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Posts Tagged ‘Reminder List’

Dear Librarian: flu from a package, credits for sharing, reminder list

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Dear Librarian-  I am so worried I will get the flu from a PBS package. What are the risks? –Cautious in Cleveland

Dear Eve,

It is known that the flu virus will survive on paper surfaces and currency for 8-12 hours at room temperature. So there is a theoretical risk of getting infectious mail (or change at Starbucks!) if someone sneezed or coughed onto your package within several hours of the time it comes to your mailbox. No one knows what the *real* risk is, of course.

In these situations, common sense applies: maintain good handwashing practices as always, and if you are concerned about your mail you can always bring it in, put it into an airtight bin for 12 hours and disinfect your hands (alcohol hand sanitizers kill the flu virus effectively), and then open the bin 12 hours later, at which point you can be sure any flu virus that might have been sneezed onto your mail en route is dead.

Dear Librarian– It seems like you guys are always changing things.  I JUST found out that I can get credits for referring new members!  There’s so much going on that I am not sure how to keep up with it all.  Any suggestions? –Quizzical in Queens

Dear Izzy,

You’re right, we are always tweaking things on the site.  Although a lot of the stuff we do is behind the scenes to keep the site loading fast and everything moving smoothly, we are also constantly upgrading existing features to work better.   When we make significant changes, we will announce them in the Newsletter, but you can also look in the What’s New! section on the site to keep up with changes as they happen.  You can get to What’s New! from the link at the very top right corner of the screen, and also from the Browse Help Docs page in the Help Center.  We try to put updates in What’s New so that new features don’t escape notice; if you check there once a week or so (or if you see something you think might be new),  it can keep you “up to speed”.

Dear Librarian– Can you put the “Convert” button back on the Reminder List? I used that to move stuff from my Reminder List to my Wish List and I don’t know how to do that now! –Boggled in Boston

Dear Tony,

We know that some people used the Convert function on the Reminder and Wish Lists, but on the whole it caused confusion – members didn’t realize that an item couldn’t be on both lists at once, and so they would add a book that was already on their Wish List to their Reminder Lists, and that would take the item off their Wish Lists although they didn’t intend this.   Now an item can be on both lists, and the Reminder List can be a list of ALL the books you want, so you can see it in one place.

It is still easy to Wish List a Reminder List book, by clicking +Wish on the listing on the Reminder List. You can read about the Wish List changes in the What’s New area linked from the “What’s New” at the very top of the site (and on the Browse Help Docs page in the Help Center).

Coming Soon:

  • Updated flyers to help Spread the Word
  • Book giveaways in the PBS blog

The Wish List Limit went into effect on September 5th. Newsletter – September 2006

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

The Wish List Limit went into effect on September 5th. All Wish Lists are now at 200 items or fewer. Items were removed first for which you were furthest “back” in line; then items that you were “1 of 1” for. When you mark a Wish List book received, PBS will automatically remove all other versions of that book from your Wish List—we think that will help keep Wish Lists up-to-date. And please note that if a Wish List book is declared lost in the mail en route to you and is unavailable in the system when that happens, it will still go back onto your Wish List, and you will be in the #1 position—even if you already have 200 items on your Wish List! So no need to “save space” in case a Wish List book you have ordered never arrives. (If the item is “lost in the mail” and another copy is available, it will go onto your Reminder List as always.)

Your List of Lists. Newsletter – May 2006

Thursday, May 4th, 2006

Did you know that you have access to nine different kinds of lists from your account page? Here is a list of those lists, what they do, and where to find them:

(1) Active Transactions (books outgoing from you or incoming to you)
located on your Account page. Just log in and scroll down.

(2) Completed Transactions (books that have been received by you, or sent by you and received by others), accessible from the right-hand side of your account page. Just log in and click Completed Transactions on the right.

(3) Books I have Read (books you have read), accessible from the
right-hand side of your Account page. Just log in and click Books I
have Read on the right.

(4) TBR Pile (= Books To Be Read; books you have received from PBS and have yet to read), accessible from the right-hand side of your Account page. You can repost books to your bookshelf directly from this list; the big red W by any book means that another member is currently wishing for this book—you might want to read it sooner, so that you can send it out!
Just log in and click TBR Pile on the right.

(5) Wish List (books you want to order that are not currently available
in the system), accessible from the right-hand side of your Account
page. Just log in and click Wish/Reminder List on the right.

(6) Reminder List (books you are considering ordering, whether
currently available or unavailable), accessible from the right-hand side of your Account page. Just log in and click Wish/Reminder List on the right, then click the Reminder List tab.

(7) My Bookshelf (books you are offering for swapping), accessible
from the right-hand side of your Account page. Just log in and click My
Bookshelf on the right.

(8) Books Lost en Route to Me (books that were not marked received by
the System Action Date for the transaction), available from a link at the top of your Completed Transactions page. You can, and should, mark “lost” books received from here, if they arrive (and they often do). Just log in and click Completed Transactions on the right, then click the link at the top of the page, “Books Lost en Route to Me.”

(9) Canceled Transactions (all cancellations, coming to you or going
from you, associated with your account for the past 45 days), accessible from a link at the top of your Completed Transactions page. Just log in and click Completed Transactions on the right, then click the link at the top of the page, “Canceled Transactions.”