LINKcat News

PSTAT changes for 2018

This month, SCLS staff will be replacing existing, generic System-based PSTATs with more granular county or municipality-based PSTAT codes and descriptions for all of Wisconsin. The primary reason for doing this is to provide granular information to adjacent counties during the Adjacent County reimbursement process. The other is to remove system-based codes and replace them with County-based codes.

The addition of all of these codes will make your pull-down list enormous. However, the sort1 field is a responsive field so you only need to start typing the name of the municipality to get to the section of the list that you want.

DO NOT ENTER CODES or NAMES OF MUNICIPALITIES DIRECTLY INTO THE sort1 FIELD IN THE PATRON RECORD. THIS IS A FREE-TEXT FIELD AND IF YOU OR YOUR STAFF ENTER OLD, INCORRECT CODES OR MISSSPELLED NAMES THE SYSTEM WILL ACCEPT THEM. USE THE PULL-DOWN MENU TO SELECT THE MOST SPECIFIC MUNICIPALITY; village, town, city or county; BY NAME.

AS ALWAYS – if you are uncertain about which municipality to select, choose the UNDETERMINED option and make sure you go back later and update the patron record with the most granular and correct PSTAT possible.

UPCOMING CHANGES:
For those counties that are not adjacent to SCLS Counties, we will be replacing the generic System codes and descriptions, like these examples
    O-IFLS Indianhead Federated Library System
    O-IFLS-I ILL-Indianhead Federated Library System

with county-based codes and descriptions for each County in that system.
    BA-LIB BARRON COUNTY-WITH LIBRARY
    BA-ILL ILL-BARRON COUNTY
    CH-NOLIB CHIPPEWA COUNTY-NO LIBRARY
    CH-ILL ILL-CHIPPEWA COUNTY
    CH-LIB CHIPPEWA COUNTY-WITH LIBRARY

For those counties that are adjacent to SCLS Counties, we will be replacing the System-based codes with County and Municipality-based codes and descriptions, like the following examples:

Old code            New code          Description/Municipality
O-ALS-ROCK       RO-AVON-T           Avon, town (Rock county examples)
O-ALS-BEL-C       RO-BEL-C             Beloit, city
O-ALS-ROCK       RO-BEL-T              Beloit, town
O-ALS-ROCK       RO-BRA-T             Bradford, town
O-ALS-ROCK       RO-CEN-T             Center, town
O-ALS-CLI-V       RO-CLI-T               Clinton, town
O-WVLS-CKNL    CL-BEA-T               Beaver, town (Clark County examples)
O-WVLS-CKNL    CL-BUT-T               Butler, town
O-WVLS-CKNL    CL-COL-T               Colby, town
O-WVLS-CKNL    CL-CUR-V               Curtiss, village
O-WVLS-CKNL    CL-DEW-T               Dewhurst, town
O-WVLS-CKNL    CL-EAT-T                Eaton, town

Municipalities that are in multiple counties or municipalities in different counties but with identical names will have a County identifier in the Description field ONLY if they are in an SCLS or adjacent county. For example:

The City of Wisconsin Dells is in 4 counties so multiple options will display in the list, like these examples
WISCONSIN DELLS, CITY (ADAMS)           A-WID-C
WISCONSIN DELLS, CITY (COLUMBIA)     C-WD-CC
WISCONSIN DELLS, CITY (SAUK)             S-WD-CS
WISCONSIN DELLS (JUNEAU)                 JU-WID-C

Similarly-named municipalities in non-adjacent counties will not have their own descriptions or codes so the County description/code will need to be used. Some examples are
Lafayette, town (Chippewa)             CH-NOLIB
Lafayette, town (Walworth)             WA-NOLIB
Lafayette, town (Monroe)                MO-NOLIB
Or
Lac La Belle, village (Jefferson)         JF-LLB-V
Lac La Belle, village (Waukesha)         WK-NOLIB

We are in the process of updating the entire list of municipalities in Wisconsin and will update the link to the PSTAT codes on both the Assigning PSTATs page and the ILS Support/Codes page.

 

November 2017 Annual Batch Deletion Reports posted

Twice a year we run cumulative reports of items that have certain problem items statuses that are eligible for batch deletion, according to SCLS procedure.  These reports help libraries keep track of older, problem items and give them the chance to take appropriate action on these items, according to their local policy, or leave them for the annual batch deletion.

 

Typically, the reports are run each November and May. Items that appear on the May reports but are not modified or resolved are batch deleted in July. Items that appear on the November reports are there to let the libraries start working on the list of items that will be included on the May reports so there are not so many items to deal with before the actual deletion in July.  Any items that are not resolved will appear again on the report run in May 2017.  

 

Libraries need to review these reports and

1. Decide if they are going to keep the record of the item, or the item itself in the case of Damaged items, or
2. Delete the record from the database, or
3. Leave it and let the annual batch deletion process delete the record the database.

If a library does not already have workflow for reviewing these reports, here are some questions to ask to see if the status of the item can be changed.  This list is not exhaustive.

• Were broken items mended?
• Were replacement parts ordered?
• Did patron pay for damages?
• Were magazines with Current Issue/No CKO status correctly updated?
• Were items marked as In Processing correctly checked in?
• Do patrons with “Lost items” need to be reminded about payment?

The November 2016 Annual Batch Deletion problem reports are:

• ABD Damaged. This report is posted on the Reports page, Batch Deletion folder.
• ABD Other (Missing Inventory, Lost in Transit). This report is posted on the Reports page, Batch Deletion folder
• ABD Lost (Lost, Missing, Trace).  A "hidden" link to this report is emailed to the Director of each library because it contains patron information.  This report is not posted on the Reports page.  

Items with a status of Claims Returned, AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, In Processing and Parts Missing are not included in the Annual Batch Deletion.

Deleting the Not for Loan status "Exception"

The Note for Loan status "Exception" was originally a status that was incurred after using an old offline circulation software; it has not been in use since 2011.  

 

All items that had that status in Koha have had that status changed to "Unavailable" and the description of the status has been changed to "DO NOT USE".  In January 2016 SCLS staff will be deleting this status after all of the 2015 Year End processes and reports have been completed.

 

 

2015 Purge of Inactive Patrons

The annual Purge of Inactive Patron records will take place at  end of  December 2015.  For the purposes of this report and purge, SCLS libraries define "Inactive Patron records" as patron records that have not checked out items in the last 2 years AND have been expired for at least one year AND owe less than $20.00.

Your library will be sent a list of patron records that are eligible to be purged. These patrons will:

•     have your library listed as their home library;
•     have not checked out items since December 2013;
•     account expired before December 2014; 
•     have no holds on their record and
•     owe less than $20.00. 

 
When you receive your report, please review the records, especially the records with a Patron Category of WEB.  If these WEB records are for temporary Internet or Database use, you may not want to delete them. If there are records that you DO NOT want purged, you must (manually) Renew those records so they will not be included in the final extraction.  Otherwise you need do nothing further.

The deadline for review is Friday, December 18, 2014. We will re-run the report on Monday, December 21 to exclude any records that are modified, and will submit the records to be deleted that day.

Updated procedure: Changes to the Annual Batch Deletion process.

Twice a year we run cumulative reports of items that have certain problem items statuses that are eligible for batch deletion, according to SCLS procedure.  These reports help libraries keep track of older, problem items and give them the chance to take appropriate action on these items, according to their local policy, or leave them for the annual batch deletion.

Typically, those reports are run each November and May. Items that appear on the May reports but are not modified or resolved are batch deleted in July.

Last May we discovered that the 4.18 upgrade had converted all our timestamps to 4/16/2014, so we could not run the semi-annual problem item reports for the Annual Batch Deletion process.  Because of that timestamp change, we could not batch delete older, problem items in July.  We came up with a plan last November and were able to batch delete items that were unchanged from the Nov. 2013 report.

Given that we now run monthly “problem item” reports, we needed a better way to label these semi-annual reports.  In conjunction with the changes to the Reports page we have come up with some changes that we hope will provide clarity.   We missed our May deadline but will be back on track this November.

For this current cycle, the first round of ABD (Annual Batch Deletion) Problem Item reports were run and posted on June 22, 2015.  SCLS Staff will re-run these reports in late August.  If any of these items are unmodified, we will mark them for batch deletion at the end of August.

Libraries need to review these reports and

1. Decide if they are going to keep the record of the item, or the item itself in the case of Damaged items, or
2. Delete the record from the database or
3. Leave it and let the annual batch deletion process delete the record the database.

If a library does not already have workflow for reviewing these reports, here are some questions to ask to see if the status of the item can be changed.  This list is not exhaustive.

• Were broken items mended?
• Were replacement parts ordered?
• Did patron pay for damages?
• Were magazines with Current Issue/No CKO status correctly updated?
• Were items marked as In Processing correctly checked in?
• Do patrons with “Lost items” need to be reminded about payment?

The June 2015 Annual Batch Deletion problem reports are:

• ABD Damaged. This report is posted on the Reports page, Batch Deletion folder.
• ABD Other (Missing Inventory, Lost in Transit). This report is posted on the Reports page, Batch Deletion folder
• ABD Lost (Lost, Missing, Trace). A "hidden" link to this report is emailed to the Director of each library because it contains patron information.  This report is not posted on the Reports page.  

Items with a status of Claims Returned, AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, In Processing and Parts Missing are not included in the Annual Batch Deletion.

Patron database cleanup - purging Additional attributes and identifiers section

As part of the on-going task to keep the patron database as clean as possible,  I am proposing that we purge all of the migrated Dynix data that is retained in the "Additional attributes and identifiers" section of patron records.  This data will be 4 years out of date this month.  

 

If you have any objections, please submit them to Heidi Oliversen (holiversen at scls.info) no later than April 24, 2015.

November 2013 Problem Item Reports are posted - UPDATED

Problem Item reports and the Annual Batch deletion process

Problem Item reports are run each November and May for items with “Problem Item” statuses assigned at least one year prior to the report date.  These reports allow each library to keep track of all items that have “problem” statuses and to take appropriate action on these items according to their local policy.  Items that appear on the May reports but are not resolved will be batch deleted in July, as part of the Annual Batch Deletion process.

Libraries should have internal workflows/procedures for dealing with items with these problem statuses. Here are some examples. This list is not exhaustive:
•    Were broken items mended?
•    Were replacement parts ordered?
•    Did patron pay for damages?
•    Were magazines with Current Issue/No CKO status correctly updated?
•    Were items marked as In Processing correctly checked in?
•    Do patrons with Lost + Charge items need to be reminded about payment?

The Problem Item [PI] Reports for November 2013, for items with (problem) statuses** assigned November 2012 and older, are:
•    PI: Missing, etc. (Missing, Trace, Missing Inventory, Lost in Transit). Report posted to the Reports Calendar.
•    PI: Damaged. Report posted to the Reports Calendar.
•    PI: Lost (Lost + Charge, Lost & Paid for).  Report emailed to the Director of each library, not posted on the Reports Calendar.
•   PI: Not Lost (AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, Part Missing). Report posted to the Reports Calendar.

**Claims Returned reports are run monthly and posted to the Reports Calendar.
**Not for Loan reports (In Processing, Current Issue/No CKO, Unavailable, Bindery) reports are run monthly and are posted to the Reports Calendar.

UPDATE - ONLY items with a status of Lost and Paid for, Missing, Trace, Missing Inventory, Lost in Transit and Damaged are currently slated to be included in the next annual batch deletion (July 2014).

Items with a status of Lost + Charge are NOT included in the Annual Batch deletion.  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.   Libraries need to review these items and the attached patron records on an individual basis.

Items marked Claims Returned, AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, In Processing, Parts Missing and Not for Loan  (In Processing, Current Issue/No CKO, Unavailable, Bindery) are not included in the annual batch deletion.  

Problem Item Reports and the Annual Batch Deletion - Part 2

Problem Item reports are run each November and May for items with “Problem Item” statuses assigned at least one year prior to the report date. These reports help libraries to keep track of all items that have “problem” statuses and to take appropriate action on these items according to their local policy.

• Items with a status of Lost + Charge, Lost & Paid for, Missing, Trace, Damaged, Lost in Transit and Missing Inventory that appear on the May reports but are not resolved will be batch deleted in July.

• Items marked Claims Returned, AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, In Processing and Parts Missing are not included in the annual batch deletion.

Libraries should have internal workflows/procedures for dealing with items with these problem statuses. Here are some examples. This list is not exhaustive:
 - Were broken items mended?
 - Were replacement parts ordered?
 - Did patron pay for damages?
 - Were magazines with Current Issue/No CKO status correctly updated?
 - Were items marked as In Processing correctly checked in?
 - Do patrons with Lost + Charge items need to be reminded about payment?

Here are the Problem Item [PI] Reports:
PI: Not for Loan (In Processing, Current Issue/No CKO, Unavailable, Bindery) This report is run monthly and is posted in the Reports Calendar.
PI: Damaged. This report is run in November and May and is posted in the Reports Calendar.
PI: Not Lost (AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, Part Missing). This report is run in November and May and is posted in the Reports Calendar.

PI: Lost (Lost + Charge, Lost & Paid for). This report is run in November and May and is emailed to the Director of each library.  This report is not posted in the Reports Calendar as it contains patron information.

Trace reports and the Long in Transit reports are run twice a month (2nd and 4th Tuesday) and are posted in the Reports Calendar.

Please contact the ILS Help desk if you have any questions about the process or problems accessing these reports.

LINK 2 Koha Migration--the final stretch

We are closing in on the final month of our Koha migration.  This seems an appropriate time to provide an overiew of where we are at with the various aspects of this project.

Software Development

We are close to receiving all of our final development and we are testing as fast as we can.  We will then continue to work with LibLime/PTFS to fine-tune the projects based on the reports we provide them from testing. All development should be in place by the end of 2010 so that we have a stable database for you to do your final training in January (see under Training below).  The training database will be upgraded at that time. LibLime/PTFS is also working on the response time issues and they are working with all of our third party vendors to make sure those products work well with Koha. Please see the Development Projects status page if you are interested to see where we are at with all of the projects (ILS web site login and password required).

Preparation for Go Live

SCLS is preparing to support the ILS libraries during the Go Live on January 17 and 18. We will be providing a variety of ways to assist with what will most likely be a stressful period for the libraries.  Please read the recent blog post regarding the Go Live details. It is important that ILS libraries read this post as soon as possible as we are asking for information from you by Friday, December 17.

Koha Comments and Questions

We have continued to receive great comments and questions via the Koha Comments and Questions form. However we have had difficulty in keeping up with answering them! We have discussed this with the ILS Committee and they have agreed that it would be OK if we do not address each submission directly.  We will either add them to a FAQ or incorporate them in to our training. Please do continue to submit your comments and questions as we will continue to review them and they are very helpful to us.

Training

The hands-on serials workshops are being conducted now.  All other hands-on workshops are completed.  For the next several weeks, we recommend that staff continue to use the Koha Training database to familiarize themselves with navigation and the basic functions. When the training database is updated with our new development in early January, that would be a good time to conduct final in-depth training in the library. To assist with this we will be producing a variety of to-the-point webinars and online tutorials to address new development and specific functions. Staff will be able to watch these on demand. These will be posted on the Koha Training page. Now would be a good time to watch the webinars already recorded and also found on that page. If you have suggestion for training topics, please use the Koha Comments and Questions form and include the words "Training topics" at the beginning of the Comments box.

Data Migration

We have begun the final cutover phase of the data extraction.  On December 9, all bibliographic and item records were extracted from Dynix.  We are about to begin testing item records.  See the Migration Events page for specific details of the remainder of the data migration.

PR and Patron Education

The SCLS PR and Patron Education committees have been busy too. The PR Committee is working on ways to inform patrons of the various down-time and the changes coming to LINKcat.  The Patron Education Committee is developing materials such as bookmarks and online tutorials to assist patrons with using the upgraded LINKcat.

SCLS Technology Staff

The technology staff are working on various aspects of the migration as well.  For a peek behind the scenes, see the recent TechBits post.  It would be fair to say that virtually everyone at SCLS has been involved in the LINK to Koha migration in one way or another.

Detailed List of Library Events for Koha Migration

Here is a detailed list of dates pertaining to the SCLS migration to Koha.  This list includes cutoffs for various ILS services--such as report requests.  Also included are the dates for cessation of various activities on Dynix prior to the migration--such as last day to add new holdings.  If you have questions about this schedule, please submit them via the SCLS Koha Comments and Questions form.

REPORT REQUESTS

11/1/2010 Last day to request a report of Clubs & Organizations records
12/1/2010 Last day to request custom reports (Weeding, Serials, Patron, item, etc.)
12/28/2010-1/5/2011 year end reports on Dynix
1/17/2011-1/21/2011 Jan. 1-14 2011 year end reports on Dynix
All standard reports will be run as regularly scheduled

SERIALS

Ongoing--Review serials copy records (see blog post Serials Copy Record Maintenance) ; request a new Union List Report for another check!
12/9/2010 Last day to modify or delete magazine holdings (with exception of status)
1/6/2011 Last day to request new copy records on Dynix
1/7/2011 Last day to modify copy records Dynix
1/7/2011 Stop Serials checkin on Dynix
1/19/2011 Resume Serials checkin on Koha

ITEM MAINTENANCE

Ongoing--Weed! Request weeding reports through 12/1/2010
Ongoing--Clean up and delete Claims returned items (reports run 3rd Wednesday of each month; see blog post Cleaning up items with Claims Returned status).
Ongoing--Clean up items with problem statuses (Cleaning up items with problem statuses). 
9/8/2010 SCLS will run last Lost (L) and Items with statuses LT,M,T,D,MI for all items marked prior to 1/1/2010
10/18/2010-10/22/2010 SCLS will purge all items marked L,LT,M,T,D,MI prior to 1/1/2010
9/15/2010 Last day to submit requests for new and deleted collection codes
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to change existing collection codes (holdings summary or spine label)
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to batch change collection code/ITYPE on a group of items
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to batch change Status of items

ACQUISITIONS

Ongoing--Review old orders and clean them up
12/1/2010 Stop Ordering on Dynix
12/9/2010 Migrate funds and vendors for some libraries (as needed)
Mid-December (TBD) For those not migrating, set up 2011 fund accounts and vendors in Koha
12/23/2010 Begin ordering from 2011 fund accounts on Koha (but not before 2010 orders are canceled with vendor--see below) No receiving in GetIt yet!
12/31/2010 (or sooner) Stop Receiving on Dynix
1/7/2011 (or sooner) Cancel all remaining orders in Dynix (these will not be migrated)--will need to cancel with vendor
12/9-1/7/2010 Closeout 2010 fund accounts on Dynix--as scheduled by library when last order is canceled
1/7/2011 Libraries cease ordering on Koha
1/19/2011 Libraries resume ordering and begin receiving and invoicing on Koha


CIRCULATION/Patron
12/6/2010 & 12/7/2010 - Purges of Inactive Patrons based on parameters approved by the ILS Committee
1/11/2011 Last date to add, modify and delete patron records
1/13/2011 Cease circulation on Dynix
1/14/2011-1/16/2011 Libraries use Koha offline circulation
1/17/2011 First phase of libraries Go Live on Koha
1/18/2011 Second phase of libraries Go Live on Koha

LINKcat/PAC

1/13/2011 Last holds by staff and patrons placed on Dynix
1/14/2011-1/16/2011 LINKcat down
1/17/2011 LINKcat up on Koha

CODES

9/15/2010 Last day to submit requests for new and deleted collection codes
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to change existing collection codes (holdings summary or spine label)
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to batch change collection code/ITYPE on a group of items
12/31/2010 Last day to submit changes to Item Loan types (daily fines, max. fines, grace periods and notice intervals)

CATALOGING

ISBN forms (no cutoff ; we can hold)
Dup record forms (no cutoff ; we can hold)
Problem bib record forms (no cutoff ; we can hold)
12/9/2010 Last day to modify existing holdings (all fields except status)
12/9/2010 Last day to delete existing holdings
12/9/2010 Last day to add new BSE records
1/7/2011 Last day to create new holdings records

MISC

10/21/2010 Clubs & Organizations records--last notices printed / reports generated
11/1/2010 All Inventory Projects must be completed