LINKcat News

Bibliovation upgrade January 11, 2021

We are pleased to announce that there will be an update to Bibliovation after 9 pm on Monday, January 11. The upgrade does not require system downtime. This release (6.02.07) includes a couple of Circulation fixes. See the Release Notes for more information on the fixes.

IMPORTANT: After the upgrade, on Tuesday, January 12, please clear your browser cache before using Bibliovation.

This upgrade includes fixes that have been tested by SCLS staff and at some libraries. To the best of everyone’s assessment, the fixes are working well and any bugs identified during testing have been fixed. However, as we learned with past upgrades and patches, we may experience unexpected results following the upgrade. We may also discover new problems. We will use the Known Problems page to document any post upgrade problems. 

New Collection Code and Shelving Location available in Koha

A new Collection Code and Shelving Location are now available in Koha:

• Collection Code: DBRAAN (DVD BLU-RAY AD ANIME)
• Shelving Location: SDY (SERENDIPITY)

This Collection Code and Shelving Location were approved by the ILS Committee at its October 2019 meeting.

The Collection Code and Shelving Location can be used by any LINKcat library. For a full list of Collection Codes and Shelving Locations, see the ILS Support Codes page at https://www.scls.info/ils/codes.

If you would like SCLS staff to batch change a group of items from an existing Collection Code or Shelving Location to one of the new codes, please fill out the Batch Change Collection Code/Shelving Location/Item Type Request form, available from the ILS Forms page.

Moratorium on changes to existing bib records August 13 through around August 23

SCLS and the Madison catalogers are currently doing an authority control update project that will update all of the existing OCLC bibliographic records in our database with up-to-date author, subject, genre, and uniform title (series) headings. During this time, Madison cataloging staff cannot overlay or edit existing OCLC bibliographic records. 

 

What this means for you right now

Starting next Tuesday, August 13, if you submit changes to Madison on the following ILS Work Request forms:

 

Request to Add ISBNs or UPCs to Bibs

Report Problems with Bib Records

Report Duplicate Bib Records

 

those changes will be held by Madison until the next week or following week. The changes will be done after the project is completed in later August. Unfortunately, we don't have an exact end date at this time, but it should be the week of August 19.

 

During this time, you can continue to:

1. Create BSEs and link items

2. "Send to catalog" from GetIt for both bib records and item records

3. Create, edit, withdraw, and delete item records for items owned by your library

4. Create LOCAL, PERM, or GEN records

 

What this means for you in later August

During the week of August 19, there may be a day (or possibly two days) where we will ask you to refrain from creating BSEs and using "Send to Catalog" from GetIt to create new bib records while the updated bibliographic records are loaded into Koha by LibLime. We will send an email out about this as soon as we have solid information. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly how long it will take for all of the updates to be made to the bib records and how long it will take LibLime to load the changed bibs back into Koha.

 

Monthly batch delete of Withdrawn Items

Normally we do a batch delete of Withdrawn items every month. However, there will be no batch delete of Withdrawn items for August. We will resume the batch delete of Withdrawn items at the end of September. Items that are currently Withdrawn will remain in Koha with the Withdrawn status until the end of September.

Circulation Policy Review: Items missing from Library Hold Shelf

Have you ever had one of those days ...?  The patron has looked for their item on the hold shelf, you've looked, a couple of co-workers checked the shelves as well and ... it's just not there!

The ILS Policy for Items that go missing from your hold Shelf is as follows:

If items go missing from a library’s hold shelf, the item should be checked out to that library’s “Missing Hold Shelf” card.  Follow the procedure in the Circulation Manual, Section IX Placing and Managing Holds, Part M. Items Missing from your Hold Shelf.

Approved by ILS Committee; 3/7/2012

Here's the procedure from the above cited section of the Circulation Manual:

Procedure for checking items out to your library's Hold Shelf card.
Item has been checked in at your library and placed on the hold shelf for a patron. If the patron and staff members are unable to locate the item when the patron is trying to check the item out OR when you run your daily Holds Queue report and the item that lapsed on the hold shelf is not on the hold shelf, follow these steps:

• Check the item out to your library's Hold Shelf card.
• Re-queue the patron’s hold as necessary.
• If the item is found, it will be checked in eventually, either to fill a hold or when it is received at the owning library. If this is the case, the process of checking the item in will remove the item from your library’s Hold Shelf card.
• If the item is not found and the item Lost Status converts to Lost, your library becomes a“patron”with a lost item on its account. You will need to reimburse the owning library for the lost item, within 6 months of the date the item converted to Lost.
  • Some libraries change the due date to 5 months from the date of checking the item out to their Hold Shelf. If your library does this, be prepared to pay the owning library for the lost item within one(1) month of the items converting to lost, in order to reimburse the owning library within the 6 month period.

Circulation Policy review: Library Staff Use of Other Library Materials

In light of a few problems reported to me recently, I present for your review the Circulation Policy "Library Staff Use of Other Library Materials". 

This policy provides library staff with a set of "dos and don'ts" regarding the use of materials, owned by other libraries, for Book Group Holds, Displays, Collection Development purposes and other reasons/projects.

Please review this policy with your staff and, if any questions arise, feel free to send them on in.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July celebration!

Circulation Policy review: Adult Staff privileges and use of Internal patron category.

When ILS staff visit with new directors, an important policy reviewed is the "Adult Staff [ADS] privileges and use of Internal [INT] patron category" policy.

This policy should be reviewed with new staff at your library and it's not a bad idea to discuss this with experienced staff as least once a year.

This policy also provides information about how to report any of the problems noted in the policy (could be errors based on lack of information!!) and steps to escalate the reported problem as needed.

Two new Shelving Locations added to Koha

Two new Shelving Locations are now available in Koha:

• RK (RENK ROOM)
• NAV (NEW AUDIOVISUAL)

These Shelving Locations were approved by the ILS Committee at its June 2019 meeting.

The Shelving Locations can be used by any LINKcat library. For a full list of Shelving Locations (as well as other codes), see the ILS Support Codes page at https://www.scls.info/ils/codes. If you would like SCLS staff to batch change a group of items from an existing Shelving Location to one of the new locations, please fill out the Batch Change Collection Code/Shelving Location/Item Type Request form, available from the ILS Forms page.

Two new DVD Collection Codes and one new Microform Collection Code added to Koha

Three new Collection Codes are now available in Koha:

• MF (MICROFORM)
• DVDAHL (DVD AD HOLIDAY)
• DVDAAN (DVD AD ANIME)

These Collection Codes were approved by the ILS Committee at its June 2019 meeting.

The Collection Codes can be used by any LINKcat library. For a full list of Collection Codes (as well as other codes), see the ILS Support Codes page at https://www.scls.info/ils/codes. If you would like SCLS staff to batch change a group of items from an existing Collection Code to one of the new codes, please fill out the Batch Change Collection Code/Shelving Location/Item Type Request form, available from the ILS Forms page.

2019 Change to Annual Batch Deletion reports

Twice a year, November and May,  we run cumulative reports of items that have certain problem item statuses, with a timestamp one year old or older,  that are eligible for batch deletion according to SCLS ILS procedure.  The batch deletion occurs each July.

This year, the Circulation Services Subcommittee recommended, and the ILS Committee approved a change to the reports.  As of May 2019, items with ALL problem item statuses will be eligible for annual batch deletion.

The following reports for the May 2019 ABD reports will be posted on the Reports page, under “Batch Deletion Reports”:

• ABD Damaged. Items with status of Damaged
• ABD Other . Items with status of AV Repair, Defect Reported, In Processing, Lost in Transit, Mending, Missing Inventory and Parts Missing.
• ABD Lost.  Items with status of Claims Returned, Lost, Missing and Trace.

We will send out another email with the regular ABD report information and links to updated documentation next month.

Thank you for your attention.

Cataloging policy clarification for music and audio cassettes

The following policy change was approved by the Collection Maintenance Subcommittee on March 13, 2019 and the ILS Committee on April 3, 2019:

• Levels of Cataloging Policy: Under PERM category: change “Music cassettes” to “Music and Audio cassettes”

This was done to clarify the policy. At some point in the past, we stopped providing full OCLC MARC cataloging for both music cassettes and books on cassette, so cassettes were removed from the Sound Recordings list in the Levels of Cataloging policy. However, in the PERM list, the policy only stated “Music cassettes,” and didn't explicitly say “Audio cassettes.” When we stopped cataloging books on cassette, we didn’t update the PERM section. We are now updating the PERM list to be clear that neither music cassettes or books on cassette receive full OCLC MARC cataloging.