OWWLUG Meeting, Friday, October 26, 2012

Agenda

Renew Items screen

New in 2.2 is a dedicated Renew Items function; it is used to renew items by scanning the barcodes. Renew Items is available from the CirculationMenu.

• Follow up: Can Renew Items be added to the toolbar?
• Read more: RenewItems22

Check boxes, as in Annotate Payment, etc.

Some functions have options that can be turned on or off using checkboxes - common examples include: Annotate Payment (PayBills), Include Inactive Users (PatronSearch). Once an option is checked/unchecked, it remains checked/unchecked for all subsequent patron records/staff client sessions until it is manually updated.

XACT_COLLISION errors

On editing patron accounts, sometimes this error will appear:

This is a known issue relating to a security feature in the staff client code. In testing, it consistently appeared when editing patron records for Invalid Addresses, bad telephone numbers, bad email addresses. When this happens staff can click Reload to refresh the patron record, or close the tab and retrieve the patron record again, although both options will cause updated information to be lost. One suggestion for avoiding this error is to make all changes and click Save only when all changes have been made.

Catalog Search - Find Series Information

One way to get information about a series - titles, order, links to OWWL catalog records - is to look up an example title in the catalog. Click the "Awards, Reviews, & Suggested Reads":

This opens additional information about the title, including other titles in the series:

When the title text below each cover image is blue, this is a link that opens that title's catalog record in a new browser tab. If the title text is black, no OWWL libraries own the title. Click "More" to view additional titles.

To see all series written by a specific author (and to get title lists formatted for printing) use Novelist. Novelist is accessible from: http://www.owwl.org/database, patrons can enter their library card and password to access Novelist from home. Search for an author, click the Series tab:

Then select the series.

All About Bills Highlights

• Bills List Tips
  • Change Column Configuration - ColumnPicker
  • TransactionType vs. BillingType
  • Check/Uncheck vs. Select
  • ActionsForSelectedBillTransactions
• Refunds Available - NegativeBalanceRefundsAvailable
  • What, why, how
  • Total owed, Total Checked vs Refunds Available
  • Clear negative balance
  • AddBilling
  • Items Lost Items

Accepting replacement items in lieu of money for lost items/bills

If your library accepts replacement items in lieu of money: add a new CopyRecord for the item and resolve the bill like any other bill, using Payment Type "Forgive" (or possibly "Goods") and Payment Received = the amount of the bill. Annotate the payment to indicate that a replacement item is being used for payment. Delete the lost item copy record.

Print Receipts on Bill Payment

This can be set using the Receipt Options within the bills list.

Re-print Last

If you forgot to print a bill, date due slip, or other receipt and have already closed the transaction tab, press the F9 function key or open the CirculationMenu and select RePrintLast. This will print another copy the last receipt printed.