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8 votes
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Phil Agnew
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10 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I see how this could be useful, but want to stress that this would need to have some sort of "Reset Unclaimed Holds Count" similar to the "Reset Claim Count" for claims returns. I can just foresee a situation where a patron has 20 picture books they requested go unclaimed after an unexpected personal tragedy being blocked from holds by an automated process like this. Staff need a way to remedy that without the patron having to wait 6 months (or whatever configured time period) for the block to drop off.
Phil Agnew
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7 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I agree with Lynn, that this should be enabled as a configurable option. While I'm personally on team "Opt-Out" (I just think that most people prefer to have access to their own reading history), I understand and appreciate the needs of people on team "Opt-In". So, yes please, allow Polaris libraries to configure default behaviors reading history (or any field, really) in new patron registrations.
Phil Agnew
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6 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I think this indicative of the broader need to have have better CSS for dynamic scaling of the Leap web client. I'm sure this is something that would also affect anyone trying to view patron account information on a tablet with a smaller screen/resolution... Not directly related, but I'd love to see us eventually get a genuinely "mobile friendly" version of Leap. There are a lot of interesting applications for running the web app on a phone/phablet sized device.
Phil Agnew
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13 votesPhil Agnew
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18 votesPhil Agnew
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11 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
Agreed. There was another post recently about the same thing, only with a slightly different flavor:
Phil Agnew
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13 votesPhil Agnew
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An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I do think this could be useful and I think it could be implemented pretty easily by essentially cloning the "Located" tab (only not have it clear automatically). That way, you have a "Unable to Locate" tab that staff could return to for a second pass later without gumming up the "Pending" requests with items that are probably a little out of place. It would also be nice to have a counter that could be incremented with each "search", since I know libraries have lots of different ideas/policies on how many times they should look for something before declaring it "Missing".
Speaking of which, I know "Missing" is intended to serve this function in theory, but in practice, many libraries prefer not to mark items "Missing" until they've done a more thorough search... many items are only off by a shelf or two... often the result of "good Samaritan re-shelving" or volunteers/staff still familiarizing themselves with local item placement.
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32 votesPhil Agnew
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40 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I'll vote for making almost any field editable via bulk changes. Ideally, everything except things like control numbers should be able to be edited in bulk.
Phil Agnew
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24 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
Could have sworn I commented here already, but yes, this would certainly have it's uses. Though, in interest of flexibility, I think it would be nice if the feature could support .csv file loads in addition to Excel. I just personally prefer text files for lists of ItemRecordIDs or Barcodes, but to each their own.
In the meantime, you can TECHNICALLY accomplish this by using a SQL query to create a NEW Record Set that excludes Items in one Record Set from another. You'll need to know the RecordSetID for your two starting Record Sets, but that's easily found in the top right corner of the Record Set display in Leap. The query is also slightly different for each type of Record Set, but here's a template for Item Record Sets:
SELECT [ItemRecordID]
FROM [Polaris].[Polaris].[ItemRecordSets]
WHERE [RecordSetID] = /*Starting RecordSetID*/
AND [ItemRecordID] NOT IN (
SELECT [ItemRecordID]
FROM [Polaris].[Polaris].[ItemRecordSets]
WHERE [RecordSetID] = /*RecordSetID of Items to exclude*/
)Again, you'll need to change the query up a little for different types of Record Sets, but it's pretty obvious stuff. Here's a template for Bibliographic Record Sets:
SELECT [BibliographicRecordID]
FROM [Polaris].[Polaris].[BibRecordSets]
WHERE [RecordSetID] = /*Starting RecordSetID*/
AND [BibliographicRecordID] NOT IN (
SELECT [BibliographicRecordID]
FROM [Polaris].[Polaris].[BibRecordSets]
WHERE [RecordSetID] = /*RecordSetID of Items to exclude*/
)I won't bother with templates for Patron or Weeding Record Sets, but I think you get the idea. I do think this would be a useful feature to add, but hopefully this can make your workflow a little easier for now.
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I can certainly see how this could be useful, though I'll make a plug for support for .csv uploads as well, for flexibility's sake.
I'll also mention that you can TECHNICALLY do something like this already, though it requires a little bit of SQL searching and you end up with 3 different Record Sets instead of 2. If we're talking about Item Record Sets, the SQL isn't too bad... I actually worked out the bones when I was putting all but a few hundred items at a branch that was closing for renovation into the Storage status:
SELECT [ItemRecordID]
FROM [Polaris].[Polaris].[CircItemRecords]
WHERE [ItemRecordID] IN (SELECT [ItemRecordID] FROM [ItemRecordSets] WHERE [RecordSetID] = *Original Record Set ID)
AND [ItemRecordID] NOT IN (SELECT [ItemRecordID] FROM [ItemRecordSets] WHERE [RecordSetID] = *Record Set ID of Records to Exclude/Remove)The RecordSetID displays prominently in the top right corner of the Record Set in Leap, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding those there... In the Desktop Client, you have to open the Record Set Properties, which it a little less convenient, but still doable. If you're dealing with 10K+ entries, I expect you're probably dealing with Items, so I'll leave it at this for now... but if you'd like me to to work out a similar query for Bibs, just let me know.
Phil Agnew
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10 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I just dealt with this for the first time myself and I think it mostly boils down to the Authority Records not being removed from the Record Set before the "delete" action is passed. Item and Bibliographic Record Sets both appear to remove the record from the set, which I think is why we don't see the same problem there (this also helps prevent unintentional "double delete" actions, but that's another can of worms).
Fortunately, the Remote Desktop App Client (old school Polaris Client) doesn't have the same problem. It appears to remove the Authority Record from the Record Set before processing the "delete" action, just like the Item and Bib Record Sets. So, there's at least a workaround, but I think "fixing" the Authority Record Set "delete" workflow to include the "remove from record set" action in the Leap Client, like the Item and Bib Record Sets, would be a quick fix to this issue.
Phil Agnew
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10 votesPhil Agnew
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11 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
First, let me clarify that you CAN log into any branch in Leap from any given "workstation", but you can only select from "workstations" that have been assigned to that branch. I think that's what "B" was talking about here, but that isn't quite how the post reads... please correct me if I'm mistaken.
Anyway, I think the current workstation limitation in Leap stems from the web client not retrieving the machine name for the workstation at login... I'm not sure if that's a technical limitation of the web authentication or just something that's presently missing, but I'm pretty sure that's why the generic "LEAP-(branch abbreviation)" workstations are configured for Leap. Actual machine name authentication would be great (for security and reporting purposes), but barring that, I think the best solution would be to tie workstations to staff instead of branches. Having EVERY workstation surface as a selectable option for staff when they log into any branch would be... problematic... even if the browser does cache your selection for future logins... And with staff often floating from one branch to another, sometimes with laptops/"mobile workstations", being able to surface their workstation for them regardless of their branch selection would be helpful.
Tying the workstation selection to the staff member would also allow us to potentially restrict staff to a specific group of workstations within a larger building. Staff that exclusively work a 2nd floor reference desk don't need to see workstations for the 1st floor circulation desk, and staff that work in the tech services department don't need to see workstations located in the children's department. Again, in a web accessible environment with non-stationary computers, connecting workstations to staff makes a lot more sense than connecting them to branches.
Phil Agnew
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16 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
I haven't found good documentation for this and I can't test it myself right now, but I think there MIGHT already be some config to support this. There are settings named "Barcodes: Item format definition" and "Barcodes: Patron format definition" that allow you to set prefixes and controlled lengths for your barcode formats. Now, I'm not sure if it's prescriptive or restrictive config, so it's possible it just defines formats for barcode generation and doesn't block barcodes that don't match the criteria, but it might be worth looking into.
There's also config named "Web app: Item barcode REGEX" and "Web app: Patron barcode REGEX" that might handle the same concept, only with the flexibility of Regular Expressions. You do need to know just a little bit of RegEx to make use of this, but I'd argue that basic RegEx is worthwhile skill for anyone working in libraries. As an example, I would configure ^0119[0-9]{9} for our own Item Barcodes, which translates to "Start of line, 0, 1, 1, 9, any value from 0 to 9 for 9 places" which totals to 13 characters. I think that's probably enough of an explanation for anyone to get started here... but again, I'm not entirely sure what the intent is for this config.
If all you're really trying to do is keep staff from accidentally scanning UPCs at checkout, then you have one other option that is honestly more reliable than configuring anything in the ILS. Your library barcodes are probably using either Codabar or Code39 symbologies (they're more or less the standard for libraries), so all you need to do is configure your barcode readers to not read the EAN/UPC symbology. This is much easier than you might think but will take a little bit of research for your specific barcode readers. You'll want to find the FULL manual for your barcode reader online (not that "Quick Start" guide they package with it) and search or navigate to the symbologies section of the document. There you should find configuration barcodes to enable or disable every symbology supported by your barcode reader. Find the barcode to disable EAN/UPC and print out the full page (trying to PRINT SCREEN just the barcode can mess with the scale and make it unreadable when printed, so save yourself the headache and just print the whole page) then scan that barcode with each of the barcode readers at your front desks where you don't want UPCs to be read. Note that one major advantage to doing things this way is that you can effectively control which workstations read UPCs and which ones don't. This is important because you probably don't want to disable UPC reading for your cataloging staff, who are likely searching for bibliographic records using UPCs. Again, it requires a little research, but once you find the configuration barcode you need, you can just pass/distribute it around to each of your workstations, provided they're using the same barcode readers... if not, you'll have a little more research to do for each manufacturer/model in use at your libraries.
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11 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
Agreed. Another default option could be "First X number of letters of last name", since I think that's one of the only fields required by default. If you want to take things one step further and generate random passwords that print a receipt on demand, that would be the most secure option. I wouldn't write off the DOB idea in favor of either of those though.
Phil Agnew
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19 votesPhil Agnew
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15 votesPhil Agnew
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55 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
Yes, please! I'll say the same should be true for Transit Item that might have gone missing... those being locked in Transit status is genuinely problematic from an item history perspective... our consortium would prefer to transition Long Transit Items to Missing before moving them to Withdrawn, so the Lost Item Transition doesn't really suit our purposes. I wouldn't be opposed to this having it's own permission too...
Phil Agnew
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9 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Phil Agnew
commented
While I'm not opposed to increasing the character limit, I think you might be better served by looking into the Dated Note functionality added in 8.0. If the limit were increased, you'd probably just find yourself in the same boat again later. If you shifted to using Date Notes for more historical purposes, you'll never run into this problem again, since each Dated Note is it's own entry. It is a little confusing having "Notes" AND "Dated Notes" though... the feature was added just before our Go Live date, so I was able to use some REGEXP_SUBSTR() queries targeting carriage returns to slice our existing note blocks into separate entries to add as "Dated Notes" (not perfect, but serviceable) and disabled the standard "Notes" in favor of "Dated Notes". I know something like that isn't a viable option for everyone, but you could conceivably start transitioning over to Date Notes by manually copying note data, starting with your most "robust" patron accounts... though it would be nice to be able to optionally change the "Date" value for "Dated Notes" created this way... That might be another "Idea"...
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Yeah... I'm not sure how much of this is a Leap problem and how much is a browser problem, but the staff password field for Leap login should be made distinct in some way from the patron password field that surfaces with the "Reset Password" button. Built in password managers may still recognize it as a password field and attempt to save it for you, but it would be helpful if it at least didn't overwrite the staff login password... though that might be tricky if the passwords are only being managed by the browser per domain...