LINKcat News

News Summary (10/1/2021-10/31/2021)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 10/27/2021 3,956 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 9/30/2021 and 10/26/2021.
• 10/27/2021 19,312 items and 2,942 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 10/27/2021 1,777 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 7/1/21) were deleted from the database.
• 10/22/2021 The registration is open for the Circulation User Group on December 16 from 1 - 3 pm.  Register online.
• 10/21/2021 The registration is open for the GetIt Acquisitions User Group on December 14 from 10 - 11:30 am.  Register online.
• 10/21/2021 The registration is open for the Discovery Layer User Group on December 8 from 9 - 10:30 am.  Register online.
• 10/19/2021 The minutes and ILS Report for the October 6 ILS Committee Meeting can be found online.
• 10/15/2021 The Linking User Group is scheduled for December 9 from 1 - 2:30 pm via phone/videoconference.  Please register online.
• 10/15/2021 The Serials User Group is scheduled for December 1 from 1 - 2:30 pm via phone/videoconference.  Please register online.
• 10/8/2021 In October 2021 the FCC is mandating that telephone companies require customers to enter 10-digit phone numbers.  Please read the LINKcat News blog post for more details.  As of 10/8/2021, over half of the records sent to libraries for clean-up have been updated (469 records out of 804) and staff are still working on the project.  Thanks to everyone for your diligence!
• 10/8/2021 The Patron Categories "Limited Use" and "Limited Use-Juvenile" have had their enrollment periods changed to 12 months. Please read the LINKcat News blog post for more details.
• 10/4/2021 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for September are posted.
• 10/4/2021 The monthly Bibliovation reports for September 2021 can be found online.

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

As of October 2021, the FCC is 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 of the 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 placed 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.

Enrollment period of Limited Use and Limited Use-Juvenile patron categories changed to 12 months.

At their September 14, 2021 meeting, the Circulation Services Subcommittee recommended that the enrollment period for the Limited Use [LU] and the Limited Use-Juvenile [LUJ] be changed to 12 months.  The ILS Committee approved the recommendation at their October 6, 2021 meeting.

All new patron records created with these patron categories will have this enrollment period set automatically. Patron records with these categories that are renewed will have a new, 12 month expiration date based on the date of renewal.  Libraries that would prefer a shorter enrollment period can set the expiration date manually to comply with their local library policies.