T Minus Three Weeks

Six months ago when we began this journey the "go live" day seemed so far off...and now here we are less than a month away and there still seems so much to do and so much to learn. Recently I have been focusing on customization on two different levels--the OPAC and the Circulation notices, slips, and receipts--and how 3rd party products and services interface with Koha--OCLC, Baker & Taylor, 3M, Envisionware, and Unique Management Services.

The OPAC customizing involved putting our name and logo in a banner on the top, adding navigation tabs below the banner linking to our Library Home Page, eResources, Hours & Location, and Contact Us pages as well as Help. I've also been experimenting

with different content in the main area of the OPAC page and the left navigation sidebar. The Koha Task Force has browsed and studied other Koha sites, refining and defining what we'd like our OPAC to look like. I think I've come pretty close to the committee's initial ideas in my first pass, but certainly the customizing is not complete and may always be somewhat of a work in process as new lists and new titles and new services become available and deserve "face time" on the OPAC home page. When we go live there will be a different banner, one that will have the new name of the Catalog, but the new name is still being kept a secret and the new banner is not yet completed.

The customizing of the notices, slips and receipts was mostly just a lot of cut and paste from our current notices, as well as a lot of cutting out excess information from the delivered slip files that we don't need in our finished product. I haven't been able to print these yet to make sure I haven't left anything out or cut too much, but that will follow in the next day or two.

I am still struggling with understanding how MARC imports and Authority imports files from OCLC and B&T work. I have spent time with Tech Services staging MARC files and managing MARC records, but the new items are not showing up in the catalog. We are obviously still missing a critical step. As for the Authority imports, we haven't yet tried to import new data files, but the authorities from our current system haven't even been linked with the bib records in Koha yet so we've got an incomplete picture of how they work on every level. Hopefully this will be an issue that I will be able to get a better handle on early next week.

This week I'm focusing on those services that involve three other 3rd party vendors--3M for our self check stations, Envisionware for our PCReservation and LPT:One, and Unique Management Services for our Account Collections. Today's conference call with UMS was enlightening--while they apparently are considered completely compatible with Koha, the only customers they have are on the Harley version of Koha. We will once again be blazing new trails with our version of Koha by creating reports and support fields to deliver valid data to UMS. Both 3M and Envisionware products use the SIP service to validate patron information against the database. The SIP service will be started on the Linux server this week so that I can test these other two services to make sure we're ready for prime time before we go live.

We will be closing the Symphony Catalog on November 24th for the final time. There will be no more cataloging or tech activities in Symphony after the Thanksgiving holiday. I will be running the Bibs/Item and Authority scripts once again on Wednesday night to capture all the current data in Symphony. I will then upload those files to ByWater Solutions so that over the weekend the data may be imported into the clean, empty databases of our "real" catalog. Our test catalog will no longer be available. Going forward, after the holiday weekend, all new items will be entered directly into the "real" catalog, with these new items being held in Tech Services until December 13th when we finally unveil our new Koha Catalog.

The count down has begun...

Cathi

Keeping Busy, Keeping Up

Just a quick update on some of the things I've been doing to keep busy since my last post:

I ran another set of scripts against the Symphony databases to retrieve all the holds, charges, bills, and authorities data. Some of the files that were created were pretty large so it took awhile to upload them to the ByWater Solutions server. Brendan has spent the last week or so preparing a good portion of this data for import onto our server.

I have also been doing some additional configuration in our Koha system to setup a custom framework for Catalogers so that only the MARC fields they use will be in the first tab on the "Add a MARC record" screen; to add calendar entries, item types, authorized values, circulation fines and rules, and patron attribute types; and experimenting with Notices and Reports.

Most recently I have been in conversations with City IT, Brendan at ByWater, as well as Jackie and David Dolim on what our options are for a browser on the staff stations to use with the Koha Staff Client. There are compatibility "bugs" with Internet Explorer and Koha in regards to receipt printing in the Circulation module, managing baskets in the Acquisitions module, saving new subscriptions in the Serials module, viewing the Help files in general, and possibly more that we've yet to discover--thus making IE an unusable browser with the Staff Client. I was exploring using Chrome, but there appears to be a receipt printing issue with that browser as well. Looks like we'll be using Firefox as our browser on the staff stations. Because IE is the "City sanctioned browser", and it is tied in with our web filtering, web statistics, automatic software updates, etc., we will be installing Firefox only on staff stations and restricting it to only access the URL for our Koha Staff Client. At this point it looks like both the staff and public stations will continue to use Internet Explorer as the browser to access the OPAC.

There is a lot of work to setting up a new ILS....more than I think we remembered from our last migration from Taos to Unicorn, but it is at the same time very exciting to be part of the "shaping" process and to watch it evolve.

Cathi

Stressing "Positive" Points

The Koha Task Force was asked to come up with some positive "selling" points for our new Koha library catalog (or OPAC). We know that there may be some people that are quite content with our current catalog and may be disappointed with a change; but having a script to follow will assist the staff in highlighting the new features to the public:

• It's simplicity! The new catalog offers simple, clear searching. The "fuzzy searching" capability allows misspelled words not to hamper the search.



• Koha allows the Library to implement new features to better serve the public and staff.



• Suggestions for Library purchase are available right from the catalog.



• Expanded searches are possible, with simple and clear instructions.



• Amazon reviews are available.



• You can add items to a personal, private list. This could be used for keeping track of books you've read, or want to read...whatever!



• You can place comments, or reviews for items in the catalog.



• Adding tags (personally meaningful terms) can be added to material in the catalog.



• You can set up an RSS feed to be notified when new items arrive at the Library that relate to your interest(s) or favorite authors.



• You can place all of your holds at one time... fast, fast, fast!



• You can receive notices by email ... and you can decide when you want to receive them.

We hope to use these points for publicity and for our in-house explanation of the system.

Jackie

Questions and Answers

For the past few weeks we have been practicing with Koha, as time allows. We now have a copy of our patron database available for testing. Our Circulation Dept. really wanted this information installed. They felt that practicing on a real database made all the difference... rather than just a few patron records that we added during training.

During the training we realized that we would need another web browser to take advantage of all the neat Koha features available for staff. It makes sense that most of the development was made for open source browsers... Koha is open source. The City of Arcadia uses Internet Explorer exclusively and were none too pleased when we wanted to add either Chrome or Firefox to staff stations. This issue has not been truly resolved but I'm sure we will come up with a compromise. Cathi's thought is that the new browser is an extension of our library application software and that she, as the Library IT person, would be responsible for it. And the City's IT staff would handle the software used citywide.

Another problem that has come up is with our enriched content. We currently have a subscription with Syndetics Solutions for book covers, reviews, and the bestseller lists on our SirsiDynix ILS. Syndetics Solutions were more than willing to transfer the subscription over to Koha. However the titles with book covers are not always the same in both system. I've been going back and forth from system to system to see what titles don't have matching covers. I've contacted both Syndetics Solutions and ByWater Solutions so hopefully one of the "Solutions" will resolve the issue.

Jackie

Catalog Naming Contest

During our recent Koha Task Force meeting, Children's Librarian Heather Cousin came up with the idea of having our patrons name our OPAC. This idea was quickly approved by other members of the Task Force. We hope that this will bring excitement and attention to our new catalog.


Entry forms will be available at any of our public service desks and on the Arcadia Public Library's website. These entry forms can be turned in to the "Suggestions" box at the Front Desk or from the form online. Posters, press releases, and special mention of this contest will be publicized throughout the community.


Each contestant needs to have a valid Arcadia Public Library Card (with the number written on the form,) to be eligible. Patrons can enter as many times as they like. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, November 16, 2010. The winning entry will be chosen by the Arcadia Public Library Board of Trustees at their monthly meeting on Thursday, November 18. Besides the honor of naming our catalog, the winner will also receive a cool, special prize.


The winner will be announced on Monday, December 13, 2010, our Koha "go live" date!

Jackie

Staff Comments

For the most part, I received positive comments from the library staff on our training last week. They appreciated the additional functionality of the OPAC... including patron comments, tags, creating lists, and the ability to rss a search for new items as acquired by the Library. Many other staff functions will reduce time and effort.

• There were some comments that need addressing. Not everyone received OPAC training. I had left this up to each supervisor to decide what training was needed by each staff member. Now I'm finding out that they all could have really used this training.


• There is concern on how certain staffers will transition to Koha. The learning curve for some will be bigger than for others.


• Learning that how we currently do tasks in Symphony will be very different in Koha. And this is still a big question. Staff is eager to explore the system and want our own patron database available for practice...not just creating new patrons to play with.


• Searching the catalog has brought unexpected results for staff. At this point I don't know if it's that we are missing the authorites or if the system isn't set up for a more sophisticated searches. For instance, a librarian typed in: ti,phr=the end thinking that she would be searching by title phrase, but she got 250 results, and it is clear that the search was not what she had expected. Another librarian wanted a "browse" feature for searching, this would be helpful if you only know a couple of words of a title and then you can select from a list. Also, it would be helpful to sort the search results when logged on as staff.


• Reports. Staff is concerned about running the reports that they need. (Brendan from ByWater Solutions promised to set up some reports if we get stuck, so I'm not too concerned about this.) I think with practice, we will get the hang of it. Since we don't have our patron database yet, it is difficult to explore reports that will help us with statistics.


• My big complaint is that the "due date" is shown right in the detail record on the OPAC. I would "prefer" that the system just say it was "checked out" and leave it at that so patrons aren't confused when it still isn't available to check out on that date because of existing holds that aren't accounted for in the "due date". However, the Reference and Children's Librarians were fine with the date showing. So, I'm going to let this one go.

Jackie

3 Days of Training

We started our training on Monday, Oct 4. We spent the first day working on administrative issues. Cathi, Reference Librarian David Dolim, City IT staff member Alan Chow, and myself attended this training. Brendan Gallagher from ByWater Solutions was our patient trainer. We worked on patron and item types, patron attributes, authorized values, and setting permissions for staff. Initially those attending were set as "superlibrarians" meaning they can do everything with the system, we also discussed setting up the permissions for rest of the staff. We talked about how we would handle power and/or hardware failures, backing up data, and Linux commands. The morning went by quickly... I wished I had time to practice what I had learned but then in the afternoon, it was on to writing Reports. Several additional staff members attended that session. We learned about the wizard procedure for creating reports in six steps and then using the already created SQL Reports. [This was a little bit confusing at this time since our patron database has not been added yet.] Some of the reports we decided to run didn't give us the expected results.

On Tuesday, Oct. 5, we had training for the Technical Services staff. There were many questions... what we do now and how will that work with Koha. In fact having procedures accomplished in Symphony handled differently in Koha were stumbling blocks for all sections of the Library. Things will need to change and change is hard! The catalogers were dissappointed with the authorities in Koha. The system doesn't alert the staff if an authority is new, so to be safe they need to check each one. This will add to their cataloging time (more steps in the process.) We found out that improving the authorities is in development however it will take some time and money to work it all out. We talked about adding bibliographic records to the database but didn't actually try it. (A procedure will need to be set up.) We then checked out the Acquisitions module. We found out that this is not useful to us in its current iteration since we are not able to order directly from the system so we would need to enter the bibliographic information in both the catalog and the acquisition module. We will use it for patron purchase recommendations. (Maybe in the future releases we will be able to use this module. (Please note, that we don't use an Acquisitions module now so we aren't losing anything.) Our final module explored on Tuesday was Serials. This will take some time to set up but will be very useful. Currently we have an excel spreadsheet for check-in but soon we will have the ability to be alerted for items to claim.

We held Wednesday's training in our Tech Center. We were closed to the public so we could devote our time and attention to training. The morning session covered Circulation. We all added patrons to the database, checked out

to them, placed holds, and then discharged the items. The issue of partial payments not being a clear cut procedure was discussed. Our Circulation Supervisor Andre Gonzalez will be devising a standard procedure for our staff to follow. We then went to the Circulation Desk to make sure that our scanners and receipt printers would work with Koha. (A little tweaking is needed with the receipts so we don't waste paper; we think that we will need to use different printer drivers.) The afternoon was devoted to the OPAC and searching the catalog as a staff member. We liked many of the features of the OPAC... adding comments, tagging, RSS feeds, the possibility of adding a link to New DVDs, etc. that will change as we add new titles.

I was pleased that staff asked so many questions during the training. Now we need to practice so we feel comfortable with the system. We are scheduled to go live with Koha on Monday, Dec. 13.

Jackie