One Card

Greetings,

As I look back on the postings on the One Card from 6/5/08 and 11/6/07, I see that they are a bit unclear and lack specifics about what we need to know. Sorry about that.

What we need to know about One Card is that customers with a Harris County Public Library Knowledge Card can use that card at HPL once they register the Harris County card. The way this works is just like receiving a PowerCard. The only difference is that when that person registers their patron barcode (or P BARCODE in MilCirc) will be the number on their Harris County card. Once registered, the customer can use that card just like they would use a PowerCard.

The other important piece of information is that customers can now return Harris County items at any HPL location and vise versa.

For more information, please see the helpful training on this available via the CLST blog at:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgrznkbp_1374zbs6rc7

Please let me know if I need to clarify this.

Thanks,
mvc

CIPA

Greetings,

Since we have reopened the issue of pornography has come up repeatedly. As most folks know, we are obligated to follow guidelines as laid out in the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which states the library "must protect against access to visual depictions that 1) are obscene, 2) contain child pornography, or 3) are harmful to minors."

For a definition of obscene, CIPA ultimately points to state law. In Texas Statute 43.21, the term "obscene" is clearly defined. This is the definition we need to operate on when determining if something is obscene. Here is a link to Chapter 43 of the Texas Penal Code.
http://tinyurl.com/36upw2

Please scroll down to section 43.21 Definitions to read the definitions.

The second two issues--2) child pornography and 3) harmful to minors--are well defined at the following CIPA information page provided by WebJunction.
http://webjunction.org/91/articles/content/432235

I hope having these definitions helps with this issue.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Oce/Pharos Money

Greetings,

There should no longer be a need to collect Pharos money to give customers credit on their print cards. There are enough Virtual Cash Acceptors throughout the building that this should no longer be needed. The only instance where we would need to do this again is if all machines are not functioning.

Thanks,
Mike VC