English Groups and Classes at HPL

We occasionally receive requests for information about the classes and groups HPL offers to people who want to learn English. Here at Collier, we offer an English Conversation Group every other Saturday (3-4:30pm). Our group is mainly an opportunity for customers to practice conversing in English. I facilitate discussion questions, we do some role-playing exercises, and I include a bit of basic English instruction as well.

Central Library also offers a conversational English group which meets every Saturday from 11am to 12pm. It is also mainly a group for customers to practice speaking English.

Freed-Montrose has ESOL classes (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (1-4pm each day). These free intermediate English classes are offered by Houston Community College to customers age 18 to adult. Registration is required and takes place September 7-9 (1-4pm).

And finally, Stanaker library offers beginning basic English instruction to ESOL customers Tuesdays (4-6pm) and Thursdays (5-7pm). Classes are taught by a rotating group of volunteers from the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Apparently, plans are in the works for English instruction classes to be offered at more branches of the Houston Public Library starting in 2011.

-Krista Lewis Abedrabbo

Youth Services All Star Team Quarterly Award

Michelle, Debbie, Sydney and Krista would like to thank Jane Hensley for taking the time to submit the nomination for this award. We would also like to thank the rest of the staff here at Collier. We could not do the things that we do without their cooperation and support. The award money will be used to pay for a staff "end of summer reading" luncheon as well as our annual staff Christmas celebration. This was a big honor, and again, we thank you for the recognition.

-Collier Regional Library Youth Services Team

Neighborhood Libraries Blog

Mike VanCampen sent this out:

NL administration would like to encourage managers and their staffs to start checking the Neighborhood Libraries blog on a regular basis. It is a valuable tool for sharing important information with staff (similar to the Central Staff Blog). As a reminder, the blog is located at the following address:
http://hplnl.blogspot.com/

Group Registration for SRP

Heidi Daniel posted this:
It has come to our attention that this year we already have identified at least a handful or more of potentially fraudulent groups who are registering under various names and collecting large amounts of prizes, but whose information can not be verified.

To keep this from occurring, we are now asking that groups (specifically those over 10 kids) that register must show/ provide one of the following to collect their prizes:

State Daycare Registration/ License Number (if they don’t have an official paper with the license number you can look them up here
501 c.3 status (You can search here if they don’t have proof http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/forwardToSearch.do
If it is a school then they can show a current School ID and list their Principal and a contact number for the school. We will send you a form to assist with this later today
If they do not have any of these items, but you feel or know that they are valid, just try to get them to show you something that is valid, even if it is just google searching their name and address to verify. For example, one of the possible fraudulent groups used a real group’s name, but we can call the real group and find out if they actually signed up for the program.
If they are a group that says they are a large family or something similar then they should have all the kids register individually with their parent or caregiver, and they should not register as a group

If you need assistance with this, please let us know. We are not trying to make the summer more difficult, but we are trying to make the program one that rewards kids for reading and not rewarding people who just want to get the prizes. As you all know, our prize numbers are low this year, and we need to make things stretch as much as possible. We have also had issues with this in the past, where “groups” actually got the prizes and scalped them for profit.

Heidi x31448
Micheala x32028
Jane x32027

Digital Microfilm of Barrons, HC, NYT, WSJ and Washington Post.

Houston Public Library has switched 5 of its microfilm titles to digital microfilm. The titles that are now available digitally are Barron’s, Houston Chronicle, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. There are links to these titles on the Alphabetical Database list and under the Newspaper subject webpage. Barron’s and Wall Street Journal are also available on the Business and the Investing webpages.

Basically digital microfilm is the same image you would see if you were using physical microfilm and a microfilm reader, but online. The advantage of this new format is that patrons don’t have to come to Central to use the microfilm but can do so from a branch or at their home or office. The other advantage is that unlike the databases we have of some of these titles, digital microfilm has images of everything in the newspaper from cover to cover. This means obituaries and advertisements are included. However, digital microfilm can not be searched as a database would since it is merely a collection of images. You can choose what edition you want to see by selecting the title and the desired date. Our subscriptions start January 2008 and are current. Keep in mind there will be a delay between when the newspapers are published and when they are available in microfilm.


One last note, the fantastic thing about digital microfilm is that it will allow you to find images of obituaries. If the patron has the dates involved you can go straight to the digital microfilm and choose those dates to find the obituary. If the patron does not have dates, search first in the Houston Chronicle database to locate the date of the obituary and then use the digital microfilm.

Adult Summer Reading Program

There will be an Adult Summer Reading Club for our adult patrons this summer.
Here’s the skinny:

· PROGRAM DATES: June 1 – August 1, 2010 (same as “From Fables to Fantasy”)

· HOW TO REGISTER: The registration process is the same for the Adult SRC as it is for “From Fables to Fantasy”.

· HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Participants read books in any format, and enter the book titles read on their online reading logs. (Logging hours is not an available option for Adult SRC.)

Adult Summer Reading Club Random Drawing Prizes:

Random drawings are the only incentives (besides the fun and general feeling of accomplishment). Like the SRP for kids and teens, if participants would like to be eligible for the random drawings, they must include their contact information when they register.

Weekly Drawing: $50 gift card to a local independent bookseller

All participants are eligible for the weekly $50 gift card drawing. There will a total of nine drawings for these completed every Friday during the months of June and July.

Monthly Drawing: Sony eReader, Pocket Edition

The number of entries for the monthly eReader drawing will be based on how many books the patron has entered into his or her online reading log; in other words, the more the patron reads, the better his or her chances are to win the eReader. There will be a total of two drawings for these completed on or about Thursday, July 1st and Monday, August 2nd.

As you might have guessed, HPL staff are not eligible to participate in the Adult SRC. However, adult family members of HPL staff are eligible, and staff are strongly encouraged to participate in Staff SRC. (It’s a lot of fun!)

I hope that helps to answer any questions you may have about the program. There will be some printed collateral and a page on our Website with this information available soon.

UPDATED!!! 290 Expansion Environmental Impact Statement

UPDATED!!! The fact that we have the Environmental Impact Statement for the 290 expanision was in the Leader. We may get multiple requests. I will move it to the central cases and let's hold ID while people look at it

We have received the final version of the Environmental Impact Statement for the 290 Expansion.

I just had a call about it so we may have folks ask for it. It is a reference item and may not be removed from the library.