Skip to content
Idea Exchange
← Innovate with us

ILS - Sierra

ILS - Sierra

Categories

JUMP TO ANOTHER FORUM

(thinking…)

Recently Activity

ILS - Sierra Updated

Ability to update inventory date from "checkin no patron" function

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment PLANNED

ILS - Polaris Updated

Edit Half-Deleted Item Records

Cataloging & Metadata Management UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Trap hold with first item received

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Show Due Date for ILLs in Request Manager

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Expose web-based System Administration APIs

System Administration (incl APIs) UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Update Language Field in Item Bulk Change

Acquisitions, Serials & Item/Issue/Inventory Management UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Return ItemRecordID in responses to BibHoldingsGet

System Administration (incl APIs) UNDER REVIEW

Don't see your product?

Visit the ExLibris Idea Exchange

Including Alma, Primo, Summon and more

Visit the ProQuest Idea Exchange

Including Ebook Central, PQ Dissertations and Theses and more

How can we improve Sierra?

(thinking…)

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

If a similar idea already exists, you can support and comment on it.

If it doesn't exist, you can post your idea so others can support it.

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

  • Hot ideas
  • Top ideas
  • New ideas
  • My feedback

58 results found

  1. Add a backdate option to the /v6/items/checkouts/{barcode} endpoint for checking in items

    I would like to add an optional parameter to the Sierra API endpoint for checking in items to allow for backdating those transactions as you can within in the client as it may help with automating some projects.

    For an immediate example, I have identified a number of items that were not removed from the checkout table correctly due to locked patron records, where the were placed in transit and I can see a time the checkout ought to have occurred via the in transit message. I would like to write a script to correct these failed checkins once they…

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  2. Add a Stat Group When Creating a Patron API Key for Vendors

    This proposal suggests enhancing the Patron API key creation process by incorporating a Stat Group field, allowing staff to categorize API keys by vendor and track their usage using existing reporting tools. The proposed enhancement would modify the API key creation window to include an optional Stat Group field towards the bottom. If left blank, the default stat group (zero) would be assigned, maintaining current functionality. This change addresses a common issue where vendors do not implement the stat group provided by the library, often resulting in API-driven transactions being categorized under stat group 0. This leads to inaccurate or…

    8 votes
    3 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  3. Create a GET API endpoint for circulation transactions

    This idea came from a discussion at the IUG2025 Sierra Reporting Forum.

    It would be very useful to provide an endpoint to assist with gathering/generating the sorts of circulations statistics that would normally require SQL access. However, the all or nothing nature of SQL permissions is a barrier that prevents many users from being permitted to access those features. With the API on the other hand a user could be limited to simply having read access to an endpoint such as this, along with likely the bib and item endpoints so that they may craft reports without also having to…

    12 votes
    4 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  4. Automatic SSL Certificate Renewal

    Keeping our systems secure with SSL certificates is essential. Certificates need to be renewed and there is a service commitment to handle this process. But there is a better way. SSL providers can be setup to automatically renew and deliver an updated SSL certificate to our systems when their expiration time approaches.

    This idea is for Innovative to support software-only site with setting up an automatic SSL renewal process thereby keeping our systems safe from expiring certificates and making the process worry-free.

    8 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  5. Add date/time stamp to the "Restart a process/terminal" display

    We'd like to see a date/time stamp on the "Restart a process/terminal" display in the Admin Corner and be able to sort by it. We sometimes run out of licenses because staff don't sign out of their SDA sessions at the end of their shifts, and we have to contact Innovative and request that connections older than the current day be closed. It would be helpful to be able to do this ourselves. Currently, we can preemptively reset all connections early in the morning before staff arrive, but if a problem arises during the day we don't want to cause…

    6 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  6. Ability to view history for item and volume records.

    It would be helpful for us to have access to the history of item and volume records, including details of their creation and any subsequent edits. This would improve our ability to track changes and ensure accountability if any issues come up.

    13 votes
    2 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  7. Expand the options tied to permission 109, update uncataloged records

    Currently Sierra permission 109, update uncataloged records, is tied to whether or not the bib record has a CDATE (no catalog date) field. It would be great if permission 109 could be customized by a library to be controlled by another option outside of just the presence of the CDATE field. For example, we use field 31 to control the level of cataloging of a record (including full MARC) and to suppress the bib. It would be helpful if we could tie the codes from that field to this permission. It's worth mentioning that permission 109 and the presence of…

    2 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  8. Limit access to Login Names & Parameters via permissions

    We'd like to be able to limit access to the Login Names & Parameters section of the Admin Corner (especially the Limit Network Access tables) via permissions. Certain functions, such as load tables, require certain staff members to have access to the Admin app, but having the login names and parameters unrestricted leaves an unnecessary hole in security. There are other functions in Admin Corner that require separate permissions and prompt users to enter their credentials, but not this one.

    6 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  9. Batch Check-In Should Not Update Circactive Date

    Batch check-in is a necessary component of debt write-off and system maintenance. Running this process updates the patron account circulation activity date (CIRCACTIVE) even though this is a system-generated process and not initiated by the patron.

    We use the CIRCACTIVE date when reporting on card usage, and as an indicator of when to delete inactive cards. Because the date is updated through batch check-in, we have to do a lot of clean-up work to understand actual patron usage and behavior.

    Ideally, batch check-in should not update CIRCACTIVE. It would be fine for the account UPDATED date to be updated.

    This…

    17 votes
    3 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  10. 2038 issue

    We use the patron's 18th birthday as their youth card expiration date. Due to the Year 2038 issue we have been unable to add the correct date for several years now. We would really like to be able to have (any/all) date fields updated so we can begin to record accurate future dates again.

    20 votes
    6 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  11. Allow Requiring SAML for Sierra Web

    Sierra now supports SAML for authenticating staff, but still allows users to authenticate without MFA using the less secure Sierra legacy authentication method. Sierra should allow administrators to require SAML authentication instead of always allowing users to choose SAML or Legacy.

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  12. Ability to restart the CAS login

    Sometimes the CAS login to Sierra fails. Either the page is inaccessible, or we see an LSE-OA-Error-2 from our use of OpenAthens authentication to Sierra. The only solution available is to us is to reboot the Sierra application server. This is inconvenient since staff have to log out of their activities.

    It would be useful if there was an option in the Restart a Terminal section of Sierra to restart the CAS service. This would hopefully clear up the error and not require a server reboot.

    2 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  13. NCIP activity should update Circactive

    Currently, authentication using the NCIP protocol does not update the CIRCACTIVE attribute in the patron account. We use this protocol to authenticate to a statewide ILL service and we'd like to know when cards are being used in this union catalog and not just our own.

    We use CIRCACTIVE to determine which cards are being used and which ones aren't. This is useful for statistical purposes, but is also linked to our patron database purge process.

    8 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  14. Require authentication to view Sierra API documentation

    Enhance cybersecurity by not revealing the api methods through the swagger interface to unauthenticated users. For example, a potential hacker can view the swagger interface which shows all methods and explains how to use them. This is an issue on all api endpoints including the iii sandbox. My idea is to only reveal the swagger methods to authenticated users.

    https://sandbox.iii.com/iii/sierra-api/swagger/index.html#!/patrons

    7 votes
    1 comment  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  15. Ability to disable a user with one click in Admin Corner

    The ability to log into admin corner, view all users and with one click disable them (not delete, but deny them log in access) would be helpful for those with revolving part time employees.

    We have student employees that change out regularly, but sometimes they come back as graduate student help, etc within a short time.

    Being able to simply turn off an employees access and review it within a year or less to determine if it should be deleted or held would be helpful for keeping our staff accounts cleaned up.

    15 votes
    1 comment  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  16. Make printer option defaults available by workflow, and have "send to email address" send only to staff email addresses

    This is two fold. First, we would like to be able to set a default printer option determined by the staff users workflow (circulation workflow/function would default to "email to patron", and cataloging function would default to local printer, etc). So staff log in and select their function area and the system uses a specific printer default accordingly.

    Secondly, we would like to have the "Send to email address" printer option changed somewhat. When selected, it would have a drop down of emails available to send to. These would be set up by the system admin. It would reduce the…

    2 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  17. globally update bibliographic records with multiple branch codes

    We would like to be able to globally add an additional bibliographic branch code to a subset of bibliographic records harvested through "create lists." This is because currently (Sierra 6.1), it is possible to change a bibliographic branch code, but not add additional ones while retaining the original branch.
    The reason is that we have records for electronic resources that should display under a relatively new scope set up for a new branch. With only the original branch in the bibliographic record, it is necessary to view the entire collection (or the original branch) to access the item in the…

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  18. New Skins for Sierra

    Can we get some new skins to choose from for the SDA/Sierra Web?

    There are currently two: Half Dome & Glacier Point.

    We currently use colors to differentiate between our Production instance of Sierra & our Test version. However, we also have a Training database.

    Variety is the spice of life! How about a rose-colored skin, a powder blue, or a "Millennium Green" as an homage to the Millennium database?

    21 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  19. Make OpenAPI definition document (previously known as Swagger specification) available for Sierra's APIs

    There SHOULD be an OpenAPI definition document available for Sierra's APIs via Swagger, but currently, there is not.

    The OpenAPI definition document (https://swagger.io/specification/) is a standardized format for describing the structure and behavior of an API. It is a machine-readable document, usually written in JSON or YAML, that provides a comprehensive blueprint of an API's endpoints, operations, input/output parameters, response formats, authentication methods, and other essential details.

    For comparison, here is an example for the Polaris API / Swagger install (on an iii training server):
    https://polaris-training.polarislibrary.com/PAPIService/swagger/v1/swagger.json

    Benefits of an OpenAPI Definition Document:

    * Standardization: Provides a consistent format
    …
    30 votes
    7 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  20. Expand to different order statuses for the Sierra REST API

    The Sierra REST API does not return the order record for the bib if the order status is "a" (fully paid). It will only return information if it's "on order".

    Patrons are unable to place holds on new materials using Innovative Mobile for bibs with paid order records that do not yet have items attached.

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  System Administration (incl APIs)  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?
← Previous 1 3
  • Don't see your idea?