Tuttle Backroom

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all their hard work getting the Tuttle backroom in shape.

We were able to get rid of a lot of the detritus that accumulates over time in a library.  Additionally, IT has already come out and picked up a lot of the outdated technology that was filling the back shelves.

I have contacted other managers in the system to see if they need any of our 100s of bookends.

If you find anything else that you don't recognize, please let me know so I can update our salvage forms and hopefully get it taken away.

Thanks!
Brandon

This was just sent out about the SRP. - Tula

Hi all,

Summer Reading Club officially ends August 1st. Please remember that you should continue to hand out prizes during the month of August. The customers will no longer be able to log books but you can log for them.

Thanks for a great summer!

Sandy Farmer, Manager

Staff meeting Notes

Staff meeting notes for 7/2/2015 (June meeting)

Due to staffing issues, holiday closures, various training sessions, and the ALA conference, it was not practical to have our usual meeting the Friday after the Manager’s meeting this month.  Instead we used a different format.  The staff meeting was held in two parts, the first part was held at PLE at 9:30 with Ashley McGill, Jeremy George, and Brittany Moore attending and was led by Brandon Pope.  The second half was held at 11:15 at TUT with Neisha Brewster, Wendy DeWalt, and Nadine Arrington attending and was also led by Brandon Pope.  The same agenda was held at each meeting and care was taken to give the same information.  Tula Gorden, Rosa Fernandez, and Courtnie Penson will have access to the notes and I will talk with them in detail when I return from vacation.

I.                    PCAP

Brandon Poe attended training on Administrative Policy 3-7: Positive Correction Action Program.  He went over their NEO power point presentation with the staff and discussed how it was different From the last system we used with employees. He also explained why the change was made.

II.                  Announcements from the manager’s meeting

Brandon went over his notes from the manager’s meeting on June 19^th. 

A.      Staff was told about the new Public Services Cluster in HR and was shown the new org chart.

B.      Tomika Price has left the system and Leroy Robinson is managing her branch until a replacement hire is found.

C.      The new Youth Services Advocate has been hired and will be having a meeting with the Youth Staff from each branch.  Ashley McGill and Neisha Brewster will be attending this meeting and will share what they learn at the next staff meeting.

D.      HMRC got a $3000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a Latino exhibit.

E.       Michelle Gorman has a new Executive Assistant.  Her name is Leah Frasier and she will be starting next week.

F.       The library has a new Assistant Director of Digital Strategies.  His name is Ricardo “Rick” Paralis and he was mentioned in an email from Dr. Lawson dated June 10^th.  He has already started working for HPL.

G.      The Solicitation Policy was gone over and staff were again told that with certain rare exceptions, people were not allowed to sell stuff in the library or on our property.  Exceptions would be determined with assistance from Roosevelt Weeks’ office.

H.      The Phones have all been updated for all public lines.  The message should be appropriate for the general greeting, the closed greeting, the busy greeting, the alternative greeting, and the holiday greeting.  Furthermore, the phones at both locations have been set to an alternative greeting telling people about the closures on the 3^rd and 4^th.

I.        Staff was reminded to keep detailed records of when Johnson Control is called with an AC problem.  This has not been an issue in the past few months for the branch.

J.        Disaster Preparedness guides and the Emergency Preparedness Brochure were shown and everyone should know where to get them if they do not already have one.  Additionally, the Red Emergency Binders were shown to staff again and staff was alerted that material would be updated within the binder by the SPACES group.

K.      The way the library closures on the 4^th were going to be reported in KRONOS was again gone over with staff to make certain that everyone understood what was going on.

L.       The Recommended Label design for the new holds system was shown to the staff

III.                 Brandon’s Schedule was gone over with the staff to make sure they all knew he would be out of touch from this evening until he retunes to work on July 13.

IV.                Dr. Lawson’s email from June 26^th about the Charleston SC shooting was gone over and all staff was made aware of how they could sign the card and/or contribute if they wished to do so.

V.                  Jeremy and Neisha went to training on SIRSI last week.  The staff was told to expect one on one training with them about what they learned and that this would be a regular expectation from them each quarter.

VI.                Suzy Benton’s email about the mandatory training on LeanSix Sigma Yellow Belt Certification was explained.  Staff is aware that the training is online, mandatory, and needs to be completed by December 1^st.

At the Tuttle meeting, Wendy DeWalt  asked about the man who habitually smokes outside the main doors and what we should do about it.  Brandon referred to Dr. Lawson’s email from 7/23/2014.  Staff are instructed to ask customers to not smoke on library, or city, property.  However Staff are not encouraged to go out and confront people smoking outside the building.  SPACES is planning on putting up signs and once that happens, enforcement of these rules might change.

With no further questions, both meetings concluded.

The following was sent out from Jennifer Schwartz about the Dynamo/Dash tickets. The important info is that Raising Cane's wants all theirs gone by the end of summer.

Team,

Apologies again on how long it is taking to receive the Dynamo/Dash passes. The latest update is that the Dynamo has finally created the voucher and is now in printing process. I am really hoping for this week. In the meantime, please feel free to substitute with any of the prizes from the programming incentive pack (Rockets, Raising Cane’s,  Zoo). Raising Cane’s especially wants all of their cards distributed, with none leftover after the summer. We still have a big supply of those, Chipotle, and Circus (and of course we print Zoo and Rockets in-house). So, if you need any replenishment, let us know.

Best,

Jennifer Schwartz, MLIS

Programming Manager

Houston Public Library

500 McKinney Street

Houston, TX 77002

(O)  832-393-1652

(C)  713-775-0868

-Tula

Hello, 

Brandon and I were talking and we realized that we had forgotten to go over the SRP incentives. These are the prizes we give out to those who have completed the reading logs (online or on paper) and attended the STREAM programs and activities. 

Once a child is registered for SRP and they will be awarded the prizes as follows: 

5 books/hours = A certificate and a Houston Dash ticket (has yet to arrive). 

10 books/hours = 1 free book and a Dynamo ticket (has yet to arrive). 

20 books/hours = a chipotle coupon, 1 free book, and a Circus coupon. 

30 books/hours = a Children's museum ticket and automatic entry in the drawings. 

Now, if that child, or any child, has read at least 5 books and attended at least 5 library programs; Which can include arts & crafts, CAMP STREAM, or by completing a Wonderopolis (only substitute this for 1 program) activity online, (must provide printed proof of the Wonder Cards) or any of the special events the library is hosting, etc. 

The prizes for that are: 

Houston Zoo ticket voucher

Houston Rockets ticket voucher

Raising Cane's gift card. 

Please understand that while we may have a lot of tickets or prizes especially towards the end of the Summer Reading Program, we need to make sure that the prizes are being accounted for. Please do not just hand the prizes out to anyone, unless the child is registered for the SRP. 

At the end of the program, all remaining left overs should be sent back to Central Youth Programming, unless otherwise notified. In the past we have had a couple of the vouchers being counted and matched up with actual awarded prizes. 

Staff members can sign their children up for the SRP but must follow the prize guidelines as well. 

Also, remember there is an Adult SRP and Staff SRP as well. I have not seen flyers about the Adult version of SRP yet, but please let the parents and other adults know about this wonderful opportunity to win prizes just for reading and logging in their books. 

If you have any questions, please ask Brandon or I. 

Thank you, 

Tula

Smart $$ update

Update on using telecheck.

When it asks for the Clerk ID number, please enter the last four digits of your Employee ID Number.

This is different than what some of you were taught at Smart$ training.

Talk to Tula or Brandon if you have any questions.

Meeting Notes

Staff Meeting

June 5, 2015

Place: Tuttle

Attendance: Brandon, Tula, Jeremy, Neshia, Rosa, Ashley, Nadine, Wendy, Brittany, Courtnie, Shinetra, and Pedro.

1)      Julia Ideson Fund – the Julia Ideson Fund was started by the very first director of the Houston Public Library. This is Fund is for all employees, part-time or full-time, and is to help them if they have experienced a financial hardship or unexpected expense that can be a burden. Your job title does will not prevent you from qualifying for the fund. There is a limited amount in the funds and only so much of it can actually be used, so the funds are handed out based upon need and availability.

To apply, the applicant must submit the completed form online via email and ONLY correspond with the committee through email. If an applicant makes contact with a committee member in person or by other means, it will be an instant disqualification.  

Only the applicant and the committee will know they applied, no one else will need to know nor will the information be shared.  It is completely confidential.

Because Food, Utilities, and Housing (rent, mortgage) can get high there is cap off limit on how much a person can receive. This does not mean those are the only things a person can apply for money for; although, the following items will denied assistance: telephone bills (luxury), car notes (luxury), bounced checks, tuition and daycare.

The money that is granted is a gift and not a loan. This does not have to be paid back.

The form and the guidelines can be found on the intranet under Forms -> Human Resources -> Julia Ideson Fund Form. 

2)      HOLDS – the new holds label printer will be ready for distribution in July. The size of the machine itself will be slightly bigger than the Star printer we use for check-out receipts already. The new label will be a sticker and it will make send and receiving holds much easier for all staff members.  When the printers are installed, there will be a training if you are not scheduled to work that day, that is fine, the rest of the staff will pass the information on.  One thing to keep in mind though, is deciding which computer to place the printer at. Wherever the printer is at the holds MUST be done at that station, no exceptions. 

3)      Quality Management System – This is the project  that Michelle Gorman has been mentioning a lot lately at meetings. You may have recalled previously, a few months prior, Brandon going around asking for input on what we do on a daily basis (basic procedures); get the holds, check the bookdrop, open the doors, open the gates, etc.

The idea is that eventually we are going to have a folder that is going to have all the procedures that is done by HPL staff and the exact method to complete that procedure. This way when you go to another location if someone asks you to do something, you know exactly how to do it, because it is done the exact same way at your location. This is not what is happening right now; what happens is that you visit a location and you find out that their procedures and methods are completely different from your procedures.  

Michelle has asked for a committee to come together and help input their knowledge of the procedures into the QMS. This type of work is not possible from a top to bottom mentality; she wants input from staff members in all areas. If you are detail-oriented, have an eye for detail, or  if you know that you are familiar with a particular procedure (i.e. serials, applications, meeting room requests, etc.) then please, do not hesitate to help out. You can email Brandon, Tula, Pedro, Michelle or Laurie if you are interested in helping out. This process of the QMS is not going to be done overnight, it will take time and the more people that help out the better. Also, do not be afraid that you might be doing a procedure wrong, you might have found an easier way and no one else knew about it. With this collaboration, procedures might become simpler and more effective because someone shared that secret shortcut.

The committee does not meet in person, it is completely online and is amended in real-time, so there is no worry about having to travel. Just think about it and let us know!

4)      Manager’s Meeting Information –

One quick thing, there has been a change to the Correction Action Program. The biggest change is that if you get a reminder 1, it will no longer be a formal written reprimand, it will be a verbal action. It also changed some of the language. If you get a chance, please look over it if you are interested, so you can understand what’s going on. 

a)      Volunteer Program (Wendy) –  One of the biggest goals for the 2016 Fiscal/Volunteer Year, is for all the branches to fully participate in the volunteer program.  Now, this doesn’t mean volunteers can just come be walk-ins; they have still have to apply through the website and talk with Andrea Lawrence. The background check still must be completed and so on. In the past, libraries could have the option to say yes or no if they needed a volunteer, but now, if the volunteer has passed the screening and is requesting to work at the location, then the library must obliged.

Volunteers don’t just have to do shelving, they can do discards, SRP, crafting, etc. but the things that they are restricted from doing (circulation, patrons records) is the same.

b)      Contact List for LMS –  Since the reorganization of LMS has taken place, people may not know who to contact about certain items or questions. This list will help you with who is in charge of what area. This list will be emailed out, posted on the blog and posted in the workroom.

c)       Branding – One of the big things about branding is NO TAPE. Recently, they sent out samples of tape alternatives. Try using these to see if they work or not.

i)        Survey – With those came a survey, complete it and turn it in by the end of the day (Friday, June 5^th). 

ii)      Email Signatures – This is the next step. They want all our signatures to look the same; that way if someone sends out an email to an outside liaison, the person will know it is from an HPL employee. They have adapted a signature that will work in the Outlook Web Access version as well, so everyone will be able to see the signature no matter from what version of Outlook you are using.

5)      Float Discussion and Weeding – Tuttle says they are getting too full in the audiobooks area.  Brandon can contact the person on the LMS sheet in charge of floating to let them know about the audio books. As for floating out stuff, we can float out up to 3 bins per week to LMS. Try to float out duplicate copies before we float out anything else.

Weeding, this month we can and next month we can only weed and discard Juvenile books. The Friends of the Library are getting ready for the September Children’s booksale and they will be able to pick them up in August. If you box up any adult books, please keep them separate from the children’s boxes.

NOTES: Mr. Jim has brought a message back from GSD requesting that we start being careful about the food in the workroom and around the circulation desk. When the pest people come out to spray, they see the food in the trash cans around the front area and simply say it is because of all the food in the trash that is attracting the bugs. If you eat at your desk or drink at the circulation area, please throw the trash away in the kitchen, to limit the food trash to one area.

Also, you may want to store your food in the fridge or in a Ziploc if you keep in a drawer, because if they spray around the desk area, you don’t want the chemicals or bugs to get on your food. The little bit we can do to help minimize the crumbs, will minimize the bug problem.

Last thing, service animals, there is a man that has been coming at Tuttle with a dog, he says it’s a service animal and has offered to show the paperwork. The paperwork is not necessary and it is meaningless. Remember that HPL goes by the ADA policy and only dogs and miniature horses are allowed. This dog is well-behaved and stays right by the man’s side, he is not a bother to anyone and is under control. As long as the animal remains under control by a leash, harness, hand signals or voice command, it is fine.

If people complain about they have allergies or they are afraid of dogs, this is not library, city, or state regulations; this is Federal ADA compliance. If they are just complaining about the presence of the dog alone, we just say it is ADA compliance, if is because “the dog peed on my bag” that is different, we can confront the customer and say something, but this has yet to be the problem.

Questions: Wendy asked if she had a right to tell the kids to go to summer school, if she knew they had to be in summer school.

Answer: Pedro replied that since it was the summer, it is up to the parents to make sure their children are attending summer school. We are only concerned with truancy during the regular school year where the school hours are between 9 and 2:30. Now, if you know the parents and you know the kids, and if you have the parents number, then give them a call, if you know the parents would be concerned about where their children are at. But, you are not responsible for their schooling.

One final thing, remember we are not the police, the incident at Tuttle with the man having his phone stolen. He can’t just request to have the footage pulled, there is a process that has to be done in order for the footage to be pulled. We do not even get to see the footage either so if people ask we can honestly say we do not have access to the camera feed. If something is stolen or if any trouble arises call the police and if you are unsure, get Brandon or Tula to assist.