OWWLUG Meeting, Friday, April 28, 2017

10:00-12:00, PLSHQ Large Meeting Room

• OWWLUG Meeting, Friday, April 28, 2017
  • Navigating the PLUM Forest
  • Forthcoming changes to the Shelf List reports
  • Get the scoop on Maker Kits
  • RRLC Access Cards
  • PLS: Not a Library
  • What kind of messages are we sending?

Navigating the PLUM Forest

We spent some time exploring PLUM, here are the main take aways:

• Two basic divisions of content: Evergreen topics (in the Evergreen Web) and Everything Else (in the Members Web, in it's subfolder Members>Meetings web)
• The Evergreen web is open to the public (because Evergren is open source, our documentation is open source, too; also being open makes it easier for staff to view content without loggin in); Members web content is limited to PLS staff and requires login (same as email credentials) to access
• Evergreen content includes:
  • procedural steps for Evergreen functions for circulation, holdings maintenance, and patron maintenance tasks (ex: Check Out Items, Add Volumes, Patron Registration)
  • definitions of Evergreen terms (ex: Circulation Modifier, Fine Level, Hold Type)
  • general information about library tasks that relate to Evergreen (ex: OWWL Policies, Text Message Notifications, Overdue Notices Schedule)
  • and more
• Members web content includes:
  • technology information (Purchasing equipment, software, and OWWL supplies; CASSIE setup; budget kit; etc.)
• The Members Meetings subweb includes meeting agendas, notes, and related informatio for System Meetings, OWWLAC, OWWLUG, etc.
• If you absolutely cannot find anything, it probably does not exist
• Evergreen Web content is usually named according to specific Evergreen buttons, options, functions, terms, etc: Add Volumes, Retrieve Patrons, Actions for Selected Items, Edit Due Date, etc.
• Within the past 6 months or so, we changed some of the Search options, which were incocnsistent and misleading. The "Search" box in the upper right part of the screen perfoms a keyword search of the Members webs and Evergreen webs.
• The Advanced Search offers several search options, such as limiting a web or all webs, looking for your term in the title or content, etc.
• The Index link (left navigation list) will display an alphebetical list of all documents in the given web
• Search result pages or the page named "Web Index" include snippets of text from the listed pages
• ctrl+8 is your friend - ctrl+8 (control key and 8 key) is a browser shortcut for "Find in Page" that will search the text in a web page for a keyword you enter
• You can use ctrl+8 in the Index to check for matching titles
• You can use ctrl+8 conjunction with a search to quickly refine search results
  • do a general keyword search, such as "Add Volume"
  • use ctrl+8 in the search within the search result, for example "holds"
  • ctrl+8 will hightlight the term you entered, everywhere it appears in the page
• You can use ctrl+8 to scan within a page to find a specific thing

Forthcoming changes to the Shelf List reports

Bob is working on updating the Ad Hoc reports, and the Report Browser. The project is still in progress, but can be accessed at: http://utility.pls-net.org/evergreen/ If you do take a look, please be aware that things may change!

One of the major - and exciting! - changes is to the Shelf List reports. The two reports (By Shelf Location and By Call Num Range) now break our circulation numbers by Total Circ (all circ since the copy was added), YTD, Last Year, 2 Years Ago, 3 Years Ago. These are much more useful figures for making circ-based decisions.

Another new feature is being able to output a report as a CSV spreadsheet file without having to open it in the browser. When you are entering your report options (selecting the library, date range, or other criteria) you can select CSV Output. That streamlines the process of getting the data into a spreadsheet.

Get the scoop on Maker Kits

We brought Heidi in the talk about circulation of Maker Kits. She shared some Very Important tips:

1. When they arrive at your library, check out Maker Kits to yourself/the requesting staff person using the Due Date provided on the packing slip. Example:
   
2. Check in Maker Kits on the due date. As part of the scheduling process Heidi builds in travel time for the kits, so you do not need to worry about that.
3. Heidi places holds on the kits when they need to travel directly to a library
4. Kits with consumable parts - like the button makers - are replenished when leaving PLS. If they are traveling from one library to the next, Heidi will send refill supplies to the next library.
5. Heidi strongly recommends that each library designate one person to place requests on holds. This prevents confusion for everybody!

RRLC Access Cards

For full information see: RRLC Access Cards Program

Access Cards are available to our patrons who have surpassed our system abilitities to meet their needs - generally independent researchers, frequent ILL users, and high-level homeschool students. The cards provide access to, and direct borrowring privileges at, many area academic and special libraries, and the Monroe County Library System.

The cards are requested from Lindsay Stratton, and then issued by a member library.

Please note! The cards are valid for one year only - July 1-June 30! So we are coming up on their expiration dates.

PLS: Not a Library

Periodically patrons are referred to PLS by their local libraries. While we do our best, our focus is supporting you, the libraries, who in turn support patrons.

• If a patron is having an Evergreen or account issue that you cannot resolve, library staff should call PLS on the patron's behalf.
• If a patron has a reference question that has you stumped, you can contact the PLS Central Library, Geneva. Here is a link to contact information: Central Library Reference Request
• There are various online contact forms on owwl.org and pls-net.org which are directed to PLS. In some cases we will address the issues directly, but usually forward the message to the patron's home library for resolution.

What kind of messages are we sending?

This is a picture of an item that arrived in delivery. The label on the front says "DO NOT PUT IN BOOKDROP Will add $1 to account if you do!!"

While we all want to protect our materials and prevent excessive wear and tear, it's also important to consider the kinds of impressions we give patrons. Is this a welcoming note? Does it encourage patrons to borrow our materials? What about when a patron needs to return something to the bookdrop? Should any item be more important than the experience of the people using our libraries?