Lane Libraries Staff Site

Priority Inbox will be rolling out to all Gmail users, including those of you who use Google Apps, over the next week or so. Once you see the "New! Priority Inbox" link in the top right corner of your Gmail account (or the new Priority Inbox tab in Gmail Settings), take a look.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/email-overload-try-priority-inbox.html

On September 7 we will be announcing an exciting new service for our patrons! Freegal Music is a service that provides downloadable music. It is DRM free which means that it will work EASILY on any device or Operating System. It also means that patrons have unlimited use of the music and it never expires. There is no software to download and it works with either PC or Mac. Patrons can simply drag and drop songs directly into a music manager such as iTunes, or directly to their computer or to a listening device. At this time, patrons are not able to download songs to our public PCs because “saving” is disabled. Some changes were made that will allow patrons to download directly to a flash drive, a memory card or their mobile device.

The Freegal library consists of the entire Sony Music Digital Catalog including over 400,000 songs. The catalog is not static with 1,000 - 2,000 songs added per week. We have chosen to block music labeled “EXPLICIT.”

Patrons will be limited to three downloads per card per week. We will have 190 total downloads  per week that will be available to our patrons beginning at 12:01 am Monday morning. When we have used all of our allotted downloads, patrons will receive a message indicating that and will have an opportunity to add their titles to a wish list. Their wish list will then automatically be filled the next Monday at 12:01. ("Wish list" songs will be held for 24 hours from this time.) If a patron has used their allotted downloads for the week they are not able to create a wish list. If any downloads are not used during the week they will roll over to the next week. If any downloads are not used during the year they are rolled over to the next year.

Before the roll-out on Sept. 7, please take some time to familiarize yourself with the service by signing into our test account.  Systems will be distributing the login info via email.
http://www.freegalmusic.com/questions

Every so often, you will have a patron who asks not to be notified about holds or overdues, either by Telecirc or email. While you could accomplish this several ways, we have a procedure setup for doing this:

Change the patron to email notification and set their email address as no_notice@lanepl.org

These emails come to me, and I just send them to TRASH.

(One other thing to be aware of is that these patrons will continue to be notified by Unique Management, Inc. if they go to collections, and it is important that we keep valid street addresses and phone numbers in their Horizon records for that purpose.)

All week, but especially today, our Internet has been sluggish. I've noticed this myself, and many of you have been so kind as to inform me of it as well .

I just spoke to OPLIN about our problem. It is what I expected. We maxed out our 10mbit bandwidth at 1pm when we opened today, and have remained at a consistent 90%+ utilization level. I think the popularity of the new PCs at LPL and FFB has resulted in more traffic. Which is a good thing, but problematic while we are bandwidth-constrained.

OPLIN has placed the order to increase our bandwidth from 10Mb to 50Mb. I do not have specific dates for implementation yet, but am hopeful we can have this in place by the end of October. Until then, unfortunately, we are going have times like this when it feels like AOL circa 1996, or August 2000. Sorry!

Where is that presentation? Was it attached to an email? Or in Google Docs? If you’re not sure, you may end up searching several places with the same query in order to find it. With the new “Apps Search” lab, we just made that all a bit simpler.

See: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-in-labs-find-docs-and-sites-quickly.html

In the weeks that have followed the levy passage, the budget from the state and Lane's revenue have been constantly monitored in order to determine how the libraries should move into the fall quarter. Due to continued cost savings, Lane's budget shows revenue of $50,000 over expenses so far this year. In addition, we have received $35,000 more than was anticipated for July from the state. This positive news has helped the Board determine that we can support the funding to expand our hours of operation and personnel needed to make this happen for the remainder of 2010. The expansion will be supported for the long term by levy money beginning in 2011.
 
Effective Tuesday, September 7, Lane's hours of operation will change to: Monday - Thursday, 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
 
The following part-time positions are being posted to be filled as quickly as possible to support the personnel needs for these expanded hours of service. Positions added will be: five Grade 6 positions, four Grade 7 positions, one Grade 5 position, and a page for BKM.
 
An announcement of the new hours will be listed on our Web site today and sent to local media in a press release. Please contact your supervisor if you have any questions.
 
This is exciting news that our patrons have been waiting and hoping for. Enjoy sharing the good news!

"I realize we're picking the bones from the Old Spice campaign at this point, but when I saw that the Brigham Young University parody of the Old Spice ads had gotten more than 1.2 million views (Old Spicy himself — that's what I'm calling him — did a video for libraries), it got me thinking..."

read more at npr.org:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128651136&sc=emaf

"To coincide with Oxford’s bicentennial year, the Smith Library of Regional History is displaying “Fiction Set in Oxford,” an exhibit that will remain until September."

Oxford Press article

" It may be obvious, but people will get wet if they attend The Water Show at Village Green Park.

The Water Show is set for 7:30 p.m. July 26 at the Village Green Park and Amphitheatre. The show also will be performed at 1 p.m. July 26 at Powerhouse Park in Hamilton, and 1 p.m. July 29 at Symmes Park in Hamilton."

Journal-News article

We have been in contact with OPLIN about our Internet response times in the afternoon. Our traffic has outgrown our 10mb of bandwidth, and there is little we can do about it at this point. I have reduced the amount of bandwidth wireless users can consume.