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ILS - Polaris

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  1. Library staff frequently place holds that can’t be filled on the records for e-books from non-integrated vendors like Hoopla. Canceling these holds takes time. Since we still need to allow holds for the integrated vendors, we can’t change the material type to unholdable in system administration. Adding the ability to block holds by resource group or vendor account would solve the problem.

    29 votes

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  2. Separating the Current & Recent workform trackers means you sometimes have to check both to regain access to a record quickly. There really is no need to separate them.

    Modern systems indicate active records using a "dot" (think Mac OS, Windows 11, etc.). Combining the workform tracker into a single list would make access workforms in Leap faster.

    PS I do acknowledge that some people would have a problem with a growing list of workforms showing. So an option to clear all inactive workforms would probably needed to be added in addition to the close all active workforms option.

    6 votes

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  3. Bookmobiles move around. When customers get the holds notice, the address listed on the notice is usually the bookmobile home address. The customer shows up only to find that the bookmobile isn't home. We have pickup locations for the customer to choose from in the PAC, but they do not have addresses assigned to them. If they did, we would want that address to be used on the holds notice. Can this be a LX starter and/or Polaris enhancement for Bookmobile.

    8 votes

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  4. Sometimes libraries leave a consortium. Sometimes a branch is closed or merged into another branch. And after the Polaris ILS Admin takes care of clearing out all the bib, item, and patron data... the branches and libraries remain in System Administration.

    Just sitting there and doing nothing.

    I know it's a huge pain to remove a branch or library from Polaris and I know there's likely an extra cost to it because it's such an involved process.

    So add the ability to hide them instead.

    That way, when a library leaves the system, you're not wading through the settings and…

    28 votes

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  5. There should be a free text block that only people from the owning branch for that item can edit. This would allow staff from the owning library to make notes about pieces in an item or damage to an item without risking staff from other branches/libraries deleting the note from the home branch.

    6 votes

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  6. We use both the barcode field and username field interchangeably for patron access at our express checkout units. Currently, the unit only recognizes barcodes when they are scanned from the barcode field. We need the system to also recognize and process barcodes stored in the username field when scanned.
    For example, our school students have their student IDs stored as their primary barcode in Polaris, with their former library barcodes stored in the username field. When students attempt to use their RHPL cards, the barcode currently only works if they manually type it in. We would like these cards to…

    3 votes

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  7. The current process of loading and removing Hoopla records in the staff client is tedious and time-consuming at best. We stopped adding Hoopla records to Polaris because we don't have the staff capacity to deal with the monthly 'remove' lists. An API integration similar to CloudLibrary would be a huge time-saver. CloudLibrary automatically imports records and then sets them to 'withdrawn' when the title is no longer available. The Hoopla database is enormous, so the ability to add some parameters of what to pull would also be helpful.

    15 votes

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  8. We had a patron complaint that the email notices do not include magazine issue information, only the main title. The notices also do not include item barcodes, so there isn't any data to match against a specific issue. Could information from the Issue field in the item record be displayed in overdue notices?

    14 votes

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  9. There should be two statuses to easily identify lost and paid vs. lost and not paid billed materials. This would help make running reports much easier and help identify the status of lost items.

    85 votes

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  10. Right now, automatic renewals happen 3 days before the due date. If the item someone has out is supposed to fill a hold for someone else then it never automatically renews even if another item ends up filling that hold. There should be a schedule for automatic renewals to occur 3 days, 2 days, 1 day, before the item is due and the day the item is due so there are multiple opportunities for that item to automatically renew in the event that a hold gets filled by another library and that item is now eligible for renewal again. It's…

    31 votes

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  11. A few days ago, we discovered an issue in Polaris. It wasn't a huge problem, but it was a bit disturbing for our cataloguers in that they encountered an error when trying to open up a record set. I checked with others in the IUG and, sure enough, there were other libraries who'd seen the same problem.

    So I put in a ticket through the Supportal and received a prompt response. It was a known issue (though it wasn't on the list of Known Issues) and there was a patch available for it. I was asked if I'd like the…

    16 votes

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  12. The Language field was added to Polaris in 7.4 (I believe). The only way to update the Language field is to manually update each item record manually. As you can imagine, that is very time-consuming. It would be ideal if our Collection Management department could pull the appropriate item records into a record set and then do a batch update of the Language field.

    11 votes

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  13. Details on items going in-transit, enroute, and/or transferred are not kept within the Polaris Transactions database. Instead, the data is only kept within the Polaris database. This means if an item is deleted, then statistics on it going in-transit/transferred/enroute are lost. The enhancement request here would be to include that information into the Polaris Transactions database.

    This could also serve as a generic enhancement request for increased reporting abilities within Simply Reports. It seems there are a lot of things our libraries would like reports on that are not possible to create within Simply Reports. It almost always involves historical…

    24 votes

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  14. My staff mentioned that they would like it if we are renewing a patron account, we could have the option to renew all accounts it has an association with at the same time. Ex: If Jane Doe comes into renew, we can have the option with the click of a button to automatically renew John, Jim and Jill Doe's accounts as well. That way all members of a family can be updated at the same time more easily.

    8 votes

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  15. We have found it hard to work with the Current and Recent workfrom menu when working with lots of Patron Records, or more commonly, Duplicate Patron Records.

    Names work, but when names are similar or the same it can be hard to figure out which records are which.
    Sometimes staff are working with Barcodes as a reference vs. patron names.

    It would be nice to have a subtext under the Patrons name in the Current and Recent workform list that shows the last 4 digits or the full barcode underneath the patron name.

    I have 2 images attached that demonstrates…

    10 votes

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  16. Have the Call Number (082 #a) drop into the Classification field in the Item Record when the item moves from On Order to Received.

    This function would most benefit staff who catalogue (or import full catalogue records) and then manage the Purchase Order process.

    The goal is to reduce the room for error when adding items.

    13 votes

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  17. There are lots of things that can go wrong with holds fulfillment. From things remaining too long in the RTF, to holds that were item specific, and now the item record has been deleted, holds on bibs where all items are restricted from filling bibs, holds where the item has been shipped months ago, holds where the volume-level hold information is incorrect.

    While there are reports that some libraries run for this, those are not "front and center" in most workflows for ALL libraries to be aware of them and be taking action to handle them.

    About the best solution…

    5 votes

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  18. Within the bibliographic record, occasionally there are duplicate fields. We need a way to easily detect them, especially with bibs upon bibs that are merged. We end up with a ton of duplicate 035 fields.

    35 votes

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  19. In Leap, after doing a search for record sets (ie. owned by a specific owner), you have to go into the record set in order to delete it. After doing this, it bumps you all the way back out of the Find Tool and the user has to redo the search completely. This is not ideal when attempting to clean up multiple record sets. Ideally there would be the ability to select multiple record sets and do a bulk delete (similar to how you can in the desktop client). Barring that, being bumped back to the search results would at…

    69 votes

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  20. For library consortiums, it would be helpful for individual libraries to set their webpage catalog to just show items in their library. Patrons have the opportunity to put a REQUEST on items from their home library OR go to the full consortium catalog to see if an item is available and request an item from there. It is very confusing for patrons to see multiple items, e.g. a hardcover and paperback of the same book in the catalog. They request one but it may not be their library's copy. Wastes time and resources. We used to be able to do…

    1 vote

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