Limiting searches in the catalog

Syma Zerkow sent these out for limiting catalog searches:

Use the keyword search function. Enter words from the book title or whole or part of the author's name along with

1) For the physical audiobook only (no electronic audio books) use:
"and not branch:branchhhou" and limit to audiobooks.
For example, if you enter:
james patterson and not branch:branchhhou

2) To exclude government documents from your keyword search use: and not branch:branchigov
For example, if you enter:
energy and not branch:branchigov

Census 2010

Starting March 19 and continuing through April 19, we will be designated as a Census Question Assistance Center (QAC). All that this means is that Census staff will be on hand during designated hours to answer citizen questions about the Census and the importance of completing the form. Forms are set to be mailed around the beginning of March. Census staff will need a table (either a meeting room table or one of the public tables) so that they can sit and be available for questions.

The QAC hours will be (March 22-April 19)(NEW AS OF 3/11/10!!!!!)
Mondays and Wednesdays 10am-1pm
Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays 3pm-6pm

First day is March 22nd

Patrolling in the after school hours

Please make a point to walk around and check things out several times for each hour that you are assigned to the desk. This is especially true when the kids get out after school.

We don't necessarily want to advertise that Fred is not here, but we do need to be vigilent and make sure everything is safe.

Make sure to do incident reports especially when we kick someone out of the building or there is a disturbance.

Overdrive

Syma Zerkow sent this out:
The Overdrive Digital Bookmobile will be in Houston January 28 to promote our collection of downloadable media from Overdrive: http://www.digitalbookmobile.com/. I expect this will result in quite a lot of interest from our customers regarding this material. And we have purchased additional titles in anticipation of increased demand. Please take some time in the next few weeks to familiarize yourself with this material so that you can provide our customers with the best service possible. The link to our collection is found at http://www.houstonlibrary.org/downloadable-media.

This month the Central Library's Remote Reference meetings will focus on e-books and e-readers. Even if you do not work at Central, you are welcome to attend these meetings. Below is the information from Julia de Berardinis:

Greetings,
All staff is invited to attend the Remote Reference meetings scheduled for Tuesday January 12, 2009 at 2 PM, and Wednesday, January 13, 2009 at 2 PM. Please join us in the Training Room at Central on the 6th floor. Sandy Farmer will speak on E-Books and E-Readers.

Unattended Children

We had kids after 6pm both Friday and Saturday. I have put a document under "Hot Links." Lets be more proactive with kids at closing to make sure that they call for a ride. Perhaps take them to the courtesy phone and wait while they talk. Give the kids a copy of the "Unattended Children" Document and ask them to give it to their parents (or give it to the parent when they pick the child up).

Counting Reference Questions!

Our count for reference questions has been really low lately. I think that we are not being very good at marking all of our reference questions. Please try to be more accurate in how you count your reference questions.

One person asking for 10 books by titles would be 10 marks.
Assisting someone to format a word document (font, spacing, etc) would be reference if it requires you to pull from your professional knowledge.
Helping with the computer or printer would be computer marks
Questions such as where is the bathroom or where are the DVDs would be directional.

Netlibrary and Windows 7

Below is information Vi Johnson obtained. The issue is that the netLibrary Download Media Center is not yet compatible with Windows 7. The customers can still download but need to do it differently:
Steps:
1. He can still go through the catalog to get the record link or go directly to netLibrary's page, and when he finds an item to download, he clicks on the title link. This has not changed.
2. He will see a link that says "Let me choose a different download option. A screen will come up asking - do you want to download the Media Center? On that page there is a link that says "No thanks, continue with the Manual Download.
3. Clicking on this link will take the user back to the options to download the item. They must choose the "Checkout and download CD quality" option (not the radio quality option).
The vendor's tech also said they can go into their netLibrary account and edit the preferences to not use the Media Center for downloading. This is done by simply logging in and unchecking the option to use the Media Center. When they log in, netLibrary will remember their option for the next time they try to download.