LINKcat News

LINKcat fines page to display current charges only

On Monday, Nov. 3, the patron's fines page in LINKcat will be changed so that only unresolved charges are displayed. (The fines page is only available to the patron when the patron has unresolved charges. It is linked from the Fines tab of the patron's My summary page.) See the screenshot below for an example.

Currently, if the patron clicks on the linked dollar amount (67.86 in the above example), the patron will see a page containing the patron's full account history, which includes both resolved and unresolved charges. After the change on Nov. 3, the patron will only see unresolved charges, so the patron can more easily determine why he/she owes money. A screenshot of the new fines display is below.

Staff will still have access to the patron's full account history through the staff client. The only thing that is changing is the patron display in LINKcat.

October 2014 Annual Batch Deletion

If you are unfamiliar with our Annual Batch Deletion process, please read this blog post for infomation on the usual procedure.

Normally we would have done a batch delete of "problem items" in July 2014. This did not take place last July because we could not identify qualifying "problem items" due to changes in the item record timestamp field. The timestamp field was updated with a current date when our data was "migrated" from the 4.16 Koha software to the 4.18 Koha software In April 2014.  

As a result, we were not able to generate the PI (Problem Item) reports for May 2014 that only included items at least one year old. Therefore, we were unable to do a batch deletion in July. However, we have recently figured out a way to use the item barcodes from the November 2013 PI:Damaged and PI: Missing, etc. reports to do a batch delete of older problem items.  

We will take the item barcodes from the November 2013 PI reports through the Batch Item Editor and confirm that a) these items still have a problem item status and b) do not have a Last Seen date more recent than  2014-04-15.  If both of those conditions are true, we will mark the item Withdrawn and the item record will be deleted in the October monthly batch deletion of Withdrawn items, which will take place this week on Thursday, October 30. When the batch delete of withdrawn items is complete, a notice will be posted on the home page of the ILS support web site. 

Items with a status of Lost will not be included in this process. Deleting items with this status removes the item hyperlink from the patron record, which breaks the link to pertinent item information, like title, barcode and owning library. In order to delete these items, libraries have to review these items and the attached patron records on an individual basis.​ With the 4.18 development, title, due date and items barcode are now included, in text, in entries in the patron's Account and Account History screens. (That way if the item record is deleted, we no longer lose that data in the patron's record.)

Accepting payment for charges older than 1/1/2010

The Dynix server 'died' on Sept. 5, 2014 so we are no longer able to access old, archived patron and item information from that server, including the Owning library information for items with a Lost Status set before 1/1/2010.

 

Since we no longer have access to that archive, the CSC proposed the following to the ILS Committee: "can payments for all charges older than 01/01/2010 be retained by the library that accepts the payment?"  The ILS Committee had no objections to this proposal.

 

If a patron wants to pay for old charges , check the date of the transaction. 

• ​ If the date is older than 01/01/2010, keep the money at your library.  
• If the date is younger than 01/01/2010 but older than 04/15/2011, there is a report of all items in Dynix that had a Claims Returned or Lost status as of the day we migrated to Koha.  Submit a request on the Koha Support form and ILS staff will send you a copy of the report.  Because it contains patron information we will not post it on our Reports page.
• If the transaction is younger than 4/15/2011, follow the instructions for accepting Payment and filling out the Lost & Paid form located in Section VII of the Circulation Manual Fines and Financial transactions.​

New Item Type BKRN14

The CSC recommended (8/12/2014) and the ILS approved (10/1/2014​)  the creation of a new Item Type: BKRN14 Book, rental, 14 day loan. LTE staff are working on creating the Circulation Issuing Rules for all libraries.  When all the rules are created, we will let libraries know so they can change item types as needed.

UPDATE:  LTE staff have completed created the Circulation Issuing Rules for all libraries.

News Summary for 6/1/2014 through 9/30/2014

News:

• 9/26/14 The registration for the Acquisitions 1 Webinar (10/15) and Acquisitions 2 in-person training (10/28)has opened. Please register online.
• 9/25/14 21,114 items and 2,734 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items. 4,801 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 8/29/14 and 9/24/14.
• 9/25/14 2,389 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 7/1/14) were deleted from the database.
• 9/22/14 The PAC minutes from the September meeting are posted online.
• 9/22/14 The CMC minutes from the September meeting are posted online.
• 9/19/14 The CSC minutes from the September meeting are posted online.
• 9/19/14 The descriptions for the collection codes ERJFI and ERJNF were changed to "Early Reader." See the LINK 2.0 Koha blog post for more information.
• 9/5/2014 The 2015 Serials Clones memo is now available online.
• 9/4/14 The August 2014 Koha reports are available online. The Statistics Summary for August are also available online.
• 9/2/14 The minutes from the August CSC Subcommittee meeting have been posted online.
• 9/2/14 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 8/28/14 25,776 items and 3,109 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items. 5,488 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 7/25/14 and 8/27/14.
• 8/28/14 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 8/20/14 The LibLime Koha 4.18.6 upgrade occurred last night Tuesday, August 19 after 9 pm Central time. Down time was less than 5 minutes. Please read the 4.18.6 Release Notes for details.
• 7/30/14 The minutes from the July PAC Meeting are available online.
• 7/24/14 14,535 items and 2,002 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items. 4,672 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 6/27/14 and 7/23/14.
• 7/2/14 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 7/1/14 Updates to the Serials Manual are available.
• 6/27/14 11,160 items and 1,393 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items. 5,170 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 5/23/14 and 6/25/14.
• 6/5/14 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 6/3/14 We will be hosting a Koha Linking User Group at DeForest Area Public Library on July 23rd from 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. You can registeronline.

Koha Known Problems--Recently Added & Updated:

• 9/30/2014 UPDATE Hourly Circ Stats report. The SIP-1 transactions are off by 5 hours on the Hourly Circ Stats reports. If you subtract 5 from the hour listed on the report you will get the correct time. We reported this to LibLime and they are checking the SIP server settings to find the problem. 9/4/201 Hourly Circ Stats report seems to be off by a few hours. There are SIP-1 Issues transactions that are listed as occurring when the library is closed. Thanks to ORE and SUN for reporting this problem. This has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support ticket 1603).
• 9/29/2014 Advance Notices of Items Overdue sporadically not generated. Patrons occasionally report not receiving Advance Notices. These are instances where the notice is not even generated for the patron, even though their record is set up correctly and they have received these notices previously and sometimes even after the reported problem. We have been logging the reports with LibLime and are actively working to isolate the problem. SCLS Support ticket #1024. 5/7/2014 Fixed BUT MONITORING. Advance Notices script running sporadically. The script for the Advance notices has only run TWICE since the upgrade; the morning of 4/21 and this morning. We have reported the problem to LibLime and hope to have an update soon. (5/7/14) (SCLS Support ticket 395/4.18). Subsequent to the fix we have had spradics reports of patrons not receiving Advacne Notices. Added to tickets as we receive them.
• 9/15/2014 Sporadic duplicate overdue fines when items renewed online. We've sent out emails to libraries with affected patrons to ask the patrons what browser(s) they are using when they are renewing the items. LibLime is tracking this problem and it is recorded as SCLS Support ticket #806.
• 9/4/2014 Lost items may not get charged overdue fines upon return if that patron was previously charged overdue fines for that specific item barcode at your checkout location. In order to prevent duplicate overdue fines being charged for items overdue and coverted to Lost in version 4.16 and being returned in 4.18, LibLime introduced a bit of code that would prevent a patron from being charged overdue fine twice for the same item. However, this should have only been for those items overdue/Lost over the 4.16 to 4.18 migration gap. If a patron has a previous overdue fine (paid or not) on their record for the same item barcode checked out, gone to overdue and converted to Lost, they will not be charged overdue fines when the Lost item is checked in. Thanks to MAR and WAU for reporting this problem. It has been reported to Liblime. (SCLS Support # 1573)
• 7/8/2014. 4.18 display issue. Circulation/CKO screen. Fines breakout on Checkout screen incomplete. If the patron has a credit, accruing fines and outstanding (current) fines, and the full balance is a credit, only the credit line displays in the fines breakdown on the Checkout screen. If the patron has a credit but the balance on the record is a debit amount, everything but the credit is included on the CKO screen. A request to have all debits and credits display on the CheckOut screen has been submitted to LibLime. (4/21/14) (SCLS Support ticket 309/4.18)
• 7/2/2014 New. GetIt: EDI Target Transactions button doesn't work. There is a new button that came with GetIt 3.0. It's a "Transactions" button that is in the EDI Targets area. However, nothing happens when you click on this button, although the button appears to be active and clickable. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 1057)
• 7/2/2014 New. GetIt: Links to PO Line Count By Date and PO Copies By Date don't work. When you click on the Reports links for PO Line Count By Date and PO Copies By Date, nothing happens. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 1056)
• 7/1/2014 New. Circulation/Status. Cannot check in an item that has been marked Withdrawn, but was checked out. Items that are checked out can be marked Withdrawn using the Batch Edit Items tool. However, Withdrawn items may not be checked in. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 899)
• 7/1/2014 New. Cataloging/Batch Edit. List of show/hide columns is not aligned with edge of list of items display. When viewing items in the Batch Edit Items tool, the Show/Hide columns list runs across the entire page, forcing scrolling to select columns in the list of items below. This is not a problem in Chrome. It seems to be related to Firefox 30. This issue has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 985)
• 6/27/2014 New. PAC cover art associated with ISBN-13s does not display on checked out items or reading history pages. Only cover art associated with ISBN-10s displays. This happens in all browsers. It is not a new problem, but was not listed on this page in the past. (SCLS Support Ticket 889).
• 6/24/2014 New. GetIt: Make default size of pop-up boxes larger.The "Apply template" box on PO and "Add PO Lines to this Invoice" box on Invoice are small by default. Both of these boxes could be made much larger by default, so they take up more of the screen and more of the information from the boxes is displayed on screen. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 833).
• 6/24/2014 New. GetIt: Default size of PO Lines, Invoice, Receiving "boxes" does not fill screen. The bottom of the box only fills 15 PO Lines. The box can be manually re-sized, but it would be nice to have the box larger to begin with. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 932)
• 6/19/2014 New. GetIt. Printed invoices and purchase orders include street address but not city, state and zip code of vendor.This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 871)
• 6/18/2014 New. GetIt: In Firefox, the date picker pop-up box pops up as soon as you open the advanced search. If you click the "Close" button on the in the date picker box nothing happens. You can clear the date boxes by clicking in the date fields of the advanced search form. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 830)
• 6/11/2014 New. Refund All button is broken. Do not use the Refund All button (in the patron's Account screen) to clear multiple Unallocated credits/Refunds. Using the button causes an odd debit charge to be added to the patron's record instead of clearing the Refund(s). Use the individual checkboxes and the Refund Selected button when you need to clear multiple Refunds. This has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 784)
• 6/11/2014 New. GetIt: Cannot add PO Line Copies manually when there is a vertical scroll bar for the PO Line Copies box. If there is a vertical scroll bar, after you click the New button to add the PO Line Copy, you can scroll to the bottom to see the new PO Line Copy. However, after clicking on it to access the Location drop-down box, the new PO Line Copy line disappears before you have a chance to do anything with it. This is not a problem when there is no vertical scroll bar in the PO Line Copy box. This happens in both Firefox and Chrome. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 716)
• 6/11/2014 New. GetIt: Cannot re-sort Locations column in a Template. Clicking on the Location header in the Templates does not re-sort the list of Locations. There is an arrow in the Location header that seems to indicate that the column should re-sort. This is an issue in both Firefox and Chrome. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 754)
• 6/6/2014 New. GetIt: Navigation and Refresh buttons do not work after applying templates to a group of PO Lines. If you select a group of PO Lines and then apply a template to all of the PO Lines, the navigation and refresh buttons in the lower right-hand corner do not always work. You have to refresh the browser to get the buttons back. This problem has been reported to LibLime. (SCLS Support Ticket 750)