November 2007 Archives

(This was originally posted Monday, February 27, 2006.  I've had a few questions about these lately, so thought it might be good to repost.)

Items that were billed in Geac, then migrated over to Innovative have essentially lost the link between the patron and the item. Here's how to handle them:

Staff:

1. When item is checked in, popup says "Billed item - give to supervisor."
2. Staff clicks PRINT THIS MESSAGE, and clicks NO to leave the item checked out.
3. Staff gives item with printed message to supervisor.
   

Supervisors:

1. Check in item, and choose CHECK IN. A popup message will announce that the status has been cleared.
2. Right-click on the title of the item to view the item.
3. Click the EDIT button directly underneath the HOLDS tab.
4. Delete the message field that says "Billed item - give to supervisor"
5. Save the record
6. Double-click the last patron field and copy the patron barcode from the view patron screen.
7. Paste the barcode into the barcode search field in Circulation Desk to access the patron record. Now that the item has been checked in, the item will no longer in the patron's checked out items list.
8. Go to the FINES tab. There will be two fines there - the manual fine for the bill, and a new overdue fine for the item.
9. Waive the manual fine for the bill.
10. Check to make sure that the fine charged is correct. Adjust if necessary.

The deadline for submitting OWLSnet enhancement ideas to the Innovative Users Group (IUG) is Thursday, December 13th.  Please submit enhancement ideas to Gerri.

Do you have any idea for making Innovative better?  Is there something that you wish could be changed?  Every year, IUG conducts an enhancement process.  Member libraries submit suggestions for improvements, and vote on their favorites.  The top choices are submitted to Innovative, and Innovative works on implementing them in the product.  Past enhancement requests from IUG will be implemented in the 2007 release. 

Send in your enhancement requests today!

To place multiple holds on one card, the holds need to be placed in the Millennium Circulation client, rather than in InfoSoup.  You can start from the Circ Desk mode or from Search/Holds.

1. Starting from Circ Desk, enter the patron's barcode.  (If you're doing this for a book club, you'll need to use an internal library card for this.)
2. Choose the Holds tab, then click Add Holds.
3. Search for the title you want, then click Hold Copy Returned Soonest. 
   
4. In the box that pops up, the first field indicates the number of holds, and by default is set to 1.  Change this to the number of holds you'll need, then fill out the rest of the boxes.  (Make sure you don't limit it to your library;  the limit to location box should always remain blank.
5. The process works the same way starting from Search/Holds, only you find the patron after you've selected the title.
   

Once you've placed the holds, you may want to speed up the process by asking libraries to check in their copies.  To do this, send an email to the owlsnetlibs list.  In the body of the message, include the title of the book, any other pertinent info (for instance, whether it's a children's or adult title) and the names or codes of the libraries that have copies on the shelf. 

If you're printing out the OWLSnet Directory, the following pages have changed and should be updated:

*Page 25  Waupaca Area Public Library - The Billing contact is Peg Burington

At the last AAC meeting, we voted on the following proposal:

Once a second overdue notice is generated by the system, patrons will be automatically blocked from checking out and renewing items and placing holds. Libraries may override such blocks.

All libraries have now voted.  All libraries except two have voted, but the outcome is conclusive.  The vote did not pass.  Only 50% of the member libraries voted for the proposal, and less than 50% of the fee shares. 17 libraries voted "Yes".  "Yes" votes represent 56.7% of the members and 51.4% of the fee shares.

The loan rules have been updated to allow 2 renewals for all items, and to circulate CD-ROMs for 4 weeks with the same fines as books. 

The two renewal change will take place immediately.  The longer checkout period for CD-ROMS will take effect on new checkouts after your Innovative session is restarted.  CD-ROMs checked out prior to this time will still be eligible to be renewed twice. 

1. At today's meeting (Friday, Nov 9th), we voted on the proposal to block patrons on the second overdue.  The vote was not conclusive. Libraries who did not attend will be asked for their vote.  We'll report back on the conclusion once all libraries have been given the opportunity to vote.
2. We agreed to circulate Playaways without headphones and batteries.  Individual libraries may choose to sell these or give them to patrons on a one-time basis.  References to batteries and headphones will be removed from the bibliographic records.
   
3. We agreed to give all items the possibility of 2 renewals.  Items with holds will still not be renewable.
4. We agreed to remove the special loan rules for CD-ROMS.  CD-ROMs will now circulate the same as books, sharing the same loan rules.  Short loan Itypes will be created. 
   
5. We agreed to create a new Itype (79) for console games (Xbox, PS2, Wii, etc.).  These items will now circulate the same as books, sharing the same loan rules.  Short loan Itypes will be created as well. 
   
6. We agreed to recommend that all ILL fines be at least the maximum fine rate charged by that library. 
   
7. We agreed to change how we communicate the number of items in a CD, DVD, Audiobook or book with disc:
• All popups that read "check for ___ discs" (or some variation thereof) will be deleted by the OWLS office
• The OWLS office will send a list to each library of all of their remaining items with popup messages
• The OWLS office will order green flourescent labels (with permanent adhesive) pre-printed with the words "Check for ____ disc(s)", similar to the short loan stickers.
• Libraries can chose to either:
• indicate the number of discs by placing these stickers next to the barcode
• print the number of discs on their spine labels
  
• Libraries may retroactively convert their collections, but are not required to do so.  Existing labels do not need to be replaced.
• Libraries may put stickers on other libraries items.