117 results found
-
Allow staff to unfreeze frozen holds
We'd like a way for staff to un-freeze frozen holds when patrons need help reactivating a previously frozen hold. Currently we have to walk patrons through signing into their accounts to unfreeze the hold themselves, or cancel and replace the hold. Allowing staff to make the change in the SDA would improve customer service and make life easier for our staff.
(Restarting this archived idea: https://ideas.iii.com/forums/952252-archive/suggestions/46917761-allow-staff-modification-of-frozen-holds)
1 vote -
Change the logic for updating the status date change field in the item record
Currently, the item status updated date that is displayed when hovering over the status field in the item record does not update when an item only goes from "available" to "checked out" because the actual status code remains the same "-". These are valid status changes that we want to be able to see. I know that we have the "last checkout" date field, but we want the status updated date to reflect all status changes, including when the item changes from checked out to available and vice versa.
1 vote -
Do not fulfill holds for closed pick-up location
Background:
This is a common request from libraries during a shorter term closure (several weeks - a few months). Staff find it frustrating that we cannot stop holds going into transit to their location during the closure. As a general rule we do not batch change patron holds as each patron may choose to respond their own way to the closing through public interfaces (ex freeze, change the pickup location, etc), so batch-changing the staff end Not Before Date is not viable. The closed library asks other libraries to not send and not fulfill holds for their location but in…11 votes -
Handling Unfilled Pages
This is a resubmission of a recently expired idea & my continued longing to see some long lost development efforts brought to fruition.
Following Disney's lead of recycling years old ideas for theme park attractions, I'd like to see an idea I'd had while working with a former employer brought to fruition in Sierra. We had been using Millennium at the time & the Circulation Product Manager had gotten to a point in development that there was a near-working model on III's test environment (I've got screenshots & even a Captivate video somewhere), but I left that employer & the…
3 votes -
Max Items A-D, But for the Number of Holds Allowed
This is another resubmission of a recently expired idea that I had first suggested over a decade ago when at another library that was struggling how to balance its combination of branch & research library users & the sort of requests they might make. While no longer there, I still see it as a potentially useful means for staff to develop their request processes & create limits within limits.
What I'd like to see is the ability to not only set a hold threshold, where a Patron Type is allowed x holds, but as is the case for the Max…
2 votes -
Split Permissions for Hold Blocks
This is a resubmission of a recently expired idea.
Currently, the ability to override a hold block is governed by permission 92.
A hold might be blocked for a number of reasons. Staff might attempt to place more than the max number of holds allowed for a customer. They might place a hold for a customer on an item they already have checked out, etc.
One scenario especially has been problematic for as long as I can remember:
A patron finds an item on the shelf & takes it to a service point to check out. It turns out that…
2 votes -
Notice Counts Should Reflect The Number of Notices, Not Items Notified About
This is a resubmission of a recently expired idea. I’ve added insights from other users shared in comments on the original post.
Since becoming a III customer in 2008/2009, it's baffled me that we don't see a representation of the total number of notices sent daily via autonotices, but instead have the Notice History feature, which shows the number of items for which notices are sent. I feel like it would be far more useful for statistical purposes if the number of notices sent for each notice type was what's recorded & shared by Sierra.
Beyond metrics, this would aid…
3 votes -
Remove duplicate items from paging list
Remove duplicate items on paging list. This is very confusing for staff. Even if there are 5 holds for an item if my library only has 1 available copy on the shelf then that item should only show up once on the paging list.
62 votes -
Add New Patron Block Based on Number of Items Claimed Returned
This is a resubmission of a just-expired idea that had come close to winning on previous ballots.
During the Circulation Forum at this week's IUG, a few libraries brought up their continued interest in going fine free, but also shared how they still faced challenges within their respective institutions from those who felt materials would not come back.
This is a realistic concern, especially for libraries that couple going fine free with the protracted loan periods made possible by autorenewals. It can sometimes be challenging to get customers to return things, so we appreciate the availability of patron blocks that…
27 votes -
Automatically email Manage Holds results to library staff
Have the results of Manage Holds automatically on a regular schedule (ie. each morning).
This would let staff pick holds even if they don't have Sierra open or available. The automated emails could be set up within the Manage Holds function itself, or could be accomplished if Scheduler worked with Manage Holds (right now Scheduler only works with Create Lists and Data Exchange).
10 votes -
Add a column for Loan Rule # to Loan Rule Table instead of using seq # in the table
Today the Loan Rule Number is the position in the Loan Rule Table. This means when we need to keep a lot of old and often Inactive rows in the table so that the loan rule numbers below don't change.
If you added a column with a loan rule number separate from the sequence in the table that the Loan Determiner table would point to, we could still mark old rules inactive until we are sure there are no more checkouts, but after we confirmed that we could delete the row completely and keep a much neater cleaner table with…20 votes -
Tooltip/Info Bubble for Loan Rule Names
We've currently got 55 loan rules in Cincinnati. Not the most I've seen, but also not the least. At a certain point, it becomes difficult to remember, or better yet, know at a glance, their purpose & what loan rule governs what. The character limit to the name entry for loan rules limits how descriptive we can be.
A number of Sierra releases back saw the addition of the tooltip rollover when searching patron records. I'd love to see something similar applied, so when I'm scrolling & rolling over loan rules, I can see a 2 or 3 sentence free…
17 votes -
loan rule determiners by agency
It would be nice to be able to choose location agency and leave location blank in the determiner table for some situations. In our case we have 4 partner library systems and one has 7 branches. Each of these branches has the exact same loan rules to allow certain items to circ to the whole consortium, and others to limit to only their system. If we could use agency, we would only have to create one set of those rules instead of one for each branch location prefix (in this case their branches are pri, max, bar,…
6 votes -
Charge type on fines tab needs to specify if it is a damaged item
We would like “replacement” changed to a term that reflects the actual item status. Currently, “replacement” is used for both long-overdue and damaged items that have been billed. To determine whether a billed item is damaged or simply overdue, staff must open the item record and check for a damage note.
16 votes -
Keep Bib Information for Deleted Records (for Reading History)
Unlike Polaris, when a record is deleted in Sierra, all information is deleted from the system. Unfortunately, this means that Sierra libraries would not be able to take advantage of the Vega Enhancement to "Display Deleted Titles in Reading History." Thus patrons only see "Resource is not available" in their Reading History.
Patrons opt in to keep their reading history assuming that the data will be there when they look for it. They don't understand why there is no record of it, think something is broken with the system.
51 votes -
Choose Priority between Item-level holds queue and bib-level holds queue
More control over choosing priority between the item-level holds queue and the bibliographic-level holds manually so that the Processing department can pull back specific items on popular, high-volume holds with more ease.
6 votes -
Customise font size and other details in Sierra pop-up messages
We'd like the ability to customise the display of Sierra popup messages, specifically we'd like the ability to increase the font size for key information (for example, the pickup location or destination) so it stands out more clearly. We would also like the option to hide the call number, as it is not used by our library.
20 votes -
Improve item title display on patron-facing devices by adjusting SIP2 parameters
Skip certain MARC subfields when preparing data for SIP2 connection.
Specifically:
When Sierra needs to send information to display an item title on a patron-facing device (automated materials handler, self-checkout kiosk, etc.) via SIP2, it currently appears to concatenate all occupied subfields of MARC field 245 and remove the delimiters. This means that certain information not intended to be patron-facing can end up appearing in the title the patron sees on screen (e.g. "880-01 Desu nôto 2..." appearing instead of just "Desu nôto 2...", where "880-01" is not actually part of the title, but rather a reference to another field…10 votes -
PIN limitations in Sierra: PIN_ALPHA_NUM should accept special characters
PINALPHANUM does not accept special characters.
If Vega Discover continues to be limited by wwwoptions for PIN creation, this option should accept special characters.
PIN Best Practice: The strongest defense combines a long length (12+ characters) with a true random mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
Length vs. Complexity: Recent security guidelines emphasize that making a password longer (like using a multi-word passphrase) is often more effective than adding a single symbol to a short word. That said, library users do use special characters and want them included in their library PIN.
Adding symbols increases the character set…
14 votes -
Make Additional PCODEs Available
Libraries are increasingly looking at ways to gather metrics on patrons without identifying them. Data on age, gender, race, or all manner of characteristics might be collected, depending on the library.
I'd like to see Sierra be more accommodating in what it can collect & store on a patron's record, with the introduction of one or more additional PCODEs that can be used to store a significant amount of fixed field codes.
For example, we partner with schools in our service area & offer not only educator cards, but do an upload of student data. Having schools within our service…
14 votes
- Don't see your idea?