Holds, Recalls, and Call Slips. Oh My!

Hi all. There's been a little confusion of late, about the ins and outs of holds, call slips, and recalls. It is all pretty unintuitive, so I've done my best to break it down here.

Hold = This can only be done by a librarian or certain staff members, through the Circulation module. A hold only works its magic when an item is discharged. That's when that "Item on Hold" slip prints out. So, you should never ever ever place a hold on an item that is not charged. That hold will never announce itself and will expire as the item languishes on the shelf. If an item is checked out, however, and another patron wants it, the hold is the way to go. Pay attention to which kind of hold you place, a title hold (for all items on the title) or a copy hold (for one particular item). Keep in mind a title hold essentially puts a hold on every item, and the OPAC display will reflect such. Also, please make careful note of the expiration date of the hold. It defaults to 10 days after the date the hold is placed, which really isn't very long. The hold could easily expire before the item is discharged, so I'd recommend setting that date at least a month out. [Update: If an item is In Process, a hold can be placed on it, by a librarian or staff member, in the Circulation module. Patrons cannot place holds on In Process items in the OPAC. Never place a call slip or a recall on an In Process item, only a hold.]

Recall = Again, only available to librarians in the Circulation module. This is kind of similar to a hold, except that a recall notice probably prints out for the patron who currently has the material charged, and they may start to accrue fines if they don't return the item by the recall date. (I'd have to really scrutinize the circ matrix to see if that's actually the case.) You can also place a title or copy recall. I don't think that we're really using recall too often, which is probably for the best. I'm not sure how well it really works, and I think the general consensus is that the patron who originally charged the item should have their fair time with it. [Update: Recalls are not currently enabled in Voyager and the Circulation Committee has chosen not to enable them at this time.]

Call slip = Call slip is available to librarians, and some staff members, in the Circulation module, but also to patrons in GIL@GPC. When a patron places a request for something in the OPAC, they're automatically using call slip. Whether from the Circulation module or from the OPAC, you can only call slip items that have a status of "Not Charged." If you try to call slip something that is charged, you'll get an error message. Call slips are automatically copy level actions, you cannot place a call slip for every item on a title. So, call slip should be used for moving specific, and uncharged, items from one campus to another.

A little caveat, don't try to put both a hold and a call slip on the same item/title. If the item is charged, you'll get an error message when you do the call slip, and if the item isn't charged, the hold will cause call slip to lock up, resulting in a cryptic error message. (Whenever you have a call slip that won't fill, it's probably got a hold on it too. Just make sure that the hold and call slip are for the same person, then cancel the hold.)

Nutshell version: If it's charged or has an In Process status, do a hold. If it's not charged, do a call slip. Never, ever do both. In the back end, you may place a hold or a call slip, but patrons requesting something in the OPAC are always doing a call slip.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Update: Mary Ann has graciously shared the handout she's created for Dunwoody's circ and reference desks, if anyone would like to use it. It's a great quick reference.

By Popular Demand: OPAC Tweaks!

As you may or may not know, with the way the server sites are set up, I don't have a lot of direct control over GIL@GPC and one of the things I have no access to is the general design and layout. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't send me suggestions. I do have a man on the inside, who, while very busy, has been gracious enough to make some changes for me that I think you'll all be very happy with.

1.) On the Exact Search page, we now have a little extra clarification for the title and author searches, about last name first name and dropping initial articles. I notice that it's all in bold though, and I'm wondering if it would read better if only the index name (i.e. "Title," "Journal Title," etc.) were in bold. Let me know what you think.

2.) When you have a failed search and get the "No matches were found in this catalog" message, we've now got a note about dropping initial articles and the bullet point about asking a librarian for help is actually hyperlinked to the Ask a Librarian page.

Of course, we'll be getting a brand new OPAC with our Voyager 7 upgrade, which I have every reason to believe is coming up in December, but I'll try to make sure that these tweaks carry over.

Getting the NAC of It

I've been told that everyone might like a little plain English explanation of the Network Access Control (NAC) project being rolled out this week by OIT. Now, I'm no authority on this, but as I understand it, the NAC basically authenticates you on the network, registering your computer's MAC address and verifying that you are who you say you are when you log in to any GPC-owned PC.

In conjunction with this, OIT is installing a little program called the "Cisco Clean Access Agent." It will run in the background and renew your information once your credentials time out. You may have seen this pop up on your desktop and in your system tray recently. The icon is a little green square with a key inside.

If the NAC has been rolled out on your campus, but the PC you are trying to use does not have the Cisco Clean Access Agent yet, you will have to open a browser window and log in there (using the same login and password that you do for email) in order to gain access to the network.

All this is intended to prevent non-GPC folks from hopping on the network without authentication and making mischief. It also allows the network guys in OIT to know what port each user is logging in through. Basically, it's a security measure, and a very good one I'm sure. For the libraries though, it presents the problem of how to provide computer access to community users lacking GPC credentials. I haven't heard a solution on that yet, but I'm sure OIT will work something out for us. Also, I have heard that the initial roll-out on Decatur campus has been a little bumpy, so brace yourselves for students not being able to log into the library PCs, and report these problems to the Help Desk as they arise.

That's the extent of my knowledge, but I'll happily contact OIT for further clarification if anyone wants it.

Delicious anyone?

I don't know how many of us use Delicious for bookmarking, but I've been using it for a little while. I miss the old days of having a collaborative set of bookmarks available at the reference desk. There are times when I just can't remember a website I've used before or I don't have time to weed through Google. So, if anyone is interested...I've created a delicious account for GPC Librarians. I don't want to share the username and password in this public arena, but if you are interested, just drop me an email and I'll send the info to you. I'm also interested in knowing if any of you are already using delicious or another social bookmarking utility at the reference desk.

Solinet Web 2.0 Conference

Solinet is sponsoring a one-day conference "Libraries in a Web 2.0 World"
It'll be held on Wednesday, September 24 in the Clayton State University, Center for Continuing Education in Morrow, GA.

That Which We Call NonPrint, By Any Other Name ...

As you all may know, the NonPrint department is now a part of the Clarkston library, rather than a unit of Technical Services. I’ve just edited all of the locations to reflect this. So, NonPrint Popular DVD is now Clarkston Popular DVD, and so forth. You may still see NonPrint On Order here and there, I can’t change that to Clarkston On Order since that location already exists, but, as we finish up the NonPrint backlog, those will shake out.

Now, these changes merely affect the way these locations display in the OPAC and the staff side of Voyager. The location codes cannot be edited and will remain NPPopDVD, and so forth. I’m fairly certain that the catalogers are the only people using the location codes, but, just in case, I wanted to mention that they’re staying the same.

NonPrint still needs to keep their happening location, NONPRINT CIRC DESK, and their own Callslip queue. But, outside of that, everything that once said “NonPrint” should now say “Clarkston.” If you don’t see these changes in the staff side of Voyager, just close the client and restart it.

Please let me know if I missed anything. Thanks!

Virginia Yawn Is Retiring

Great for her, but very sad for us. Virginia has announced her retirement and her last day will be July 31.

For those of you who don't know her, Virginia is a part-time librarian in Technical Services, and catalogs our sound recordings (which includes music CDs and audio books). She's been with the college for almost 30 years, and we will miss her dearly.

Error Reporting Comes To the OPAC!

Just wanted to let you all know that I've asked the server site to set up an error reporting form in the OPAC and it's now up and running. Just click on the image below for a full screen shot.



Right now, technical restrictions only allow this form to be emailed an internal address, i.e. Jim @ the server site, but he'll forward anything he receives to me and I'll take care of it.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Update: To clarify, this form is to be used for correctable errors, like the wrong class number, no holdings on a bib, "No Information Available" on an item record, something misspelled, etc. Continue to report OPAC bugs directly to me with a complete description (including the date and time you encountered the bug and what you were doing right before), and copy and paste the URL from the page giving you the error.

Meebo widget in library OPAC

I came across an interesting blog post about incorporating a Meebo widget into library catalog "no hits" pages. It seems like a really cool idea that would not only help students with catalog searches but also promote our chat reference.

One OPAC Bug Unmasked

Well, as I'm sure most of you know, we've been plagued by OPAC bugs for a while, and the folks at the server site are as stumped as we are. But, we have had one small ray of light peek through. The bug that causes the Item Status to display as "No Information Available" has been isolated. It is an issue with the current version of WebVoyage, and Ex Libris has been made aware of it. Apparently, it only occurs when you have exactly 15 unsuppressed holdings records (MFHDs) attached to one bib. Click on the image below for an example. (You'll just see one MFHD in this .jpg, not all 15.)


I imagine that this doesn't happen very often, but if you see it, please drop me a line and I'll patch on bubble gum and bailing wire in the back end to make it look purty in the OPAC. And, as always, thanks for your patience.

Free online classes

Interesting free online classes from SirsiDynix Institute

Trends in e-learning: What does it mean for libraries?
May 21, 2008 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern

Beyond Web 2.0: Taking the social read-write Web to the enterprise level
Jun 13, 2008 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern

Here is the link to register.

Weeding reference collection

As I weed Decatur reference collection I keep running in to the same issues over and over again:
- Print reference sources that are now available online (Congressional Quarterly Almanac, Facts-on-File Yearbook): should we replace print with online. Benefits are obvious: we’ll gain space by weeding print volumes; we’ll gain remote access that will be beneficial for both on-ground and distance learning students. Maybe we’ll get students to actually use reference sources because online is always more attractive to them than print. The main drawback of course is the possibility of loosing funding to maintain subscription or publisher going out of business. And the main question is: Do we need to keep the print volumes even if we have full-text online access?
- Print reference sources that have FREE full-text available online. The obvious examples are Statistical Abstract of the United States, Economic Report of the president, Official Congressional Directory, etc. It would be really nice to have links to these free resources in our OPAC. We can all feel better about retaining only current year because it will be obvious for both us and students how to access historical data.
- With those multi-volume monsters like Congressional Quarterly Almanac or Who’s Who maybe we can come up with some agreement about what campus retain historical volumes, so the rest of us can retain current edition only without feeling guilty about it.
I don’t know if any of it makes any sense to anybody, but I would really like to know how other librarians feel about weeding their reference collections and what decisions they make.

Britannica online training

Galileo is offering Britannica online training. Britannica sessions have been tailored for
individual audiences: academic, public, elementary, and middle/high
school libraries. To register for one or more of these sessions, please
visit:
http://www.usg.edu/galileo/help/library/training.

Britannica sessions
April 23, 10:00-11:15 a.m. (Middle and High School)
April 23, 2:00-3:15 p.m. (Elementary)
April 24, 10:00-11:15 a.m. (Academic Libraries)
April 24, 2:00-3:15 p.m. (Public Libraries)

If you have any questions or need more information, please use GALILEO's
Contact Us feature or contact OIIT Customer Services at helpdesk@usg.edu.

Changes to College Web Servers (And What That Means to Us)

OIT split the GPC web server into three distinct servers (www.gpc.edu, facstaff.gpc.edu, and student.gpc.edu) on Sunday, March 30th. This will have no affect on the library webpages, but, if you maintain an individual page, your URL will have changed to facstaff.gpc.edu/~yourname. For example, my webpage used to be:

http://www.gpc.edu/~tminchew

And now it is:

http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~tminchew

You'll need to make the necessary corrections to your links and images within your websites to point to the correct server.

Also you'll need to change the FTP host in Frontpage, Dreamweaver, CoreFTP, etc. from www.gpc.edu to facstaff.gpc.edu.

OIT will be doing automatic redirections until April 29th. Redirections will be discontinued on April 30th. Therefore, any web sites not corrected prior to April 30th may contain broken images and links.

OIT has also prepared a handy document to help us with the transition.

Repeat: This does not affect the URLs of the library webpages, but it may affect links within those pages, so please report anything you see to that page's webmaster.

Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions.

New GALILEO Interface

Reminder that the new GALILEO interface goes live this coming Monday, March 17th.

I've written a little bit about the new interface on the Clarkston Reference Blog (see link on this blog page) trying to encourage input from others about how they plan to teach it either in one on one or classroom settings. So now, I'm encouraging the rest of you to add your input here.

Let the Database Trials Begin! (FY09 Edition)

Hi everyone. I just wanted to remind you that the official trial period for the databases has begun.

http://www.gpc.edu/library/technicalservices/db/databasetrials.htm

I checked them all when I got in this morning, and they all appear to be working properly, except for BioOne. It will let you do searches, and it seems to be recognizing our IP range, but it won't show you the full text of articles. This may just be the way their trials work, but I have a call in to the rep to confirm this.

You will also notice that the Proquest trials have a limited number of logins (700), it should be plenty for the month, but if you see we're running low, just let me know and I'll see if I can get a few more.

If you'd like to offer input on the databases, but won't be able to make the meeting (April 8, 10:00am, JCLRC-2220), please fill out an evaluation form for each database you'd like to comment on and give them to one of your colleagues who will be attending.

Please let me know if you have any questions or problems. Happy evaluating!

AcessScience Demo - Friday, March 7, 2008

Hi all. Our McGraw-Hill rep will be doing a Webex demo of AccessScience on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 2:00pm. It should take about an hour or so, and all interested parties are welcome to take part. Here's the info the rep sent me. Just drop me a line if you need help.
>
>
Topic: AccessScience Demo for GA Perimter College
Date: Friday, March 7, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time (GMT -05:00, New York )
Meeting Number: 355 016 384
Meeting Password: science

Please click the link below to see more information, or to join the meeting.

-------------------------------------------------------
To join the online meeting
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Go to https://mheducation.webex.com/mheducation/
j.php?ED=106374532&UID=0
2. Enter your name and email address.
3. Enter the meeting password: science
4. Click "Join".

-------------------------------------------------------
To join the teleconference only
-------------------------------------------------------
========================
CALL DATE: March 07, 2008 (Friday)
CALL TIME: 02:00 PM Eastern Time
CALL DURATION: 60
LEADER: CHRIS MCKERROW

Toll-Free Number: 888-323-2712

PASSCODE: 62094

For security reasons, the passcode and the leader's name will be
required to join your call.

-------------------------------------------------------
For assistance
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Go to https://mheducation.webex.com/mheducation/mc
2. Click "Assistance".
3. Click "Support".

Troubleshooting Problems with Off-Campus Database Access

If you get a call from a patron saying that they're not able to access our databases from off-campus, unless EZproxy went down at that very second, it's highly likely that the problem resides with the patron's computer or network, not with us.

Of course, if you get these calls, please feel free to just refer folks to me, by phone or email. But, if it's after my office hours and they don't want to wait to talk to me, first get their contact info so I can get back in touch with them if I need to.

Then, ask them where they're trying to connect from. 9 times out of 10, it's going to be their workplace, so it's probably a firewall thing. Most of the calls I've gotten were from students who couldn't connect from major corporations like Morgan Stanley and Comcast. After consulting with our EZproxy administrator, I learned that, for security reasons, many companies are restricting Internet traffic on anything other than port 80, but EZproxy uses another port, so our databases are blocked. We just have to tell folks that, until something changes, they won't be able to access the database from their workplace.

If they're trying to connect from home, and they're not running some major firewall, the next most likely scenario is that their browser isn't set to accept cookies. Gotta accept cookies for EZproxy to work correctly. Have them set that up and see if it works.

If it's neither of those two things, have them clear the cache and try again. It's highly unlikely that it would go further than that, but, if it still doesn't work it may be a genuine problem with the DB and I'll need to speak to the vendor.

Again, you don't have to do any of this. If it's during my office hours, or they don't mind waiting until I am back in the office, just send them my way, but I thought you all might like a little more background info too.

NetLibrary Issues Resolved!

For quite some time now, we've had issues with NetLibrary not recognizing random computers as logging in from Georgia Perimeter College. GALILEO has contacted them about this in the past, and they claimed to have our complete IP range, so we were all stumped.

Well, Katie at GALILEO gave it another go recently, and it turns out that NetLibrary was was missing one IP address out of our range of IPs. (This most likely explains why the problem was so random.) She has requested that they add the missing IP and that ought to fix it. Yay, Katie!

If the problem should crop up again, Katie has also requested that we submit a comment through the "Contact Us" feature on the GALILEO website, from the machine that is actually experiencing the problem, at the time the problem actually occurred. That way, GALILEO can capture information about the IP address during the session. (Of course, this is good practice for problems you might be having with any GALILEO database. Not sure which databases are GPC and which ones are GALILEO? See my post on that very topic.)

Odd Block Behavior in Voyager

I've learned a couple of things about the way blocks behave in Voyager, and I wanted to share with everyone.

1.) Occasionally, in a patron's web account, you may see that they are blocked, but it doesn't say why. Under the "Patron Blocks" section, it will say "Block Reason," then fail to elaborate. If you come across this, please let me know. (I'll need the patron's name and 900#.) This is a bug, and our server site can often fix it, making the block reason appear.

2.) Patrons will be blocked in their web accounts simply for reaching their charge limit in a particular item type. This is the only way that limits can work in Voyager. Sad, but true. For example, if a student has 3 DVDs charged out (the limit for the GPC STUDENT patron group), they will be blocked in their web account and will be unable to renew any charged items online, regardless of item type. However, they can still request items in the catalog, charge other item types, and staff with Circulation Supervisor privileges in Voyager can renew items for them in the Circulation module. (Unfortunately, I think the system would let them request another DVD, but it won't let them check it out until they return one of the 3 they have charged.)

If anyone has any questions about this, please just let me know.

Database Selection Meeting Tomorrow

The Reference Committee will be meeting tomorrow to compile the list of databases to be evaluated for addition in FY09. You can find the agenda and the database calendar on the Reference Committee website.

http://www.gpc.edu/library/committees/reference/

If you have a database you'd like to be considered for trial, but will be unable to attend the meeting, please email it to the committee chair, Lora Mirza, or send it along with someone from your campus who will be attending.

As always, you can drop me a line with questions, suggestions, etc.

Voyager Upgrade '08

Just wanted to let you know that I've just received confirmation of our Voyager upgrade schedule. The server will be upgraded during the evening of Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008. Which means that, when you come in on the morning of Monday, Jan 7, 2008, the Voyager clients will be down. I'll be working with OIT to remotely push out the upgrade, like I have in the past, and I'm striving for the minimum down-time possible, but just to be on the safe side, please be prepared to be down for the first few hours of the day.

Please remember to leave your PCs on over the weekend, this is crucial if you won't be in on Monday morning. You can log out of your profile (Usually, Start > Log Off > Log Off on XP machines) but the computer MUST BE POWERED ON when I start the upgrades on Monday morning. If it isn't, then I have to get the liaison to power it on, which may involve tracking down office keys, and it always makes for an aggravating morning for everyone involved.

I'd like to issue a hearty thanks to the upgrade liaisons for providing their assistance. They will be visiting you all on Monday morning, letting you know when I'm about to start your campus's upgrade, at which time you'll need to stay off of your computers. When the upgrade is over, they'll let you know and check to see that Voyager was successfully upgraded on your machine. Please report any problems with the upgrade to your liaison as soon as possible.

Clarkston: Amy Yang
Decatur: Adrienne Graham
Dunwoody: Pete Bursi
Newton: Rebecca Rose
Technical Services, Media Services, and NonPrint: Tessa Minchew

If you have any questions about this process, please just let me know.