Promoting Programs

Promotion

• Establish a promotional routine in which staff regularly closes all transactions (in person or on the phone) by informing customers of upcoming programs.
• Customer service – Be courteous, be available to “talk” about the program; smile and show enthusiasm.
• Recognize staff promoting programs with positive reinforcement.
• Hosting location has additional promotional responsibility for onsite programs or programs at nearby community sites.
• Staff assist interested customers in the registration process.
• Staff let customers know about for similar programs.
• Assure all staff provide additional program information for their neighborhood library and other locations for customers.
• Cross promote programs.  For example, at the beginning or end of storytime, staff person can promote a youth services program at a nearby neighborhood library.
• Distribute promotional materials to community contacts, *stakeholders, schools, churches and area businesses.
• Stakeholders include, but are not limited to, the following: library customers, employees, business leaders, educators and schools, cultural community, philanthropic community, virtual community, civic groups and associations, superneighborhoods, churches, recreation groups/clubs, health organizations, professional associations, social service organizations, politicians, media (community newspapers), city departments and government agencies.
• Contact well in advance of the program, and send reminders.
• Share information at community events.
• Partners promote us with presence on their website and distribution of print flyers.
• Create attractive and prominent displays with relevant materials.

Thanks!

Mary

Children in the Workplace

Hi,

Many of our staff may be unfamiliar with the directive in regard to children in the workplace.  HPL Director Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson sent a memo on June 12, 2007, in regard to children in the workplace.  ALL staff must comply with the memo.

“Please note that children may not be brought to the workplace in lieu of day care.  They may participate in the Summer Reading Program and other library activities.  However, children will not be allowed in the parent’s or care giver’s work area, staff lounges, or left alone for long periods of time in the library.

Thanks for your cooperation.”

A Manager, Acting Manager; or staff member designated in charge of the building must require compliance with this written directive.   A parent or caregiver cannot divide their attention between doing their job and monitoring their children.  Our customers deserve 100% of staff’s attention at all times.

“Guests/friends/spouses” are not allowed in work areas.  If a “guest” were injured, he or she could sue the library.  “Guests” are not covered by Workmen’s Compensation.  All library staff is responsible for maintaining a professional work environment.   

Once again, we encourage all staff and their families to participate in library programs, such as the Summer Reading Program.  Thank you for understanding that customer service is our highest priority.

Thanks!

Mary Wagoner

Library Card Campaign--Dr. Lawson's Message

Good afternoon, HPL!

Our exciting MY Link Library Card campaign launch festivities is coming up next week starting on September 10^th with the Mayor’s press Conference and fun activities at H-E-B and all HPL locations on September13^th. 

I want to make you aware of three important items that will help you promote our new MY Link Library Card and the Campaign activities to our customers.

Raffle to win an iPad Mini

All customers who register for a new My Link Library Card during the card campaign launch festivities on September 13^th, or during the City Hall Farmers Market (held on the Central Library Plaza) on September 17^th,will be entered into a drawing to win one of five iPad Minis.

Winners will be notified the week of September 22^nd and will be invited to join us as our special guest at Houston LibroFest on Saturday, September 27^th. 

“I Have MY Link, Do YOU Have Yours?” Amnesty Program

In an effort to get the My Link Library Card into the hands of as many Houstonians as possible, HPL will waive fines under $25.00 for those who register for a new MY Link Library Card Wednesday, September 10^th through Friday, September 26^th, 2014.   Amnesty will apply to all accounts that are NOT in the collection process.  Accruing fines for overdue items returned during the amnesty period will also be waived.   

The Circulation Administration Team has created a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the program, which you can find under the FAQ’s tab on the MY Link intranet page:  https://hplnet.hpl.lib.tx.us/mylink.html.  

I am so proud to be able to offer an amnesty period to all Houstonians. This amnesty period, HPL’s first full amnesty offer since 1978, will run from Wednesday, September 10^th through Friday, September 26^th, 2014.  Mayor Parker and I will officially announce the program to the public during her press conference on Wednesday, September 10^th. 

Campaign Promotional Materials

All locations will receive an array of promotional materials beginning Monday, September 8^th.  Materials will include bookmarks, brochures, flyers, campaign buttons, posters, and Library Card FAQ’s.   

Location managers should be on the lookout for a more detailed message about these items from Greg Simpson later this week.

Here is a reminder of the four MY Link Campaign Goals:

1. To widely promote HPL’s resources, services and programs to every member of the community, taking every opportunity to share the advantages of this free card

2. To get the MY Link Card into the hands of every student

3. To replace existing HPL cards with the new MY LINK card with the H-E-B logo

4. To increase the number of cardholders to 1 million by the end of FY15.

It is going to take all of us working together make this campaign a success!  The campaign presents us with a great opportunity to make Houstonians aware of the wide array of resources, services and programs we offer our community!

I look forward to celebrating with you as we kick off next week!

I Have MY Link…Do You Have Yours?

Best Regards,

Dr. Lawson

Civic Engagement

Hello,

Tony Goodwyn had a really good description of the Civic Engagement process that I thought I would share with everyone.

The aim of these Civic Engagement Initiative meetings is to connect local community organizations and leaders with one another, so that they can work together to address and resolve local challenges and network with one another.  The library is happy to participate in these efforts by serving as a meeting place and providing any support and help that the library is able to do.  A series of citywide Civic Engagement meetings will be held, starting September 23, which will give local leaders the opportunity to network with leaders from other local communities across Houston.

In addition, here is my interpretation of the Civic Engagement series throughout the year:

• September 23rd Meeting:  Set up and introduce the ideas of Civic Engagement in Houston
• January Meetings (Civic Engagement Week):  Drill down to what each community would like to do to address and resolve local challenges.
• May Meeting:  Bring together the various people that communities need to work with to accomplish their goal.  For example, representatives from Parks, Solid Waste, Public Works, HISD, etc would be on hand to discuss the issues one-on-one with the local community members in an agency fair type setting.
• September 2015 Meeting:  Celebrate the accomplishments of all of the local communities and to look at where they go from here.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Thanks,

Laurie

Password manager

Greetings - I am posting the email from HITS (Houston IT Services). Please ensure every staff person is enrolled into Password Manager. Once enrolled in this self serving solution, staff will not have to call IT to reset their MS Exchange passwords. The instructions are at the bottom of this email.

Thank you,

Shammi

From: HITS - Notification
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 9:20 AM
Subject: Password Manager

  

Attention City of Houston employees:

HITS recently launched a great new tool, Password Manager.   The Password Manager provides a simple, secure, self-service solution that enables end-users to reset forgotten passwords and unlock their accounts.  

40% of the calls into the HITS Customer Support Center are for password resets.  Providing employees the ability to reset their own passwords reduces the amount of time our Support Center employees spend on these calls and will greatly reduce wait times overall.

What does this mean for me?

Password Manager provides the ability to perform a self-service reset of your Windows network and Exchange passwords without having to contact the Help Desk.

HITS will add the ability to reset passwords for other applications at later dates (i.e. Kronos, HEAR, ESS, etc.).

Note: If you have “elevated privileges” (are able to change users’ passwords and modify users in Active Directory), you will not be able to complete the Enrollment at this time.

What do I need to do?

Please complete Enrollment into Password Manager by accessing the following link to create your Questions and Answers Profile.

Enrolling is easy and takes less than 5 minutes!

To access the new Password Manager website from your work area or from home:

Go to: http://passwordreset.houstontx.gov

1.      Enter your Username – six digit employee number with the “e” – use leading zeroes, if needed (i.e., e012345 or e123456).

2.      Enter your Location – the location should default to ‘HOUTX’.

3.      Enter the characters from the image, and ‘Click’ OK.

4.      ‘Click’ the My Questions and Answers Profile link.

5.      Enter your network password and choose ‘Next’.

6.      Select a Question, and enter an Answer for each drop-down box and choose ‘Next’.

7.      Questions and Answers Profile is successfully created.

Please contact the HITS Help Desk with any questions at 4-HITS or 832-394-HITS (Ext. 4487).

Pop Up Library

Hi, Team,
As a follow up to my August 4th email about the Pop Up Library,  I want to thank locations that have begun sending us Punch Cards and surveys.   Please keep asking your customers if they attended a Pop Up Library event and reward them with a free book.

During May, June and July, the Pop Up Library team has travelled throughout 35 zip codes in Houston delivering storytimes, interactive activities and iPad activities at area WIC clinics, parks, HEB grocery stores, housing authority sites and more.  To date, the team has completed the following:251 sessions,186 programming hours, and had a total of 4170 attendees!

• We are looking forward to a very busy August schedule!  One of our goals is reinforcing the positive experience of coming to the library. 
• When children visit, please ask them if they have participated in a Pop Up Library event. 
• When they say, “Yes”, please ask them for the punch card. 
• If they do not have a punch card, assure them that it is okay and please go ahead and award them a free Pop Up Library book.  Please make a hash mark on the tally sheet. 

The Pop Up Team thanks you for participating in the events at Houston Housing Authority by signing up youth for the Summer Reading program and library cards.  We thank you for notifying us about your programming schedule so we could share it at Pop Up events.  We thank you for awarding free books to Pop Up Library program participants at your local neighborhood library.  Your support of the program has been a huge factor in its success!  Thank you!

 Best regards,

Mary Wagoner

Civic Engagement and the Embedded Librarian FAQs

• What is expected of NL Managers and staff during the year long process? Managers are expected to be engaged in the process and network with community members to get them involved in the process. 

•  What will occur during Civic Engagement Week in January? 

• Managers and core community group should attend the Monday (January 26th) event at JIB. This meeting will serve as a model for their local meeting Tuesday through Thursday. 
• Managers will work with the core group of community members for the January meeting. The core group should come to both the Monday meeting and the local meeting 
• For both Monday and the local meeting: They will watch the Klineberg video as a group and the core group will have a panel response. The group will then discuss the issues going on in the neighborhood and what they would like to address. 
• Other community members should be invited to the Tuesday through Thursday meeting. Larry is working to invite local Council Members, but other community groups/members should also be invited. 

•  Are all NL locations going to hold a discussion during Civic Engagement Week that is specific to a local community? All locations should hold discussions during Civic Engagement Week. If your location does not have a meeting room, look for a location nearby that could be a host site. Multi-service centers may be a good choice as they are city entities. Churches or school are another alternative. 

• What are next steps? 
• Pick dates for your meeting the week of January 26th (Tuesday-Thursday); 
• Team Leaders are working to invite Larry to meet in small groups with managers to discuss and ask further questions. 
• Look for more people to invite into the process and/or narrow down your list for the core group. 

• Do managers that are over more than one library expected to have something for each location or can it be combined for both locations? Meetings could be combined due to meeting room issues, but for the most part, each location should host their own meeting as communities are different. 

• What are expectations and deadlines? Deadlines are always expanding. Expectations are that managers will engage in relationship building and networking with your communities. 

• Do managers need to recruit the 4 community members and get them to commit to the project and to come to the September meeting with the manager? Yes. Identify your core group of 3-5 community members and set up a meeting to discuss the process. Larry suggests meet them for coffee, lunch, or invite to location to discuss. You can also go to them. 

• What is the best estimate of the amount of time managers will need to commit monthly to this project? Time estimates depend on your existing relationships. If you need to develop them, then you may need to commit more time 

• Will a letter be prepared so we can mail information to community leaders inviting them to the September meeting? Letter should be ready by August 15th. You will get copies to print or email to help you facilitate the discussion. 

• Are we limited to community leaders in our actual service area or can we expand it? Not limited to official service areas. The process involves bonding locally, bridging to other neighborhoods and HPL is the linking capital. 

• Will the community leaders need to commit to ALL 4 meetings? Yes. If an HOA participates, the same member does not necessarily have to attend all 4 meetings, but a representative from the HOA should attend all 4. 

• Will there be training for managers on how to facilitate the meeting in January? Yes. Larry will plan 2 training sessions—one for December and one for early January. More than the manager can be trained if necessary. 

• What is the estimated time that Community Leaders are expected to commit to for this project and the meeting in September? Will there be other obligations beyond the meetings? Hard to say, but each session is 2 hours and there are 4 sessions. We also believe that the core group may want to or need to meet between sessions to work to achieve the group’s goal.