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ILS - Sierra

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  1. Problem:
    In the current version of the Sierra system, restricted or sensitive bibliographic records can only be suppressed from the public catalog but remain visible and accessible to catalogers within the system. This visibility creates the risk of accidental editing, publishing, or mishandling of these records, particularly:

    • Restricted Records: Some records are sensitive or confidential and should not be visible to all catalogers.
    • Records Under Review: Records undergoing auditing or verification need protection from edits until the review is completed.

    • Recommendation:
      Introduce a feature that allows the System Administrator or Cataloging Supervisor to hide specific bibliographic records within the Sierra…

    11 votes

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  2. As a default suppressed records are not included in the harvest stream. This becomes an issue when a harvested record later becomes suppressed in Sierra as the harvester does not know to remove it from its listings as its omission from the stream does not allow for identification of its suppressed state. I would recommend that the option to include suppressed records should be configurable as a harvest stream level, giving the library the ability to configure the inclusion/exclusion dependent on their business rules.

    11 votes

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  3. 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 see the Notice History feature, which shows the number of items for which notices are sent.

    I think 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.

    11 votes

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  4. We need to increase the number of characters allowed for the username - currently a maximum of 12. We prefer to keep our Sierra usernames the same as a user's network login name (one less thing to remember). Anything over 12 characters forces us to make a different Sierra username that fits within the Sierra parameters.

    11 votes

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  5. We've been exploring new ways that our library, as an institution, can meet the evolving interests of DEI efforts. One very small but meaningful way we thought we might do this is to allow for the inclusion of diacritic characters in customer names in Sierra.

    Their inclusion appears as desired on the customer record when created/displayed in Sierra (images dia1 - dia2).

    They do not appear to impede searching for the customer by name - the search just ignores them (images dia3 - dia4).

    They appear as desired in the name display in the Classic Catalog (image dia5).

    They appear…

    11 votes

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  6. There are various reports/files in Sierra that should be exportable to Excel or CSV for manipulation/analysis purposes, similar to our ability to export fines paid or statistical reports from the Statistics function. Candidates include Circulation Overrides (printable view puts each override on 2 lines) and other System Files (from admin app), Group Call Numbers (from Sierra 6.6), and really any sort of table or parameter that consists of columns/rows (branch table, patron type, etc.). This would save the effort of copying/pasting and attempting to fix in Excel.

    10 votes

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  7. Currently, in order to maintain the out loc field in an item record while it is checked out for libraries with auto-renewal, the actual renewal location statistic group number must be zero. This is frustrating as the zero stat group number does not display in reports and we need all renewals to appear in reports. There needs to be a way to retain the out loc in an item record when the renewal stat group number is not zero.

    10 votes

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  8. Problem:

    Our practice is to suspend user accounts when a staff member leaves, rather than delete it, so that we can copy the necessary permissions when a replacement is hired. We then try to delete the accounts after 6 months, but there is currently no method within the Admin App or SQL that tells you when a login was suspended, so we have to track that manually.

    Value: adding a timestamp to this field would enable us to more seamlessly manage user accounts for our large consortia and ensure that unnecessary logins are periodically purged.

    10 votes

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  9. In the settings for code categories (Physical Format and Collection), you can change the display order, but it only applies to that page, not to the option menu users see when building a report.

    When creating a report, the list of categories is always alphabetical. There is also a "Sort A-Z" button, which is currently unnecessary (and caused confusion as its existence implies that there could be another way).

    I suggest applying the manual display order set in Admin Tools to the "edit" pop-ups in the initial filters of a report.

    This would allow us to put more commonly-used categories…

    10 votes

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  10. It would be great if the logic & momentum that introduced Send To - Rapid or Global Update in Sierra 6.3 & will soon allow the same shortcut to Delete Items could also be applied to Globally Purge Charges.

    The state of Ohio has a statute of limitations on debt collection that has us purging money owed longer than 5 years on a weekly basis. While this is bazonkers IMO, apparently it's also the law of the land, & it would make the process much more quick & convenient if we could select a file in Create List, navigate to…

    10 votes

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  11. Develop a utility to add new location codes to the so-called Branches table using a CSV file as input. Optionally permit updates (overlays) of existing location code entries so that the branch_code_num, name and/or is_public columns may be reassigned values in this way.

    Our library has very granular location codes which describe branch (or collection subset of a branch such as a display area), audience, format and genre, loosely speaking. This amounts to 220-250 location codes per branch (or collection subset). We currently have over 5,000 distinct location codes in our Sierra database, and every time a new branch is…

    10 votes

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  12. It would be helpful to have the ability to prevent a hold from being canceled based on its pickup location.

    We have holds pickup lockers installed in three locations and are finding that if the lockers contain an item which has since had its hold canceled, the lockers will send a CheckIn SIP transaction to Sierra for that item, resulting in the item being [logically] used to fulfill someone else's hold [while physically still housed in a locker]. For popular new releases, this is happening more frequently than one might imagine. The ability to disallow the cancellation of holds at…

    10 votes

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  13. Sierra queues the hold for paging at the time the hold is placed, based on the data the hold was placed with. If the hold is modified after that (by changing the Not Wanted Before date), those changes don't update the paging queue, and Sierra will continue to page as if the hold had not been modified.

    10 votes

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  14. Improve diacritic searching in Sierra to include Semitic languages, especially Arabic! We have a fair number of Arabic books in out collections, and a large Arabic community, but Sierra support for Arabic characters does not seem complete. We often find that Arabic letters in Sierra is replaced by a white square, which seems to mean that the character is not supported. The names appear fine in Vega but the non supported letters do not seem to be indexed in the search results. This is an important language for members of our community and support for it is important in our…

    10 votes

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  15. Our catalogers would like the option when choosing a field and selecting "Move to Bottom of Group" that it could go to the bottom of the list of numbered tags it is part of instead of the field name of tags. An example is moving a 5xx field to the bottom of a list of other 5xx fields, and not to the bottom of the record if there is an 852 (also a note) field.

    10 votes

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  16. Technical Services Staff and Circulation Staff often ask for the ability to toggle between tabs in Check Out. We need to reduce repetitive keyboard strokes at checkout and this workflow requires staff to continually reach for the mouse during a circulation transaction.

    For example: There is no way to move from the patron check out screen to the patron holds screen without using the mouse to select the corresponding tab.

    The Check Out options (check out, checked, out items, holds, fines, check in, linked patrons, bookings etc) could be hardcoded to the drop down menu options so that Administrators could…

    10 votes

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  17. Update the "last checkin" field every time an item is checked in. Now, when you check in an item, the "last checkin" field is not updated if the item is not checked out. I don't know of any reason to not update it. When I look at an item record, I want to know the last date that the item was seen; this can be useful in tracking down items that seem to be missing, or coming up with a list of items that might be missing.

    10 votes

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  18. When using import invoices, Sierra will warn staff if they are about to process an electronic invoice that shares an invoice number with one already in the system. This can be quite helpful as it's very easy to accidentally download an invoice multiple times if you're not careful.

    However, recently one of our libraries has found that two different vendors have been producing invoices for them using the same numerical range and these are leading to false duplicate warnings.

    It would be helpful if the duplicate check compared both the invoice number and the vendor code, instead of just the…

    9 votes

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  19. Under the count use function, is it possible to add a location column? Currently, we have Title / Barcode / Count / Status. This way, when staff collects used but not checked out items and counts their usage, they can also see - at a glance - if the item belongs to a different floor/location and can separate it on the spot.

    This added information will save staff time and minimize the chance of something being misplaced.

    9 votes

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  20. We would like to see more granulated permissions for user administration, especially with assigned permissions, settings, options, workflows, etc.

    We would like the ability to assign a particular group of user accounts (e.g., circ student employees) to a specific admin (e.g., head of circulation) without assigning ALL system administration. It would be helpful for troubleshooting and having this department be able to assign macros, specific permissions, and print settings to different accounts.

    Ideally, this "group admin" would have the ability to edit settings on accounts for options, settings, and workflows. It would be great if they could clone and create…

    9 votes

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