LINKcat News

Collection code cutoff for new and deleted codes is Sept. 15

If you have been thinking of adding new collection codes or deleting codes that you are no longer using, now is the time to do it. You will not be able to request new collection codes, or have any of your collection codes deleted, after Sept. 15, 2010. After Sept. 15, we will be finalizing and testing the collection code mapping that will dictate how all of the Dynix collection codes will migrate to Koha.

To request a new collection code, fill out the New Collection Code Request form. You can request deletes by using the Delete Collection Code Request form. Remember that if there are items attached to a collection code, it cannot be deleted. All items attached to a collection code must either be moved to a new code or deleted from the system before the code itself can be deleted. You can request that the collection code be changed on a batch of items by filling out the Batch Change Collection Code Request form.

Cleaning up items with problem statuses

Approximately four times per year, each library receives a report of items with a status of ME, PR, PM, EX, AV, B, DE, DIS, OR, R, ST, WD, XC, OV that was set at least 3 months prior. The next report will be run in early August. As part of data cleanup in preparation for the migration, we are asking all libraries to review this report closely and make changes to problem item statuses as appropriate.

For example, perhaps you set your current magazine issues to XC (CURRENT ISSUE/NO CKO) and change the statuses when a new magazine issue arrives. This report will show any older issues that were missed and still have the XC status. Perhaps you set an item's status to ME (Mending) but the status was not changed after the item was fixed and returned to the shelf. Or, perhaps the item cannot be fixed at all and should be deleted. 

Specific instructions for deleting holdings and changing item statuses using UHR are reviewed in Section XIV of the Linking Manual.

If you find that you have a group of items with the same status that should be deleted (e.g. ME, WD), you can fill out a Batch Delete Holdings Request form and SCLS staff will batch delete your group of items for you.

Cleaning up items with Claims Returned status

A report is run monthly for each library that owns items with a status of Claims Returned set one year prior.  As part of the ongoing cleanup of the database for the migration to Koha, we are asking every library to review the next report they receive (scheduled to be printed on June 16) and delete the older items.  Items with a status of Claims Returned are not deleted automatically during the annual batch deletion process.  They must be cleaned up and deleted manually.  Deciding whether or not to charge patrons for Claims Returned items is a local library policy; there is no system-wide policy.  Once the Claims Returned status has been cleared, the item can be deleted.

 

If it is not your policy to charge patrons for Claims Returned items, follow this procedure:

1.   Access the patron record. 
2.  At the PURF Summary screen, select the line item containing the item you are working on. 
3.   When the PURF detail screen is up, enter “L” at the command line at the bottom of the screen.  This will convert the Claims Returned status to Lost and charge the patron for the Lost item.
4.  Next, at the command line, type “W” to waive the lost charge.
5.  At the “Amount” prompt, enter the entire Lost charge to be waived.
6.  In the “Comment” prompt, enter information you would want to read in the patron’s PURF History for this item.  You could enter something like this, “CR item to Lost and charge waived. hjo/scls”.  You are not prompted to enter your initials after the comment so it is best to include them in the comment.
7. Once you have waived the charge, the PURF becomes **RESOLVED**.  The system will move the block into PURF History after the next Day End Processing occurs.
8.  Immediately delete the item as usual.

 

If it is your policy to charge patrons for Claims Returned items, only follow steps 1-3 and 8 above.

Thank you,

Heidi Oliversen and Vicki Teal Lovely

It's Spring! - time for some Weeding (Reports)

Actually, Weeding Reports are valuable at any time of the year; I could not resist the gardening allusion.

Weeding Reports can be requested at any time using the online report request form.  We request that you allow us three weeks to get your report back to you, so keep that in mind when you are torturing, ahem, assigning weeding projects to your staff. 

Why is this on the Koha blog, you might ask?  For two reasons; the first is that database clean-up prior to a migration is an essential task.  Weeding your collection of "dead-wood", so to speak, helps keep your collection and our database in very good shape.  Migrating a clean, trim database reduces the amount of post-migration clean-up.  The second reason is that the deadline for requesting a weeding report is three weeks before migration.  If you have weeding projects planned, please request the reports as soon as possible.  You can spread out the report return date if that helps with planning out the projects.

I promise, there will be weeding reports in Koha, I just can't say for certain right now when we will be able to start running them for you again. 

Serials Copy Record Maintenance

We will be migrating the data in your serials copy records to Koha. Now is a good time to make sure that they are in good shape.  If you haven't done so already, complete the January/February tasks in the Serials Annual Cycle of Maintenance Activities*. To assist you with this, I will be generating the Union List of Serials Report* for each library over the next few days.  We will be migrating both inactive and active copy records.  The goal is to delete as many inactive copy records* as possible prior to the migration. The following are steps to be used with the report in hand to help make sure inactive copy records that no longer need to be retained will be deleted.

• Any inactive copy record that does not have holdings associated with it will be deleted by SCLS ILS staff without further action from you.
• Look for straggling or stray items associated with a copy record. Can they be deleted so that the copy record can be deleted?
• Look for stray Special Issues. These need to be deleted from the copy record.
• Do you have holdings that go beyond your library's retention policy? Is it time to delete them?
• If you have a lapsed or cancelled subscription that is still Active, mark the copy record inactive* and mark any predicted issues you will not receive as "Not Available".

You may wish to take a look at the copy records (both active and inactive) that you will be retaining because they have holdings attached or represent a subscription with no holdings such as newspapers.  

• Check that the Collection Codes are correct on all copies for the same title.
• Check that Public Notes (if any) are accurate and appear on all copies for the same title.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this report or any of these procedures.

*Password required.

Scheduling Things

Several people have asked if they should be doing anything to prepare for the Dynix to Koha migration. As of right now, the only thing we have asked you to do is clean up your guardian field data (see Heidi's post from April 9).  Next week we will talk about sprucing up your serials data.

The SCLS ILS staff are working on a checklist of things that you can do to prepare your data and what the optimum time is for completing each task.  This list will include cutoff dates for services we offer such as running weeding reports.  The good news is that we have been working on the data load tests and your data is in really good shape.

The other question we get is when will training occur?  Most training will occur in June, July and August in a variety of formats and venues. We are working on a detailed training schedule.

We hope to get both of these documents out to you in the next two weeks.

In the mean time, we've opened up comments on this post.  Feel free to add any concerns that you have regarding data cleanup and training.  Your comments may help us with planning!

Patron Record Cleanup - Guardian field

During the data review after our first test load, we found problems with how some of the data is migrating.  For instance, in Dynix the Guardian field in the patron record is a free-text field that we use to record Parent or Guardian information for our juvenile patrons.  In Koha, this information will be migrated to a set of fields that allow us to record more than before.  In order to get the results we want in Koha, we have to change how the data is presented in Dynix. To this end, I am sending out instructions and a list of your patrons so that staff can modify the data in the record to comply with the new format.

Collection Code Cleanup and Cutoff Date

If you have been thinking of adding new collection codes or deleting codes that you are no longer using, now is the time to do it. You will not be able to request new collection codes, or have any of your collection codes deleted, after June 1, 2010 because after June 1, we will be finalizing the collection code mapping that will dictate how all of the Dynix collection codes will migrate to Koha. Once this mapping is finalized, it cannot be changed.

To request a new collection code, fill out the New Collection Code Request form. You can request deletes by using the Delete Collection Code Request form. Remember that if there are items attached to a collection code, it cannot be deleted. All items attached to a collection code must either be moved to a new code or deleted from the system before the code itself can be deleted. You can request that the collection code be changed on a batch of items by filling out the Batch Change Collection Code Request form.

Data Migration - doing an Inventory in 2010

If you are planning on doing an inventory in 2010, now is the time to schedule and prepare.  Libraries will not be able to use Dynix to inventory their collections after July of this year and we do not know yet know when the inventory functionality will be available in Koha.  Libraries who regularly do inventory each autumn will need to decide if they will be inventorying this year or not. 

Both Falcon units are currently available, although a few libraries will be scheduling use shortly.  If you are interested in doing an inventory or ready to schedule, please email Heidi Oliversen or fill out a Circulation Support request form.

Koha Data Migration Blitz

The SCLS ILS staff and ILS Migration committee members are in the middle of checking actual data extracted from Dynix that has been migrated to our LIbLime Enterpris Koha installation.  Data includes bibliographic records, items, patron records and circulation transactions.  Also being checked are every one of our 4320 collection codes.  So far things look pretty good.  We need to complete the initial data check by the end of this week!

The acquisitions data for Madison Public Library has been mapped to the new LibLime GetIt Acquisitions module.  This is the first time they have done a migration for GetIt, so it is pretty exciting.  Eventually we will do a test load for all of the LINK libraries using Acquisitions.