2019-05-07 Open Forum

Date


Note Taker: Mallory DeBartolo

Recording: The start time for each demo is noted in the discussion items below.

Discussion items

FFC Update-Cathe


Projects we hope will be finished by the end of June:

  • Cal State Walkin Recommendations:
    • We started with very vague definitions of what to do with walk ins.
    • We wanted to come up with minimum standards for what users can expect across the CSU system, including what patrons qualify as CSU walkins, ID required, blocks passed, loan periods, loan limits, etc.
    • When we have a final draft, we will present to Access Services listserv and COLD with a period of time for comments, questions, etc.
    • When finalized, documentation of policies and configurations that need to be made will be posted to Confluence.
  • Standards for Damaged Item loaned between CSUs
    • We have been working with Resource Sharing Functional Committee to come up with standards of condition of what’s lent to another institution via CSU+ and also what’s returned from a CSU+ loan with damage.
    • Course Reserves Documentation:
      • Demand for more detailed workflows emerged from Brandon’s campus check in calls.
      • Working on drafting, vetting and posting.

Nominations for next year’s FFC-Cathe

4:50

  • Kevin will be chair next year.
  • 4 people need to be replaced (Cathe, Jamie, Natasha and Matthew).
  • Deans will get info on this soon. Nomination period runs through the end of May.
  • Feel free to reach out to Cathe or Kevin with questions.

Eluna Highlights-Kevin, Natasha

8:20


  • Kevin:
    • Got to see other CSU, UC and the California Community College people.
    • Most of the fulfillment demos were a little basic, but he still picked up some tricks, particularly in Analytics.
    • Attended a presentation by Georgetown about their customized inventory tool which is a real time, pull from Alma information about the book to get a more comprehensive view of the item. It takes substantially longer, so it would sacrifice speed. Kevin plans to compare G-Town and Purdue’s tool this summer. 
    • Attended a presentation on embedding ILLiad into Primo presented by the vendor and people from the New School in NY. He didn’t understand the mechanics, but it looked promising! .
  • Natasha
    • Also liked the inventory presentation. 
    • Attended a good presentation on text analytics and python, which demonstrated how you can analyze reference queries and translate that to analytics.
    • Another good presentation was on the philosophy behind data collection and why it’s important to scrub data and make sure not to overcollect data, review data retention policies.
  • California Users Group
    • Natasha moderated regional fulfillment discussion (included CSUs, people from Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Pierce College).
    • CCCs were very interested in hearing about our workflows.
    • Some chat about a “West Coast ELUNA”.
    • Also discussion about a CAL-rug slack channel and other modes of communication for the region.
    • Interested in the possibility of collaborating on open forums with people outside the CSUs.
    • Eluna will be in LA next year!

Setting up Multiple Printer for Circ Desks and Work Order Departments-Natasha

19:45

  • SJSU Access Services has locations on multiple floors and they were having to share one printer–until this new release!
  • Need Fulfillment Admin role to set this up.
  • New box exists in the circ desk configuration for “Additional printers”. Once another printer is added you see multiple printer choices in your location selection. Printer choice is sticky so will stay there until you change it.
  • Documentation: How to Add Multiple Printers to Alma

April release Library Open Hours via Excel (Cathe)

23:00

  • Link to demo of April release Library Open Hours via Excel Import: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-35cP9C6io&feature=youtu.be
  • Christina Henessey (Northridge) tried the excel import in the sandbox and found it to be very sensitive.
    • Need to make sure the formats (including capitalization of text) is exactly what Alma expects to get back in.
    • She has entered Salesforce tickets with suggestions for changes on their documentation. Has not received response from ExL.
    • HIGHLY recommends taking a screenshot of your hours before you run this job.

Offline circulation-Cathe

27:00


  • Documentation on ULMS wiki under Fulfillment > Workflows. https://calstate.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ULMSA/pages/716832866/Offline+Circulation+When+Alma+is+Not+Available
    • TIPS: Make sure you install offline circ before you need it and install it in a spot that’s not refreshed/erased nightly. SLO has a continuous power supply to their offline circ machine so loss of power does not affect the process.
    • Install on one station since you’ll only want to upload one file to Alma after it’s back up.
    • Delete the transaction file after you’ve uploaded it to Alma, so you don’t get it confused in the future. The files save under the same name and things could get messy if you have multiple files.
    • Use alt+tab to get out of the utility.
    • At SLO, some materials have barcodes with spaces in them which is problematic when loaded. Open your .dat file in notepad to eyeball your barcode data to ensure that there are no spaces. Edit if necessary.
    • All transactions are in order in the offline circ record so anything that’s checked out/returned/checked out again it should record it correctly. However you need to be sure to load the .dat file before you do any other transactions in circ. Very important particularly for high traffic collections (like reserves).

Booking Demo for Reserving DVDs for Faculty-Matthew

40:00


  • Booking is useful to allow media collection and reserves to be available for faculty on a certain date/time.
  • Patron must be signed into OneSearch and have appropriate roles/user groups.
  • If someone comes to check out a "booked" item, the loan due date will be shortened if needed to accommodate the booking.
  • What happens if you want to book an item that’s already checked out? This has not been tested, but assumption is you can only book something after the due date. 
  • Bookings may show up on pick from shelf list, possible configurable but not sure. At LA they don’t need to have their media on the pick from shelf list because media is right next to hold shelf. They should show up in the Monitor Requests & Item Processes screen.
  • To configure, set up a booking TOU (may need to create values to use in the TOU prior to making the TOU) and include a rule for users to be assigned the TOU that allows for booking.
  • Preview period: that’s what made the item due one hour prior to the booking.
  • Documentation is pretty good but feel free to reach out to Matthew with questions.

Report to find items in reserve location but not associated with course-Matthew

50:00

  • Shared Folders/Community/Reports/Institutions/CalState/Fulfillment/Verified Reports/Course Reserves: Items No Longer on Reserve.
  • This report lists items that are still in reserve locations but no longer associated with a course (usually because the course has expired but the item did not have a due back date). This report is good for double checking that all course reserves were correctly processed after the end of the term.
  • Use the OPEN option so you get the prompt to select your course reserve locations. 
  • If you keep items in your course reserves that are not attached to a course (e.g. permanent reserves), they will also show up here so be aware of that if it’s part of your workflow.


Saved for next open forum (we ran out of time!)

  • Institution level calendar, with exceptions at the library (Kevin)