Text Messaging Reference Service

Greetings,

HPL is currently participating in a cooperative pilot for delivering text messaging reference service. It is called InfoQuest. Our efforts are being headed up by our very own Paty Bustamante, Saima Kadir, and the exceptional CELS team. They will be sharing more information on the project as we proceed and a large publicity push will be coming in September. For now, you can find information at:

http://www.myinfoquest.info/

Information and a link to the service will soon be added to the Ask a Librarian section of HPL's Web site. While we are viewing this as a soft launch until the larger publicity push in September, it is perfectly alright (even encouraged) to share information about the service with customers.

I am also curious if anyone has any experiences to share (good or bad) with using existing services that answer questions--both those that charge a fee (e.g., kgb.com, Johnny27 (now defunct, I believe)) or those that are free (e.g., Google SMS, ChaCha). Please feel free to share via comments.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Skateboards this Saturday (8/8/09)

Greetings,

In order to accomodate the participants and attendees at this Saturday's Red Bull Manny Mania event, the library rule forbidding skateboards will be temporarily suspended for Saturday (8/8/09) only. While we are allowing skateboards in the building on this day, we do need to watch to ensure that no one uses their skateboards while in the building.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Manny Mania Event at Central Library - 8/8/2009 - 4:00 to 6:00 PM

Greetings staff,

Next Saturday, Houston Public Library will be hosting an event on the plaza. It is the Red Bull Manny Mania Skateboarding event and will run from 4 to 6 PM. For more information on the event, please go to the following Web site:
http://www.redbullskateboarding.com/events/manny_mania_2009/

This is being heavily promoted so we might start getting questions about this. One important thing to share with customers interested in the event is that the parking garage will close promptly at 6 PM, which might impact folks who want to stay for the entire event. We will post signs to this effect at the entrance to the garage and in the lobby.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Career Development Opportunity

Dr. Ling Hwey Jeng, Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University will hold an informational meeting for HPL employees interested in learning more about the MLS program at TWU.

Date: Friday, August 7, 2009

Time: 9:00 – 10:30am

Location: Concourse Meeting Room, Central Library

No registration is necessary. For additional information visit the Inside HPL, health and career page:
https://hplnet.hpl.lib.tx.us/personal.html

If anyone is interested in this opportunity, please let your supervisor know. Everyone who would like to will be allowed to attend this session.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Microsoft Office 2007

Greetings,

Microsoft Office 2007 has been installed on all public computers at Central. This edition is quite different from others we have used. I brought this issue to IT and they have assured me that they will develop a solution to ensure that staff gain familiarity with the Office 2007. I will share details as I learn more.

In addition, I learned that staff terminals will be converted to Office 2007 once the City migrates all departments to the current version of Exchange (E-mail), which is slated to be completed before the end of the calendar year.

Thanks,

Mike VC

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