NExpress Shared Catalog

Tonight after close, LibLime will update our Catalog with MANY bug fixes and patches, but with relatively few “new features.”

Patron Messaging Preferences:

We paid for an enhancement that allows e-mail messaging preferences to be set at the time a new patron card is created.  Every new patron will have a default setting of ON for the Holds Notification e-mail option, but the rest are up to each individual library.   We will be setting these defaults manually after the update, tomorrow.

Saved SQL Reports can be EDITED!

We mentioned in passing to Chris Cormack that we would LOVE it if we could edit our saved reports.  He said that would be an easy fix and MADE IT SO at the Developers weekend after KohaCon 09 in Plano, TX!  Here is the result:

Partial fix Bug 2655 – Items Waiting on Hold Shelf Display as “Available” in OPAC

In the Intial Search Results – the items in green are still incorrectly identified as “Available.”

When you click into the Detail, however, a new ‘ON HOLD’ status appears.

Bug 1877 - When a Patron makes a Suggestion for Purchase, their name is now a hyperlink to their library account!  Liz will make the Notes column magically reappear, as well.  No worries.

Bug 3112 – Lists that are emailed from the OPAC look better than they used to – give it a test.  Links back to the catalog are included.  Owen Leonard wrote many of these OPAC-related tweaks and we are grateful for that!

Bug 3033 – Changed wording in OPAC regarding Holds from “Item waiting to be pulled” to “Pending.”

Bug 3093 - Enhanced ability to place holds in the Staff Client – now it works JUST like in the OPAC!  Note the fancy new check boxes and Place Hold and Add to List buttons???  Howard County library sponsored this update!

ATTENTION CATALOGERS:

A Notes Search in the OPAC or Staff Client *should* now search the 952 $z  Public Notes field (items.itemnotes) – See this patch says so…  If it is not working properly, we will ask to have our index fixed so that it does.  Feel free to use this field when creating an Item Record to note donations and such.

As always, please be aware of any strange behaviors exhibited by the OPAC or catalog directly after this update and report those (with screenshots) to the NExpresshelp hotline.

I lied at today’s meeting – I updated the Go Live! bookmark for Wellsville and Valley Falls without posting the revisions to this site. – Sharon

Here it is! (Word Doc) – The May 2009 revision of the 4-per-page instructional bookmark, customized for Valley Falls

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Brief Notes from the Users Group Meeting

(May 21, 2009 at NEKLS HQ)

• Sharon, Diana and Liz shared their impression of the KohaCon 09 conference in Plano, TX.  Notes from the event are available at: KohaCon09 with CoverItLive and at Sharon’s library blog: lybrarian.wordpress.com
• Mickey reported on the Holds notification enhancement, which is ready for testing in the TEST catalog.  When creating a new patron, the e-mail holds notification will be defaulted to ON.  Other types of e-mail notification can be selected at the time a new card is created.  More information about the various notification features of Koha will be coming soon.  Sharon will work with SEKLS and CKLS to create specifications for a Reports enhancement.
• Reports training is scheduled for Monday, June 15.  Registration is open at http://www.nekls.org
• Mickey will work with CKLS and SEKLS to create a combined Bibliographic Maintenance Package that includes bib/item merging to help with removing duplicate or sub-standard records from the catalog without losing valuable circ and item information.
• Interest in fine-related developments was expressed and NEKLS staff will to put together an overview of fine-related enhancements, in case individual libraries want to contribute.
• Diana shared that 24 libraries are now in NExpress and another 7 will be joining in the fall.  The Users group discussed the issue of duplicate patrons and several libraries shared their procedures for determining which of two accounts is the ‘keeper.’  Royce Kitts reminded existing libraries to weed inactive patrons.  New libraries joining were encouraged to weed their patron database deeply prior to migration and to use NExpress to search for possible duplicates.  The issue will go to the Policy Committee.
• The Cataloging Standards Committee will be chaired by Diana and their first order of business will be to create best practices for making labels.  Mickey will chair the Policy Committee and Sharon will chair the Collection Development committee.
• Sharon shared information about the “%” wildcard character to help with searching and invited libraries to contact her for further search training (more information in a post).
• Issues:
  • Use of the Lost Items report can help to manage the replacement or deletion of missing and lost items.  The patch for Bug 3160 will soon be added to our installation of Koha that will change the status of Items currently checked out to a patron from Lost to Available upon check in.  Development is aparently still needed so that ANY item currently marked Lost or Missing will become Available once it is checked in.  Materials marked Damaged will need to have their status updated manually.
  • We discussed managing your library’s Holds Shelf.  Jerie shared that the Cancel and Return buttons that appear on the Holds Awaiting Pickup list do NOT trigger holds.  You must re-scan the item in the Check In box to trigger and transfer a hold.
  • Offline Circ module needs to be reviewed for updates and new instructions created and posted.  This module MAY be useful during busy summer reading days, as it is faster than using the live circulation module.  Circulation speed is dependent on bandwidth.
  • Jim promised that NEKLS will send out an emergency Cell phone number and appropriate use guidelines by the end of the week.

If you have other important points to share that I have missed, please put those in the comments section.

- Sharon

LATEST from Ryan at LibLime from May 8:

The patches addressing these holds issues have been
pushed, and I’ve gone ahead and integrated them into
your production and test instances.  The fix doesn’t address
those items that have already been affected by the bug.
Essentially,  record that the item was placed in transit was
not recorded for those items.  So you’ll continue to see some
residual effects for a bit, but those should subside as they are
filled.  This fix should clear up both the holds queue problem
and the in-transit confusion.

Have a nice weekend,

Ryan

- Please share this with your staff and patrons, as needed – Sharon

*****

Thank you all for the specific information you sent us regarding the problems with the hold pick lists. We forwarded everything you sent us to LibLime support and they were able to diagnose the problem. We received this note from support just awhile ago: “A patch for this bug was submitted last night, and as soon as it is approved, it will applied to your system.  I’m told by Monday evening at the latest.  Thanks for the update and if there is any updates or changes, I’ll let you know.”

In case you are interested, the bug and related information can be found at: http://bugs.koha.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=3195

Stay tuned…help is on the way.

Ryan at LibLime applied a patch that Galen wrote to fix the bug that caused us to turn off the Amazon enhanced content (book jackets and reviews)…so, yesterday we could turn that feature BACK ON!

We just heard from Hiawatha and the book Max (one of the offending titles) worked perfectly!

Thank you, Ryan and Galen

-NExpress

OK, I made two drafts, you all can vote for your favorite.

These videos highlight some of the new features of the Public online Catalog, including the new holds features and the item call numbers that now display on the first set of search results.  When we had to turn off the Amazon.com book jackets, we also temporarily lost access to the reviews and other enhanced content Amazon provided.  Too bad they provided some nasty bugs along with that great content! – Sharon

These videos require the shockwave plug in.

May 09 Public Catalog Overview (take 1)

May 09 Online Public Catalog Overview (take 2)

Today, we had to change our Enhanced Content (book jacket pictures) source from Amazon.com to Google books in the Patron client.  We had to turn off the Enhanced Content from Amazon in the Staff Client all together.

The good folks at LibLime suggested that those Firefox errors we were seeing for Max and Twilight and Eclipse, were caused by the Amazon book jackets.  When we turned off the connection to Amazon, the errors did disappear!  Our hope is that Amazon will fix the broken records and we can go back to them for our enhanced content in the near future.

The other issues we’ve been seeing – ‘No barcode’ in the holds table, for example – are being worked on at LibLime.  We will keep you posted.

A Catalog Search Training module is now available for booking!  Contact Sharon.

The ‘pilot’ took place yesterday at the Bonner Springs City Library and was broken into two one-hour sessions.

Self-paced Search Training – Videos!

Agenda (with the majority of what I’d be saying at the training included):

• Definitions – Simple search, Advanced Search, Staff client, OPAC or Public catalog, and Keyword (Zebra) searching
  • Koha uses the open source Zebra software search and retrieve queries from a keyword search.
• Simple Search options in the OPAC - Keyword (Library Catalog), Title, Author, Subject, ISBN, Series or Call Number
  • Keyword searches are the most forgiving of spelling errors.  All other searches (Author, title, subject) are ‘exact’ searches.
• Advanced Search options in the OPAC
  • Multiple field searches with default boolean of “And” (Add more by clicking +)
  • Additional MARC field search criteria, including publisher, standard number and notes
  • Limit by location and availability
  • Determine relevancy sort (Date, Author A-Z/Z-A, Title A-Z/Z-A, etc.)
• Simple Search options in the Staff Client
• Advanced Search options in the Staff Client
  • More Boolean options (And | Or | Not)
    Example: Say you wanted to find an item by someone named “king” who wrote something called “carrie” and you don’t want to sift through any bloody horror books/movies.  You can search for
    Keyword: Carrie AND Author: King NOT Keyword: Stephen
  • Limit by Collection Code - Selected CCode over Item Type
    Which is more valuable to a patron, to search for a Book on CD or an Audiobook?  Would they rather look for a VHS or DVD or just a Movie?
  • Limit by Years and Language
  • Subtype limits based on MARC record
  • Also limit by location and availability and determine the sort of the search results
• Limit by Library Code – Include in a Simple Search :: ATCHISON, BONNERSPGS, NORTONVLLE, OTTAWA, etc.
• Using the WILDCARD character – % – A wildcard is a substitute for letters or numbers
  Example, search for “King, Ste%” to find Steven or Stephan or “Qui%” for books by Quinn or Quick
• Call Number searching – Most libraries have unique, distinctive call number schemes that often indicate collections and locations within the library.  These prefixes can be used as a keyword in a Simple Search.
  Example: FRPB Qui% would find paperback romance books by authors Quinn and Quick at Bonner Springs
  EB Boy% tonganoxie (not case sensitive) would find materials with “EB” and “Boy%” and tonganoxie in the catalog record, including Sandra Boynton Board Books at Tonganoxie Public Library, such as Moo, Baa, La, La, La!
• Why MARC matters – Searching relies on information pulled from the Bibliographic record and Item records.
  • Fixed Field information – the Subtype Limits in the Advanced Search in the Staff Client pull from here
    • Target Audience – The OCLC definitions
  • 2XX – Title and author information
  • 4XX/8XX – Series information (sketchy and unreliable) – Use NoveList or Amazon
    • Examples: ‘Bedwyn’ – search in the catalog, then in NoveList
    • Library of Congress stopped including series information in records their records in 2006!
  • 6XX – Subject headings – Want Greek cookbooks?  Look for “Cookery, Greek”
• Tips for getting more out of the Simple Search
  • Include the branchcode, ex. BONNERSPGS – pulls your materials to the top of the results list
  • Include the call number prefix to help limit the results
  • Include Collection Codes, Item Types and Location codes to limit:
    • BOOKONCD for Audiobooks on CD
    • BOARDBK for Board Books
    • NONFICTION for Non-fiction
    • INSPRATION for Inspirational fiction – Even if your library doesn’t use a Collection Code, other libraries do and including the CCode can help limit the search results
    • SF-FANT | PAPERBACK | EASY | DVD | GRAPHIC | LARGEPRINT, etc.
    • LOCALHOLD1 item type for a Local Hold Only Movie
    • YOUNGADULT shelving location code to limit to YA materials
    • NEW: Do NOT include a “?” in your search string, or you will get no results.  This is a known bug in Koha, slated to be fixed in 3.4
• Strategies
  • Begin b r o a d, then narrow
    • Start with a keyword search, then find and use the exact subject headings, names, etc.
  • Start with what you DO know and use the Wildcard % for what you DON’T know, ex. Grish% for Grisham/Grishim
  • Know where to look for what you need
    • NoveList for Series information
    • Amazon to help with correct spellings (Zebra indexing in Koha is good, but Amazon’s search is better)
  • Let the Catalog do the searching for you
    • On the Search Results list, use the highlighted/hyperlinked Call Numbers to do ‘exact’ call number searches
    • On the Detailed View of a record, use the highlighted/hyperlinked Subject Headings, Author Name, and publisher to do further searching with one click!
    • NOTE:  For now, subtitles DO display in the Public Catalog (OPAC), but NOT in the Staff Client.  So to find that Go, Diego, Go! video your patron wants, search in the OPAC.
• Fun Search Scenarios:
  • What YuYu’s you you have? Uh, yeah, it’s a graphic novel.
    • bonnerspgs graphic – 307 results
    • bonnerspgs graphic YAGN – 238 results
    • yuyu – 93 results
    • bonnerspgs yuyu – 20 results
    • bonnerspgs graphic YAGN yuyu – 16 results
  • I’m trying to get excited about this trip I’m taking, can you help me find something to listen to in my car about travel?  Oh, I have a CD player.
    • bookoncd travel basehor – 72 results, including Bill Bryson!
  • I want the newest Naruto.  Do you have it?  If not, I still want it.
    • START AT NoveList
      > Search for Naruto
      > Sort results “Date Descending”
      > Scan the results
      > On page 2, you should find the latest: vol. 44, “Senjutsu Heir”
    • Hardest: Search for “Naruto” > sort by publication date
    • Medium: Search for “Naruto vol. 44″
    • Easiest: Search for “Senjutsu Heir” – 0 results

A cool feature of Koha that I really appreciate as a patron is the Advance Notice of Item Due, which was perfected in our last round of updates. This is what it looks like:

Dear Diana Weaver,
The following item(s) will be due soon:
Einstein’s dreams / by Lightman, Alan P.,
Please return or renew your item(s) soon, or contact us to renew for you. Some items may not be renewable.

NEKLS HQ
4317 W. 6th Street
Lawrence, KS 66049
785-838-4090

Patrons can sign up for this by opening the “my messaging” tab after they login to their NExpress account. You  can choose how many days in advance of the due date you want to receive notice (mine is set for three). And you can also choose to receive the messages as individual emails (per item) or as a digest (one email with all items listed).

I can’t promise I will never have any overdue items ever again, but at least I will be reminded that I need to renew!

Just wanted to let everyone know NEKLS has purchased the West Wing on DVD. Now, who wants to volunteer to catalog the 45 discs? Come on, summer reading is weeks days away!