Humana Wellness Zone Kiosk

Greetings,

The Humana Wellness Zone Kiosk has been installed on the 2nd floor on the McKinney side of the building. This Kiosk is a station folks can go to to locate health information, such as diseases, medicines, health care, healthy living, etc. The Kiosk is dedicated to providing access to the Wellness Zone web page--which is also accessible from any computer and listed under databases on our Web page--and health/medical resources. Please spend a little time to familiarize yourself with this web page (http://wellzone.org/) and share this information with customers. Also, feel free to share opinions of the page and the kiosk with me (e.g., How does it compare to other similar databases and Web sites?; Is the kiosk used/useful for customers?, etc.)

In addition, there will be an event this Friday at 10:00 am in the same location at which the Humana Foundation and others will announce this project. This may generate interest in the Wellness Zone. So, we all need to be familiar with the resource.

Thanks once again for your dedication and hard work,

Mike VC

Excellent Program Celebrating HPL's 125th Anniversary as a Federal Depository Library

I just wanted to take the time to recognize the hard work that Cindy and Katie put in to this past weekend's celebration recognizing HPL's 125th anniversary as a Federal depository library. They have both been working tirelessly to ensure the success of the program and to promote Gov Docs at HPL. If you were not there or haven't heard, the event was an overwhelming success.

The thought and preparation that went into the event were evident in the carefully selected materials from our collection that highlighted the famous and unique treasures from this collection. Speeches from Meller Langford, Joe McClane from GPO, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee all spoke knowledgeably about the Federal depository program and expressed gratitude for the commitment of HPL in general--and Cindy and her team in particular.

So, many "Congratulations" and "Thank Yous" go out to Cindy, Katie, and everyone who assisted with the event for making HPL look so good.

mvc

Program Place Chairs

Greetings,

I have received word from our Planning department that chairs are being removed from the Program Place and used for other purposes. I have been asked to stress to all staff that the green chairs and blue tables in the Program Place are to be used only in that room and should remain there at all times. I have been told that the reallocation of this furniture has been posing problems in having adequate seating for programs in the room.

Thank you,

Mike VC

Second Sunday

Greetings all,

How did our second Sunday under the new arrangement go? Please feel free to share any issues, concerns, problems, etc. so that we can work to address them and make Sundays run as smoothly as possible.

Thanks,
Mike VC

First Sunday

Greetings,

The first Sunday seemed to go alright. There were a few minor glitches and I did receive some suggestions for making things run more efficiently. I would suggest that if anyone has any concern, issues, or suggestions about this past Sunday or future Sundays, please let me know. I expect there will be a period of acclimating to the new set up for Sundays. I hope to use this time as an opportunity to make things run as smoothly as possible.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Twitter Article

Greetings,

Steven Johnson, a fantastic writer (opinion), has written a cover story or Time entitled "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live". It makes for quite interesting reading. I would encourage folks to read and share observations. By the way, the description of the conference where many people in the room (and beyond) were using twitter to discuss is exactly similar to two excellent "Tech Trends" sessions I attended at ALA and PLA; the use of Twitter in these sessions completely transformed the sessions into a more participatory event.

Here is the link:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604-1,00.html

Thanks,
Mike VC

Bing - The new "Decision Engine" from Microsoft

Greetings

Microsft has officially launched their new search engine and Google competitor: Bing. Microsoft promotes it as a "Decision Engine" that is "a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions." You can read more about Bing at:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-28NewSearchPR.mspx

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(search_engine)

I am curious to have library staff try it out and share their impressions.

mvc