cash drawer at closing

Now that we have figured out exactly what to do at closing with our new cash handling system, the rest of the staff should learn how to close out the cash register at the end of the day. Dolores or myself can teach you whenever we close. I would recommend that at least two staff on each weekend crew learn how to close and process the morning deposit reports.

The basic steps are as follows:

1-Log in with your ID and password. 2-Click on the Reports button
3-Select "Cash Drawer" from the list on the left of the screen
4-Make sure the change fund amount at the top of the screen is correct. Then, enter the number of bills and coins in the register by denomination in the spaces provided.
5-Click on the submit button. The drawer should balance.
6-Print two copies of the report screen.

--Jeff

Cash Drawer

Jeff from IT, and Isis from Financial Services will be here this morning at around 9:30 AM (and again at closing) to finalize cash drawer setup. If all goes as planned, we will start accepting cash payment for fines today.

--Jef

My flash drive

If anyone knows where my black flash drive is that was in the top drawer of my desk, please let me know. It has all of my Writer's Workshop stuff on it.

Thanks,
Megan

Study Rooms

As a general rule, I do not want to let people have extra time in the study room if there are other people waiting to use the rooms.

This morning a customer said that a staff member told her she could have an extra 15 minutes in the room because the computer was slow to start up for her. Since there were already people waiting on the room, no staff member should have told her she could have more time because that would throw everybody else's reservations off.

--Jeff

Timers on computers

Try and check to make sure computers have timers a few times each day. The last couple of days there have been around 6 computers without timers at any given time. I've told kids that if they are caught again without a timer they are kicked out for a week. If they say the computer was like that when they got there (which they always do) then say that you still have to restart the computer in order to get a timer and that they need to make a reservation.

Megan

Desk Expectations

There are some things I think we could improve upon and some things I expect us all to be mindful of when we are assigned to work the Service Desk.

1-I expect staff to be mindful of the time during the day and to be at the Desk on time. The Desk should be our primary responsibility and virtually anything else we might be doing can wait if it is our turn to work at the Desk. You should not make your coworkers wait for you when it is time to switch off the desk.

2-When you are scheduled to work the Desk, you should stay around the Desk area unless you are helping a customer. This is not a good time to go to the back and print more program calendars. If you must do something in the back, you should tell whomever you are partnered at the desk with that hour where you are going and what you are doing, do not just dissappear. If we are busy and you must come to the back for a good reason, please see if someone in the back can cover for you.

We all need to work on being more accountable to each other so that in order to provide the best service that we can to our customers.

--Jeff

July Temporary Stats

I have uploaded our July 2009 Temporary Stats Workbook to our Google Docs site. Please see the following instructions.
--Jeff

From Ann Otto:

Please record your July statistics in this workbook while we finish preparing your FY10 statistical workbooks with the full FY09 numbers added to them.

A few things to do before you start:

1. Add the name of your library in the yellow box on the report page.

2. Please note the new categories of Visitors, Volunteers and Holds (pulled and processed). Hopefully having ALL your stats in a single workbook will be helpful! If you have questions about how to count Holds, please contact your District Manager. Questions about Visitors or Volunteers can be sent to me.

3. At the end of the month, transfer your July numbers from your temporary stat workbook to the July page of the FY10 Stat workbook. (More on this later in the month.) Once you have transferred this information, you may discard your temporary stat workbook.

Ann Otto
Planning and Evaluation Coordinator
Houston Public Library
(832) 393-1437

Computer Use Cards

You do not have to use the computer use card paper applications if you do not want to. You may either registar people for Computer Use cards using either the form on Intranet found here or enter their information directly into MilCirc. If you do use the paper slips, make sure that they are counted and shredded at the end of each business day.

Thank You,

--Jeff

Applications

Remember to check the date on all applications and please be sure to fill in all spaces (barcode and initials) on the form. Thanks

Please do not send customers to other libraries for SRP prizes

Please do not send customers to other libraries for SRP prizes. If a customer is registered at our library they can only get prizes at our library. Right now we have James Coney Island and Astros tickets. Central has called me saying that someone from Frank is telling customers to go to other libraries for prizes. However, if we give them Astros tickets then we must enter that they received their 20 level prize. When they get to another library that library will look them up and see that they already received their prizes. There is no way to know if a person is lying or not about receiving prizes. Therefore, Heidi has asked that we give them what we have and not send them anywhere else.

Thanks
Megan

DOOR COUNT

Sunday, July 19th is the start of another Door Count week, which will end on Saturday, July 26th.

The purpose of Door Count is to track the numbers of visitors who come to the library on an hourly basis. This helps managers make decisions about staffing levels and service hours. It also helps us to gain insight into how people are using the library (i.e. through In House Material Use). These are standard industry measures that all libraries record.

Please check your gates to make sure that they are operating correctly. If you have not already done so, this week would be a good time to clean your filter and make sure that your gate is in working order. You can refer to the exciting gate maintenance video if you need a refresher: https://hplnet.hpl.lib.tx.us/your-library.html

As a reminder, Door Count ONLY involves recording P numbers from your gate(s) on an hourly basis and recording your In-House materials use on an hourly basis. Record other statistics (such as Reference) as you normally do.

EDIT: Since the counter functions on our gates does not function properly, we will have to keep a manual count of customers. Dolores Orta has the forms for that. -- Jeff