Primary Election: League of Women Voters - Electronic Voters Guides

From HPL Print & Graphics:

Hello,

Please let all staff know the League of Women Voters did "not" provide printed Voters Guides for the Primary Election. Instead, an electronic version of the past 2015 General Election and the new 2016 Primary Election Voters Guide (English & Spanish) can be viewed and downloaded directly from the League's website. Please let your customers know that the guides are only available electronically. Each location should have received a small sign promoting the online guides. See links, below:

Direct Link to Voters Guides:
http://lwvhouston.org/voters-guide/

HPL Election Resources:
http://houstonlibrary.org/learn-explore/election-resources

Early voting is Tuesday, 02/16/2016 - Friday, 02/26/2016

Election is 03/01/2016

MR

Open Enrollment: Update Information on ESS

Hello,

Open Enrollment is quickly approaching. It's crucial that your information on the Employee Self Service portal is current and correct or you could miss vital information about your benefits.

Log on to ESS at portal.houstontx.gov today to verify or update your:

• Address
• Phone number
• Emergency contact
• Life insurance beneficiaries
• Death termination pay beneficiary

Forgot your password?

Don't wait until the last minute before the Open Enrollment deadline to verify your password. Log into ESS now to confirm or reset your password.

Call HITS at 832-394-HITS (4487) to reset or email HITSCustomerServiceCenter@houstontx.gov.

MR

UPDATE: The Very Fairy Princess Paperback (and Others)

From Sally Bates:

You will see that the new format of cataloged paperbacks is going through some issues. Baker & Taylor is cataloging all of our cataloged paperbacks, and many picture books have come in with a fiction call number. We are changing these through our regular catalog change procedures. 

In addition, The Very Fairy Princess by Julie Andrews has a sheet of stickers. This can be removed and the book can be circulated as usual. Give the sticker to some lucky kiddo! (As a general rule, if a paperback is intact without the stickers and sheet(s) of stickers can be easily removed, please remove them and circulate the book. If the book is incomplete without stickers - kids are supposed to stick them on the pages - please let me know and we will remove the book from the system so you can give it away.)

Thanks for your patience as we work with Baker & Taylor on the cataloged paperbacks. If you notice other issues, please let me know.

MR

Sick Leave for Family Members

Hello,

Please remember that the City of Houston revised its sick leave ordinance to allow for full-time COH employees to use his or her sick leave to care for a family member due to the family member's illness, disease, or injury.

Under this ordinance, you may only use sick leave to take care of a spouse, child or step-child, and parent or step-parent of the employee.

For more information, please click below:

Sick Leave FAQs

Finally, remember that when you use sick time to care for any of the above qualifying persons that you must fill out the Statement of Family Relationship Form to affirm that the person you are using sick time for falls into one of the categories listed above.

The form has been placed on the staff blog under "Staff Resources."

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

MR

Customer Notices to AT&T Clients

From the HPL IT Helpdesk:

Greetings HPL Team,

For several days last week, AT&T blocked emails from all SirsiDynix hosted servers. This resulted in library customers with the following email addresses not getting their overdue and  hold notices:

@att.net
@ameritech.net
@bellsouth.net
@flash.net
@nvbell.net
@pacbell.net
@prodigy.net
@sbcglobal.net
@snet.net
@swbell.net
@wans.net

Once SirsiDynix fixed the problem, we worked with them to extend the holds for customers with affected email addresses to February 19th and resent the hold notices to customers. However, some holds expired on the shelf and did not get extended.

Please director customer inquiries about this issue to the Circulation Admin department (832-393-2222, option 3 or circinfo@hpl.lib.tx.us)

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. Please contact us if you have any questions.

MR

Installation of Card Campaign Banners at Kashmere NL

Hello,

Please be advised that Thomas Printworks will be replacing the SRP banner (located on the exterior of the building on the west side facing Lockwood Drive) at Kashmere NL next week, sometime between Thursday, February 18th and Friday, February 19th.

Since the banner is outside, the installation will not impact staff or service to the public. SPACES does not yet have a specific time for which the installer will be at the location, so please be aware of this and allow the vendor any necessary access they may need.

Thank you.

MR

Super Bowl Stickers

Hello,

The branches should be receiving Super Bowl stickers through delivery sometime soon. If you doing delivery and come across them, please give to me or Jose.

Thank you,

MR

Clean Holds Shelf Report Will Not Run Tomorrow (02/10/2016)

From Fred Schumacher:

Good afternoon,

The Clean Holds Shelf report that normally runs each morning before opening will be suspended for tomorrow, 02/10/16. This means that you should not have a Clean Holds Shelf report for your location tomorrow morning, and all items scheduled to expire from your holds shelf tomorrow will remain for an additional day. We anticipate that the Clean Holds Shelf report will resume on the day after tomorrow, 02/11/16.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at 832-393-1567 or Esther Reyes at 832-393-1605.

MR

External Flyers

Hello,

Please remember that flyers that are brought to the library for posting and/or distribution have to be approved through the appropriate channels. This is especially true for any flyers that publicize the branch's name and/or Houston Public Library's name in its communications.

For outside groups wanting to host a meeting and/or event at the library, the below statement is printed on the meeting room request form:

All publicity will be submitted for approval to the Library prior to publication and will include the following statements: "This program is not sponsored or endorsed by the Houston Public Library." and "If you have a special physical or communications need that may impact your participation in this activity, please contact (name) at (phone number), (email) at least 72 hours prior to the event to discuss accommodations. We cannot ensure the availability of accommodations without prior notification of need."

If a customer drops off a flyer to be posted or distributed, please let them know that it would have to be approved, and in some cases it might take some time for the flyer to be approved.

The flyer should then be given to a supervisor for review.

Thank you, and please let me know if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

MR

IT Help Desk Tickets

Hello,

Please be aware that the IT Helpdesk was called regarding two issues at both locations:

Lakewood
A ticket was placed for the staff printer in the workroom because it is releasing bad printouts. Pertinent information follows:

G-Number: G214800
Name: LaserJet 500 MFP M525
Incident No: INC0097509

Kashmere

A ticket was placed for the staff printer at the customer service desk because the fold-down tray for tray one is broken. Pertinent information follows:

G-Number: G188246
Name: LaserJet P4015n
Incident No: INC0097562

Please be sure to reference this information should IT request it.

Please let me know if you have any further questions, comments, and/or concerns.

Sincerely,

MR

Committing on Pending Permit Applications

Hello,

Please be advised that several residents in this community and neighboring ones are looking for information on how to file a formal comment on a business that is being erected nearby. This is done through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's website.

The link to the form is here: http://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/

Please be aware that per the instructions on TCEQ's website, all persons seeking to submit a comment online must have the TCEQ permit number associated with the pending permit application of interest to them.

Thank you, and please let me know if you have any further questions.

MR

NOTICE: Distribution of Foreign Language DVDs

From Christopher Hu:

Going forward, LMS will be distributing foreign language DVDs to various, randomly-selected locations. All of these movies have English subtitles (plus usually Arabic, French, and other languages), so they can be enjoyed by many different types of patrons - not just patrons who happen to speak Hindi, Chinese, or whatever language is on the label. Please treat these DVDs as you would English language DVDs. Check them in at your location and shelve them with your other DVDs.

MR

KAS: Change in DVD Arrangement

Hello,

Please be advised that the DVDs at Kashmere NL have been rearranged. The biggest change is that the Adult Nonfiction DVDs have been interfiled and are now arranged according to the call number.

The layout has changed as well. Please see below for a charge outlining how the DVDs are to be shelved moving forward.

All sections of the DVD shelving are arranged according to call number. This includes the adult fiction DVDs.

If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

MR