Off-line Circulation starts tomorrow - July 3

We begin using SirsiDynix Off-line Circulation tomorrow.  Fred e-mailed detailed instructions on off-line procedures this morning.  The information is also available on the Staff Training Portal as one of the Circulation Manual links.  The IT Helpdesk will be prepared to assist you with any problems you encounter.  And a lot of us will be backing them up.

It is both an exciting and frightening time.  We know customer service issues will arise and we have confidence that you will be able to handle them well.

If you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Thanks,

Syma

Syma Zerkow

Chief of Library Materials Services

Staff Workstations

IT staff is attempting to visit all locations today to verify that your SirsiDynix Workflows workstations are correctly configured and labeled.  To assist them, please go to every computer on which you have Workflows, double-click the icon and log-in to halantest.sirsi.net with username: CIRC and PIN: CIRC.  If any of the terminals cannot complete the download and bring up the Workflows circulation screen, alert the IT staff person who comes to your location.  They will need to do some extra procedures to get that terminal working properly.

Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation.

Syma 

Syma Zerkow

Chief of Library Materials Services

SirsiDynix Symphony (new circulation and catalog system) update #8

  As you know from Dr. Lawson's message, we are changing our circulation period to 3-weeks with one renewal for most items.  DVDs cannot be renewed.

In addition, you need to know that items are renewed from the renewal date, not from the due date.

   We have already had one customer complain about this change and we anticipate that you will be dealing with this concern from a number of other customers.  Please review this response so that you will have a ready explanation to offer:

We share your concerns and we have requested that the vendor develop the capability of renewing material based on the due date. This is a major programming change since most library circulation software renews materials from the renewal date (our current system is the exception). We anticipate it will be at least a year before this could become a reality. In the meantime, we hope that the 3-week check-out period with e-mail reminders when it is time to renew will mitigate the inconvenience for most of our customers.

I hope you have seen the FAQ's and timeline on the Staff Intranet page.  In addition, the link from the banner on the Library Homepage goes to the Library Blog where you can see what has been posted about the change for our customers to read and their questions with our answers.  You may wish to print the FAQ's out so you have quick responses to other questions customers may pose.

When you or a customer logs in to your library account, a new message will be appearing in the next few days.  This has also been posted to the Library Blog.

If you had previously opted in to the Reading History, that information will transfer to the new customer accounts system. However, some other information will not carry-over.  We recommend that you print out or email to yourself anything you have saved in "My Lists" as well as any "Preferred Searches." You can then re-create them in Enterprise, our new catalog.  Also, our new catalog does not feature Customer Reviews, Ratings, or Tags.  You may wish to save your reviews and add them to a social reading network such as Goodreads or LibraryThing.  The current catalog will be available through July 2. 

  We are planning a one-hour training session to be held at multiple locations during the first two weeks of July to review the features of the online catalog.  Look for an announcement from HPL Training. 

  This week starts our real transition to the new system.  You should now be following the new procedure for items on the fly and for checking in new periodicals.  Some new items are still coming to you in Delivery.  Please check them in as usual.  If you have questions or problems with either of these procedures, please contact me and I will have someone get back to you.

  Lastly, it has been pointed out to me that I have not addressed one of your most serious questions:  Why on earth are we doing this in the middle of the Summer Reading Club?

  We are all very aware that the timing of this change is not good.  Unfortunately, HALAN's contract with III expires at the end of June.  We have made arrangements to start paying them on a month-to-month basis but it is costing tens of thousands of dollars to do this.  We had to bite the bullet and make the change as quickly as possible.  We (Administration and HALAN staff) are deeply grateful for your willingness to do "one more thing" when you are already doing so much. 

If you have any questions, please contact me. 

Thanks,

Syma

Syma Zerkow

Chief of Library Materials Services

Houston Public Library

SirsiDynix Symphony (new circulation and catalog system) update #7

This coming week we will have some major changes.  On June 21, we will begin exporting our catalog records from the current III system so that they can be imported into the new Sirsi system.  Any changes we make to catalog records after that date will not be carried over to the new catalog.  Therefore,

June 20

• Last day to delete items from III.
• Last day to check-in periodicals in III.
• Last day to check-in NEW books and materials received in Delivery.  New materials will not start to reappear until mid-July.

June 21

• Any item on the fly must be linked to the new bibliographic record "Item on the Fly" rather than the actual title.
• Any periodical checked-in must be done using the Google Docs spreadsheet and barcode method.
• Floating is stopped. Items should go back in-transit to the location indicated by the system when they are checked in.

This past week, the catalog records for periodicals, microfilm, e-books and e-audiobooks were updated so that they will function properly in Enterprise. The information on how to search for them is posted on the main catalog page but we know that many customers use the search box from the main website so please be prepared to assist our customers when they are looking for these materials.

• To find magazines, go to Journals & Periodicals. 
• To find microfilm, add “microform” to your keyword search terms. 
• To find E-books and E-audiobooks, limit to the location HPL Electronic Resources.

Circulation training is now in full swing.  And the good news is that the Symphony Circulation Manual is now available on the Staff Training Portal:

https://sites.google.com/site/hplstafftraining/

I have asked each site to verify with the IT Helpdesk that all staff workstations can access Workflows.  Hopefully, any issues will be resolved quickly so you can practice what you are learning in the Circulation training on our test server.

if you have any questions, please contact me. 

Thanks,

Syma

SirsiDynix Symphony (new circulation and catalog system) update #6

Training for circulation in Symphony is kicking off in earnest.  Here are the scheduled classes for the coming week:

• June 10 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Robinson
• June 12 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Carnegie
• June 13 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Stella Link
• June 13 – 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Central - Computer Lab
• June 14 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Kashmere-Gardens
• June 14 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Central - Computer Lab

Check the full email from Fred Schumacher dated June 6 for additional times, sites, and registration information.  In addition, Pat Ogea and Gail Ibarra are making visits to many Neighborhood Libraries to meet with staff and show them how to handle periodicals after June 19.

One thing you will discover when you attend the training is that the abbreviation for Houston Public Library in Symphony and Enterprise is HOU.  We did not want to use HPL because Huntsville Public Library (abbreviation HNT) is part of the HALAN consortium and we do not want to get confused. 

In Enterprise, the online catalog, we will be using the formal name for several neighborhood libraries that were not listed that way in the III online catalog.  Those locations affected are Freed-Montrose, Henington-Alief, McCrane-Kashmere, McGovern-Stella Link, and Shepherd-Acres Homes.  So don’t panic if you no longer see Acres Homes at the top of the list of locations in the online catalog J.  In Symphony Workflows, we continue to use our old abbreviations prefaced by HOU, so in Workflows, you would find Acres Homes under HOU-ACR.

In next week’s email, I plan to review what will be happening when and discuss further changes.  In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact me or use Contact Us on the HALAN ILS Migration News site on the Intranet. 

Thanks,

Syma

Updating Customer Records

As you are updating customer records, please do not delete or change the “g” message field.  This field is used to create the message that customers now see when they log in to their account that reminds them to update their personal information in preparation for the move to Sirsi.  I believe that some of you may be changing it from “g” to “x” or deleting it entirely once the customer has updated their information.  Unfortunately, that creates a problem.  We are using that field to send a series of messages about the change (right now we are trying to alert customers that PINs will be required in the new system) and when you change the “g” to “x” or delete the “g” completely, we are no longer able to mass update those records. 

Thank you for your cooperation.  If you have any questions, let me know.

Syma

Syma Zerkow

Chief of Library Materials Service

SirsiDynix Symphony (new circulation and catalog system) update #4

Everyone should have the SirsiDynix Workflows icon on your staff workstation.  If you don't, please contact the IT Helpdesk.  The test database will be available for you to use starting Tuesday.  To access this site:

• Double-click the WF icon
  A Configuration box will appear and should have:
      o IP address: halantest.sirsi.net
      o Port: 7014
      (If necessary, change the IP address and port to match the information above)
• Log in with:
  User ID: CIRC
  PIN: CIRC
  WorkFlows will open to the Circulation Tab.  If you experience problems with any of this, please contact the IT Helpdesk.

 You can now begin to explore the interface.  Since this is a test database, you will see some functions that we will not be using and some things that have not been configured quite the way we expect to have them in our live version.  And the full database is not yet there.  Nevertheless, there is enough for you to use to become familiar with the system.  You will see that Sirsi has all the same functionality that we are used to but in some cases, the terminology is different.  I've put together a short table of some of the most obvious vocabulary changes:

There's a link to Help on the left menu and one along the top.  If you use the link on the top menu, be sure to select "context" and it will bring up information relevant to the screen you are on.  The link on the left menu automatically brings up the context specific help information.  Symphony's Help screens are excellent so it is a good idea to get used to using them.

"Train the Trainer" sessions have begun and continue through next week.  General training will begin the following week.  As always, if you have any questions, please contact me or use Contact Us on the HALAN ILS Migration News site on the Intranet.  Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Thanks,

Syma