I have just responded to a customer and want to share my response with you:
Why do I have such strange due dates for my books?
The offline circulation system is set to our new 3-week check-out period. However, because we knew we would be offline for a full week, we extended due dates on items checked out on our old system. We had two related goals in doing this: reducing the number of items that would be due back during this offline period and preventing a flood of returns the next week after we are back online. For this reason, you may end up with a variety of "illogical" date dues.
Why are items being held on the hold shelf for so long?
We extended the period that books would remain on the hold shelf to be certain that our being offline would not prevent someone from getting an item they had been waiting for.
Many of you will have already received this email:
Dear [Name],
Your login information for Symphony/WorkFlows is provided below. Please continue to use the Offline Session and do not login until Thursday, July 11, 2013. If the library or grouping information listed is incorrect or blank, please contact Erin Cody with the correct information.
User ID:
PIN:
Library/Group:
This, of course, replaces your old III password. If you work at Central or Neighborhood Libraries or in LMS and this message does not reach you by the morning of Tuesday, July 9, send an email to erin.cody@houstontx.gov so she can investigate and resolve the issue before we go live on July 11.
We have one more "train the trainer" session on Enterprise, our new online catalog. It is scheduled for July 10 from 10 – 11 a.m. in the Central Library's Concourse meeting room. Please make sure that someone from your location has attended one of these sessions and has shared what they learned. The handout from this training is available on the Staff Training Portal along with the full Enterprise training guide.
Updated "Your Library Card" brochures are being printed. We do not yet have a Spanish version of the updated brochure but that will follow. Additional print material to alert customers of changes is also on the way.
Take a look at the last page of the Offline Circulation Procedures. On Wednesday, July 10, at the close of the day, it will be essential that the procedure to go from offline mode to online mode is followed at every workstation that has been used in Workflows while we have been offline (July 3 through July 10). This is how the circulation and registration data will be uploaded to the system. We will, of course, send out a reminder with more detailed instructions but I wanted to give you a "heads up" now.
Please continue to call or email with questions or issues. We are almost there…
This email has been approved by Meller Langford, Deputy Director of Customer Experience.
Thanks,
Syma
Syma Zerkow
Chief of Library Materials Services
Houston Public Library
832-393-1484
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