NExpress Shared Catalog

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