LINKcat News

Accessing the Reports Archive

We recently finished a clean-up of the SCLS website and removed any Bibliovation reports that were older than 2020.  Libraries may still access these reports from the SCLS Network.  We have written and posted documentation for libraries to access the reports archive easily.  You can find the documentation online. 

Bibliovation Upgrade, May 16, 8pm

We are pleased to announce that there will be an update to Bibliovation starting at 8pm on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. This update will require system downtime of about one hour. This release, 7.02.34, includes fixes to all areas of Bibliovation (except Serials). See the Release Notes for a full list of issues addressed in this upgrade. Some, but not all, of the fixes, changes, and new features are listed below.

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. After the upgrade, please clear your browser cache before using Bibliovation.

High Priority Fixes

This release includes fixes for the following high-priority problems (these problems are also listed in the Release Notes):

• Check in: message about Item barcode not in system (API error)
• Offline Circulation timestamp off by 5 hours
• Caching/retaining search parameters
• Staff View of patron Reading Record - incomplete displays
• Selfcheck renewals by scanning item in checkout mode do not work
• Checkouts made from selfchecks have a timestamp 6 hours ahead
• Editing Item from Item Statuses page
• Bibliovation not retaining text of deleted Lost items
• Items with a Lost status (Lost, Trace, Missing) must be checked in before allowing checkout
• Account Receipt will not generate if certain charges are in the record

Changes and New Features

This release also includes the following changes and new features (these changes are also listed in the Release Notes):

• Patron Group functionality
• Proxy Borrowing
• Patron Merge
• Patron Delete

Requesting a Custom Bibliovation Report Procedure

Since Tim Drexler has joined our staff, we have formed an ILS Core Reports team consisting of him, Cindy Weber, and Michelle Karls.  We are working together to make ILS Reports more seamless and efficient.  We will bring in other ILS Staff to consult on various module-specific report requests.

 

We would like to remind staff that the best way to submit a request for a customized Bibliovation report is to fill out our online forms.

 

The ILS Core Reports team will all be reviewing the forms submitted for Item and Patron Information Report Requests.  We will be working on determining if it's beneficial to run them through Tableau or Bibliovation SQL. We hope this will speed up the process of getting reports out to staff. 

 

The links for the custom reports are available on the ILS Forms page: https://www.scls.info/ils/forms

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

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 [email protected].

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.