Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Hi Everyone,

Please see Syma's message to staff about Sirsi:

I anticipate this will be my last All Employee Update regarding the migration to SirsiDynix. We still have numerous issues that we are working to correct but the major process is complete. Future updates will be sent to the various group lists (NL staff, Central Services staff, LMS staff, etc) as changes occur.

We are working to get the Holds Reports to print out in a more logical order to facilitate pulling materials.

We are working on a series of short “how-to” videos for customers on logging in to their accounts, changing PINs, searching the catalog, etc. We hope to do these quickly and have them available by the end of the month.

Several people reported that the spreadsheet of overdues did not produce overwhelming results. That is fine. Even if only a few customer issues were resolved by doing this, it was worth the effort.

New books and new book orders are slowly starting to flow through. Glitches still abound but progress has been made. AV materials are still problematic. We are hoping to have those start up again around Labor Day. I know customers are asking and we are working through the process as quickly as possible. Our priority has been on making sure circulation was functioning and the catalog displayed correct information. 

I will leave with one final detailed procedure on placing item level holds. These are to be used when a customer wants a specific volume from a series and all volumes are attached to the same record in the catalog. There is a bug in the Enterprise software so for now, you must place this hold for the customer:

1. Select the Place Holds wizard and enter the customer’s barcode.

2. Use the Item Search Helper to do a search for the title.

3. Find the correct record (make sure it is HOU locations and desired format).

4. Highlight the particular volume the customer wants. (Remember the hold will only be for the particular item you select so, if possible, find a copy that seems to be on the shelf or actively circulating.

5. Hit Place Hold. This brings you back to the Place Holds Wizard screen and inserts the item barcode in the Item ID field.

6. Make sure the pickup location is correct

7. In the box called Level/Range, change the radial button from Title to Copy

8. Hit Place Hold

You might want to practice doing this on older editions of the World Book Encyclopedia that have multiple circulating copies.

I cannot thank you enough for the hard work you have done and continue to do to learn new ways of doing things that were second nature to you in the old system and, at the same time, helping our customers who are having similar struggles. Continue to contact the HPL IT Helpdesk with issues you are facing and feel free to copy me and/or Fred Schumacher and/or Felicia Brisco. Thanks again.

Syma

Syma Zerkow

Chief of Library Materials Services

Houston Public Library

832-393-1484

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