LINKcat News

Cleaning up items with problem statuses

Approximately four times per year, each library receives a report of items with a status of ME, PR, PM, EX, AV, B, DE, DIS, OR, R, ST, WD, XC, OV that was set at least 3 months prior. The next report will be run in early August. As part of data cleanup in preparation for the migration, we are asking all libraries to review this report closely and make changes to problem item statuses as appropriate.

For example, perhaps you set your current magazine issues to XC (CURRENT ISSUE/NO CKO) and change the statuses when a new magazine issue arrives. This report will show any older issues that were missed and still have the XC status. Perhaps you set an item's status to ME (Mending) but the status was not changed after the item was fixed and returned to the shelf. Or, perhaps the item cannot be fixed at all and should be deleted. 

Specific instructions for deleting holdings and changing item statuses using UHR are reviewed in Section XIV of the Linking Manual.

If you find that you have a group of items with the same status that should be deleted (e.g. ME, WD), you can fill out a Batch Delete Holdings Request form and SCLS staff will batch delete your group of items for you.

Cleaning up items with Claims Returned status

A report is run monthly for each library that owns items with a status of Claims Returned set one year prior.  As part of the ongoing cleanup of the database for the migration to Koha, we are asking every library to review the next report they receive (scheduled to be printed on June 16) and delete the older items.  Items with a status of Claims Returned are not deleted automatically during the annual batch deletion process.  They must be cleaned up and deleted manually.  Deciding whether or not to charge patrons for Claims Returned items is a local library policy; there is no system-wide policy.  Once the Claims Returned status has been cleared, the item can be deleted.

 

If it is not your policy to charge patrons for Claims Returned items, follow this procedure:

1.   Access the patron record. 
2.  At the PURF Summary screen, select the line item containing the item you are working on. 
3.   When the PURF detail screen is up, enter “L” at the command line at the bottom of the screen.  This will convert the Claims Returned status to Lost and charge the patron for the Lost item.
4.  Next, at the command line, type “W” to waive the lost charge.
5.  At the “Amount” prompt, enter the entire Lost charge to be waived.
6.  In the “Comment” prompt, enter information you would want to read in the patron’s PURF History for this item.  You could enter something like this, “CR item to Lost and charge waived. hjo/scls”.  You are not prompted to enter your initials after the comment so it is best to include them in the comment.
7. Once you have waived the charge, the PURF becomes **RESOLVED**.  The system will move the block into PURF History after the next Day End Processing occurs.
8.  Immediately delete the item as usual.

 

If it is your policy to charge patrons for Claims Returned items, only follow steps 1-3 and 8 above.

Thank you,

Heidi Oliversen and Vicki Teal Lovely

Tentative Migration Date

We are still working with PTFS to confirm a migration date for the LINK to Koha migration.  Migrating over the end-of-the year holidays is not really a viable option.  PTFS has proposed that we Go Live on January 10, 2010.  The cataloging, acquisitions and serials cutoff would be in early December.  Please keep in mind that this date is still tentative as there are further details to be worked out.  However, we would like to gather your input about going live on January 10.  Please submit all concerns and questions regarding this date using the SCLS Koha Comments and Questions form.

Libraries Training Regions

Several people have asked for a list of the libraries in each training region.  Click here to view the list.  These are libraries that volunteered to host training sessions.  We hope to have the sessions booked by the end of June.  

LINK2.0Koha Training Schedule

We are pleased to announce the training program for the LINK to Koha migration.  Here is a description of the key components of the program.  We are very excited about this training program and we hope you will be too.

Sandbox to Play In

In August we will make available to you a Koha staff "sandbox".  The sandbox will have a set of our data including bibliographic records, holdings, patrons, codes and possibly some circulation transactions.  The sandbox will be set up as closely as possible to our specifications. You will be able to try out all of the Koha features without effecting any of our real data.

Online Tutorials

By August we will prepare online web tutorials that will walk you through the most basic aspects of Koha.  The tutorials will be available to all staff on demand.  Some of the online tutorials will be pre-requisites for later workshops.

Live Webinars

In September we will begin a series of live webinars that will introduce you to features in all Koha modules, including the Public Access Catalog.  The webinars will be available to all staff and many will be pre-requisites for later workshops.  Webinars on a variety of topics will continue right up to the migration at the end of the year.

Play Dates

Upon your request, ILS staff will make a visit to your library in August and September to go over circulation in Koha.  Watch for a future blog post with more details on this service.

In-Person Workshops (for library trainers)

We have put together a Schedule of hands-on workshops for the designated library trainers in the four staff modules:acquisitions, cataloging, circulation and serials (see Certifying the Trainers post from 6/7/2010).  We will be taking the workshops on the road using a wireless lab.  We've divided South Central into 4 regions (North, East, South and West) and will offer at least one workshop for each module in each region.  Library trainers are free to attend a workshop in any region. 

On-site Support During Go Live

While not really training, ILS staff will provide on-site support during the first weeks of Go Live for any library that requests a visit.  Of course we will not be able to visit every library at opening on the first day, so we will develop some kind of lottery system for scheduling the visits.  More details will be available about this in a future blog post.

"Certifying" the Trainers

This week we will begin publicizing our Koha training program and schedule.  The program is modeled around the concept of "train the trainers."   Each library will designate one person per module as a trainer (circulation, cataloging, serials, and acquisitions). We will be conducting in-person workshops for trainers in October and November that will provide hands-on training for each module as well as provide trainers with the tools they will need to train staff in the library. The library's trainer for each module will then train other library staff on that module.

So, we are asking that each library think very carefully about who the in-library trainer should be for each module.  We will be using the LINK Library Contacts to assist us with "certifying" the trainers.  Trainers should be identified as a LINK library contact.  Now would be a good time to review the list of contacts for your library. You may have up to two people listed as a contact for each module, so if your current contact is not your designated library trainer, please add the person who is by completing the online form.  Please try to make all changes by June 30, 2010. When staff register for an in-person workshop, we will check the contacts list to make sure they are official!

Trainers should not worry that the full burden of training will be on them.  As part of our complete training program, we will be offering additional training options that will be open to all library staff.  You will hear more about this later this week.

"Today we are the shapers of the world tomorrow"--Walt Disney

At the SCLS All Directors meeting on May 27, I talked about goals and directions for the shared ILS in 2011.  It might seem odd to think about 2011 when we are so entrenched in the current migration to Koha.  However, we need to continue to look to the future and with Koha we will have the opportunity to shape the ILS and the PAC to meet library needs for years to come.  At the meeting, I mentioned several areas we might explore in 2011, once our migration is behind us.  Two of these were based on topics presented at the recent WiLS Peer Council meeting.

The first goal is to expand the digital presence in LINKcat.  There are several great resources in the state of Wisconsin that we may be able to incorporate into LINKcat: the Wisconsin Digital Archives, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, and Wisconsin Heritage Online.  Some of you may already be familiar with the projects and some of you may already be participating.  In 2011, we hope to explore ways to improve access to these resources for SCLS patrons.  This is a very attainable goal.

The second idea is to look at ways to reshape the way information is presented in the Public Access Catalog (PAC).  This goal is a little more lofty and will take years to attain.  Karen Coyle talked about the idea of the "semantic web."  This is a complicated concept and it is tied in to MARC cataloging.  If you are interested in this topic, please take a look at Karen's web site. For examples of what features might look like in a future PAC, see openlibrary.org and WorldCat identities.

In case, you are wondering about the quote.  I'm a bit of a Walt Disney fan and I appreciate what a visionary he was. It is amazing how many quotes there are from him that have to do with looking to the future. This one is on a pin that I purchased at Disney World.