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ILS - Sierra

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  1. Sometimes I'm working in Global Update and am using the toggle feature or the limit tool. I then want to work with just those records. I don't want to remove the others from the review file, but rather copy the records I want to look at into a new review file so that I can work with them there.

    8 votes

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  2. When pulling Low Circulation (or High) reports (Collection Tools > Maintenance), would like to include the Series Title (if applicable) in the displayed (and exported) report. We run into titles that have low circs, but if we see it's in a series, we normally don't weed it, because the series should remain complete. Thus we are stuck using Create Lists for this type of information (either exporting the report as a review file and then exporting fields THAT way or simply starting with Create Lists from the get-go). It would be more convenient if it was included in Decision Center.

    8 votes

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  3. When a hold has been cleared or is defunct, the information Sierra provides integrated integrated systems (IMMS for our example) over API is not consistent In particular, when clear holds is run in Sierra. During clear holds, the item status either remains at ! On holdshelf or changes to another item status. When it remains as !, IMMS sees the hold is still active and does not instruct staff to clear the item from the hold shelf. Daily and weekly processes are needed to update the item records for IMMS to recognise the changes.

    Can the clear hold function in…

    8 votes

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  4. For volume records, it would be helpful to have 'volume' listed as an option in Admin - Settings - New Record Templates (see attachment). When adding volume records, it would be helpful to have the desired 'volume' template appear in the same way our item record template appears. Currently we have to always select the volume template we want to use. All the other options are listed and it would be nice to have 'volume' listed as well.

    8 votes

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  5. Staff assisting any customers who cannot pickup all their ready holds at once, would benefit from seeing and sorting the expiry date of holds in the patron's holds list. This will assist with preventing their holds from expiring and being placed again.

    8 votes

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    An item's status and pickup expiration date are displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the Holds page as an item is highlighted/selected. While you can't sort by the expiration date, this information is displayed on screen for staff users.

  6. The Situation: Our library's room checkout suddenly shorted to a hard limit of 6:00pm. I discovered that last year's spring break hours were listed in the Hours Open table and last year spring break occurred earlier in March.

    The Problem: Entries in the Hours Open table do not include the year. If the year was included, hour checkout issue wouldn't have been an issue.

    Solution #1: Add the ability to include the year to Hours Open table. Default to the current year but have the ability to change the year.

    Solution #2: Revamp the Hours Open table. Modifying the Hours…

    8 votes

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  7. 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…

    8 votes

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  8. 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.

    8 votes

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  9. For some fragile items that we don't want to put in transit (e.g. telescopes, vinyl records), we want to be able to limit check-ins to the owning location. We can communicate these limits to patrons on our website and through signage or labels, but we'd like there to be an option within Sierra to generate a pop-up (with an option to override) so staff are alerted to tell the patron they have to bring the item back to another location.

    8 votes

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  10. 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

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  11. I just learned that Scheduler Output MARC records can't send an FTP password that includes the characters [{}"/

    It will let me save a task with such a password and spend months trying to figure out what's wrong. If it can't deal with a particular password, it should give an error saying what's wrong with the password.

    8 votes

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  12. Why is it important to link patrons?

    • Without linked patron functionality someone that is authorized to pick up a hold on another account is complicated. This is manually done by staff using patron notes, and the authorized patron signs out the book leaving the original hold on the other patron record.
    • Parents visiting the library with children would like to jump to the record of each child rather than using the child’s cards.

    Current privacy and circulation workflow issues:

    • Someone could link to the child record without authorization. If a patron is sharing their circulation details with someone, they should…
    8 votes

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  13. That way other devices such as self checks can show that warning to the patron in the case of them checking out items and having the due date shortened to their expiration date instead of the full borrowing period for the item. If they were alerted they could contact staff to update their account and any item due dates that were shortened to their prior expiration date.

    8 votes

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  14. Our patrons are curious about their loan history. They would like to sort it by author or title in addition to the checkout date. We have told them to export it. But exporting the checkout history loses the checkout date! Could more sorting possibilities be added to the catalogue and checkout date added when exporting?

    8 votes

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  15. It would be nice to have more control over Sierra pop ups. Like if you are checking in a large amount of items it is really annoying to click ok every time the item is set in transit - you most likely already know these items are going in transit!

    Also when creating a library card it would be good to be able to set a pop up "are you sure you wish to save a library card without (for ex) PIN code"? Sometimes you don't need that, but that is really rare.

    8 votes

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  16. Several years ago we adopted context logins. We have established that a 1 tier login will not work for us.

    CURRENT STATE : Our Regional Library consists of 39 branches in almost as many cities. To distinguish the branch of our Sierra users we currently use a two-tiered login. This login process allows us to continue to use generic branch accounts while meeting our obligations to protect customer information. The two-tiered login allows us to collect branch-specific data and apply unique user settings, options, and settings.

    The drawback is that our staff must login twice and it may pose an…

    8 votes

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  17. Searches of Innovative databases that contain authority records using Z39.50 search do not return authority records.

    The ability to search for an authority records would contribute to the quality of the database and make it easier to generate linked data.

    8 votes

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  18. Would love to see the word "replacement" changed to a word that gets at the actual status. Currently the charge type of "replacement" is used for a long overdue item that has been billed or a damaged item that has been billed. To find out if the item that has been billed is damaged or just hasn't been returned you have to go into the item record to see if a damaged note has been added.

    8 votes

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  19. Libraries with varied types of media in their collections require more location information associated with items than a shelfmark. We would like to see a Current Location field as standard in the item record. This field must be included in the data libraries for item paging notices as retrievals staff will need this information on retrievals lists/slips.

    Idea Value
    To record the exact location of items within the buildings, which will facilitate retrieval of less standard items or special collections items that are not easily stored in a standard sequence. Current location data is essential for museums accreditation.

    8 votes

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  20. We use the hourly patron borrowing reports in Web Management Reports to track patron visits at offsite hold lockers. We would like to have this report migrated to Decision Center since this is the tool already in use by our frontline staff.

    8 votes

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