LINKcat News

NEW: Requirements for entering data in a patron's phone number field(s)

As of October 2021, the FCC will be mandating Wisconsin phone companies to require customers to enter a 10-digit phone number to make calls.  This means that all phone numbers entered in the Bibliovation database should be entered with the area code and correct formatting.  

 

Both Talking Tech services, phone hold notices and text hold notices, will require the area code and correct formatting to successfully deliver notices.

 

Format for data entered in the phone number field(s):

• For "regular" phone numbers, the format is xxx-xxx-xxxx.  Use hyphens, not parentheses.
• For text message phone numbers, the format is T1-xxx-xxx-xxxx
• Please do not enter 000-000-0000 or a Note to indicate that a patron has not provided a phone number.  Leave the field(s) blank if that is the case.

Reports will be sent to libraries for clean-up.  Please make sure that all of your staff are aware of this change.

News Summary (3/1/2021-3/31/2021)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 3/30/2021 We have scheduled a Serials User Group for May 21, 2021, from 1 - 2:30 pm via phone/web conference.  Register online.
• 3/30/2021 We have scheduled a Linking User Group for May 14, 2021, from 1 - 2:30 pm via phone/web conference.  Register online.
• 3/25/2021 The minutes from the March 17 DIS Meeting are available online.
• 3/24/2021 22,868 items and 2,442 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 3/19/2021 See the LINKcat News blog post for information about the moratorium on changes to existing bibliographic records, which starts Sunday, April 11.
• 3/19/2021 The minutes from the March 10 CMS Meeting are available online.
• 3/19/2021 The minutes from the March 9 CSS Meeting are available online.
• 3/2/2021 The monthly Bibliovation reports for February 2021 can be found online.
• 3/1/2021 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for February are posted.

Moratorium on changes to existing bib records April 25 through around May 2

Edit 4/14/2021: Updated dates to the new and correct ones

 

SCLS and the Madison catalogers are currently doing an authority control update project that will update all of the existing OCLC bibliographic records in our database with up-to-date author, subject, genre, and uniform title (series) headings. During this time, Madison cataloging staff cannot overlay or edit existing OCLC bibliographic records. 

What this means for you right now

Starting Sunday, April 25, if you submit changes to Madison on the following ILS Work Request forms:

Request to Add ISBNs or UPCs to Bibs

Report Problems with Bib Records

Report Duplicate Bib Records

those changes will be held by Madison until the next week or following week. The changes will be done after the project is completed the next week. Unfortunately, we don't have an exact end date at this time, but it should by the end of the next week.

 During this time, you can continue to:

1. Create BSEs and link items
2. "Send to catalog" from GetIt for both bib records and item records
3. Create, edit, withdraw, and delete item records for items owned by your library
4. Create LOCAL, PERM, or GEN records

What this means for you during the next week

Around May 1 or 2, there may be a day (or possibly two days) where we will ask you to refrain from creating BSEs and using "Send to Catalog" from GetIt to create new bib records while the updated bibliographic records are loaded into Bibliovation by LibLime. We will send an email out about this as soon as we have solid information. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly how long it will take for all of the updates to be made to the bib records and how long it will take LibLime to load the changed bibs back into Bibliovation.

Printing Spine Labels in Chrome

The new version of Firefox affects the way spine labels are printed from within Bibliovation. The text may not wrap on longer spine labels, such as serials ones and non-serials ones that are longer with multiple lines of text. Ones printed with the "Dewey Split" layout do not seem to be affected. Because of this, you may need to transition to printing spine labels from Chrome instead of using the Firefox Labels shortcut. Here are instructions for printing from Chrome. These instructions are also available in Section XIII of the Linking Manual.

1. Have a spine label to print from the Quick Spine Creator.
2. Click Print This Label.
3. The print popup should popup. Set up the settings as follows:
   
   1. Destination: the spine label printer’s name.
      1. If it does not show up in the drop-down, click see more and find it in the list of more printers that show up.
   2. Pages: All
   3. Copies: 1
   4. Layout: Portrait
   5. More Settings: Click this to see more settings that need to be adjusted.
      1. Paper Size: 30333 1/2 in x 1 in (2 up)
      2. Pages per sheet: 1
      3. Margins: Minimum
      4. Quality: 300 dpi
      5. Scale: Default
      6. Options: leave Headers and footers and Background graphics unchecked.
4. Click Print.

If you have any problems, contact the Help Desk for assistance.

News Summary (2/1/2021-2/28/2021)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 2/25/2021 We have scheduled a Circulation User Group for April 1, 2021, from 1 - 2:30 pm via phone/web conference.  Register online.
• 2/24/2021 7,123 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 1/28/2021 and 2/23/2021.
• 2/24/2021 20,848 items and 2,096 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 2/22/2021 The minutes from the February 9 CSS Meeting are available online.
• 2/10/2021 There will be a Bibliovation point release upgrade Wednesday, February 10 at 9pm. The upgrade contains a couple of Circulation fixes, which are listed in the release notes. See the LINKcat News blog post for more details. 
• 2/9/2021 The 2020 statistical summary for the Syndetics Unbound LINKcat enhanced content is posted.
• 2/8/2021 The minutes from the February 3 IC Meeting are available online.
• 2/2/2021 The monthly Bibliovation reports for January 2021 can be found online.
• 2/1/2021 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for January are posted.

Reporting intermittent response time problems and short-term slowdowns in Bibliovation

To address ongoing reports of intermittent response time problems in Bibliovation, we have created a form so that libraries can log the problems they experience on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

In order to provide the most specific information possible to LibLime about these response time problems, we need libraries to report them when they occur, and with as many details as possible. We are asking libraries to fill out this form to record dates, times, modules, etc. that are experiencing intermittent response time problems and short-term slowdowns.

Please do not use this form to report urgent problems with Bibliovation. If Bibliovation is unusable or seems to be having major problems, please contact the Help Desk immediately (use the After Hours Support Number during evenings and weekends). 

You can find a link to both the Response time form and information about contacting the Help Desk on the ILS Support home page. 

Bibliovation upgrade February 10, 2021

We are pleased to announce that there will be an update to Bibliovation after 9 pm on Wednesday, February 10. The upgrade does not require system downtime. This release (6.02.09) includes a couple of Circulation fixes. See the Release Notes for more information on the fixes.

IMPORTANT: After the upgrade, on Thursday, February 11, please clear your browser cache before using Bibliovation.

This upgrade includes fixes that have been tested by SCLS staff. To the best of everyone’s assessment, the fixes are working well and any bugs identified during testing have been fixed. However, as we learned with past upgrades and patches, we may experience unexpected results following the upgrade. We may also discover new problems. We will use the Known Problems page to document any post upgrade problems.

News Summary (1/1/2021-1/31/2021)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 1/28/2021 For those libraries that requested patron due date extensions, the work has been completed.  For details on how we staggered teh patron expiration dates, please read the proposal in the January 12, CSS meeting minutes, 4(h).
• 1/27/2021 The minutes from the January 20 DIS Meeting available online.
• 1/27/2021 The minutes from the January 12 CSS Meeting available online.
• 1/27/2021 5,741 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 12/17/2020 and 1/26/2021.
• 1/27/2021 2,184 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 10/1/20) were deleted from the database.
• 1/27/2021 29,238 items and 2,864 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 1/24/2021 The minutes from the January 13 CMS Meeting are available online.
• 1/21/2021 We have scheduled a Discovery Layer User Group for February 23 from 2 - 3:30 pm via phone/videoconference.  Register online.
• 1/13/2021 Another Patron expiration date extension is being offered.  Read about it in the LINKcat News blog post.  Responses due by January 25, 2021.
• 1/12/2021 The Bibliovation point release 6.02.07 completed last night. Please clear your browser cache before using Bibliovation.
• 1/8/2021 A point release upgrade is scheduled for Monday, January 11, 2021 after 9pm. See the Release notes for a full list of fixes.
• 1/5/2021 The monthly Bibliovation reports for December 2020 can be found online.
• 1/4/2021 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for December are posted.

Patron expiration date extension request - January 2021

Some libraries have requested that we offer a patron expiration date extension again.  Below is the proposal from the Circulation Services Subcommittee that staggers the next expiration date over the next six months.

 

Here is the link to the Google survey form for your response- the deadline to opt-into this extension is Monday, January 25 at noon. If your library does not respond, or responds "No", patrons with your library listed as the Home library in their patron record will not have their expiration dates extended.  And please, only once response per library.

 

Here are the proposed extension parameters.  They are also listed in the survey form but the text is all bunched together.  

 

Patrons with an expiration date between 1/1/2021 and 6/1/2021 AND have a last name starting with these characters will have their expiration dates extended according to the following schedule:

A-D expiration date extended to July 1, 2021

E-H expiration date extended to August 1, 2021

I-M expiration date extended to September 1, 2021

N-R expiration date extended to October 1, 2021

S-V expiration date extended to November 1, 2021

W-Z expiration date extended to December 1, 2021

Bibliovation upgrade January 11, 2021

We are pleased to announce that there will be an update to Bibliovation after 9 pm on Monday, January 11. The upgrade does not require system downtime. This release (6.02.07) includes a couple of Circulation fixes. See the Release Notes for more information on the fixes.

IMPORTANT: After the upgrade, on Tuesday, January 12, please clear your browser cache before using Bibliovation.

This upgrade includes fixes that have been tested by SCLS staff and at some libraries. To the best of everyone’s assessment, the fixes are working well and any bugs identified during testing have been fixed. However, as we learned with past upgrades and patches, we may experience unexpected results following the upgrade. We may also discover new problems. We will use the Known Problems page to document any post upgrade problems.