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.

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