The Agenda, Minutes and Web Posts related to Users Group meetings from 2008 to Present are now available in a handy-dandy LibGuide:

http://nekls.libguides.com/nexpress

The permanent link for this will be under the About page.  We have also pulled out “Best Practices” posts and highlighted training materials on the NExpress Web site.

So, you have the new Best Seller, but you can’t put it on the shelf until next month.
How do you catalog it so that patrons can start placing holds on the title before it hits library shelves?

The OLD cataloging specs were:

Item Subfield 7: 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?

However, 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 in Item Subfield 7 to “Ordered”
• When you are ready to start circulating these items, edit and change the Not For Loan status back to ‘blank’

An Example:

Here’s a recap of the NExpress Koha item statuses, and when they should be used:

*LONG OVERDUE/ASSUMED LOST is a status that can be applied to items as an informational label for staff. Like MISSING, the LONG OVERDUE/ASSUMED LOST status reverts to AVAILABLE once it is checked in at the owning library. This status simply alerts the checkout library that the item has been overdue for too long. It is sometimes used as an intermediate step prior to making the item LOST, and is applied by the checkout library.

*CLAIMS RETURNED behaves in exactly the same way, but alerts the librarian to the fact that the patron has claimed the item was returned, but keeps the item checked out. This status is again a temporary status. The item should, at some point, be marked LOST or simply checked in and marked WITHDRAWN.

*WITHDRAWN should ONLY be applied by the owning library. WITHDRAWN means that the owning library has determined that the item is temporarily unavailable, for whatever reason.  It might be claimed returned, undergoing repairs, temporarily inaccessible, or stolen, but ONLY the owning library should apply this status.

*The MISSING status is used when a Pick List item isn’t found. MISSING is a pretty innocuous status, because as soon as a MISSING item is checked in at the home library, it reverts to AVAILABLE status.

*LOST is a status applied to an item checked out to a patron that is unreturned after a certain period. LOST is a special Koha status that automatically does two things: (1) It removes the item from the patron’s checkouts and (2) It puts the item’s barcode and title, along with its Replacement Cost, on the Fines Tab of the patron account. As you know, it is not at all unusual for items from one library to be checked out to a patron from another library; therefore, the LOST status is frequently applied to non-owned items, since the borrower’s account is charged with a replacement charge for the lost items, regardless of who owns the LOST item. If a LOST item is checked in, the replacement charge is reversed (credited) on the patron’s fine tab, and the item becomes AVAILABLE.

The borrower’s library is responsible for retrieving the materials, or reimbursing the owning library, either through initiating an MRF request (Materials Replacement Fund) or by simply paying the owning library outright. As the owning library, you can run a periodic report of LOST items belonging to you, if you wish, and contact the libraries whose patrons have these LOST items and bill them. So the LOST status applied by another library is entirely appropriate, since it alerts you, the owning library, to the fact that the item is probably not going to be returned to your collection, and that some action needs to be taken. A Lost Report is available in Koha under Reports>Other>Items Lost.

In a shared catalog environment like NExpress, you should think of items as “yours” if they circulate to patrons at your library. Once an item is checked out to your patron, regardless of who owns it, you are responsible for the item should it be lost or damaged. Likewise, any item of yours that is checked out to another library’s patron is the responsibility of that patron’s home library. Reimbursement and/or replacement requests between libraries are appropriate, and occur from time to time.

Marking an item LOST takes it off the patron’s checkout page (checks it in), labels the item LOST in the catalog, and adds the replacement cost of the item to the patron’s FINES tab.  No notice is sent when this occurs.

LOST status must be applied manually. There is no automatic LOST  conversion process, although it is under discussion with our support vendor.

The patron’s OPAC account will display the FINES AND CHARGES due from the LOST item(s).

The next NExpress Users Group meeting will be Thursday, August 25, at 10:00 am at NEKLS HQ in Lawrence. Please email Mickey any agenda items or issues you want to discuss.

We underwent a substantial upgrade to our Koha system over the July 4 holiday weekend, with, quite literally, zero problems reported. We are currently running Koha version 3.05.00.002.

Our new support partner, ByWater Solutions, has worked very hard to earn our trust, and you, our member libraries, have been resilient and flexible in the face of some tremendous challenges over the past several months. Thank you.

We are the best we’ve ever been in terms of our shared catalog’s functionality, and we are doing more resource sharing than ever. Several Koha development projects have recently been approved, and are being worked on right now. We’re finally on the continuous improvement path we envisioned with Koha when we chose it as our shared catalog platform.

As always, we look forward to seeing you at the meeting!

We met on May 18, 2011 for our NExpress Users Group meeting and discussed a slew of topics (notes will be emailed to the nexpress list):

• Overview of Koha 3.4 and our impending upgrade after May 22
• Sound Cues will be turned on in Koha – you can mute your computer’s internal or external speakers, if you do not want the sound cues
• Managing lost items and how the lost function works in Koha
• The Collection Development committee will be re-convened to discuss collaborative collection development
• Jim will convene a committee to discuss and make recommendations about the restricted item types
• Sharon reviewed how Purchase Suggestions work in Koha, as opposed to Harley
• Mickey would like ideas for new customer-centered monthly statistics
• Sharon reviewed the new ‘enhanced’ reports – just click run!
• Heather will re-convene the Cataloging Committee – let her know if you are interested
• Email nexpresshelp@nekls.org
• Be careful when pulling courier labels – H, O and L libraries are getting mis-routed holds
• We discussed possible enhancement ideas that we could sponsor

11. New Business:

• Send out reminder that you must SET the ‘default’ patron messaging for Holds notification when creating a new patron
• Hold priority list numbering issues/confusion
• Searching
• Agent and Koha link? Still a problem getting useful status information – there is no strong ‘available’ status that Agent can pull from Koha

• Patron types limited to Your set library
• Can’t edit Guarantee’s phone?  Longstanding bug, says Mickey.
• Need to delete old patron notes
• Orphaned transfers – re-place the hold?  Regenerate the request – should be report these out?

When the NExpress team initially set up this list, we looked closely at collection size, staff size and each library’s lending v. borrowing ratio.  Ongoing, we tweak the list when new libraries join NExpress, so they can ease their way into managing Holds in NExpress.  Also, we have been asked on occasion to move a library up or down the list – which we are happy to do.

Here is the current list:

LEAVENWRTH,HIAWATHA,LYNDON,CARBONDALE,OSAGECITY,MERIDEN,
BONNERSPGS,BASEHOR,BALDWIN,OSAWATOMIE,ROSSVILLE,TONGANOXIE,
SENECA,SABETHA,SILVERLAKE,WELLSVILLE,EUDORA,HORTON,LINWOOD,
WINCHESTER,OVERBROOK,ATCHISON,WILLIAMSBG,VALLEYFALL,
MCLOUTH,BERN,OSKALOOSA,WETMORE,CENTRALIA,EFFINGHAM,
NORTONVLLE,NEKLS,OTTAWA,HOLTON

Managing the Holds Shelf  (Managing Holds in NExpress (July 2011))

Overview -

• Using the Holds Awaiting Pickup Report, you can quickly see which holds have expired and need to be returned or moved on to the next hold.
• Using the ‘Cancel Hold’ buttons provided, you can remove the item from the patron’s account and initiate a transit of the item back Home OR confirm and transfer the item to fill another hold.
• PTFS Harley Note: This report does not yet limit to pick up library, as it did prior to the upgrade.  The report also has some issues, the biggest being that you are not prompted to print a transfer slip.
  Other existing issues:
  Bug 3288 (Transit prompt not immediately triggered after hold is canceled) and
  Bug 3270 (Canceling a hold request after transfer initiated orphans item)

Steps (with illustrations below):

1. From Circulation, Open the “Holds Awaiting Pickup Report” (just under the Holds Pick List)
2. By default, the report is in reverse date order – newest holds at the top.
3. Click on the arrow buttons next to the “Available Since” heading to resort the report.
4. Now the oldest holds are at the top of the report. Many will say “Hold Over” – these have been on the Holds shelf for at least 7 days.
5. If the item and the patron who has the item on hold both belong to YOUR library, you will see the “Cancel Hold”button.
   • Clicking on Cancel Hold will remove the hold from the patron and check in the item.
   • You may double check this by checking in the item a 2nd time – it should say Available and Not checked out.
6. If the item is from a different library, you will see the “Cancel hold and return to: LIBRARY” button.
   • Clicking on this button with remove the hold from the patron and initiate a Transit from your library back to the home library IF there is not another hold on the item.
   • To double check this, using the Search the Catalog box, type in “barcode: XXXX” The status should say “In transit from Bonner Springs to Linwood” for example.
7. If the item is from a different library AND on hold for a different patron, you will still see the “Cancel hold and return to: LIBRARY” button.
   • However, when you click on this button, you will get a message saying, “Holds awaiting pickup for your library on: 08/21/09 Hold find for (The boyfriend) must be transferred – This hold placed by Patron at the library LIBRARY. Please transfer…” and SUBMIT QUERY
   • After you submit query, you will be returned to the Holds Awaiting Pickup Report
8. To print a transfer slip, check in the item and Confirm, transfer and print slip (as normal)

When a patron is logged into their account in the Online Public Access Catalog, they can place a Purchase Suggestions from the “My purchase suggestions” tab or if they cannot find what they are looking for in a search, they are prompted to make a Purchase Suggestion:

What happens to all of these Purchase Suggestions?
How do you, as the Library Director or Selector, access these suggestions?

Follow the step-by-step instructions below, or watch a video where Royce at Tonganoxie demonstrates this module.

• Log into the Staff Client using a TECH or DIRECTOR account
• Go to the Acquisitions Module (More > Acquisitions)
  
• Select the Manage Suggestions link
  
• Review the Pending Suggestions and select the appropriate Reason, and choose to Accept, Reject or Delete the Suggestions.  The Reason you select will appear on the Patron’s “My purchase suggestions” page.
• Follow through with ordering the item, then update the status again, if you so choose, once it is cataloged and processed.
• The Patron can watch the progress of their Purchase Suggestions.

NExpress Orientation Packet – Table of Contents – Revised and updated Oct 2010

• NExpress Shared Catalog Overview
• NExpress Shared Catalog Participating Libraries
• NExpress Participation Application 2010 (private)
• NExpress Vision and Values Statements
• NExpress Shared Policies Overview
• NExpress Fact Sheet from December 2009
• NExpress Patron Confidentiality Statement
• What to Expect When You’re Migrating Time Line
• NExpress Migration Check List
• Cataloging and Classifying Items in Koha (includes itypes and ccodes)

Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) Training

• Overview
• About Your Account Handout 10 pages

An Introduction to the NExpress (Koha) Staff Client (.doc)

Part 1 – Checking items in:

• Video – Checking Items In (8/10)
• Video – Checking Items In with Holds (8/10)

Part 2 – Checking items out:

• Video – Checking Items Out (8/10)
• Video – Patron Account features in Staff Client, with Checking out demonstrated (11/09)

Part 3 – Issuing new cards and editing patron records:

• Issuing Library Cards Handout (step-by-step)
• Editing Patrons Handout

Part 4 – Managing Holds

• Managing Holds in NExpress (.pdf) – Complete instructions
• Run and Pull Pick List (video 9/10)
• Check in and Confirm Holds (9/10) – for more examples, see the Checking Items with Holds video
• Homework Posts:
  • Transfers to Receive Report – How-to instructions for using this Circulation report to see what items are in transit to your location. Useful for tracking items mis-routed on the Courier.
  • Managing the Holds Shelf - How-to instructions for using the Holds Awaiting Pick Up circulation report to clear out expired holds from your shelf.  The Holds Awaiting Pick Up report is not yet working as expected.  PTFS is working on the issue.

Part 5 – Searching

• Overview of the keyword and advanced search features of the Staff Client
  • Keyword searching hints -
    • add “leavenwrth” or “leavenworth” to improve results
    • Look for and use UNIQUE terms.  Is the author’s last name unusual, like “Evanovich”? Is there a term like “playaway” that will improve results?
    • As in Google, use a combination of keywords from the title, series and author name
    • Keyword searching looks at All fields of All attached items, even mis-cataloged ones
  • Advanced searching hints
    • Title, Author, Series Title searches are exact, so spelling counts but you get faster results
    • Look for unique or unusual subject headings to help narrow your search – “cookery for two”
    • Koha can’t find what is NOT in the record.  If a series title isn’t in the record, no amount of searching will find the book.
  • Use Amazon, use ISBN numbers, use What’s Next in the Series, use NoveList (if available)

Part 6 – Placing  a Hold:

• Video and Post – Known Issues: Placing Holds (3/09)
• Placing a hold in the OPAC
• Placing holds in the Staff Client (silent videos from 9/10)
  • Placing  hold from the Search results
  • Placing a hold from the Details page
  • Placing a hold Using “Search to Hold”
  • Placing multiple holds from the Search results, starting with an Advanced Search

Training Scenarios (New for Leavenworth training)

Cataloging Training Materials (reminder: they are permanently located on this page)

• Cataloging and Classifying Items in Koha (includes itypes and ccodes) – Revised 8/10
• Cataloging Overview Presentation (view online) – Revised 8/10
• Adding an Item to an Existing Bibliographic Record – Revised 8/10
• Koha Cataloging Check List – Revised 8/10
• Finding and Importing Records from the Hybrid KLC – Revised 8/10
• Staging MARC Records for Import – Revised 8/10
• Creating Fast Add and Brief Records for ILL

Advanced Training and Homework Posts:

• Managing Suggestions for Purchase - overview video 9/10
  • Must be logged in as TECH or DIRECTOR
  • Step-by-step instructions post, with a video from Royce at Tonganoxie Public Library
  • Patrons are alerted the next time they log into their account of your decision
  • Currently, there are 245 requests!  Patrons DO use this feature.

• Searching and Search Training and Search-related Bugs and Barcode Searching-  These posts include videos and exercises to familiarize yourselves with the search capabilities of Koha’s Staff Client.
  NOTE: Do not include the special characters ( ! ? & ) in searches, it may skew results.
• What to do with Agent Interlibrary Loans – Best practices
• Tags and the Tag Cloud – Ideas from Susan at Hiawatha
• Handling Patron Accounts and Fines – Best practices
• NExpress FAQs

Additional materials created for Oskaloosa visit, October 5, 2010:

• OPAC Overview for Oskaloosa
• Exploring the Public Catalog Oskaloosa
• About Your Account
• NExpress How to Place a Hold bookmarks (Oct. 2010)