History Dept. Staff & Volunteers

from Lynne:

Jean Reynolds from the city's history department has begun a new research project about the San Marcos Hotel. Her staff and volunteers will be coming regularly to use view the Chandler Arizonan on our microfilm reader and save the images to a flash drive. A log plus a flash drive will be stored at our desk for researchers to use. See the white folder called San Marcos Hotel Research Project on the shelf with our notebooks (Policies, Reference Volunteers, Best Sellers, etc.). Each person who needs this material will ask for it at the desk and then return it after use. Thanks for your cooperation!

 

SCREEN IT! Movie analysis

Just a reminder that we have a subscription to Screenit.com for people who want to know more details about what's in a movie - everything from sex/nudity to0 profanity to "disrespectful/bad attitude."

Their description: "Screen It! was created to give parents a way to access the content of popular entertainment their kids are exposed to. It is not intended as censorship. Rather, it is designed to allow Hollywood and independent filmmakers to continue to produce movies, videos and DVDs while informing parents of the content in them. Some people argue over the moral quality of films while others want to ban certain releases that contain material that particularly offends them."

"cplyouth" is the login. Password is the same as our #2 login for B&T (check large Rolodex under "Movie ratings" if you don't remember.)

Random Color of the Day - Drug Testing

Anbolyn shared the site where people can see if they're supposed to go in for drug testing (usually court-ordered): http://www.tasc-arizona.org/ Click on "Random Colors of the Day."
I know they can call in and get the colors of the day, which would probably be a better option. The telephone for TASC is 602-254-7328.

Slow Gmail tip

From Saren's email:
Just wanted to let you know that Gmail has been kind of slow to connect on the public computers today, and may not connect at all for customers. I had Paul take a look at it, and there is probably not much he can do about it right now, but he did say when customers are trying to connect to Gmail and it is not loading, they can click on a link on the lower right hand side of their screen, which would say Load Basic. This should speed up the connection process.

No trash in new image

Paul informed me that there is no trash in the new image. When someone deletes something, it is permanently deleted. No need to find it to delete it permanently from the trash any more!

New Weeding Procedure

Ginger's email:
We have a new method of counting the number of items that we weed/deselect/pull from the collection. This method will distinguish those things that we withdraw due to age, condition, inaccuracy etc. from those that we lose via other means such as missing, lost, damaged, claims returned.

Beginning April 1 change the location on those items that you are physically (item in hand) pulling from the collection to a new home location called WEEDED .

This is easily accomplished by using the global edit feature in workflows. This applies to all materials other than periodicals. Periodicals still need to be deleted. A monthly report will be run that will change all items that have the home location of WEEDED to a home location of delete.

Culture Passes in catalog

Myron fixed it so that you can find Culture Passes in the catalog. Best way is to do a Title Search for "Culture Pass" or a keyword for "Culture Pass Program."

New Phoenix Library hours

New Phoenix Public Library hours start today:

11 a.m. - 7 p.m. on
Monday
Wednesday
Friday

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. on
Tuesday
Thursday
Saturday

1 - 5 p.m. Sunday at
Burton Barr Central Library
Cesar Chavez Library
Cholla Library
Ironwood Library
Juniper Library
Mesquite Library
Palo Verde Library
Saguaro Library

All other locations closed Sunday.


http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/spotlight.jsp?lwbid=8937

Updated municipal complex map

Someone recently updated the Municipal Complex Map to show where the future city hall is:
http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=338
And did you realize that they're constructing a new parking garage on the corner of Boston and Washington, across from the old one? (Next to the future fire headquarters.) Hopefully that will give our parking lot some relief!

Here's a link to the pdf, which is good for printing. I'm putting some copies in the cabinet with the maps and tax stuff, which Betty is organizing for us (thanks, Betty!).
http://www.chandleraz.gov/Content/MunicipalComplexMap.pdf

If you're trying to find the map on the city's site, the easiest way I've found to locate it is to just do a search for "map" in the search box. Let me know if there's something more intuitive.

Goodwill Career Center

You can find a link and info about the Goodwill Career Center in /Internet Resources/Jobs and also in /Adult Ed under Other Adult Ed Programs.
We recently received a flier advertising their free GED Program:
Orientation: Every 2nd and 4th Monday from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Please bring:

1. Social Security Card
2. Birth Certificate
3. Photo ID

Session hours are

Monday 12-4
Tuesday 10-2
Wednesday 10-2
Thursday 12-4
Friday-no GED session

Note: 1st Wednesday of every month, no GED session
930 N Alma School Rd, Chandler AZ 85224 480-792-0758 (always a good idea to call before going.)

Software on the Public PCs

For the record, if you don't remember what software we have on our public computers:
-Microsoft Office 2003, which is most of the following programs:

• Word 2003
• Access 2003
• Excel 2003
• Publisher 2003
• PowerPoint 2003
• Office Picture Manager
• Internet Explorer 6.0
• Paint

-Other: Record Now Version 7

-On ReadyRef and Lab 1-3(?): Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, WinWay Resume Deluxe 16

Reminder: We can convert Word Documents from Word 2007 to Word 2003 on the Ready Ref computers. Michelle has instructions on Sunset's blog for doing this.

New Mesa Library Hours

Effective Sunday, January 4, 2009 all City of Mesa Library branches will have the following modified hours of operation:

Main Library
Monday - Thursday: 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Friday - Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: Closed

Dobson Ranch Branch Library
Red Mountain Branch Library
Monday: Closed
Tuesday - Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Thursday - Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: Closed

Tax info page

The tax page will be updated regularly as forms come in and tax help sites set their hours. Lynne gave me the AARP tax help schedule, which has been posted there:

http://chandlerlibrary.org/internet/tax.htm#help

There's a graphic link on the lefthand side of the homepage, which you may have noticed:

How to print someone's receipt on the receipt printer

Paul fixed it so that we can print receipts on the receipt printer attached to the PC Reservation console. Basically, he set it up so that it opens Notepad, and this means it will format correctly. You do need to delete some of the extra stuff that comes up, though:

1. Open the person's account and go to their Checkouts.
2. File -->Print (will open their Checkouts in Notepad)
3. (In Notepad) delete everything but the books.
4. File-->Print again in Notepad (receipt printer should automatically be selected, but make sure).

Clearing the receipt printer buffer

[Updated 12-30-08] You know how irritating it is when you print something that makes the receipt printer go nuts and it won't clear the print job for ages? Thanks to Paul, we now have a way of doing that.

1. Turn off the printer.
2. Double click on the Restart Printers.bat file on the desktop.
3. Turn the printer on while holding the select button until it beeps at you.

Let me know if this does or doesn't work for you!

Books returned from other libraries

Reminder that Chris Koeth's list of other libraries' books accidentally returned to one of our libraries is here:
F:\LIBRARY\LIBRARY\Book Returns\Non-Chandler Book Returns

Keep in mind that there's a bit of lag time between when it gets returned and when it's dealt with.

GED transcripts

From Saren's email:
". . . Adult Ed. staff have access to pull up the test scores for students through the Arizona Dept. of Ed. site with a special login. It does not matter if the students did not take the test at our location. Adult Ed. can print off a certified copy or just a copy of the student's GED transcripts. After a certain year (depending on the year the test was taken) they are only able to print off a copy of the results.

I also found out that sometimes students are issued a business check from DES to pay for the GED test, and that is acceptable. They just will not accept any personal checks."

Foreclosure assistance

From the East Valley Resource Coalition listserv. Added these to the http://chandlerlibrary.org/internet/homes.htm page (on the left)

Foreclosure assistance is also available through:
AZ Foreclosure Prevention hotline.
http: www.azgovernor.gov/MortgageHelp.asp
1-877-448-1211

Homeownership Preservation Foundation (national organization)
http://www.995hope.org
1-888-995-HOPE(4673)

GED test dates through March

Adult ed gave me the GED Test dates for next year, but Donna wants to post the next few months, just in case something changes:
http://www.chandlerlibrary.org/core.htm#GED%20Testing
Update: will keep a rolling 3-4 months out of GED test dates on the Adult Ed page.

I Qor (Call center/collections agency in Boyer Building)

We've had a couple of people recently needing the phone number for the collections agency at the top of the Boyer Building. It was kind of a pain to track down, as a search for "Iqor" in Chandler gets job ads but no address/phone number. A search in Reference USA found this company at that address:

Allied Interstate Inc 55 N Arizona Pl # 505, Chandler AZ 85225
phone (480)610-3000
fax (480)782-7007
toll free (800)469-9091
Branch of I Qor Inc [according to their website, it's really iQor]