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ILS - Polaris Updated

Request Manager go back to where you were

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Improve Hold Notifications in ExpressCheck

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Add searching PO Status date and POLI Status date to Find Tool.

Acquisitions, Serials & Inventory Management UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Automatic notification for holds on missing items

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Managing holds

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Customize Order of Holds in Polaris ExpressCheck

Circulation, Access Services & Fulfillment UNDER REVIEW

ILS - Polaris Updated

Display place in queue when hold is inactive

Customer Relationship & Account Management UNDER REVIEW

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254 results found

  1. Sierra uses a particular Load Table to determine how bibliographic records are overlaid when new records loaded via Remote Search (i.e., downloaded from another library catalogue using Z39.50)

    According to Sierra's documentation the default Load Table is "m2btab.b", but Innovative can configure Sierra to use another one if desired.

    We have found that certain projects call for different Load Tables because different sets of fields should be retained, discarded, or inserted. It is possible to change to a different Load Table for remote search temporarily (or modify the current Load Table), but that would affect all cataloguers for the duration…

    8 votes

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  2. In the PIN reset workflow, when a user enters a new PIN and confirms it with a different value, the message “New PINs do not match” is displayed. Currently, this string does not appear to be configurable via the messages.conf or messages_lang.conf files, and cannot be localized.

    This limits our ability to fully support non-English users and ensure a consistent and accessible user experience across the system.

    Suggested improvement:
    Allow the “New PINs do not match” message to be configured through messages.conf, using a key such as RESETPINSDONTMATCH, or by extending the functionality of the existing REQ…

    8 votes

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  3. Because our library does not use fines, having the "Failed to acquire fines payment lock. If not cleared, fines payments cannot be processed" message is of no utility for us. We'd love multiple users to be able to view a patron record without this message showing up.

    8 votes

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  4. 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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  5. Posting processes and Fund Activity Reports (FAR) are essential routine tasks for Acquisitions libraries, but manual execution requiring multi-step confirmations creates workflow bottlenecks, increases the risk of human error, and causes delays during staff absences. As a System Administrator for a 54-member consortium with 36 accounting units, I would like to schedule an auto-Posting and monthly FAR runs for all 36 units. Additionally, the FAR process should automatically clear payment history when funds are in balance, safely post valid encumbrances, and send email exception logs if it detects out-of-balance funds or active keying sessions.

    Automating these processes reclaims valuable staff…

    7 votes

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  6. As a System Administrator for a 54-member consortium, I want to receive an automated notification when someone uploads an offline file for processing. This would enable immediate file processing without waiting for manual staff alerts, prevent circulation errors caused by processing old files, and streamline the consortium workflow.

    7 votes

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  7. 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…

    7 votes

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  8. The Sierra Patron Record is able to be communicated to Vega Discover in such a way that differentiates the following fields:

    Street Address Line 1
    Street Address Line 2
    City
    State
    Postal Code
    Country


    Discover does not parse Sierra addresses correctly.

    1) New Discover registrations do not parse correctly in Sierra.
    2) Existing registrations in Sierra do not parse correctly in Discover.

    This was the comment by Innovative Staff on this topic:
    Discover does have difficulty with parsing Sierra patron addresses, and this is not changing in the July release. For libraries who do allow patrons to edit their own…

    7 votes

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  9. When creating a new customer record from scratch, or when updating & finalizing those submitted through our online application, we have staff perform some checks to prevent duplicate records.

    They'll begin by searching the Name index to make sure that there's no pre-existing record for the same name. Then as backup, they'll try searching by birth date or phone number.

    However, when you search by birth date or phone number, the results do not come back in alphabetical order, making things a bit harder than they should be for frontline staff. See example image where the search for the DOB…

    7 votes

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  10. Scheduler is a powerful tool. Libraries would like to use that tool to schedule SQL scripts. I understand that libraries use 3rd party tools to create SQL statements and then schedule/export/send the results to other 3rd party tools. It would help a lot of libraries that don't have the resources to do this extra setup if a query could be added to scheduler and that query be emailed to one or more individuals in a csv file.

    Why do libraries have to use SQL? SQL allows us to query/export/link fields that cannot be queried in Create Lists. Querying the database…

    7 votes

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  11. When AACP is turned on and we've loaded new / changed authorities, there are some bib records impacted by the authorities' headings which do not get automatically updated and require staff edits. Sometimes it is terminal punctuation that needs to be added for certain entries perhaps tied to a new closed death date; or sometimes it's an indicator in a bib MARC field that should get added because it's in the authority record that's new or changed. We think just a little bit of development here would help save staff time.

    7 votes

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  12. A Sierra feature to allow scanning a Driver’s License to auto-populate customer information for a new account and/or to update an existing account. Automatically inserting a customer's name, date of birth, address, and DL number would result in less typos/mistakes, save considerable staff time when creating or updating an account, and additional staff time in reviewing and fixing errors.

    7 votes

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  13. Currently, it's possible to have item status and OPAC message codes displayed in the summary view. However, we'd like the option to display the full names of these statuses/messages rather than the codes to make things clearer for staff who don't have them memorized.

    7 votes

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  14. Problem:

    Currently, the "Prioritize Paging Open Locations First" feature and the "Prioritize Hold Fulfillment at the Pickup Location" feature for Title Priority Paging are incompatible. When you have both turned on, pages will skip closed locations and page at an open location, but will not allow the hold to be filled because there is a copy available at the hold pickup location. However, the hold pickup location is not paged for that item since paging skipped that location, so they don't see that patrons are waiting. This causes staff confusion and also impacts how quickly a patron can receive their…

    7 votes

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  15. I recently learned that the fields included in the Expanded Display for patron records (when you rollover/click the i next to the record) are hard coded.

    I found this unfortunate, because what's shown in the Expanded Display differs depending on where you're viewing it, which in the case of patron records is either going to be in the Search/Find a Patron view or the Check Out mode view.

    Examples of where I see room for improvement here:

    1) When I search for a patron by name & come up with dozens of people with the same name, an identifier like…

    7 votes

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  16. Right now NCIP for Symphony, Voyager, Polaris, Koha and Evergreen all accept ISBNs, but Sierra's does not.

    7 votes

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  17. Ability for patron to add money to their Sierra patron account (via self-check) to pay for future fines, fees, and printing. We are looking to go mostly cashless, but some patrons aren't able to get credit cards (like our young patrons here after school). Our self-check machine takes cash, which would allow patrons to print and pay fees/fines with cash, even if the staff doesn't have a cash register.

    7 votes

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  18. Currently the Record History report for Bib Records in Sierra contains a list of record changes, the login that made a change, and when it was changed.

    However, if the change to a bib record was attempted with a login without the required permissions, Sierra will ask for a login with elevated permissions and allow the user make a change once logged in. In this case, the Record history will record the first login (without required permissions), instead of the elevated login needed to make the change.

    Problem: Record History report for Bib Records Record History report for Bib Records…

    7 votes

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  19. When matching on an ISBN for record loading, it should be possible to limit the match to the first 13 (or 10) digits. There are often extraneous data in 020 subfield |a. There are now other subfields where that is supposed to go, but it frequently ends up in |a anyway, and then your record loading won't match.

    7 votes

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  20. We're currently dealing with a known issue in Sierra 6.2, where volume holds aren't being added to paging lists. Having discovered it on our end fairly recently, we've asked staff to continue running their paging lists for other items, but use the Manage Holds function to find & fill volume requests.

    The problem is that the current search retrieves such a high number of items. And while the search results display counts of the title number of holds, & the total number of bib, volume, & item level holds, you cannot currently limit them & make the Manage Holds report…

    7 votes

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