LINKcat News

June 1st change to Holds Sequence

After reviewing months of Net Lender and Net Borrower information and discussions with Delivery and Madison Public Library, we will be adding Madison Storage to multiple places in the holds sequence. By adding this location before the libraries that are the largest net lenders we hope to help deflect some of the holds.  Since patrons can't place holds for pickup at Madison Storage, placing the agency code before a library will not cause an increase in holds for the locations after that code.   Here is what the modified sequence will look like:

ACL, BAR, BLV, BER, BRD, CIA, CBR, COL, CSP, DCL, DEE, [MAD] DFT,  FCH, LAV, LDI, [MAD], MCF, MCM, CEN, MAD, HPB, HAW, LAK, MEA, MRS, MSB, PIN, SEQ, SMB, [MAD], MAR, MAZ, MID, MOO, MRO, MTH, NGL, NOF, ORE, PAR, PLA, POR, POY, PDS, [MAD] REE, RKS, SKC, SGR, STO, SUN, VER, WAU, WID, WYO, SCA, SCL, [MAD]

Since this is the first time we have modified the sequence in a major way, we will be watching the numbers carefully to determine the impact of this change.  Please let us know what, if any, this change has on your library's Holds Queue report.

News Summary for 5/14/2012 through 5/25/2012

News

For the most current news, see the ILS Support Main page.

• 5/25/12 Patron evaluation of the Library Thing features began this morning via a survey posted in LINKcat. The features will be available through 6/1/12.
• 5/25/12 Read details about the 4.12 upgrade scheduled for the evening of 5/30/12 in the LINK2.0Koha blog post.
• 5/25/12 Bookmarks for the LINKcat Mobile app went out in Delivery today. For more information about LINKcat Mobile, see the LINK 2.0 Koha blog post.
• 5/24/12 We are now making our best effort to to fill all Weeding Report Requests within 2 to 5 business days of your request. Please keep in mind that if any of the following circumstances occur, it may take a bit longer: unusually complex report request, high volume (especially from one requester), holidays.
• 5/22/12 Preliminary release notes are available for the 4.12 upgrade which is tentatively scheduled for the evening of May 30. Key features include limiting by foreign language in the PAC and the ability for library staff to modify their own receipts.
• 5/18/12 The minutes from the May Circulation Services Subcommittee Meeting are now available online.
• 5/16/12 We are conducting a trial of additional Library Thing features from May 16 through May 30. To find out how to participate, go the the PAC Support page and scroll down to the Enhanced Content Trials section.
• 5/16/12 The LINKcat Mobile app is now available in the App Store and on Google Play. Users with devices other than Android or Apple can go to m.linkcat.info for a mobile version of LINKcat.

4.10 Problem Log

05/24/2012 Printing Pay Fines or Account screens may crash Firefox: If you are trying to print a patron's Pay Fines screen or Account screen using the Firefox Print option, you may crash Firefox. Tests show that this will happen if the patron has more than one screen of transactions. The work-around is to take screen shots of the pages, using Alt-PrtScn, and pasting the screen shots into a Word document. (SCLS Support ticket 42096) (Not on Koha Problems and Fixes spreadsheet/4.10)

Plan for 4.12 Upgrade

The 4.12 Upgrade will be done on the evening of Wednesday, May 30 and will be in place for the morning of Thursday, May 31. On that morning Talking Tech calls will be delayed so that we may conduct some preliminary tests. 

Read complete details about the included features and bugs in the 4.12 Release Notes.

The following features will be included:

• Ability to limit by Adult and Book from the Advanced Search Screen
• Ability to limit by foreign language from the Advanced Search Screen
• Format limit drop down on the Main search screen
• Talking Tech Koha will now check to see if a hold is filled before the call list is sent to the Talking Tech Server
• Barcode validation

We will not turn on the barcode validation feature until Monday, June 4 in order to give library staff time to adjust to some of the other changes with this release.

We encourage staff to look at the new features in the Koha sandbox.

 

LINKcat Mobile

The LINKcat Mobile app is now available in the App Store (for Apple devices) and Google Play (for Android devices). Users of other platforms can use the LINKcat Mobile web site at m.linkcat.info. 

We will begin publicizing these mobile options on June 1, when we'll post an announcement on the LINKcat home page, as well as Facebook and Twitter. Bookmarks for LINKcat Mobile will be going out in Delivery today. Each library will receive a package of 50, but you can order more using the Brochure Request Form. 

For answers to questions about accessing and using LINKcat Mobile, see the LINKcat Mobile help page. We'll continue to update the page as needed. To report problems with LINKcat Mobile, use the Koha Problems and Questions form. Any known problems will be added to the Koha Known Problems page.

LINKcat Mobile is a third-party product called LibraryAnywhere. It is supported by LibraryThing. It is not open source, so we will not be driving the development of new features. However, LibraryThing will continue to enhance the software and we will report problems or bugs to LibraryThing.

Printing Pay Fines or Account screens may crash Firefox

If you are trying to print a patron's Pay Fines screen or Account screen using the Firefox Print option, you may crash Firefox. Tests show that this will happen if the patron has more than one screen of transactions. The work-around is to take screen shots of the pages, using Alt-PrtScn, and pasting the screen shots into a Word document. (SCLS Support ticket 42096)

News Summary for 4/30/2012 through 5/11/2012

News

For the most current news, see the ILS Support Main page.

• 5/11/12 Read about the 4.12 upgrade on LINK2.0Koha.
• 5/11/12 The May ILS Committee minutes are now available online.
• 5/9/12 We now have a toll-free number for the ILS Help Desk (855) 545-7435. We do ask that if you are local, please continue to use our local phone number to dial the ILS Help Desk (608) 242-4720.
• 5/9/12 We are looking for Koha testers using the Koha sandbox. (See "The sandboxes" under the Testing column.) Testing should by completed by May 18. Follow the directions on the Koha Testing page.
• 5/4/12 The new home for Koha Development information is the Koha Migration page. This page will eventually be renamed Koha Development. On this page, you will find the 2012 Development plans and other documents pertaining to development.
• 5/3/12 Since the sandboxes have been unavailable this week, we have extended the trial of Syndetics enhanced features to Sunday, May 13. We will begin the trial of Library Thing features on Monday, May 14.

Update on 4.12 Upgrade

If all goes well, we are planning on doing the upgrade to LibLime Koha 4.12 the week of May 28.  It will most likely occur on the evening of May 29 due to the Memorial Day holiday.  Testing is underway and so far we have identified one bug that will need to be fixed prior to the upgrade.  We are working on the Release Notes and will make them available next week so that you can prepare for the fixes and new features that will be included.  At this time we do not expect substantial workflow changes.

We do expect that there will be a fix to Talking Tech (Harriet) so that patrons are not called for holds they have picked up (SCLS Support Ticket 40862). There is really no way for us to test this ahead of time, so we may want to be prepared for some tweaking to occur to this process on the day of the upgrade.

Hold notices via text-messaging - bookmarks and workflow.

Bookmarks are being printed and sent out so that libraries can advertise this new hold notification option.  Each library will receive a packet of 50 bookmarks; we will supply more when requested.

Text hold notices take the place of telephone hold notices in Koha.  It provides an option for patrons who prefer to receive texts rather than a phone call. 

• If a patron activates text hold messages, they will not receive any kind of email notices. 
•  If a patron activates text hold messages, they will receive print overdues and no pre-overdue notices. 
• Patrons can receive text messages on phones with a non-Wisconsin area code.  Text messages are sent via the internet, not telephone lines.
• Any normal text messaging charges apply.
• Patrons will receive one text message for all holds trapped per day (digest format).  The message will be sent around 9am the day after the holds are trapped.

WORKFLOW - How to edit a patron record to receive hold notices via text messages:

• Access the patron record in the Koha staff client.
• Make sure that under "Patron messaging preferences", the Hold filled/email checkbox is checked.
• Remove any email address from the Email (Home) field. (You can store it in the Email (Work) field.)
• Modify the phone number in the Phone (Home) field as follows:
  • Phone number should start with a T, followed by a 1, followed by the area code, followed by the phone number.  Ex.: T1-608-xxx-xxxx
• Save the changes.

Using a Manual Invoice as an informational note

If you are adding a Manual Invoice to explain a payment for a Lost Item, do not enter the item barcode. Adding a zero amount Manual Invoice (with item barcode) to a patron record subsequent to payment for that Lost item will prevent a Refund being generated for that Lost and Paid item if it is returned.  If you want to include the item barcode in the note, enter it in the Description field.  The barcode will be searchable using the CTRL+F function.

Only create a Manual Invoice/Lost Item, including the barcode, when the patron is not otherwise charged for a lost item.

Stop using Manual Credit button

When staff use the Manual Credit button to create a credit on a patron's account, the patron's balance is credited.  However, we are unable to apply the credit to a specific debit in order to resolve the amounts, which leaves the amounts Outstanding in the patron's record.  The amounts also display in the patron's PAC account.  The CSC recommended and the ILS approved banning the use of the Manual Credit button. 

If you have a question on how to resolve a debit amount without using the Manual Credit, please contact Heidi O. and she will assist you.  If you have patron records with manual credits and debits that you would like to see "resolved", email the patron barcode and the specific line numbers in the patron's Account screen to Heidi O. with a request to clear the Amounts Outstanding.