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.

New Magazine Subscriptions

We cancelled a bunch of magazine subscriptions this year. Starting in January, we will start getting a few new magazines and a bunch will stop coming. Morning Star is one that has been cancelled.

There is a list of all the subscriptions at the reference desk in a notebook called "Periodicals List."

Check with Laurie if you have any questions.

Friends Books

The Friends have created a donations room at their warehouse that is open to teachers, day cares, and other similar groups. If you know of any organization that could use some good, gently used books, please have them contact the Friends of the Library.

Friends can be reached by phone: 832-393-1387 or email: info@friendsofhpl.org

The Friends warehouse is located in the Chase Bank Building on the corner of Bingle and Little York. They will accept donations Saturday mornings (9am-1pm) but people should call before coming with their books: 713-849-9330.

Medical Center Training Available

If you are interested in any of these classes, please let me know. You can get training credit if you turn in a certificate after the training.

The Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center (HAM-TMC Library) will be holding six workshops from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region from November 2009 to January 2010. These workshops are free and open to all. To register for any of the workshops, please go to http://nnlm.gov/scr/training/. Directions to the HAM-TMC Library are included on this page as well.

Monday, November 16, 2009, 8:30 to 12:30
Healthy Aging at Your Library: Connecting Older Adults to Health Information

Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 8:30 to 12:30
Public Health Information on the Web

Friday, January 15, 2009
8:00 am – 12:00 pm Easy to Read Health and Wellness Materials for Consumers
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Super Searcher

Saturday, January 16, 2009
8:00 am – 12:00 pm Grants and Proposal Writing
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Caring for the Mind

Overdrive

Marianne Lorio sent this out:

Channel 13 did a small story on Tuesday about e-books which included an interview with Sandra Fernandez about what the library offers. Hopefully this will encourage people to check out what we provide and, if so, will undoubtedly lead to patron questions. This makes it especially prudent to sign up for some of the online training Overdrive is offering through out September. You can find more information at http://www.overdrive.com/products/dlr/training/ . I attended one of the webinars and didn’t have any problems which is a good sign. I am attaching the slides from the webinar I attended. There are some good slides that provide clear directions on what format can be used on what type of player.

http://10.34.145.39/twiki/pub/HPL/OverdriveTraining/Training_Month_Browse_Check_Out_Download.pdf