Koha-US SIG - Circulation Special Interest Group, 16 Nov 2020

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From YouTube: User Services Special Interest Group - 11/16/2020

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Chat logs:
00:11:26 Heather Hernandez: We haven't used it--we're Display Curious, so I'm hoping to learn!
00:13:36 Heather Hernandez: We do put our rare books into displays (in display cases) but our workflow could really be improved.
00:18:53 Jason Robb: Found the ticket for the display module: https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=12141
00:27:01 Heather Hernandez: We're quarantining for 7 days, but we're a museum library, and only providing services to staff right now--we're still closed to the public.
00:28:56 Heather Hernandez: Our quarantine is just letting the materials sit undisturbed for 7 days, then we check in before shelving (with proper PPE)--but we don't charge any fines.

A

All right, let's make it official. This is november, 16 2020 the user services meeting, and uh I my question is: has any of you guys use the course reserve for displays, or actually how do you guys use your displays or handle your displays in coho.

B

Well, so we're an academic library, so we actually use course reserves, for course, reserves um display. We just put stuff out well, we used to in the old days when we actually had. You know people coming into the library we would just put stuff out um and not really do anything in koha per se.

C

I think I I don't do much with it. I think that we've always just put them in a shelf location called display, um so that we could distinguish that they're not actually on the shelf where they're supposed to be. I don't know that my library uses that anymore, but I think that I have some libraries on my consortium that that do it that way, but we've never we've never used the course reserves.

C

I did see ed talk about it at kohakon when he presented on that and it seemed interesting at the time, but I never really followed up or did anything with it.

A

Yeah I went over his video and it was an interesting idea and I really wanted to see if we could.

A

um We could get the statistics on the the the items that that uh that are on display and circulate and uh currently right now, we're just checking them out to display and that kind of takes them off the catalog and um we just kind of want to find a better workaround for that and and the curse reserves seem to be an option um from what his video, if you're in at all interested.

A

I suggest just to just take a look at it and I was actually reading up on um kelly's um kelly's post about it and we we have discovery or aspen. So we don't really need the jquery to change the opac so much, but having the course reserved to switch it on and off and and easily manage these items and get the stats. That's what we're kind of looking.

A

A

Is that margaret down.

A

There has anybody actually seen the video jason. You said you went to the conference, but.

C

Yeah, if you scroll down to the bottom of that uh blog post, I think kelly has a link there.

A

Yeah it's about 17 minutes, but I don't think anybody it's there for anybody who wants to watch it just. I was just kind of curious to see if anybody had seen.

A

A

Does anybody have anything else to talk about.

A

Are we just a very, very quiet.

C

C

The second one I guess uh I was trying to I was trying to look and see if we were actually still using this display shelf location. One reason we had we didn't like use the course reserves. Module is because I do have an academic library in my consortium, and I would I've always been like well. If you want to use course, reserves you can um you can do that, but they never never bite, but I don't want to like lock it up. You know in case they ever decide. They do want to use it.

C

I know that at quahog, con ed had put in a bug ticket to set this up. So it's a separate module like having a display, module and a course resource module separate, but I don't think it ever got much.

A

Traction yeah: we have a very active when well when we're when we were open, we had a very active um display group. Our customer services were actually asking me to set up a hoopla display um specific, like content in hoopla, just to display that and you're able to do that. But man it's a lot of work so.

D

Is anybody else an early adopter? The next upgrade.

D

No, it's gone really smoothly for us. Yes, the last one before that was terrible for us.

E

Have you started or excuse me, have you started to use the browse display or the the new browse feature at all, not really.

D

We're just kind of mostly we were just hoping that we weren't gonna have the problems that we had. I think part of the the last one was so rough is because of the closure and then the upgrade, and oh my gosh.

D

We had a few days where I was just ready to bury myself.

A

So which guy what happened, what problems did you have in the last upgrade wow.

F

G

D

Let me see, do you remember, there's just one thing after another, a lot of it had to do with.

D

I think more, it had to do with the fact that we were quarantining things and we were trying to figure out a way.

D

So we could get items checked in but then put them into quarantine and um when we first we stayed open for a very long time in comparison to other libraries and then we closed and we changed all of our due dates, and I think part of the problem we had is that we made so many changes in a short amount of time and we tried to be real, careful about writing everything down and changes and the system preferences that we made, but we probably weren't as careful as we needed to be so when things started, when we started going again and then we had the upgrade it was just we couldn't tell if it was because it was part of the upgrade or if it was because we'd had so many um changes that we'd made before we were upgraded.

D

So I think it was just a combination of different um things, all together at the same time. So um some of the things that we've had trouble with in the past is like guarantors and um making sure that um we have a guarantor um with all of our um juvenile accounts and things like that. But this this upgrade has been super smooth and I don't know if it's partly because we're all so traumatized from the last year. So everything is like easy now um um or if it's just that, it's really smooth.

D

It seems very smooth this time. So.

B

I know in the you know when we upgraded some of us myself included, lost all the tools and they didn't know what tools I had previous to that. So they kind of just said: okay. Well, we think you have these tools so now I don't know like I swear, I had the ability, so they gave me back some tools, but now I don't know what I'm still missing unless I'm like. Well, I thought I could do this before and I don't see this anymore, so I find that I'm putting in tickets a lot. You know.

B

I think I was able to do this before so I'm a little bit worried about the upcoming upgrade. You know, I better take a picture of what I have right now, so that I can make sure I have it when we, you know, go to the new version.

C

Yeah, that was an issue that I that we had um crop up a lot with the the last upgrade was. I had people that would randomly just not have access to things they had access to before the the permissions um got scrambled like my head of cataloging couldn't run reports anymore, that's kind of a definite thing that um I wouldn't have done on purpose um so yeah. I agree with you. The last upgrade was kind of dramatic.

C

um There were also a lot of things to do with the account lines um where, like old credits, were crawling back from the graves, and uh we had phantom finds at one point that the things that couldn't be explained that we just had to kind of wipe out um so and we're we're not an early adopter, but we are, our data is old um and it's been migrated at least once uh and so there it's obviously not gonna, be perfect or clean with every upgrade, but man last time seemed really rough.

C

So it's good to hear that this time it is less dramatic. We haven't upgraded yet, but looking forward to some of the changes that are coming.

A

So when we upgraded, we didn't have any other tools disappear or anything like that, but I noticed a lot of my javascript just disappeared and it seemed like some of my our circulation rules also disappeared, but that just might have been me being you know, forgetful, but great, that it sounds like it's. It's gone well so far, so that's.

C

Thank you. Disappearance is like a nightmare.

A

Don't talk about that, it was weird it was like. I was looking at him like. I remember setting this up. What what happened to it.

C

C

Have to watch for that. I know that lizette mentioned that they had a lot of issues with their cirque finals. With this upgrade because there's two different things improvements, I guess you could call them regarding this refine rules, the they're moving moving it to a different table and also adding validation on the rules so like.

C

If they they aren't valid, then they get eliminated, but something about that happened out of order for her, so things stopped working completely and they had to do a pull and restore that uh to restore her rules. So that's something to watch for for sure. Ouch.

A

By the way, how many people are on uh discovery is anybody else? Besides us or aspen,.

C

We're not it's on my wish list, um but we we don't, have uh it's not it's not in the the budget for us at this point, maybe in the future.

A

C

A

It's really cool, although you know when, when people put out custom jquery for the the old site, it's you kind of shake your fist because it it doesn't work in aspen or discovery, and it was like the uh the curbside tool they had.

A

You could set up pickups and you can do that in the old old pack, but you can't do it in aspen or discovery which it was kind of frustrating but yeah. All in all. It's great our users love it. So.

C

Yeah, I really want that that ferberization is, is my dream um being able to have them all grouped and then they can pick a format which aspen does. I know that the there's a pretty hefty ticket on the dev site to bring that to gohan baseline, uh it's like 20, 000 or 30 000, or something so uh we'll get it someday either by finally adopting aspen or helping pay for that development, but yeah. I that's something I wish koha could do forever. So it's cool that the option is.

C

B

Are people using the quarantine any of the quarantine developments that they made for uh koha just curious? What like either a shelving location or a status.

B

C

Using the oh good, sorry.

D

C

D

Oh, I was just gonna say: yeah, we're using the shelving location, um the quarantine status for 72 hours. That's just a general question I have is: is everybody still quarantining or and for how long.

C

So we're using the shelving location as well um and we're quarantining for, I believe, we're at four days. um I know we've had some discussion about that. We we're basically following what the statewide courier recommends at this point, um but I don't know that all my libraries follow it that closely. I know that some of my libraries have uv sanitation things and so they're, instead of quarantining the stuff that comes back, they just sanitize it and put it back on the shelf. um I don't know but yeah.

C

For the most part, my libraries are also quarantining for 48 hours um and we use the shelf location to automatically kind of handle that whole process.

F

Yeah we're doing 72, but we're.

B

Not we have the ability to use the shelving location, but we're actually my library is so small and we don't have a lot of volume going through it right now. We're actually setting it aside and then checking it in three days later, but because all our classes right now are pretty much online. So we don't have a lot of people coming in so and then all the libraries in our network everybody's doing something different.

B

Some one library does have that sanitation device they bought, and then you know some some libraries aren't open at all for any. You know, returns or checkouts, so everybody's doing something.

A

A

We are actually not using it. um We aren't even returning material, we are doing a quarantine, but we don't put it through the machine and until 72 hours, and I was actually going to ask you guys: do you clean your machines every time you run it or or run material through it, because I'm assuming you have to check it in to get that status right.

C

Right so I had libraries doing it both ways. Initially, um I think, for the most part, they are just checking the items in first applying the status and setting them aside and then washing their hands. um But I did have some libraries that were waiting the three or four days before they ever touched. It and then checked it in and it would still apply the status, but they just put on the shelf at that point, anyways, which both ways are sloppy um yeah and as far as using the the uv thing.

C

I don't really know because we don't have one in-house, I'm not sure what the the process is. There completely.

D

We started with just checking everything in manually um after 72 hours and then we were getting so many phone calls about. I'd return this I need this checked in. So we at some point that I can't remember how long it was ago, but we um we started just everything is getting checked in through our machine and then we um put it on.

D

We put all our more materials on carts and I bought five for six different colored carts of I probably have about a hundred carts now and we cart everything around and we put it in certain areas. So it's kind of like um we put it in our meeting room, but sometimes we have get-togethers there. So I have to like squirrel things away in closets and um but anyway, um it's much smoother for us to have the items just get checked in immediately.

D

um It's really it's made our patrons happy and it's made our staff a lot happier as well. So we did it both ways and plan b works better than.

A

Planning you know I I petitioned for us to to check material in and then use the quarantine status, but they they're concerned about transmission, so we went to just holding it and notifying- or you know, putting out messages on the website and in anything, any communications to this. The patrons that it's going to be on your account for three days. Don't worry about it.

A

We actually did extend the overdue notice by like um honestly 10 days, so they don't get. You know dinged or notified that their items are overdue for for quite a while. So.

B

That's what my public library did they just have on the website. They say please, please note that you know it won't get. You know it'll be quarantined for three days before it comes off your account. So don't don't be alarmed. So I guess that's how they worked around.

A

That this is kind of the, so we were going to do the the curbside tool, but we switched over to a new service called communico, and I was wondering if anybody had heard of it or used it with koha.

B

Now, what is it.

A

It's kind of a it is a you schedule, meetings and and set up. um You can do the curbside as well. um There's a couple other features on it that I haven't really looked at yet, but our um community relations signed up for it and they're like hey. It's got this feature. Let's try this out so.

B

And does it, is it tied into cohar or is it just a separate.

A

um It's supposed to be um they're working on an api to work with gohan, but I think we're one of the first libraries to start using it. They say they have a couple of other ones, but when I asked they didn't didn't, tell me which libraries now.

B

We've been using libcal, um our systems, person got it set up like a month ago or so, and it's he's done a great job, and so now we can schedule curbside pickup. We schedule um study sessions and we can schedule like like quick prints where they can come in for half an hour, and that seems to be working really well with us.

B

So as far as the curbside, that would be the only pretty much the only thing we would need to use coha for so that's kind of like a mediated appointment, and so um the staff will have to go in like the patron will enter what they need or something like that and the staff will go in and you know somehow reply to it. Yeah we have the book or or something like that, but that's worked out well for us. So far,.

B

We didn't use the plug-in for a quahog because it looked pretty complicated for and we're not there every day and staff is taking turns coming in. So I didn't know whether people would remember what they all the different steps they were supposed to do. So that's why originally we passed on.

B

A

Yeah, our director thought that the uh the callout tool is pretty complicated too. um I don't know it just it kind of made sense to me, but I love tinkering with things and I like complicated stuff. So, but um it was called you said lib cal right.

B

Yeah it's by spring share. It's part of the you know how we use lib guides and I guess it's like another product that they they.

A

A

I remember spring share. I was a I did a little bit of. I did some time at a community college and we had spring share for our lib guides too. So.

B

And I think we use lib answers and um I don't know if we use anything else, but.

B

The reference I brands use a.

B

A

Well, it doesn't look like we have any more people joining us. Were there any other topics that one people wanted to cover.

A

I'm gonna guess that's a no! So um you know I'm gonna play around with the the course reserves and displays, and uh I've got some guinea pigs that uh that are looking forward to using it, and I will get back to you guys and tell you how it goes um if we adopt it yay. If we don't, then I'll tell you guys, warn you guys to abandon it or don't even look into it. So, but uh thanks everybody for uh showing up today and I'll, see you guys next month.

B

C

Thanks daniel.

E

E

E