LINKcat News

REMINDER: Update Bibliovation URLs by September 1, 2022

This is a reminder that all links to the Bibliovation staff URL must be changed to scls.bibliovation.com by September 1, 2022. After September 1, the old URL of scls.kohalibrary.com will not work. This change only affects staff. It does not affect patrons using www.linkcat.info. See below for more details on updating URLs. 

Where are the staff URLs saved?
Some places where URLs might be stored are:

• Bookmarks in browsers on staff computers
• Shortcuts on staff computers
• Internal library websites that are only used by library staff
• Documentation and instructions that your library created for staff
• Receipt printer shortcuts on staff PCs
• Spine label shortcuts on staff PCs

How do I update the URLs?
For browser bookmarks and shortcuts, you can edit the existing bookmark/shortcut and replace the old URL with the new URL. You can also delete the existing bookmark/shortcut and create a new bookmark/shortcut with the new URL. For internal documentation or websites, you can do a find and replace to update the URLs.

How do I update the URL in the receipt and/or spine label printer Firefox profile shortcuts?
There are special procedures for updating the receipt and spine label printer shortcuts. Instructions are posted on the ILS Support Manuals page.

Can I use my library's unique Bibliovation URL?
Yes! In Bibliovation, each library can use a unique URL for staff as well as for patrons. Your library's unique URL is <agency code>.scls.bibliovation.com. (For example, the URL for SCA will be sca.scls.bibliovation.com.) If you use your library's unique URL, then your library's items will display first on the "Detail" screen of the bib record, the "Edit items" screen of the bib record, and on the "Item status" screen of the bib record.

What about the LINKcat URL?
The generic URL for LINKcat is www.linkcat.info. The www.linkcat.info URL is not changing. Each library also has a unique LINKcat URL, which can be used for patrons. Your library's unique LINKcat URL is <agency code>.linkcat.info. (For example, the unique URL for SCLS is sca.linkcat.info.) Always use <agency code>.linkcat.info for any patron-facing information. Please do not use the scls.bibliovation.com URL for any patron materials or websites. If you are copying and pasting URLs into websites or other patron materials, be sure that you are using <agency code>.linkcat.info instead of scls.bibliovation.com.

What does this mean for patrons?
Patrons should not notice a change. Patrons will still be able to use www.linkcat.info to access LINKcat. Patron PCs in the library will continue to take patrons into the library's custom-branded LINKcat instance.

I need more help with this
If you need help with updating bookmarks, shortcuts, or anything else, you can contact the Help Desk. See the Get Help page for information on contacting the Help Desk.

Special note about GetIt Acquisitions
Libraries who are using GetIt Acquisitions must continue to use their library's unique URL in order to use GetIt. The library's unique URL is <agency code>.scls.bibliovation.com.

Reporting Bibliovation Response Time Problems

SCLS staff are working with LibLime to determine areas of Bibliovation where intermittent and short-term slowdowns are a problem and we are looking for your help. If you experience response time problems with Bibliovation, please open a ticket using the SCLS Help Desk Portal or send an email to helpdesk@scls.info.

In order to provide the most specific information possible to LibLime about response time, please report any problems at the time that they occur, and with as many details as possible. For example, if there is a problem when checking out to a patron, please provide the patron’s barcode number, as well as information about whether the patron has a large number of items already checked out or is checking out a large number of items. If there is a problem when viewing a bibliographic and/or item record, please provide the bibliographic number and/or item barcode number and the specifics of the problem. It’s also important to provide the date and approximate time when the problem occurred.

If Bibliovation is unusable or seems to be having major problems, please contact the Help Desk immediately (use the After Hours Support Number during evenings and weekends).

Resuming the Long in Transit report

In the spring of 2020 ILS staff conferred with the Circulation Services Subcommittee and we agreed that due to the pandemic and the unknown length of individual library closures, we would postpone running and posting the Long In Transit report.  

 

Since all of the LINKcat libraries are now open to some extent ILS staff have run and reviewed the current report  and we  think that that increasing the end date of the report to 2 months would be enough to cover possible multiple quarantine periods as well as taking into account reduced delivery periods and staffing at libraries.

 

However, when we ran the report, we saw that there are 1577 entries put into transit between 1/3/2018 and 2/28/2020.  We would like to give the libraries the opportunity to clean up these older entries before we start running the report on a regular basis.  

 

Today Michelle ran and posted a Long in Transit report for any items that were put into transit prior to 3/1/2020.

 

Libraries will have 3 weeks to clean-up the older entries before we run the next report.  The generic Long In Transit workflow is located  in the Circulation Manual, Section XII Circulation and Statistical Reports .  If you have a local library workflow for your staff, please use that.

 

Michelle will run and post the next Long in Transit report on Sept. 8, including all entries placed into transit prior to 6/1/2020.  If your library was not able to clean-up the older records they will remain on the report.

 

The next report after that will be run and posted on Sept. 22, entries prior to 7/24/2020.

 

Then we are back to the regular report run, on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.  But instead of the previous parameters of 2 weeks the report will include entries for the 2 months prior to the date the report was run.

Curbside Pickup workflow and new report to assist in filling Local Holds

The Pandemic Support for ILS webpage has been updated to provide new curbside workflow information about check-ins, filling local holds and checkouts.

A new report, Local Holds for Curbside, has been added to the list of On Demand reports in Bibliovation. This report may be run after you’ve filled the local holds from your regular Holds Queue report. It will list active holds for pickup at your library where your library owns an available copy of the item, but may have been already trapped for a hold at another library on your Holds Queue Report. You can fill more holds at your library with local materials while delivery is running a reduced schedule.

For more information about the report and a link to the report workflow, click on the Local Holds for Curbside link on the main Reports page. https://www.scls.info/ils/reports

Replacement for Crystal Reports

We will be using Bibliovation’s built in reports instead of Crystal Reports for on demand reports. The reports module was updated with Bibliovation and now we can use it to recreate the reports that had only been possible through Crystal Reports in Koha. This is good timing as our Crystal Reports server needed to be upgraded and we would have had to buy an updated version of Crystal Reports as well, so we are saving money as well. 

The Reports link should now be showing on the main Bibliovation page.  If it isn’t showing on your page, please let us know.

 

There are some things that will be different in the reports. In general, you may need to do more formatting work with your report when you open it in Excel. Barcodes will need to be formatted and so might call number fields.  Depending on the report, you may also have to use Excel to create any subtotal columns that might have been in the old report. Other changes are listed in the documentation for the report.

 

Directions for running the reports can be found on the main page for the report. Click on the report name in the On Demand section of the main ILS Reports web page (https://www.scls.info/ils/reports). The directions include a section on making the formatting changes for the reports.  There is also a link to a Bibliovation Reports FAQ.  

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.

New monthly report - Unallocated credits

As of March 26, 2019 SCLS staff will be running and posting a new monthly report - Unallocated Credits.  Unallocated credits [UC] are credits on a patron's account that are generated when a Lost and Paid item is returned.  UC can also be generated when an overpayment is applied to a patron's account.  This report is scheduled to be run every fourth Tuesday of each month.

Explanations about and instructions for handling and resolving UC are located in the Circulation Manual, Section VII Fines and Financial transactions, Part F. Unallocated credits and Part L. DATABASE CLEAN-UP: Reviewing and cleaning-up Unallocated Credits.

If you have any questions please contact Heidi Oliversen via phone, email or submit a Help Desk Support ticket.

Changes to the report calendar

We’re going to be simplifying the reports calendar for some of the regularly scheduled reports. Starting in March, we will be running the weekly, bi-weekly and mid-month reports during the day on Tuesdays instead of spread throughout the week. All reports will be available by Wednesday morning. The reports that are being changed and their new days are:

• Purchase Alert: now run on Tuesdays
• Claims Returned: now run on 2nd Tuesday
• Problem Item reports: now run on 3rd Tuesday
  
  • Not for Loan
  • On Order > 6 Months
  • Other Item Statuses
• Fast Adds: now run on 3rd Tuesday

We’re not changing the frequency of the reports, just the day when they are run, if the day wasn’t already Tuesday. So reports run twice a month will still only be twice a month, they’ll just be run on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday or a Thursday.

Annual Batch Deletion reminder

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for libraries to review the items on the May Annual Batch Deletion reports and either:

1. Decide they are going to keep the record and re-save the item record to update the timestamp OR
2. Delete the record from the database OR
3. Leave it and let the batch deletion process remove the record from the database

is July 20th.  Items on the May Annual Batch Deletion reports that have not had their timestamps updated will be marked withdrawn after July 20th and deleted with the regular monthly deletion of withdrawn items. 

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.

Three new Koha monthly reports

There are three new monthly reports. The first one is "Total Checkout by Shelving Location". This is the same as the other monthly circulation reports, just broken out by the shelving location instead. One thing to keep in mind, the shelving location is going to be coming from the shelving location of the item so items that came from other libraries may have shelving locations not in use at your library. This report has been run and posted for both January and February so you will have those numbers available from the start of the year.

The next two reports are both item count reports. One is "Item Count by Collection Code" and the other is "Item Count by Shelving Location". This will give you monthly item counts by both collection code and shelving location instead of just an annual count by collection code. Both item count reports have been posted with the item count from this morning. In the future, these reports will be run and posted with the rest of the monthly reports.