281 results found
-
Patron Preferred Pronouns
Sierra patron records should include a patron pronouns field, so that library staff can record customers' stated preferred pronouns and use the correct language in conversations and communications with customers. The field should be able to display in the Brief patron display. This step would help to support inclusion, wellbeing, and belonging in libraries.
16 votesThe product team will review this idea for consideration for a future release.
-
Max Item A-D But For Holds
I had first suggested this 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, but as is the case for the Max Items A-D allowed as applied to checkouts, allow a similar breakdown for holds.
Optimally, this would allow…
16 votesThe product team will review this idea for consideration for a future release.
-
Include hold pickup location and expiration date in cancellation notices sent to LX Starter
Our library recently started using LX Starter, which includes merge tags for the hold pickup location and expiration date in its template for hold cancellation notices. However, we've been told that Sierra doesn't pass this information to LX Starter and therefore this information can't be included in our cancellation emails. We would like to have this information added so we can provide additional information to our patrons about when and where their holds expired.
16 votesThe product team will review this idea for consideration for a future release.
-
Add the ability to require fixed-length fields, not just variable length fields
We require certain information to create a library card, however Sierra does not enforce this requirement at the system level. Since it isn't mandatory, some data simply never gets captured and creates more work on the backend.
Beyond that, having certain information in the record would allow us to build a better understanding of our usership so that we can make better decisions as an organization.
I especially would love the ability to require any and all of the fixed-length fields; especially patron category, birthdate, home library, and notice preference.
16 votes -
Generate Statement of Charges directly within patron record
It would be very helpful to be able to print a Statement of Charges directly from a patron record (and have it formatted for 8-1/2 x 11 paper and mail-ready).
For context, we are a 138-library consortium, all notices are Auto Notices, and we do not run Statement of Charges for the consortium. Yes, you can run a statement for 1 patron in the Notices function, but this requires consortium staff intervention since that permission is locked down to consortium staff. It would be much simpler for our member libraries to be able to print such a statement on an…
16 votes -
Recycling Bin Feature for Clear Expired Holds & Holdshelf & Notices
We will periodically have situations, as we did this morning, where staff move to print their holdshelf report & for one reason or another (today's was some manner of technical issues with their printer), the content of the report is lost.
We can sometimes salvage this data from the back end by looking for holds cleared on the day by the login responsible, but it would be much easier if there were some sort of Recycling Bin style feature, where "cleared" files like the holdshelf report or paging lists were stored until the user logs out, giving them another chance…
15 votes -
A "full Payment History file" event should log an error to the Admin App's System Messages log
Today our Payment History file reached 9,999 records which is close enough to the 10k record capacity that the attached error message was displayed. Fortunately the staff member had the presence of mind to screen-capture this error dialog today so I could read its message verbatim, but this isn't always the case. It would be helpful for an error of this severity to be written to the System Messages log viewed using the web-based Sierra admin app.
Given the low variety of error messages written to that log, there must be all kinds of similar messages which are not logged,…
15 votes -
Add Character Map to Patron Record Creation/Editing Menu
Despite the constant threats to our funding & the fact that some seem to treat the notion of DEI as offensive, we continue to want our library to be seen as a welcoming & inclusive environment for our patrons.
We would like to be able to extend this to how their name is represented in Sierra & on notices/when seen in the catalog. We currently have a sort of crib sheet for staff to use to insert diacritic characters into patron names as needed, but think it would be helpful if they didn't have to navigate away from Sierra when…
15 votes -
Show number of copies on order per library
We are a Consortia of 51 libraries with 25 Acquisition's Units. We would like to see how many copies each library has ordered. This was available in Encore.(see screenshot) Vega does not show order records at all so we would like to see more detailed information in Sierra. Currently, you can only see that other libraries have ordered, not number of copies (see screenshot)
15 votesThe product team will review this idea for consideration for a future release.
-
Option to exclude frozen holds from total holds queue in catalogue
Libraries should have the option to exclude frozen holds from the total holds queue that appears in any catalogue.
Benefits:
1) Customers will have a better idea of where they are in the hold queue.
We encourage customer-driven hold management, and customers have told us that they want an estimate of when their holds will be filled.
This is especially true when customers place multiple hold on titles within a series.2) Customers will not see inflated hold queues and provide feedback to the Library that they should purchase more copies.
3) Customers could make an education decision on whether…
15 votesThis idea will be reviewed by the Innovative product team for consideration in planning the upcoming product roadmap.
-
Add a Note Field in the RFID Pad Server Options Table
As ILS administrators of a large consortium, we would like the RFID Server Options Table to have an additional field/column to add notes (library name, dates, staff initials). When one of our member libraries needs to change RFID entries, we sort through nearly 200 lines to determine which one needs updating. Many entries use IPs without identifying library information. We must read through old library correspondence to discern which IPs belong to the library. This task takes up valuable time when we are trying to assist a library with troubleshooting or adding and removing entries.
An additional free-text field to…
15 votesThis idea will be reviewed by the Innovative product team for consideration in planning the upcoming product roadmap.
-
Separate summary view property for each of the search functions
When a Sierra SDA login is first created the system utilizes individual summary view properties for the various search functions. By default in cataloging if you open up the summary view of a record you see item records, in search/holds you see holds, in place orders you see orders and in serials checkin you see checkin records.
If you opt to change that setting however from the record view properties menu (say to change this to view all) it can impact all 4 search functions. It would be better to split this menu out, so that the setting for each…
15 votesThis idea will be reviewed by the Innovative product team for consideration in planning the upcoming product roadmap.
-
It's about time to make Holds APIs first-class citizens
Idea Description
It would be far nicer to have the ability to work with hold data directly--in contrast to having to retrieve hold data via the patron APIs. For example: currently, in order to (reasonably) find the "pickupByDate" values for holds with status "(Bib, Volume, Item) hold ready for pickup" you would have to use a combination of the Sierra SQL feature (to first find all the patron record numbers possessing such a hold) and then filter all the holds for the list of patrons (from the previous step) having the "pickupByDate" key in the response object. Once you have the holds,…15 votes -
add "did you mean" search logic to SDA keyword search
Circulation staff would like to see "did you mean" logic applied to the SDA keyword search. This is the top complaint from circulation staff who search the database to help customers place holds. Staff are used to a Google (or Discovery Catalogue) keyword search that has some flexibility for human error.
14 votesThis idea will be reviewed by the product management team for possible inclusion in a future release.
-
Limit Pickup Location Based on Item Type
We have three pickup locations: lockers, curbside and hold pickup shelves inside the library. For our Library of Things item type we would want to eliminate the lockers as an option because they cannot hold those items because of space.
14 votesThis idea will be reviewed by the Innovative product team for consideration in planning the upcoming product roadmap.
-
Exclude specific patron types from getting notices
Being in an academic library, we have certain patron types which function differently than other types. This applies particularly to the differences between a student patron type and a faculty patron type. It would be helpful for us to have the ability to exclude certain patron types from getting certain kinds of notices.
14 votesThis idea will be reviewed by the Innovative product team for consideration in planning the upcoming product roadmap.
-
Include zero results for selected locations in all reports in Decision Center
Currently Decision Center only returns data for a location parameter if there was activity for the selected time period and does not return a zero placeholder for locations without activity. This creates extra work for staff when working with the resulting Excel files. They can't easily reference the cells in Excel consistently.
14 votes -
Dark contrast display option for the SDA
We see the Sierra 6.0 Release Notes features new Accessibility improvements in the SDA. It is unclear if this includes a high contrast display option which staff recommend to support use of the software by many different types of staff.
14 votes -
View Public Display - Allow for Multiple Choices
https://ideas.iii.com/forums/951745-ils-sierra/suggestions/46670854-sierra-5-5-direct-view-public-display-to-disco is closed/says it's already supported, but the part for being configured to more than one display option is not addressed. We would like to be able to have more than one option to display - Vega, Classic, Encore and even III Mobile if possible - so we can see how all iterations look right from the SDA. So in the menu it would be View | Public Display | array of choices
14 votes -
Postpone/freeze a hold after it's Ready for Pickup
Postpone/freeze a hold after it's Ready for Pickup
Similar to Overdrive's redeliver option. Allow a patron to postpone/redeliver their hold one time if it comes in unexpectedly or at a time when they cannot come to pick it up.14 votesThe product manager will review this idea for possible inclusion in a future release.
- Don't see your idea?