NExpress Shared Catalog

The Upgrade has been postponed until Saturday, August 21 to give PTFS time to fix an issue with Holds, specifically with reviving the “Please return THIS BOOK to Home Library” prompt after all of the holds have been filled.  (Just a note, all of the patrons shown are fictional.)

PTFS-Master 1.1 Release Notes (.pdf)

New or Enhanced Features

Turn Off Item Type/Collection Code Search Section in Advanced Search – We will leave the Collection Code Advanced Search sections ON in both the Staff Client and OPAC.  This, with the addition of the Shelving Location limits, should assist in all of your searches.  Read and Watch more about Searching.

Add XSLT Support for Staff Search Results and Record Details – We have turned on this feature, which will display the 245 subfields h, b, n and p in the Search Results list in both the Staff Client and OPAC.  However, due to some ugly looking code, we will NOT turn on this display in the Staff Client Details Display.  So, make sure you selected the correct Go Diego Go or Naruto before going to the details page, because the sub-title will magically disappear.

Use Slave Database for Reports – We have asked PTFS to setup our system to run Koha reports against a backup database rather than the primary database.  We are still trying to determine if this means running MySQL command line (uber geeky) reports, or just using the Circulation Wizard, which is what we want.

Fixes and Functionality Enhancements

Written by PTFS or picked from “other Koha codelines,” with details available in the Bugzilla report.

• Translate ampersand (&) in XSLT title display. (Note: You still need to remove punctuation from searches). But, now titles display will go from this:
  
  to
  
• Bug 3344 – Hold priority list needs additional status for items assigned but not waiting. We made this enhancement request, which Galen Charlton picked up and ran with.  So, when an item has been confirmed and is “In transit” to fill a hold, that item will no longer be a numbered hold in the Holds priority list, but will be down with those ‘waiting’ holds!
  
• Bug 4224 – Holds queue (Pick List) report includes items already allocated.  This fix should remove extraneous entries.  We need to wait until we are ‘live’ to really test this.
• Bug 4372 – Transferring an item does not update date last seen. Adds a date update to the Circulation History table for items when transfers are initiated, items are checked out AND when transfers are completed.  This was a bug we reported and our good friend Chris Cormack fixed!
• Bug 3299 – Sticky calendar renew date doesn’t work.  The calendar gadget in the patron checkout/renewals column should work now!  Thank You to Galen Charlton for patching this for us.

More Bits and Pieces from the Release Notes

Reports

Bugfix to Allow User Specified Limit in SQL – This is more of a back end fix that we are excited about, but it does mean that we can run a report on your Shelflist, say for the Insurance agent or City auditor.

Patrons and Holds

Patron Batch Edit and Batch Delete (Bug 3468) – Sorry, but until there is a granular permission that allows us to limit this feature to TECH and DIRECTOR accounts, we will suppress it.  Too dangerous – we’d rather not tempt fate and accidentally delete a group of patrons we meant to just change from Child to Adult.  Anyway, it’s a bit buggy – the “Select All” link within the Cart doesn’t work.  But we wanted you to be aware of this functionality, which we can turn back on if there is a pressing need.

Patron Improved Searching (Bug 3468) – PTFS added email, phone number, and borrower number to the standard search.  They also added an optional SQL search, but we thought it best to suppress that for now.  For email or phone number, use an asterisk (*555-1212 or *.rainbow.net).  Note that searching (212) 555-1212 and 212 555 1212 are NOT equivalent, you have to search for the phone number as entered, or truncate to just a part (like *1212*).

Predefined Borrower Notes (Bug 3472) – Diana and her staff at Atchison are excited about this feature.  It allows us to have predefined “canned” messages in a drop-down menu that are visible on the checkout tab.  For example, “Proof of Address Required” or “Email Correction Requested.”  Still testing this, can’t get any of the canned messages (or free text notes) I created to actually show up on the Checkout Tab of my patron record!  Hmmm….

Allow Multiple Holds on Items for One Title (Bug 4239) - This is the “I need 4 copies of the same book for my book club” feature.  We have set up this feature to allow patrons to place multiple holds on items with the Item Type of BOOK and NEWBOOK, but nothing else.  Unfortunately, we have not been able to get this feature to work, even though we set up the system preference.  We’ve sent a support request….

Place Hold Option on Checkout Tab (Bug 3659) – We’d like you all to test this “Search to Hold” feature and see what comments, suggestions and changes you’d like to see.  We think this is a good feature that can get better.

Fines

Calculate Fines on Claims Returned Items (Bug 4236) - PTFS wrote a feature to stop fine accrual on claims returned items.  When a patron says they’ve returned an item, but it’s not on the shelf – instead of marking it lost, you can mark it “Claims returned”.  The item will stay on their account, but fines won’t accrue and the item will show up on the Patron details page AND Fines page.  This message stays until the item is marked LOST and charged to the patron for replacement or found and returned to the library.  In this example, I am using one of our testing patrons…

Pre-Defined Fee Types (Bug 3476) - This is another feature we need feedback on…what standard fees are typically used when you create manual invoices for patrons?  Photocopies? Replacement cards? Debt collection fee?  We can add these to the Manual Invoice Type drop-down menu.

Circulation

Change Checkin Date (Bug 351o) – We call this the Snow Days check in feature – you can back-date the Check in feature, in case you were closed 2-3 days because of weather or flood…something that wasn’t expected and recorded using the Holiday Calendar.  You can also choose to Forgive overdue charges AND backdate the check in, in the name of exceptional customer service

Check In Damaged (Bug 4242) – If an item’s status is set to damaged while it is checked out (say the called over the phone or you noticed the missing front cover while clearing the drop box), and there are existing holds on the item, checking the item in will NOT trigger the next hold.  Instead, you’ll get a message like:

Item Damaged: Title of Book
Hold will remain on item until repaired

Clear Borrower Record After Checkout (Bugs 3485 and 3486) – In the name of patron privacy, there is now a built in “Circ Timeout – Are you finished with this patron?” prompt after 300 seconds AND a Clear Screen button.  New habits!

Cataloging

Batch Item Edit (Bug 3509) – After further review and discussion, we discovered that the TOOLS permission needed to view this feature has to be reactivated for every TECH account.  Also, this feature needs additional training before it can be widely used – it’s that powerful.

Adding Additional Items Copies Item Data (Bug 3480) – We want to bring this to your attention because this is NEW behavior when adding additional items to a Bib record (from the Bib record, not the Cataloging Module).
So, you Search the Catalog, find a title, click New, and click New Item on the title display page will open a new item screen WITH DATA (except barcode and other fields such as number of checkouts) COPIED from the FIRST item attached to the record.  So, you will need to be very careful when editing your new Item record, or your call number scheme may look a lot like Basehor’s or Atchison’s or whichever library cataloged the first item attached to the record!

Step One: Search the catalog and select New > New Item:

Step Two:  Edit, fix, update

Save Import Profiles (Bug 4247) – Heather will create MARC Import Profiles that have pre-defined fields set up to make importing easier.

OPAC

Bestseller’s Club and Email Notifications (Bug 4245) - We are still trying to test this feature, but hope to make the E-mail Lists work this way – Patron subscribes to a list and receives an email notification when new materials matching certain Item Type or Call Number scheme criteria are met.  For example, when new DVDs (‘MEDIA’  item type) are added to the collection or items that match a specific call number scheme (F QUINN or SF %).

OPAC Inactivity Timeout (Bug 4238) - An OPAC session will time out after 300 seconds (5 minutes) of inactivity and return to the main OPAC page.  We will need to craft a warning about the inactivity timeout to the OPAC’s main page – if you have any suggestions.

NOTE: The only guaranteed way for a patron to ensure that their “My Account” information can’t be accidentally seen is to CLOSE the BROWSER.  Logging out is not enough.

OPAC “Did You Mean” FEature (Bug 4240) - This new feature uses an open source dictionary to suggest five terms if an OPAC search term is misspelled or not found.  This does not work with some author names, but does work with commonly misspelled words that may appear in a title or subject.

OPAC and STaff Advanced Search Changes (Bug 3665) - A Search button has been strategically placed higher on the Advanced Search page, so you don’t have to scroll to the bottom of the page!  PTFS also moved subject, title and call number/barcode search options higher int he pulldown list.

Sorting of Item Holdings in Staff and OPAC (Bug 3702) - One of my favorite new features, the default sort order for the Item Holdings table will now be ALPHABETICAL by BRANCH LIBRARY DESCRIPTION, “so that a library’s holdings display together.”
NOTE: We are also working with PTFS to maintain our current CUSTOMIZATION of the Items holding table.  Our Catalog displays the items Permanent Home Branch in the Staff Client, rather than Current Location, which is the default behavior in Koha.  We needed a way to see how many copies were owned by a library at any given time for collection development.

Search by Shelving Location (Bug 4239) – NEW to the Advanced Search pages – You can limit to any of the following shelving locations!

Coming next…PTFS-Master 1.1 Release Notes

Release Notes (bits and pieces)

(Complete set of Release Notes in .pdf from May 2010)

Patrons and Holds

Borrower History Retention – Under the Circulation History tab, there are sections for Reserves (Holds) and Sent Notices history.  This will begin working once we upgrade, rather than retro-actively.

Place Hold Option on Checkout Tab – There will be a new “Search to Hold” section with a search link that opens a popup window for searching and placing holds.  A silent video demonstration.

Copy Patron Record – So, you have a family who needs 6 separate cards? No problem!  This feature takes an existing patron record and copies most of the information, except for First Name, date of birth and barcode.  This is an alternative to using the Set Guarantor feature or Add Child function, which assumes the new patron is a child.

To use: Find a patron, select More > Copy Patron

Then, update the record and save.

Fines

Partial Fine Payment - Patrons are now able to make partial payments of fines!  Click on the “Pay” button, insert the amount collected from the patron and Koha will automatically calculate the amount remaining.

Billing Notice and Debt Collection – We are still investigating this new feature, especially the new option for printing patron billing notices.  The Debt Collection piece is designed to work with Unique Management Inc, but could be adapted to work with other collection agencies.

Other Fines features worth looking into: Pre-Defined Fee Types (p. 34) and List Fines by Type on Checkout Tab (p. 36)

Circulation

Print Option for Hold and Overdue Notices - “PTFS has added an option to print hold and overdue notices for patrons who have no email addresses in their records.”  We will need to create a new notice template, then Koha will generate the notices and send the file to a web-accessible directory (that we’ll need to work with PTFS to get set up).

Renewal Source - Curious to know if an item was renewed by the Patron via the OPAC or by a staff member?  It shows up now!  An example…one guess who read all those romance novels…

Cataloging

Batch Item Edit – This new Tool allows you to select and edit Library, Item Type, Location, Permanent Location, Current Location, Not for Loan, Damaged, Lost status, Withdrawn status, Use Restrictions, and Collection Code.  So, say you want to find “Books” from Bonner Springs with a Collection Code of “New” and update that to “Fiction,” you can do that as a batch (all 610 of them).
Oops: Make sure you know what your search criteria is because this tool makes the changes to the item records without letting you preview the results and some of those 610 books should have been changed from “New” to “Nonfiction”…
Note: You can also scan the barcode numbers into a Text file, set the criteria you want to Change, upload that file, click Proceed and be done!  That was easy.

Other Cataloging Features that you might want to explore: Other Item Statuses (p.46), In Processing/Shelving Cart (p. 48) and Save Import Profiles (p. 49)

OPAC

Bestseller’s Club and Email Notifications – This is an expansion of a feature developed by Kyle Hall.  The part that I think is great is where patrons can self-enroll into a ‘club’ and then receive an email notification when a new item, for example by a favorite author, is added to the collection.  More information on pages 52-55.  Definitely something we will need to explore and probably discuss at an upcoming Users Group meeting.

Clear Reading History - Patrons can Opt Out of the Reading History, if we turn on the system preference “AllowReadingHistoryAnonymizing.”

OPAC and Staff Advanced Search Changes – PTFS moved the subject, title and call number search options higher int he pulldown list and added a Search button near the top of the screen.  Good thinking.

Sorting of Item Holdings in Staff and OPAC – The default sort order for items is accession date in the Staff Client and item type in the OPAC.  This new feature “forces the primary sort in both staff and OPAC to be by branch library description, so that a library’s holdings display together.”

Would you like to have a search box on your website that allows your patrons to quickly do Author, Title, Subject OR Keyword searches?  We also have a two new Koha Search Widgets that Liz wrote and submitted to the WordPress community.  You can find them by searching for the term ‘koha’ in Plugins > Add New:

http://content.screencast.com/users/SharonNEKLS/folders/Jing/media/66bdf0dd-7427-43db-9b2b-8ae96217bace/00000079.png

Original published in December, updated and reposted today!

A lot of valuable information about holds, transits, holdings and loans can be gleamed from the Details table of a Bib record in Koha.  An illustrated discussion:

1. Location – The location shown is the Owning Library.  Libraries can see how many copies of an item they own.
2. Status – Checked out.  You can see who has the item checked out and when it is due.  The patron name is a hyperlink to their patron account.
3. Status – Waiting.  This item is on hold for a patron, waiting at the pick up branch the patron selected.  This status is triggered when an item sent from one library to another is checked in and the hold is confirmed as received.  This hold will now be OUT of the holds queue and give a status of Waiting.
   
4. Status – In Transit to Fill a Hold.  This is shows that an item has been been confirmed to fill a hold and is in transit from one library to another.  As soon as a hold is confirmed and routed to the pick up library, the Current Location of the item changes to the pick up library (even if the item is temporarily in a courier bin at the sending library).
   This status also shows that this item has been ‘linked’ to a patron for the hold.  In the Holds Queue, this will appear as an “only item” hold instead of a “next available” hold.
5. Status – Checked out and On Hold.   This is an example of a Copy-level or item-specific hold, rather than a Title-level or ‘next available’ hold.  Only staff can place copy-level holds and only the specific copy of the title associated with the patron will fill the hold, not the next available item.

NExpress Users Group Meeting
Thur., May 6 at NEKLS
Attendees listed at end
Note taker: Heather Braum, with editing by Sharon Moreland
- please leave comments, corrections, and feedback

Minutes (OK, more like notes…with links to additional information, blog posts and Web sites)

1. PTFS/LibLime update with Jim Minges

• LibLime is now a division of PTFS, a company relatively new to supporting Open Source Software.
• Additional support person has been added to the Koha support team there.
• Seeing faster response times to support requests
• We expect an upgrade to our system in the next few months — no other details available at this time.
• We will start submitting enhancement requests to PTFS.
• Conflict has been occurring between PTFS and the international Koha community over who controls Koha’s intellectual property, such as trademarks, domains (koha.org), the code repository and the bug repository.
  • As a result of the conflict, www.koha-community.org was started by the international Koha community.
  • NEKLS is hosting this site on the KLOW server.
• PTFS is not pushing us to LLEK and the previous management at LibLime is gone.
• Kim Beets asked about programming that we have already paid for — will it be implemented between now and the update?
  • Jim noted that a regular update to our Installation would correct many of the current issues in the system. Patches, bug fixes and feature enhancements are available, but none have been applied to our system since last June.  For example, the patch to fix the renewal bug 3378 was created in late June 2009, but was never applied to our system.
• Amy Begg DeGroff — last year’s Tech Day speaker — is the transition manager for the LibLime division.  Mickey is in contact with her about our needs.
• We have no target date for updates at this time.  Sharon hopes that when we are ready to get regular updates again, we will follow the model set with our previous vendor where a test installation will be upgraded, we will do testing, and then the updates will be applied to the production server after we’ve signed off on everything.

2. Policy committee recommendations with Robin Flory and Eric Gustafson

• Policy recommendation 1:
  Collection of fines can occur at any NExpress library. Money doesn’t have to be sent back to the library the fines initiated from.
• Policy recommendation 2:
  Damaged/lost/replacement fees can be collected at any library, but will then be sent on to the library that originally owned the material.
• Policy recommendation 3:
  With materials that are on lost or long overdue at another library, it is the owning library’s responsibility to contact the borrower’s library for replacement.
  • Discussion:  There is a report for identifying items long overdue at another library.  Please do not contact the patron; contact the library where the transaction occurred.
  • Options: Libraries should send invoices, that can then be paid out of the library’s own funds or through the State Library’s material replacement fund.
• Overall discussion:
  • System-wide, patrons are debarred at $10. Debarrment based on overdue notices is set library by library.  Dollar amount of fines is system-wide. The debarment is library-by-library.
  • The default setting for debarment is after the 3rd notice.
  • The issue of fines being waived by a non-fining library was discussed and the committee recommends that libraries respect the fine and collect them.   In return, fining libraries agree to waive having the fines reimbursed if the fines are at least collected.
  • The committee was not recommending that non-fining libraries make any additional effort to collect fines, but to clear a patron’s fine if requested to do so as a customer service.
• Confidentiality will be discussed after this meeting by the committee.
• Robin and the Committee brought up the “Fan Club” issue, where a library, on behalf of patron’s who have signed up for this service, places a large block of holds on new best-selling titles at a single time. In principle, the fan club is a wonderful customer service used by one active and one incoming library. But, at times it may not be ‘playing nice’ to the rest of the consortia.
  • Possible solutions suggested: buy more copies of these particular titles or libraries with fan clubs could place holds only on the local copies (which may mess up the system). Maybe have a local hold copy (or two) at the library for these fan clubs?
  • Proposal: If you will be placing holds for your patrons, you have a local hold copy that you do that for and then you buy a copy for the consortia. If you can’t afford to buy an additional copies, have your one copy on local hold for two months, and then release it from local hold. If it stops being circulated at your local library before those two months are up, go ahead and release it. –Diana Weaver & Rita Higley developed this statement.
  • Further discussion: What’s the difference between a book being checked out by your local patron or by the consortia?
  • Some libraries display a list of new titles or photocopy the book cover and put them on the new books shelf (Marketing new materials post). If the book is checked out, the patron can take that place-saver copy to the front desk and ask for the book to be put on hold.  The item is either available or not available, why the item is not available is not shared with the local patron.  Patrons will get books faster through the consortia.  Is there proof, though?

3. Local Holds testing with Sharon (skipped ahead in the Agenda due to the nature of the discussion)

• From Sharon: Notes about this are here for further scrutiny.
• The testing of 5 titles for 6 weeks showed that when the majority of items are cataloged with an unrestricted item type, patrons with title-level holds (next available) moved up the Holds Priority list a place a day, on average.

• Patron A went from 33rd to 19th to 10th to checked out in 4 weeks on a ‘Next Available’ title-level hold while
• Patron B went from 21st to 12th to 7th to waiting in 4 weeks on an “Only item” item-level hold.
• Patron C went from 27th to 19th to 12th to waiting in 4 weeks on a title-level hold
• For Worst Case, which had the most available copies, the average went up to 14 places in 7 days.

• As a ‘control’ – Sharon looked at House Rules and in 6 weeks, Patron A with a title-level hold went from 52nd to 5th place – 47 places in 6 weeks or an advancement of about 7.8 places per week. For the Patron B who had an item-level hold, they went from 9th to 3rd in 9 weeks!
• Not everyone in the consortia chose to participate in the test.
• The tests resulted in identifying other issues with the catalog: 3 bugs, including a major flaw in the system related to simultaneous transactions.
• Processing On Order Items using the On Order Item Type: On Order is an unrestricted item type. If you’re cataloging an on order item that will eventually be a restricted item, catalog it as the restricted item type from the beginning.  Continue to use the Status of “Not for Loan (Ordered)” to keep on order books from showing on your Pick List.
• Managing the Holds Shelf: holds are expiring and lingering for 2-3 weeks before being moved on to the next hold — please check your holds shelf list more often. New best sellers are the biggest culprits.

Back to 2. Policy Committee Discussion resumes, with several suggestions and additional facilitation by Royce Kitts…

• Proposal on the floor:  Smaller libraries can make their single copy of a best seller Local Hold for two months, then return it to the consortia after two months. The libraries with fan clubs, 1 copy for consortia, as many copies as needed for fan clubs local hold only.
• Continued discussion about opening up entire collection vs. using restricted item types, such as walk in and local hold only.
• Many are open to this. But many libraries only buy one copy. Many that are able to afford only one copy are willing to share them. Paula uses Local Hold on high-demand items just to be able to everything processed before having to send stuff out.  Other libraries feel that local hold is used on select items for a limited time to satisfy their taxpayers who come to their library and expect to find the new books advertised in the newspaper or on the Web site.
• Others felt ‘We’re in a consortia and in it together.’
• Kim Beets wanted to know if there is software-based way to have a Consortia-wide fan club? For example, a list that consortia patrons can subscribe to, to be added as holds on a popular author or title, where the holds list is randomized.  Sharon: Give the NEKLS staff time to investigate.  Kim Baker noted that SIRSI has this feature.
  UPDATE – Yes, this may be in Koha:  Bestseller’s Club and email notification enhancement bug by PTFS (thanks, Liz)
• Royce posed the question, “How are we all going to be local entities, when we’re in a consortia together?”  While we keep discussing local hold issues, but the crux of the issue hasn’t been decided.
• Is the system working OK, with not everything in collections being opened up all the way? No consistency at the moment. Is this okay?
• Jim reiterated that there is no written statement anywhere what the practice should be on holds. In our values statement, it talks about 95% of the collection being open to the to the public.

Proposals for Consideration:

1.  All materials are open and available to the consortia. There are no holds restrictions. Local holds are eliminated. –Jim
2. A library could catalog some items  as Walk-in only. Even the local library’s patrons couldn’t place the item on hold. Firm limit on how long a title could be placed on walk-in only. –Jim
3.  Every library agrees to give at least one copy of an item to the consortia.  If a library wishes to have a restricted copy, they will need to purchase a second copy for that purpose. -Diana

#1 — This one will never be a consensus. Libraries are saying it won’t ever work.  What about testing it for several months, on materials being cataloged from this point forward?  Others say, start with the least onerous policy of “Every library agrees to give at least one copy of an item to the consortia.”

Results: Voting on the Proposals for Consideration:

• Proposal 1: 9 votes
• Proposal 3: 8 votes
• None of the above: 2 votes

Jim stated that the ‘Consensus recommendation is that the entire collection is open to the consortia until August as a test. There isn’t going to be a unanimous adoption of this recommendation.’  The recommendation will be reevaluated at the August 26 NExpress Users Group meeting.

Back to 3. Koha/NExpress Catalog News with Sharon

• Hold ratios Circulation report: This report is showing that the top holds are 50 percent books and 50 percent DVDs.  If you really want to make your patrons happy, buy more DVDs.  This report is useful for collection development.
  
• Leased Books Collection update. Send Heather recommendations for titles for the leased collection. We use the Hold Ratios report to build the list, as well as reviews and print run information. Many titles will be added in June, because of summer releases.  Release dates are added to the title, following Kathleen Schram’s example at Bonner Springs.  The leased books are to alleviate holds.

4. Communication Survey with Sharon

• Currently, these are the ways NEKLS communicates with NExpress members:
  • Email distribution list, www.nexpresslibrary.org blog, News feature on the staff client, and Users Group meetings.
• The group decided that Email is the best way to communicate, with with the News feature coming in second.  Both can include links to longer blog posts at nexpresslibrary.org.
• Libraries need to send NEKLS the contact information for all staff members who need to  be added to the nexpress email distribution list.

5. Open Discussion

• Cataloging: duplicate record amounts increasing. Report to NEKLS when you run across them.  Could be another instance of simultaneous transaction issues.
• Label Maker: problems currently going on. We are aware of that. Newer version of the label maker (when it gets added to our system) takes care of the problems.
• Claudia asks all users of the label making to DELETE old label batches.
• Withdrawn status v. deleting an item: Do you use this status? If you’re not going to be reusing the record, delete the item. Don’t use the Withdrawn status.  It does not actually ‘do’ anything and withdrawn items appear on pick lists.
• When Reporting problems: It’s important to also call at the time that the problem occurs, so we can see the problem and attempt to replicate it better.  Screencasts, screenshots and as many specific details as you can provide are much appreciated.

Those present:

• NEKLS: Mickey Coalwell, Heather Braum, Jim Minges, Sharon Moreland, Liz Rea and Brenda Hough
• Atchison: Diana Weaver, Claudia Bosshammer-Bilimek and Mary Domann
• Royce Kitts, Tonganoxie
• Nancy Stover, Williamsburg
• Jenne Laytham, Basehor
• Amy Parton, Effingham
• Sue Peavey, Linwood
• Hiawatha: Anne Arnesen and Eric Gustafson
• Ottawa: Robin Flory, Lori Clayton, Linda Knight
• Karen Holthaus, Seneca
• Jerie Tichenor, Meriden
• Paula Ware, Oskaloosa
• Katherin Jones, McLouth
• Kim Beets, Bonner Springs
• Baldwin City: Claudia Gillentine and Becky Hayes
• Amy Lassiter, Winchester
• Jaclyn White, Rossville
• Leavenworth: Kim Baker and Kelly Fann
• Jeanette Stromgren, Osage City
• Sarah Walker-Hitt, Lyndon
• Rita Higley, Horton
• Peggy Waldman, Overbrook
• Dan Knupp, Silver Lake
• Eudora: Marlene Evinger and Alisha Whitis

Some options:

• You can create individual ILL Patron accounts for libraries you send materials to through Agent.  If you create an ILL account, please include the terms ‘ILL’ and Your library name in the Surname field to help differentiate your “Anytown Public Library” ILL account from other libraries.

• You can give these ILL Patron accounts a patron category of Interlibrary Loan or one of your regular Adult patron categories.  The benefit of using the Interlibrary Loan patron category is that we can set up unique default circulation and fine rules for those patrons, for example 35 day loan periods with no fines.  Just let the NExpress team know that you want new rules established for this patron category.
• Another option is to create a single “Agent ILL” or “My Public Library ILL” account and check out ALL of your ILL’s to this account.  Centralia uses this solution and Tonganoxie has recently switched to this solution.
• For items on loan from outside libraries, some libraries use a Fast Add Framework to create a ‘quick and dirty’ Bib/item record for the item on loan. Ottawa also has a procedure established where they put a hold on the item at the time of check out to ensure that the ILL librarian gets the book when it is returned by the patron, so they can send it back and delete the Fast Add record.  Here is a screencast demonstrating how to create and manage a fast add bib/item: http://screencast.com/t/ZWJjNTM1

Are there other options out there worth sharing with the new NExpress libraries?  Please use the comments to add to this discussion.

-Sharon

So, you have the new Sherlock Holmes DVD, but you can’t put it on the shelf until March 30.
How do you catalog it so that patrons can start placing holds on the title before it hits library shelves?

In the recent past, several libraries have been using these cataloging specs:

Not for loan: Ordered
Collection: On order
Shelving Location: Cataloging
Item type: On order*

*We suspect that Koha gets confused when assigning holds on materials cataloged this way when/if the item type designation on the items are changed from On Order, which is completely unrestricted, to Local Hold.**

**I created an elaborate test video to recreate this scenario, but of course Koha worked just like it was suppose to!  Figures, eh?

The Best Practice is this:

• Go find a Bibliographic record from the ether
• Catalog your items as you would normally (Local Hold as Local Hold, Walk in as Walk in, Book as Book)
• Set the Not For Loan status to “Ordered”
• When you are ready to start circulating these items, edit and change the Not For Loan status back to ‘blank’

Sort of related – There is an outstanding support request regarding the “New Moon” fatal error – search for new moon in the OPAC and see what happens.  A work around for patrons and a faster way to get to the new DVD in the Staff Client is to search for “twilight saga new moon”.   A note has been posted on the Patron Catalog home page.

Looking for a specific barcode?  Add the text ‘barcode:’ before typing or scanning the barcode to go directly to the Bib record associated with that barcode.  For example:

- Sharon

Step 1:

Step 2:

UPDATE:  As of today only 127 items are missing item types – WAY TO GO!!!  That’s awesome.   I hope this will fix the statistical reports.  Feel free to run the report yourself after a cataloging session to double check your work.  It’s the 2nd report listed “NULL Item Type report for all libraries” – just RUN it.

Sharon – Monday, July 20, 2009 during a rainstorm, while listening to Cyndi Lauper…Time after Time

Hello,

We have a theory that missing or NULL item types in the catalog are messing up the statistical reports.  There are only 274 items that DO NOT have an item type associated with them.  Please look at this Excel Spreadsheet report and edit or delete those records that belong to you.

Thank you for helping us keep NExpress tidy

Sharon