up on requests made by email.

We have also created another "Wish List". Please send it to Linda by February 17th, however, you are always welcome to send Linda or me a request at any time! If it is a furniture or equipment related request, we will ask Planning and Facilities or IT to review the request, as there are ADA requirements and service contracts. If you are unsure that a request qualifies for booksale, please talk to your Team Leader.

We look forward to seeing your requests! Thanks.

Mary Wagoner

Resource Page Update

At the suggestion of Patrick Atkins at STE, we have added some links to resources on the Resources page of this blog. We have added the meeting room form, laptop circulating guidelines, and discard label (courtesy of the Kendall blog). In addition, we created a location information section with the locations by city council district document and both the 2008 and 2010 Library Information Sheets.

Please let us know if you would like to see any other documents or information added to the Resources page.

Thanks,

Mike VC