Food and Beverages

Greetings,

An update:

According to recently revised Policy 2.3 "The consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is permitted at all Library locations except HMRC." This means that customers can bring in and consume the contents of bottles with lids and cups with covers so long as they do not contain alcohol; I do not consider a can a "covered container".

As for food, the policy allows food in designated areas. Rather than put up signs designating various areas as designated or non-designated or more signs indicatins "No...", food will be allowed in all locations of Central with the exception of the Computer Area on the first floor and the computer lab on concourse. However, in the areas that are a part of Inversion, only food from Inversion is allowed.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Janitor's Closet

Greetings,

Here is information from Wendy Heger on the Janitor's closet:

Paul Marro says that he and Frederick Lee will make sure the doors are locked.

mvc

Elevator Issue

With the Central elevator out far too frequently of late, the issue of how to get people with strollers, wheelchairs, etc. into and out of the building from the garage has come up.

Security has been calling Manny and having him escort people in and out using the staff elevator in the column. This works in some cases but Manny is not always available. In order to respond quickly to this need, I would like to ask the person at WD be prepared to step away momentarily and escort a person down or up in the staff elevator as needed.

Here is a quick break down of how this should work.

Situation One: Customer needs to come up from Garage
1) Security guard in garage contacts guard on first floor
2) First floor guard lets WD librarian know they are needed to assist
3) WD Librarian walks (or rides staff elev) down to garage and escorts customer to staff elevator and walks customer to side elevator to access other floors
4) WD Librarian returns to WD

Situation Two: Customer needs to Return to Garage
Same process as above but in reverse - If customer asks about access at WD, ride side elevator with them down to Concourse and escort them to column elevator down into garage.


Thanks,

Staff bathroom keys!!!!!

Staff bathroom keys are now available on every floor but C. They are in drawers at the laptop desk on 1, the north service desk on 2, Remote Reference on 3, and by the managers printer in 455.

Each key is on a long annoying rope lanyard so they (hopefully) cannot be misplaced. The blue lanyard is the Mens key and the green lanyard is the Ladies key.

Staff restrooms on 1, 2, and 3 are in the same place. If you are familiar with the location of Remote Reference on 3 they are directly across the hall. On the 4th floor they are down the narrow hallway between the meeting room doors.

Courtesy to your fellow coworkers is a must. Please return all lanyards immediately to their holding place for the next person in need. Please also always remember to lock the doors when you leave to prevent sharing with our customers.

Your macrame "artist", Sandy

Important Reminder

Katie posted a very important reminder on the issues blog.  Since I am not sure everyone is checking that regularly, I am reposting here because of its importance.  Thanks, Katie. -mvc

"Please shut down MilCirc at the close of each day. Often, IT does updates to III overnight and having III running (on) can cause problems.

Also, Milcirc *does not* need to be running on every computer all day long. Only so many sessions can be running at a time. If too many sessions are running, this can cause staff who need it (like LST or other circulation depts) to be locked out until a session is available."

Help Cards

We have restocked Help Cards from the Coalition for the Homeless at the Welcome Desk.  These are larger versions of the cards we have that gave out information on shetlers, fodd pantires, etc. in the Houston area that exist to help the homeless.  These are avaialble to give out to custoemrs.  We also have a stack of them available behind the South (Lamar) Service desk on the First Floor.

If we run out at either location, they can be printed out at:

http://www.homelesshouston.org/hh/Downloads_EN.asp?SnID=31273286

They are listed as HELP CARD.  YOu can also let me or a manager know and we will get a large quantity of them.

Thanks,

mvc

Please Report Crimes and Violations

Greetings,

I would like to stress to all staff that whenever they see a violation of a rule or a crime committed in the library or on the plaza, they need to report it to security (if a rule violation) or the police officer on duty (it it is a crime) immediately.  That is why we have security and police.  They need to be informed when these things occur so that they can act to eradicate these issues.  We need everyone's help in this effort.

If you report these issues and they are not addressed, I need to know about it so that we can make sure they will be in the future.

Thanks,

mvc