MEMBER LIBRARY WEEKLY BULLETIN
No. 07-20

May 18, 2007

I will be out of the office Monday, 5/21 and Tuesday, 5/22.  I’ll be back in the office on Wednesday, 5/23.


New Book Group Kit
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund is now available for loan in a book group kit!  Please pass this information along to your book group leaders!


Door Prize Winners at the Intergenerational Workshop Last Week
Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop on Intergenerational Programming last Thursday. Below is a list of door prize winners- congratulations!

Lisa Carr                  Seymour Library District, Auburn
Sandy Groth             Aurora Public Library
Laurie Hultberg        Longview, an Ithacare Community
Starr LaTronica        Four County Library System
Libbie Messina        Lang Memorial Library, Cato
Sally Otis                  Hazard Library, Poplar Ridge
Janice Porter           Box of Books Library, Alfred (traveled the furthest at over 2 hrs.)
Clara Redner           Peck Memorial Library, Marathon
Dawn Riehlman       Walden Place, Cortland County

  

$100 Summer Reading Books
Your free summer reading books are here!  You will be receiving them as there is delivery space in the van.  Please be patient as the drivers accommodate these orders.

"Radically Good Behavior" Rewarded at Longmont Public Library
Longmont Public Library (LPL), CO, unlike many libraries, has experienced a year of well-behaved teens, thanks to the institution of its Radically Good Behavior Raffle. Throughout the month, any library staffer can hand out a raffle ticket to any teen displaying good behavior. The teen fills out the form and hands it in. At the end of each month, ten teens are chosen to receive a $10 gift certificate to local bookstores, movie theaters, or restaurants. While LPL hasn't kept statistics on teen behavior compared to one year ago, librarian Ruth McMillen has noticed a difference. Librarians are focused on acknowledging good behavior; she told Library Hotline, rather than noticing other behaviors. 

The raffle ticket sometimes startles teens, said McMillen, as its headline states, "You've been caught!" It continues, however, with the message, "your behavior was radically good." The raffle form has a portion the teens keep that reads, "Thank you for respecting others and property, not using your cell phone in the library, quietly reading or studying, using the Internet appropriately, and being courteous, respectful, and friendly."

McMillen came up with the idea to reward good behavior during a staff meeting. The program is funded at $100 a month by the Friends group, which just committed to supporting it another year. One library staffer takes turns running the program each month, which also involves lining up vendors to contribute prizes.
LIBRARY HOTLINE / May 7, 2007

  

Polaris “Tip of the Week” 

Suspending Hold Requests in Polaris

Why would a patron want to suspend their hold request?

  • If they are leaving for vacation, and want to reactivate the hold when they return while still maintaining their position in the queue.

  • If they are placing hold requests on items in a series, and want to see them in order while maintaining their position in the queue.  For example, if a patron wants to see the complete first season of The Sopranos on VHS and they are all checked out, they can place hold requests on volumes 1 – 5.  After they place the requests, they can suspend the holds for 2-5 and reactivate each volume as they check out the next in the series.  This maintains their position in the holds queue. 

 PowerPac 

Patron’s should log into their account via PowerPAC and click on “Requests.”

 

1.      Place a checkmark to the left of the item you want to suspend.

2.      Click on “Suspend/Reactivate Selected Requests.”

 

 3.      Type in the date you wish to reactivate the hold request, and click “Submit.” 

 


In the Staff Client 

1.      Search Patron Status by Patron Record

 

 2.      Choose the “Requests” option on the left-side of the screen to view requests.
Double-click on the title you wish to suspend.

  

3.    From the Hold Request screen, change the “Activation Date” in the upper right-hand corner to some date in the future. 

 This will automatically suspend the request 

 The request will be reactivated on the date that you or the patron indicated.

In both PowerPAC and in the staff client, once the hold request is reactivated, the patron appears back in the queue where they were before the hold request was suspended.

 

I will be out of the office from Monday, May 21 until May 29. If you have any ILL questions please call June Gilligan, ext. 42.  I will return email and phone messages as soon as I can.

 

RECYCLED BOOK (from TCPL) Please let me know before May 30 if you would like:

  • Kamien, Roger Music: An Appreciation, ninth edition, McGraw Hill. (Accompanied by 9 cds.)


ILL

Reminder – There will not be a delivery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28.

Please contact me with questions and/or concerns about the new ILL policies and procedures that will be implemented on June 1

 

DATABASE – Ancestry.com

Our ProQuest representative informed me of this special Ancestry.com offer. For libraries that currently subscribe to Heritage Quest Online (which all of the Finger Lakes libraries do via the system agreement from 2005), the cost of adding a subscription to Ancestry Library Edition (Ancestry.com) will only be $869. This represents a 50% discount. This offer is only available to libraries 1) serving a population under 50,000 and 2) to NEW orders of ALE. The deadline is JUNE 30, 2007.  Ancestry.com can only be used in the library and can not be accessed remotely. If you need more information about this offer or want to purchase the database, you can contact:

Gary Katz, ProQuest CSA
(800) 521-0600, ext. 4075  (direct dial (734) 997-4075)
(800) 308-1586 (fax)
gary.katz@il.proquest.com

DATABASE TRAINING -

By now you should have received a flyer about this upcoming workshop that will take place at our June system meeting.

Ways Your Library Can Serve Local Businesses and Job Seekers

June 28 (System Meeting) 

9:30-11:30 am (Sign-in and coffee beginning at 9:00)

TCPL Borg Warner Room

RSVP by June 19 (273-4074 or lbeins@flls.org)

Larry Carey, Adult Services Librarian at TCPL, and I will demonstrate how ReferenceUSA, Business and Company Resource Center, and other resources can be used by patrons who are looking for employment or starting a business.

 

LAST WEEK’S QUESTION OF THE WEEK What have been the major threats to the existence of the bald eagle? (Submitted by Julia, TRU) 

In the 1960’s there were only 400 pairs of breeding bald eagles in all of the continental U.S. In 2003 that number was up to 6,000 pairs. It is estimated that 300 years ago there were 500,000 bald eagles. The decline in this species has been blamed on poachers, pesticides and the loss of nesting grounds. The 1972 ban on the use of DDT in the U.S. has probably been most responsible for the improved status of the bald eagle.    

BALD EAGLES ARE BACK. (cover story) By: Relò, Mariana. Scholastic SuperScience, Apr2003, Vol. 14 Issue 7, p12, 3p, 2c. [accessed through General Sciences Collection (GALE/THOMSON) database]

 

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION OF THE WEEK  What Finger Lakes town was officially recognized by Congress as the town that held the first Memorial Day on May 5, 1866?

 

I was notified on Thursday afternoon that Polaris 3.3 is ready and will be installed on our training server on Monday May 21st.  Jan will be working with the new software to determine what is new and different and needs training.  She is breaking the training sessions up between Circulation and Item Maintenance with Circulation as the first round.  Jan will finalize the dates and locations in the next couple of days and will notify you by email when and where they will be. 

I am very excited to let you know that the new release has the new consortium fine setting (based on checkout library) and the fix to the collection agency module we discussed at the FALCONS meeting.  I am working with Polaris to secure the upgrade date for the production server which is tentatively going to be Tuesday and Wednesday June 12th and 13th.  I am planning on a 2 day upgrade since there will be extensive setting changes and PowerPac configuration issues.  I will keep you informed as the dates are finalized.

   

FLLS HOME

2007 Bulletins, 2006 Bulletins, 2005 Bulletins, 2004 Bulletins
2003 Bulletins, 2002 Bulletins, 2001 Bulletins, 2000 Bulletins

Last updated 06/04/2007