Network News

Monday night upgrade to Millennium R2011

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:40:02 -0600

We're planning to upgrade to Millennium R2011 on Monday night, April 2. Because of this, on Tuesday, April 3 logging into Millennium is likely to take longer than usual, and new jar files will be downloaded as part of the login process.

If your library experiences any problems with Millennium or InfoSoup after the upgrade, please contact Gerri at the OWLS office.

Minimum ecommerce amount set to $4 effective April 2

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:16:10 -0600

At the last AAC meeting (3/23/2012), AAC agreed to increase the minimum ecommerce amount to $4, from the current minimum of $1. Patrons will now only receive the option to pay online once the amount due on their account is above $4.

This will be changed on Monday, April 2, 2012.

-Gerri

Wireless sign template

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:35:12 -0600

Wireless Sign Template

At Friday's AAC meeting (3/23/12), we agreed to discontinue the Wireless Policy Acceptance Page. OWLS staff is currently working on making this change, which has turned out to be a bit complicated. Removing the page will affect the wireless statistics, so we're working on a way to ensure that we're still able to collect these statistics. Because of this complication, it's likely that this change won't happen until the first of April.

Because your patrons will no longer be asked to accept this policy, you may want to post your own library policy in the library. Here's a modifiable template that your library can customize and post.

Buying considerations for E-readers

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:18:39 -0600

Is your library considering purchasing an E-reader? Perhaps you've made the decision to buy but aren't sure of the next step? Check out the latest OWLSnet white paper.

At Friday's AAC meeting (3/23/2012), Anne Paterson introduced Buying Considerations for E-Reader Devices. This document covers a lot of the considerations for buying e-readers and provides an overview of current device specifications.

Shoutbomb is here!

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:01:26 -0600

We're putting the final touches on the documentation and will be going live today with Shoutbomb.

Soon there will be a link to the instructions under the My Library section on the main InfoSoup page, titled Sign up for Text Message Notifications. If you have text savvy patrons, feel free to encourage them to use this new service.

At the moment, most texts will go out between 8 and 9 in the morning, with a second batch of hold pickup notifications at about 4:30 PM. (The 2nd batch of hold pickup notifications will only include those items that were checked in after the 1st set of notices have gone out.)

As we discussed at the last AAC meeting, we're starting out slowly, which is why the link is not prominently displayed on InfoSoup. At the next AAC meeting, we'll talk about how the project is going, and what changes we'd like to make, based on feedback from our early adopters.

Problem with text on bills

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:26:28 -0600

At the last AAC meeting (Nov 2011), we agree to add text to the bills, letting patrons know that their bills could be paid online. Unfortunately, my first attempt at changing the text came out badly.

I've redone the text. Tomorrow it should format correctly and display all of the added text.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at the OWLS office.

-Gerri

Books in a Series

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:52:32 -0600

As suggested at the last AAC meeting, I have added a page for searching NoveList for books in a series. On InfoSoup, the Books in a Series link can be found under the I'm Looking for...heading in the right hand column. The search box launches a keyword search that will look for words in the series title, book title, author, subject, and description. NoveList will open in a new window. The results page will list series titles by relevance. You can use any of the available limits to narrow the results. Clicking on the series title will bring up a list of all the books in the series by series order. Under each title in the series will be a link to Check InfoSoup. In most cases, if we own the title, the link will work, but it is an automated author/title search and in a few cases may not match how we have a title entered in InfoSoup. If in doubt, double check with an alternative InfoSoup search. The Check InfoSoup link will also open a new window. Having searches open in a new window was not our first choice, but was currently the only way we could get the search and link back to InfoSoup to work. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Millennium is up - OK to log in

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 08:35:04 -0600

The Millennium server is up and running, and it's OK to log in. If your library used offline circulation on Friday, please contact Gerri at the OWLS office about processing the offline circ transactions.

Optimal Resume Subscription Not Renewed

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:50:46 -0600

Because of limited use, the Appleton Public Library has decided not to renew the Optimal Resume subscription. The service has been funded by LSTA grants for two years, first from OWLS and then from the Appleton Public Library. I have put a note on the InfoSoup jobs page and APL will send out an email message to anyone who had signed up for an Optimal Resume account. August 9th is the last day Optimal Resume can be accessed. Please contact me if you have any questions.

TumbleBooks Login Changing

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:47:00 -0600

For many years TumbleBooks has provided a link with direct access to their service without the need to login or authenticate users.They recently decided that they needed to ask libraries to provide library card authentication to their service. Ease of access has always been a plus with TumbleBooks, but I can understand why they needed to make this decision. Starting tomorrow (Tuesday, July 26) at 9:00 am access to TumbleBooks will require library card authentication. Please let staff and patrons know about this change. Most libraries use links to the InfoSoup TumbleBooks page http://info.infosoup.org/tumblebooks.asp. I will have this link redirect to a new page that will require library card authentication. If you use this link, you will not have to make any changes. Any direct links to TumbleBooks, however, will not work. After 9:00 tomorrow links can be changed to:

http://0-info.infosoup.org.www.infosoup.org/tumblebooks-login.asp

The old link (http://info.infosoup.org/tumblebooks.asp) will, however, continue to work and redirect users to this new login. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Netlibrary eBook Titles

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:57:59 -0600

Netlibrary eBook titles are currently not available and have been suppressed in the catalog. Netlibrary was purchased by EBSCO and for sometime EBSCO has been planning on moving Netlibrary titles to the EBSCO platform. The transition has been completed. Our EBSCO account, unfortunately, has not been updated to provide access to these titles. I am working with EBSCO and with WILS to fix this situation. I will post additional information as it becomes available.

Placing holds on magazines is now working correctly

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:03:31 -0600

The problem with placing holds on magazines in InfoSoup has now been resolved. If you do experience any further problems, please contact Gerri at the OWLS office.

Problems placing holds on magazines

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:37:30 -0600

We're experiencing problems placing holds on magazines. This may still be related to the server crash last week. In most cases, it appears that only a fraction of the eligible issues are actually available for holds in InfoSoup. A call has been opened with Innovative, and we're working with them on finding a solution.

Server repair complete

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:24:22 -0600

The server repair was completed Wednesday night, so no down time during open hours will be required. ~~At the moment, My Lists in InfoSoup appears to be down.~~ This has now been fixed.

-Gerri

Possible server downtime tomorrow

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:21:23 -0600

Oracle/Sun has determined that a part needs to be replaced on our server. We're hoping to get the part replaced tomorrow morning before libraries are open. However, it's possible that the part will not arrive in time to do this.

Please be aware that the server may be taken down tomorrow morning while your library is open. If this is necessary, we will send out a network notification to all staff before the server goes down. Email and Internet access would remain available during the replacement. We don't anticipate that the replacement will take more than half an hour, but we'll know more after we've talked with the Sun technician.

If you have any questions, please contact Gerri at the OWLS office.