LINKcat News

Koha Training Certification

The ILS staff has put together the information on the new ILS Koha TrainingCertification program. The purpose of certification is to ensure that each library has at least one staff person trained in each module. That person will be able to provide training for other staff and will be an on-site problem-solver. Please see the brand new Certification web page for all of the requirements for each of the modules included in the program. 

We have posted a spreadsheet of certified staff from each library for each module. Please review the certification spreadsheet for accuracy. If you attended training that is not listed on the spreadsheet, contact Michelle Karls to submit a change.

In 2016 we are offering the following incentives to encourage staff and libraries to participate in the program. Each library or branch is eligible for up to a $100 stipend if they complete certification as follows:
—Cataloging = $25
—Circulation = $25
—Serials = $25
All modules = $25 bonus

There will be additional surprise incentives offered throughout the rest of the year. 

Certification is optional but strongly encouraged.  All training sessions are open to all library staff.

New Help Desk Web Portal

SCLS is launching a new Help Desk web portal, accessible from PCs on the SCLS network. This portal will consolidate the current ILS and technology forms into a one-stop location to report all non-urgent technology and Koha issues (problems, questions, work requests, etc.). This new portal will work in conjunction with the SCLS ticketing system to provide better confirmation and tracking of submissions entered by library staff.

What are the benefits of the portal?

• Single form instead of separate ILS and Technology support forms
• Confirmation and update emails
• Library staff receive a confirmation email after they submit a ticket
• Library staff receive email notifications when updates are made to their tickets
• Option for library staff to add additional comments and updates to their tickets
• Library staff can upload screenshots or other attachments
• Only have to fill out your contact info once

How do I get to the new Help Desk portal?

• Type http://helpdesk/portal into your browser’s address bar
• When we officially launch the portal to all libraries, we hope to add a desktop shortcut to the portal to all staff PCs

What do library staff need to know to use it?

Everything that you’ll need to know about the portal can be found on the Portal Help page.

• http://helpdesk/portal/page/12-instructions

Library staff will need to create a user account to report issues (this user account is tied to an email address that is used to send updates about the ticket status)

The portal:

• will take the place of the online ILS and Technology support forms
• can be used to report non-urgent issues
• is only accessible from PCs on the SCLS network
• requires a user account to submit issues
• is not required – library staff can still report issues by calling the Help Desk

Timeline

Pilot: May 4 – June 15, 2015

Go-Live: June 15, 2015

To provide an easier transition, we will be keeping the older Koha and Tech support forms available until July 13th, 2015. Please make certain library staff have access to the online SCLS Portal instructions and have created their portal account(s) prior to July 13th.

Feedback

We welcome your questions and feedback about the Help Desk portal! Please submit by June 8, 2015 to Brian.

News Summary for 2/1/2015 through 4/30/2015

News:

• 4/29/15 Linking User Group and Linking II Training will be held at the DeForest Area Public Library. Please register online.
  • Linking User Group 10 am - 12 pm
  • Linking II: Creating BSE Training 12:30 - 3:30 pm
• 4/29/15 Linking 1: Searching and Matching webinar - Please registeronline.
  • May 13th from 2 - 3:30 pm
  • May 14th from 10 - 11:30 am
  • May 19th from 1 - 2:30 pm
• 4/28/15 28,907 items and 4,092 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 4/28/15 1,496 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 1/1/15) were deleted from the database.
• 4/28/15 5,846 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 3/25/15 and 4/27/15.
• 4/27/2015 New Item Types and new Circulation Issuing rules added. Read the blog post here.
• 4/14/2015 The Koha sandbox will be offline Wednesday April 15 and will be available again on Monday, April 20.  LibLime is upgrading the hardware used to host our sandboxes in the cloud. This downtime only affects the sandbox - it does not affect production.
• 4/2/15 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 4/1/15 The Koha monthly reports for March 2015 are available online.
• 3/30/15 LINKcat online payment option will be available from all LINKcat library PACs starting Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Please read the blog posthere.
• 3/24/15 5,491 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 2/26/15 and 3/23/15.
• 3/24/15 21,639 items and 2,675 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 3/24/15 The minutes from the March PAC Meeting can be found online.
• 3/23/15 The minutes from the March CMC Meeting can be found online.
• 3/23/15 The minutes from the March CSC Meeting can be found online.
• 3/18/15 Reminder to select the Digest option for Advance Notice and Item DUE messaging options. Read the blog post here.
• 3/13/18 LINKcat online payments launch date is April 1, 2015 (No Fooling). Read the blog post for details.
• 3/6/15 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 2/24/15 10,862 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 1/23/15 and 2/23/15.
• 2/24/15 33,156 items and 3,991 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 2/16/15 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 2/3/15 The minutes from the January PAC Meeting are posted online.
• 2/3/15 The minutes from the January CMC Meeting are posted online.
• 1/30/15 The minutes from the January CSC Meeting are posted online.
• 1/27/15 The LINKcat Online Payment Webinar is available to watch online. You will need to view this using Internet Explorer.
• 1/23/15 We are hosting a combined Circulation/Reports User Group at the Verona Public Library on February 25th. We are also going to be offering Crystal Reports and Excel Training sessions. Please register for one (or all) of these sessions online.
• 1/22/15 1,319 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 10/1/14) were deleted from the database.
• 1/22/15 25,716 items and 1,740 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 1/22/15 6,933 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 12/19/14 and 1/21/15.
• 1/13/15 The registration for the Koha E-Commerce Webinar is now open. You may register online here.
• 1/9/15 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports are posted.
• 1/5/15 The December monthly reports for Koha are posted online

Koha Known Problems--Recently Added & Updated:

• 4/17/2015 Incorrect relevance ranking for keyword search of advanced search: The relevance ranking is incorrect when you do a keyword search using the Advanced search screen. This is true in both the staff client and the LINKcat PAC. The relevance ranking is correct when you do a keyword search using the main search box. Unless you are using a limit that is only available on the Advanced search page (such as Audience) you can use the main search box to do your searching. (SCLS Support Ticket 2944)
• 4/17/2015 Author and Subject links in bib records do not always work: There are some problems with the linking of bibliographic records to authority records, so clicking on Author/Subject links from the bib record does not always return the complete set of search results. This problem has been reported to LibLime. You can still search for specific authors and subjects using the search box. (SCLS Support Ticket 2929)
• 4/3/2015 Pay All button and Pay Selected button problems reported. Madison has reported 3 incidents where an initial Payment using the Pay All button has failed to apply the complete payment to the patron's charges. Attempting to use the Pay All button again or use the checkboxes and the Pay Selected button produces Error messages on the Account screen. ONLY using the individual Pay button, in the Action colum for that entry, successfully applies payment to each entry. This does not happen every time. IF you notice this happening, take screen shots of the problem and save them. Submit the patron record, the date of the payment, the original balance and the actual amount applied on the Koha Support form. This has been submitted to LibLime and they have staff actively working on a resolution. (SCLS Support ticket #2854)
• 4/6/2015 FIXED. 4/3/2015 UPDATE This seems to be fixed but we are monitoring the generation of notices over the weekend before we make a final declaration. 3/31/2015 UPDATE Reports of duplicate and pre-overdue notices (Advance Notice and Item Due) and Overdue notices.  Please submit reports on the Koha Support form and include patron barcode and date of duplicate notice. (3/30/2015) (SCLS Support ticket 2830) We will post any updates on the problem here and on the status wiki.
• 3/18/2015 FIXED. 3/12/2015 GetIt: Error message when running Current fund balances report: If you go to Reports>Current fund balances, you receive a red box with an error message when you try to run the report. (3/12/15) (SCLS Support Ticket 2744) [BUG]
• 3/12/2015 GetIt: Cannot limit by date in advanced search: When you limit by date in the Advanced Search (when searching either invoices or orders), GetIt doesn't apply the date limit. (3/12/15) (SCLS Support Ticket 2741) [BUG]
• 3/12/2015 GETIT FIXED 6/18/2014 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. (6/18/14) (SCLS Support Ticket 830) [BUG]
• 3/9/2015 RESOLVED. This problem was re-tested in Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. All dates entered in the "resume on" box work.2/1/2012 Cannot enter a date in the "resume on" box (when suspending a hold) in the PAC that is for the 8th or 9th of a month.E.g. entering 02-08-2012 and 02-09-2012 do not work, but 02-07-2012 and 02-10-2012 does work. This seems to be working in Chrome, but it a problem in Firefox and Internet Explorer. (2/1/12) (SCLS Support Ticket 2556*) [BUG]
• 2/27/2015 FIXED. LibLime reports a fix has been applied to the Production database. If the problem still occurs please clear your cache and cookies. If the problem remains, include the bib number when you report the problem on the Koha Support form. 2/23/2015 New. Red "error" message displays instead of list of Holds on a title. This has been reported to LibLime; please clear your cache to see if this resolves the problem on your PC. (SCLS Support ticket 2599) [BUG]