Lane Libraries Staff Site

Halogen has been upgraded to the latest version, 9.1.6.8. Most of the changes I see so far are cosmetic. If you have any questions about changes, please log them as a Work Request.

A new web site about the 0.75 mill May levy created by Supporters of the Lane Libraries is now available:

http://www.yesforourlibraries.com

We're announcing the new Jim Blount Butler County History column on http://lanepl.org today.

Here is the direct link to the column:
http://library.booksite.com/5338/nl/?list=CNL3

Readers may subscribe to future columns via email via the form an the bottom of the column. We expect to publish a couple per month. Text from previous columns will be archived here: http://www.lanepl.org/blount/jbcols/index.html.

The self-check upgrades from Thursday went well. We'll be spending Friday and some of next week resolving some lingering issues and upgrading staff machines. We're probably aware of everything that needs to be done, but if you want to bring any detail or need to our attention, or have a question, please log it as a Systems Work Request and we'll attend to it. Thanks to Heidi and Bill for their efforts, and also thanks to everyone in Circulation.

This is a reminder that we will be performing self-check upgrades at each location on Thursday. LPL and FFB will have the new CircIT software installed, replacing the existing ACS software. Maintenance work on the CircIT server will require OXB to be down, too. We will start early Thursday, and expect to have the self-checks out of service most of the day.

We may be doing upgrades to the staff ACS clients, if time allows. If not, the exisiting ACS software on the staff machines will be replaced later. ACS and CircIT can operate together, so it is not critical to upgrade the staff machines tomorrow.

The new Spring Fast Lane contains a notice about Jim Blount's history column, about which you may receive questions.

From the Spring Fast Lane:

LOCAL HISTORY ARTICLES AT WWW.LANEPL.ORG
The Lane Libraries are pleased to announce that we will be hosting monthly columns about the history of Butler County by local historian Jim Blount. Beginning in March, Mr. Blount’s columns will be posted on the Lane Libraries Web site and will also be available via email subscription and an RSS feed. A searchable archive of these columns, as well as Mr. Blount’s columns from the Journal-News dating back to 1988, will be available at www.lanepl.org/blount.htm.

Mr. Blount had contributed a regular column to the Journal-News that was very popular with readers. We will begin hosting his new articles in March. The link above contains all of the columns from 1988 to 2008. We are in the process of obtaining and posting 2009. We will set up the new columns in a Bookletters page that will allow patrons to subscribe via email or RSS. We will preview that page as soon as we receive the new column from Mr. Blount.

The link on the left side of this page for Systems Work Requests has changed. We're using a new tool.

To enter a new request, log in with your Lane email address and simply type the request. No picking of categories and all the rigamarole from the previous system. Just tell us what we need to do. Bonus points will be awarded for those of you who provide useful info like barcode numbers, examples, computer names, how soon you need the request completed, etc. Cataloging and processing issues can be reported here as well.

One difference is that the system can be used only within our network. It is set up on an internal server that will not be accessible outside of our buildings.

Entering requests via this tool is our preferred method for receiving requests that are not time-sensitive. We hope you find the new system easier to use.

Part Time Oxford Branch Floater

On January 28, the Hamilton City School Board unanimously approved a resolution to put the Lane Libraries levy on the May ballot.  We expect the School Board Treasurer to deliver the resolution to the Board of Elections sometime today.  This is the final step in placing the levy on the ballot. 

To our surprise, the School Board also voted unanimously to give Lane's levy an official endorsement, the first we have received.  We appreciate the support of Dave Belew, Greg Kinch and Kelli Johnson, who were all in attendance on behalf of the Lane Libraries.

Staff should now have access to a "fact sheet" at the public desks, which you can provide to patrons who have questions about the levy.  The PR department will modify this document as needed and continue to provide copies to the branches.  The levy campaign committee will hold their first meeting on Monday, February 1 to begin strategic planning for the weeks ahead.

Please contact Carrie Mancuso or Mary Pat Essman with any questions you have or receive from patrons about the levy.

Lane libraries consider levy in face of budget cuts