Labeling Bluebonnets and Lone Stars

From Sara Pope:

I wanted to share some information on how to properly label the Bluebonnet and Lone Star books with date labels. Please share this information with the person/people that label your Bluebonnet and Lone Star books!

For label placement, according to Chris Patrick, “The date label is placed on the upper spine ¼ inch from the top of the book.”  

Bluebonnet date labels should be on the blue labels, and Lone Star date labels should be on the bright yellow labels. If you need more of these labels, please contact Chris Patrick, and he’ll quickly send you more.

For what date to put on the Bluebonnets, this is what Sally Bates told me: “For Bluebonnets, they should have the year that they are being read.  They have a 13-month life but the 13^th month is tacked on.” So the “new” Bluebonnets should have 2015 on them, since they will be read in 2015, and voted on in January of 2016 (the 13^th month that is tacked on). The Bluebonnets that are currently being voted on should have a 2014 date label. Don’t forget, all those 2014 Bluebonnet books are on the Name That Book list for HISD, so there is still demand for them until the Name That Book contest happens (finals are March 6, 2015). This means you can put them back into your collection after voting for the Bluebonnets are over (end of January), but you won’t want to weed extra copies until after March 6.

I’m attaching the date label template for your convenience, with the 2015 labels ready to print out!

Link: Date Label Template (Please download this template onto your workstation for editing and printing purposes. - MR)

I hope this information will help us present a uniform look to our Bluebonnet and Lone Star books, especially since we have floating collections, we want all of our Bluebonnet and Lone Star books to be labeled in a consistent way. If you have any questions about the information in this email, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Thanks for all the amazing work you all do every day!

MR

Banner Board Installation

Hello,

From Jason Stephens:

A&E Graphics Complex will install banner frames on Kashmere NL on Wednesday, January 28th. They will be at the branch at 9:00am to install the frame. Work will take place on the exterior of the building and will have minimal impact to staff and customers.

A banner board is a frame that will be installed on the side of the building that is permitted by the Permitting Center and will allow HPL to advertise library programs on the exterior of the building without having to continuously get permits for the banners. The frame is designed to hold the banner tight and secure and hide the edges behind the edge of a frame.

Below is an example of such a frame:

Thank you,

MR

Floating and Float Hubs

Hello,

Below is the list of branches that are float hubs. As stated in the staff meeting, floating as we used to do it (sending five items to branches across the system) has ceased. Only float hubs will continue to send items out. These items will have a yellow float tag on it. If you receive any float from branches not on this list (exception, of course, is Central), please let me know.

Float Hubs

Acres Homes (ACR)

Blue Ridge (BLU)

Dixon (DIX)

Kashmere (KAS)

Mancuso (MAN)

Scenic Woods (SCE)

Vinson (VIN)

Thank you,

MR

SIRSI PROCEDURE: Assigning a New User ID

Hello,

Fred Schumacher recently sent out an email regarding an update to the procedure for assigning new user IDs in Sirsi. Please read below for how that is done. We will also be holding a training on this procedure at Monday's staff meeting.

Here is a link to the PowerPoint presentation showing how to do this: Issuing a Replacement Card

Marking a Lost Card over the phone:

When a customer calls to report his/her card lost, the correct response for the staff member to make is to change the status of the user record to Lost Card.  To do this, the staff member will need to:

1. Open the Workflows client 
2. Click on the Circulation module
3. Click on the Users wizard group
4. Click on the Modify User Wizard
5. If the customer knows his/her User ID number, enter it.  Otherwise, use the User Search helper at the top of the screen to search for the user record by name (be careful to have the customer confirm the address, Alt ID or other account information to ensure that you have the right record.
6. When you have the correct user record, click on the Privilege tab.
7. Change the value in the Status field to Lost-Card.
8. Enter the override code in the space to the right of the Status field.
9. Click the SAVE button at the bottom of the screen.

This process will prevent the account from being used until the customer comes into the library to replace the card.  Please keep in mind that once a card is marked lost, the customer must complete a registration form and be issued a new card.  Barcode numbers that are marked lost are not reactivated if they are subsequently found.

Replacing a Lost Card:

When a staff member encounters a customer who wishes to replace a lost card, the following procedure should be followed: 

1. Have the customer complete a new registration form and verify the information as would be done for any new registration.
2. Open the Workflows client.
3. Click on the Circulation module.
4. Click on the Users wizard group.
5. Click on the Modify User wizard.
6. Call up the User Record for the customer wishing to replace his/her card. You may use the User Search helper at the top of the screen to search by name or Alt ID.  Be careful to ensure that you call up the right record.
7. Click on the Privilege tab.
8. Change the value in the Status field from LOST-CARD to BLOCKED, and enter the override code in the space to the right of the Status field (this is not necessary if the value is not LOST-CARD.
9. Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.
10. Click on the Basic Info Tab in the User Record.
11.  Highlight and overwrite (SCAN new barcode over) the old User ID in the designated field, or Highlight and delete the old User ID and SCAN in the new User ID.
12. Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.

This process will assign the new barcode to the customer’s account and the old barcode will be assigned to the Previous ID field on the Extended Info Tab and it will become inactive. 

New HPL Training Portal

Hello,

The HPL Training Portal has been updated. The link is below:

http://training.houstonlibrary.org/

I've also added it to the Staff Links on the HEAR Resources section of the group blog.

Thanks,

MR

Manager Boot Camp Next Week

Hello,

Jose and I will be attending an all-day Manager Boot camp on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week. On those days, Dionne is the person in charge for the group. For the locations, the person in charge will be the following:

Monday, January 12th: Dionne at Lakewood

Wednesday, January 14th: Dionne at Kashmere / Twanna at Lakewood

Friday, January 16th: Juan at Kashmere / Twanna at Lakewood

Dionne, Juan, and Twanna have permissions to adjust the schedule in our absence, so if adjustments need to be made, speak to them because they are able to make them.

So, please be sure to check the schedule prior to next week, as some hours and locations have been changed to accommodate me and Jose being out of the building on those days. The hours and locations have been set, and schedules for both branches will be completed before staff report to work on Monday.

Special thanks to Jennita and Cristal for adjusting their schedules to help with staffing on those days.

If anyone has any questions at all, please let me or Jose know.

Thank you so much!

MR

Reminder: Checking in Flip Kits

Hello,

When checking in flip kits, staff are to open the bag to make sure that the book, the plastic case, and the informational insert are all inside. A best practice would be to check in the flip kit by scanning the barcode on the book, not the barcode on the bag.

This will also help us spot those times when the books have been placed in the wrong kit or when customers have placed other items (such as HPL or non-HPL items) inside the bag.

Please let me know if any further information or instruction is needed.

Thanks,

MR