Houston General Plan

Greetings,

In City Council today the City's General Plan was discussed. Specifically, the focus was on making it available to everyone in the City, including those without Internet access at home. The Mayor suggested that the professional staff at HPL should function as the means to make this possible. So, everyone who works a reference desk needs to be aware of where to locate the General Plan.For now, it is featured on the main Web Page for the City of Houston at:http://www.houstontx.gov/There is a link for it listed in the City Headlines box on the left-hand side of the page.Since this is an area that is updated with current headlines, it might not always be there. So, its permanent location will be on the City's Planning and Development Department web page. To locate it here, simply:
Start again at the City's home page
Click on "Departments" on the yellow menu at the top of the page
Select "Planning and Development" from the drop down menu
The "General Plan" is the second link under "WELCOME TO THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT"

If there are any questions on this please let me know.

Gina

Moving day(s)

Here's the latest news about the Neighborhood Library offices move.

Bea and I will be out of Marston on Monday. We currently have no phone or computer connections there. If you need to reach me, the best way will be through e-mail. I'll have my BlackBerry handy. If you do need to call, use my work cell (it's on the Intranet directory). If that does not work, call the Carnegie staff and have them find me.

Our boxes and computers are moving on Monday. The District Managers will be moving on Tuesday.

All I currently know about phones is that they will be different than what we have now, and they will be 10-digit dialing for everyone. This will be true for the DM's and admin's.

Delivery to us won't change. Address internal things to Neighborhood Libraries and it should find it's way to us.



Gina

Want some overtime?

(From the Central Chief's Blog),

A big thank you to the folks who volunteered to cover Sunday. We have four people who have stepped up (Alma C., Jennifer S, Saima K., and Merilee A.) and agreed to join me Sunday on very short notice.

In addition to being open on Sunday, we have just received word that there will be a booth set up outside JIB to be staffed by HPL employees. This weekend this will be done by folks already scheduled to work with the assistance of Beatrice Temp, the manager on duty, and Mary Frances, who has agreed to come in and assist. We will be looking for volunteers from throughout the system to assist with this outreach effort next weekend.

And, we still need volunteers for next Sunday.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Hot off the press!!!

Freely borrowed from Mike Van C's blog.

For those who haven't seen, the Chronicle ran the story on Remote Reference this weekend with a prominent picture of our very own Saima Kadir. Check it out at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5563926.html

Also, I was running errands this weekend and happened to be listening to Pat Shen's "Money Matters" on 740 AM. He first mentioned tax assistance at HPL libraries. Twenty minutes later he did a several minute long piece on the tremendous investment resources at the library. He highlighted Valueline, Morningstar, and all the Standard and Poor's products. On top of everything, he spoke about the fantastic service he always gets at HPL. I am not sure what location he went to but it was definitely good press for us. I feel quite proud of everything we do at HPL. You all deserve a party. Keep up the great work.

Thanks,
Mike VC

And I echo his sentiments about the great work that you all do, everyday. You are what makes it work.

Thanks,
Gina

Digital Converter Coupons

TRR has received several phone calls about a news piece which aired on Channel 11 about the coupons for Digital TV Converter Box Coupon Program. The people who called have reported that Channel 11 stated that the coupons are available at the library. This is not true. We can, however, assist people in getting the coupons.
The coupon program website is https://www.dtv2009.gov/
Households can apply for the coupons at that site -- limit 2 per household.
More information on the program can be found at http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/woissues/techinttele/dtv/dtv.cfm
Thanks,
Regina

New OPAC screens coming

Below is an e-mail from Vi -- please make yourself aware of the upcoming changes.

Hi all,
We have been testing some new WebOPAC screens in the staging directory so that we can "Go Pro" in the live WebPAC. WebPAC Pro is a necessary upgrade for HALAN members so that we can add some new III products that we've purchased, such as Spell Check and My Community Reviews.
We hope to go "Pro" by the end of February to mid-March. The upgrade date is also dependent on III so we need to allow some leeway in our scheduled upgrade. It can take III up to 6 weeks to schedule our Pro upgrade.

What is WebPAC Pro? Pro is a free III upgrade for the WebPAC that better supports new development coming in future releases. It will also allow us to do more customization in the WebPAC.
The "look" of the Pro web screens relies on "tabbed" displays. Fortunately, our new WebPAC design was able to be segued into a similar look for the Pro version.
Take a peek at the new Keyword Search screen in the staging directory http://catalog.houstonlibrary.org:2082/ and let us know what you think. We have tried to change the Pro screens as little as possible so they will match what customers have gotten used to seeing after the recent WebPAC redesign.
One change made -- we are testing making the search tips a 'link' at the bottom; the tips do not display unless the customer clicks on the link. Do you prefer the link or the actual search tips to display?

Other changes coming with Pro:
We can't show all the new things coming with Pro until we actually upgrade to it. Unfortunately, it is not one of the upgrades that we can completely test in the staging directory -- it's either installed or not!
The main difference that you will see with the upgrade to Pro is in the Keyword Search results. The search results will display using "Right Results". In the current version of Keyword Searching, results are displayed sorted in date order, with the most recent titles at the top and the oldest at the end. You also have the option of re-sorting them by relevance or title, using the 'Modify Search' button.
With Pro, the keyword results will be displayed in "Right Results" order based on a sophisticated relevancy system. Your search results will be presented in groupings, with the "Most Relevant" group at the top, sorted in date order. The next most relevant group will be listed next, etc.
Another difference that you will see with Pro, instead of the usual 12 results per page, we have the option to display 50 results per page.
Take a look at some other III libraries to get a feel for what Pro can do. Try a KEYWORD search like [ history of new york ] in a III library already using Pro to see how the "right relevancy" works. The following are some example catalogs you can use:
West Bloomfield : http://catalog.wblib.org/screens/mainmenu.html
Scottsdale Public: http://libcat.scottsdaleaz.gov/search/

Gen Y new group of library users

Happy New Year!

Here's an article that showed up on Yahoo! about library users.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071230/us_nm/internet_libraries_dc

What do you think the implications are for library services? Feel free to comment ---

Regina