LINKcat News

New Patron Category: RB - Reciprocal Borrower

The new Patron Category "RB - Reciprocal Borrower"  has been added to Bibliovation and you can apply this category to existing and new patron records as needed per the description below:

• Use this patron category for patrons that have been provided a LINKcat library card, with your library as a home library, but have a legal place of residence outside of SCLS Counties.  These patrons are not "contractually" eligible to use your locally subscribed databases outside of the library.  Using this code is optional per local library policy.

This Patron Category was recommended by the Circulation Services Subcommittee on 11/12/2024 and approved by the ILS Committee on 12/4/2024.  As noted above, using this Patron Category is optional and use is determined by the library listed as the "Home Library" for the patron record(s).

New Collection Codes available in Bibliovation

New Collection Codes are now available in Bibliovation:

• LPFIFA - LARGE PRINT FIC FANTASY - Large Print, Fantasy Fiction
• LPFIHI - LARGE PRINT FIC HISTORICAL - Large Print, Historical Fiction
• LPFIRO - LARGE PRINT FIC ROMANCE - Large Print, Romance Fiction

These Collection Codes were approved by the ILS Committee at its December 2024 meeting.

The Collection Codes can be used by any LINKcat library. For a full list of Collection 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.

News Summary (11/1/2024-11/30/2024)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 11/22/2024 The minutes from the November 13 CMS meeting are available online.
• 11/22/2024 The minutes from the November 12 CSS meeting are available online. 
• 11/20/2024 20,379 items and 3,354 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 11/20/2024 6,518 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 9/26/2024 and 11/19/2024.
• 11/4/2024 The monthly Bibliovation reports for October 2024 can be found online.
• 11/1/2024 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for October 2024 are posted.

News Summary (10/1/2024-10/31/2024)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 10/17/2024 13,307 items and 1,462 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 10/17/2024 2,218 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 7/1/24) were deleted from the database.
• 10/8/2024 The minutes from the October 2, 2024, IC Meeting and the August/September ILS Report are available online.
• 10/3/2024 The monthly Bibliovation reports for September 2024 can be found online.
• 10/1/2024 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for September 2024 are posted.
• 10/1/2024 See the LINKcat News blog post for information about the moratorium on changes to existing bibliographic records, which starts Saturday, October 19.

Full cataloging moratorium COMPLETE

All updated records have been imported, and the full cataloging moratorium has been lifted. You can resume cataloging and creating BSEs!

Full cataloging moratorium starting TOMORROW, Saturday, October 26

We are continuing our work on the authority control project to update existing OCLC bibliographic records in our database with up-to-date author, subject, genre, and uniform title (series) headings.

LibLime will be importing and overlaying bibliographic and authority records. This means that there needs to be a full cataloging moratorium this weekend with no work done on bib records (including BSEs). This will start tomorrow, Saturday, October 26.

During this time, staff cannot:

1. Create, edit, or overlay records (BSE and MARC).
2. Use "Send to Catalog" from GetIt to create bib records.
3. Create new LOCAL or PERM records.
4. Delete or merge bib records.

During this time, staff can continue to:

1. Create, edit, withdraw, and delete item records for items owned by your library.
2. Use "Send to Catalog" from GetIt to create item records.
3. Work with Purchase orders in GetIt (as long as you don't send bibs to the catalog).
4. Work with Receiving and Invoicing in GetIt.
5. Update and create GEN records.
6. Do serials checkin in Serials.

This is planned to be completed for Monday, October 28. Once completed, cataloging and acquisitions staff will receive an email (should be early in the morning) when it is ok to resume creating new BSE records and sending to catalog from GetIt.

Moratorium on changes to existing bib records October 19 through around October 28

SCLS and the Madison catalogers are currently planning 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 Saturday, October 19, 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 the next week. Unfortunately, we don't have an exact end date at this time, but it should by the end of the next week.

 During this time, you can continue to:

• Create BSEs and link items
• "Send to catalog" from GetIt for both bib records and item records
• Create, edit, withdraw, and delete item records for items owned by your library
• Create LOCAL, PERM, or GEN records

What this means for you during the next week

Around October 26 or 27, 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 Bibliovation 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 Bibliovation.

News Summary (9/1/2024-9/30/2024)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 9/25/2024 16,390 items and 2,066 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 9/25/2024 3,804 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 8/29/2024 and 9/24/2024.
• 9/25/2024 The minutes from the September 18, 2024, DIS Meeting are available online.
• 9/23/2024 The minutes from the September 11, 2024 CMS Meeting are available online.
• 9/11/2024 There will be a Bibliovation update on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 8pm. There are no release notes for this upgrade because it consists of a couple of back end fixes. For those libraries open at 8pm, there will be a brief interruption as the services are restarted.
• 9/4/2024 The monthly Bibliovation reports for August 2024 can be found online.
• 9/3/2024 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for August 2024 are posted.

News Summary (8/1/2024-8/31/2024)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 8/28/2024 14,437 items and 2,236 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 8/28/2024 2,849 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 8/1/2024 and 8/27/2024.
• 8/9/2024  The minutes from the August 7, 2024, IC Meeting and the June/July ILS Report are available online.
• 8/9/2024 On 8/7/2024, the ILS Committee approved the following recommendation from the Circulation Services Subcommittee "Libraries have the option to waive any fines/fees/charges older than 01/01/2010 for patron records with their library as the home library".  The Circulation ILS Policy "Fines/Financial - standard rules" has been amended with this change.
• 8/8/2024 On 8/7/2024, the ILS Committee approved the creation of an "Overflow" Custom Item Status. The status has been added to Bibliovation and documentation is in the process of being upgraded.
• 8/5/2024 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for July 2024 are posted.
• 8/5/2024 The Bibliovation sandbox was upgraded to version 7.04 on August 1. The data was also refreshed and the passwords were reset for cybersecurity reasons. Please see https://www.scls.info/ils-development for information on how to log into the sandbox.
• 8/2/2024 The monthly Bibliovation reports for July 2024 can be found online.

News Summary (7/1/2024-7/31/2024)

News (in case you missed it!)

• 7/31/2024 34,575 items and 4,258 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
  • This is higher than usual due to the annual deletion of items with problem statuses (Damaged, Lost, etc.).
• 7/31/2024 4,228 bibliographic records with no items attached (that were created before 4/1/24) were deleted from the database.
• 7/31/2024 3,835 bibliographic records were newly cataloged and/or updated in the database between 6/27/2024 and 7/30/2024.
• 7/24/2024 The minutes from the July 17 Discovery Interface Subcommittee Meeting are available online.
• 7/17/2024 The minutes from the July 10 Collection Maintenance Subcommittee Meeting are available online.
• 7/17/2024 The minutes from the July 9 Circulation Services Subcommittee Meeting are available online.
• 7/17/2024 The Bibliovation upgrade was completed last night. Please see the Release notes for a full list of fixes.
• 7/11/2024 A Bibliovation upgrade is scheduled for Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at 10 pm. Please see the LINKcat News blog post for details.
• 7/9/2024 Posted the updated ILS Policy "Placing RFID tags on items owned by non-RFID libraries" (approved by ILS Committee on 6/5/2024) and the revised "Guidelines for RFID Tag Placement by Item Format".
• 7/3/2024 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for June 2024 are posted.
• 7/2/2024 The monthly Bibliovation reports for June 2024 can be found online.