Weekly Update, February 21, 2012

Posted by admin on February 21st, 2012 | Comments Off

Project Gutenberg records

Thanks to a request from the Executive Committee, 525 Project Gutenberg ebook and audiobook MARC records were imported into the Evergreen Indiana catalog in late January 2012. These downloadable classics are made available by Colorado Library Consortium, Douglas County Libraries, Marmot Library Network, Inc and the University of Denver through a project called E-Discover the Classics. The list of titles includes ebook and audiobook classic literature in languages such as English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese. Because these titles are in the public domain, they are available to all members of the consortium.

Reports for collection value

Public libraries are currently working on the LAR report which is due no later than February 29, 2012. Reports that will help you get a detailed or simple estimated collection value are available here:

Shared Folders > Templates > jcpl-jasonb > Shared Templates > Collection

Please post any questions to the evergreen_reports@lists.in.gov listserv.

New library shortnames

Three new libraries will be joining the consortium on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. Please see the updated Shortnames for Intra-Evergreen Indiana transits PDF.

Akron Carnegie Public Library System (ACPL)

  • Main branch: Akron (ACPLA)

Camden-Jackson Township Public Library System (CJTPL)

  • Main branch: Camden (CJTPLC)

Montezuma Public Library (MPL)

  • Main branch: Montezuma (MPLM)

Meeting announcement

OPAC committee will be meeting on Thursday, February 23 @ 10am at Morgan County Public Library.

SAVE THE DATE: 2012 Evergreen Indiana Membership Meeting will be held on Friday, April 27 during the 2012 Evergreen International Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. More details to come.

Committee minutes

Minutes for Executive Committee meeting on December 13, 2011 were approved at the meeting on February 14, 2012.

Minutes for the OverDrive Committee meeting on December 13, 2011 were approved at the meeting on February 14, 2012.

Filed under Annual Meeting, Cataloging Tips, Meetings, Migration News


Weekly Update – February 14, 2012

Posted by admin on February 14th, 2012 | Comments Off

Update on Payment pilot

As many of you already know, Jackson County, Jennings County, Brownstown, Hussey Mayfield Memorial, Lebanon and Thorntown Public Libraries are participating in a payment pilot which will benefit all libraries in the consortium. Our pilot libraries are accepting cash and check for any fine or fee that a patron owes to any library in Evergreen Indiana. ISL staff have provided Daily Reconciliation Reports which are downloaded from a website daily and provide bookkeepers with an itemized list of payments taken in on behalf of other libraries which bookkeepers will reconcile in the Evergreen Indiana Fund, previously referred to as the Pass Through Fund. The attached payment pilot documentation has been approved by the State Board of Accounts.

Since the payment pilot began in July 2011, we have made great progress, having added three more libraries to the payment pilot in November 2011. ISL staff have collaborated with State Board of Accounts to create documentation for the program and Evergreen Indiana Helpdesk staff have written scripts to allow libraries to efficiently view the Daily Reconciliation reports needed for bookkeeping. We will need several more months of payment pilot cycles before we open up the program to other libraries in the consortium but the goal is to allow all libraries to participate in 2012.

Technical Bulletin

As you’re all aware, we recently upgraded our Evergreen system to the latest version of the Evergreen software, 2.1. With your cooperation, we’ve been able to add a number of great new features to the software, which has benefited staff and patrons alike. Unfortunately, one of the downsides to software upgrades is the occasional introduction of new bugs.

As many of you are aware, Evergreen Indiana has experienced sporadic issues with the cataloging module since our upgrade in early-December. Thanks to your detailed helpdesk submissions and patience, the top developers in the Evergreen Community have discovered that these sporadic network errors are caused by large-sized bucket/batch operations, such as deletions or updates.

Today, the Evergreen developers released a patch which is expected to alleviate these network errors. You may still see time-out’s in the staff client with very large buckets (think thousands of items) but the deletion/update process will continue in the background in these cases.

In order to apply these patches, the Evergreen Indiana system will go offline this evening around 10PM for up to 2 hours. This will be done during the after-hours maintenance time provided for by the Evergreen Indiana Executive Committee.

The Evergreen Indiana team, again, would like to express our appreciation for the detailed reports we received, along with your patience. They both lead to the discovery of the bug, and the solution.

Filed under Polices and procedures, Tech Support Tips


Weekly Update – February 8, 2012

Posted by admin on February 8th, 2012 | Comments Off

Migration news

Camden-Jackson Township Public Library, Akron Carnegie Public Library and Montezuma Public Library will be migrating to Evergreen Indiana on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. A modified catalog freeze will be in place from Friday, April 6, 2012 AM to Wednesday, April 11, 2012 AM or until the announcement on the listservs that the freeze has ended.

Processing guidelines added to Evergreen Indiana Cataloging Procedures

Because the goal of the Evergreen Indiana consortium is to share library materials, libraries should mark their materials in more than one place for transit so that the owning library of the item is very obvious. Use either a sticker somewhere in or on the item and/or a property stamp on the edges of the item.

EI Cataloging Procedures, Chapter 1

Advanced Cataloging in Evergreen Indiana

Advanced Cataloging workshop is being offered at Hartford City Public Library on Thursday, February 16, 2012 from 9am to 4pm. Register here

Meeting announcements

Executive Committee Meeting – February 14, 2012, 1:00 pm at Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
• DRAFT agenda

OverDrive Committee Meeting – February 14, 2012, 10:30 pm at Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
• DRAFT agenda

Filed under Cataloging Tips, Meetings, Membership News, Polices and procedures


Weekly Update – January 31, 2012

Posted by admin on January 31st, 2012 | Comments Off

2012 Evergreen International Conference

Today is the last day for Early Bird Registration! Register today and save $15 on attendance!

Vendors can save $100 by registering to exhibit today!

A list of programs and descriptions is available on the blog!

eReader policies for the OverDrive Committee

The eIndiana Digital OverDrive Committee has had many inquiries from eIndiana Digital Consortium members regarding local library or consortium-wide policy on loaning eReaders. Evergreen Indiana and eIndiana Digital Consortium do not have a consortium-wide eReader policy but we would like to collect samples of policies each individual library has about loaning eReaders. The committee has decided to post them at the URL below so that interested eIndiana Digital Consortium and Evergreen Indiana members may consult them for ideas before establishing their own local policies. Please send sample policies to the Evergreen Indiana Coordinator, sborger@library.in.gov.

Circulation Module

Prefix field has been added back to the option fields upon registering a patron. Thank you to those who reported this issue.

Did you know that you can gather any information you want from Patrons or Items and track it in the Evergreen ILS? Setting up a Statistical Category is an easy and effective way to gather information on patrons or items that aren’t otherwise tracked in the system. Documentation on setting up a Stat Cat below.

Staff Training Documents > Reports Module > Statistical Categories Editor

Example: Some libraries serve several townships and want to track patrons from each township. They follow the instructions for creating a Patron Stat Cat and then put in a helpdesk ticket to have a report created that they can run to get their information. Upon registering a new patron, staff members can choose their Stat Cat response at the bottom of the patron registration screen and run the report created by the helpdesk to get their responses.

Filed under Circulation Tips, Membership News


Weekly Update – January 24, 2012

Posted by admin on January 24th, 2012 | Comments Off

2012 EG International Conference

Program schedule is available. Evergreen Indiana Membership Meeting on Friday afternoon.

Also, Early Bird Registration ends on January 31, 2012!

Evergreen Indiana Executive Committee by-laws updated (link)

III. COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS

a) The Evergreen Indiana Council shall meet at least once a year in Spring with the time and location to be determined by the Executive Committee. Other membership meetings may be called by the Executive Committee. Members will be notified at least thirty (30) days in advance of the annual meeting.

Cataloging Committee updates

Cataloging Committee minutes from September 13, 2011 were approved at the Cataloging Committee meeting on December 6, 2011.

Cataloging Committee Policy and Procedures have also been updated.

Cataloging Policy changes include Beginning June 30, 2012 the permissions for Cat-2 catalogers will change. Cat-2 catalogers will no longer be able to create new MARC records, batchload new records or edit MARC records. Only Cat-1 catalogers will be able to create new MARC records, add records by batchloading and edit MARC records.

Since you may have Cat-2 catalogers on your staff that have been performing these functions, they will need training to obtain their Cat-1 certification. The Cataloging Committee wants to schedule training to accommodate these needs, so we would like to know how many people on your staff will need this training in the coming months.

Cataloging Procedure changes were distributed in draft form to the consortium in October 2011. A summary of the changes is available here.

Food for Fines Clarification

Several libraries have contacted ISL with questions regarding a local Food for Fines holiday program and the previous statement on this blog about the library contacting their city/town attorney for a legal opinion. The correct statement is that the library should contact their library legal consultant.

After consulting with the Indiana State Library Legal Consultant and the State Board of Accounts to find out the requirements if a library wants to engage in such as program, we have learned that there is no prohibition for the practice of waiving fines in the State Library Code, however the decision on whether or not to implement a Food for Fines program comes down to a legal question that needs to be addressed locally by the library board and their attorney.

NOTE: If a library wants to engage in a Food for Fines program, they must have a written local policy adopted by the Library Board along with a written opinion from their attorney. (If your library does not have access to an attorney, contact Karen Ainslie or Edythe Huffman at the Indiana State Library for more information on how to locate one). Both of these documents are required by SBoA to implement Food for Fines program without receiving an audit exception.

Once this policy is in place, you may use either the Forgive or Goods Billing option to forgive fines and fees in a patron’s account.

Remember, you may only forgive those fines and fees to which your library is owed. Overdue fines are owed to the circulating library. Lost and damaged fines are owed to the owning library.

Filed under Annual Meeting, Meetings, Polices and procedures


Weekly Update – January 18, 2012

Posted by admin on January 18th, 2012 | Comments Off

Annual report information

eIndiana Digital Consortium members: Because eIndiana Digital Consortium doesn’t provide MARC records in the Evergreen Indiana OPAC, members must report this service as a database, in 50a. All those libraries in other OverDrive consortia around the state that do create MARC records and provide them in the Evergreen Indiana OPAC may report the items as electronic books owned by the library, 58f in the annual report.

Everyone may count them as items circulated in 57a. If you can separate out children’s materials, you may also count them in 57b.

Everyone should report any Overdrive operating expenditure in 35aa. If you use other funds, report it in 36.1e.

Cataloging Committee survey

The Cataloging Committee will soon be sending out a survey which will help them update their records. The following questions are included in the survey:

1. Name of Library
2. Name of Director
3. Email address of director
4. Email addresses of all staff who would like to be included on the cataloging listserv
5. Cataloging contact person name and email address
6. Beginning June 30, 2012 the permissions for Cat-2 catalogers will change. Cat-2 catalogers will no longer be able to create new MARC records, batchload new records or edit MARC records. Only Cat-1 catalogers will be able to create new MARC records, add records by batchloading and edit MARC records.

Since you may have Cat-2 catalogers on your staff that have been performing these functions, they will need training to obtain their Cat-1 certification. The Cataloging Committee wants to schedule training to accommodate these needs, so we would like to know how many people on your staff will need this training in the coming months.

Filed under Polices and procedures, Training Tips


Weekly Update – January 10, 2012

Posted by admin on January 10th, 2012 | Comments Off

Annual report data

Each library has received their annual report data for 2011 via email. The data you received included data for the following annual report questions:

Question 10-13 List of patron types and the quantity for your library.

Question 51 e Libraries must record n/a.

Question 57 a-b Holdings are listed by shelving location. Each library must identify which items to include in Question 57a and which to include in Question 57b. NOTE: Since EI libraries count the circulations of other EI library’s items, you get the shelving locations of all those libraries.

Question 57 d-i Circulation count is listed by circulation modifier.

Question 58 a-f Holdings are listed by circulation modifier.

Question 117 Each library should run the report entitled “Q117 PLAC loans (Revised 1/6/2012)” to get their answer to Question 117 on the Annual Report. Contact Wendy Knapp or Steven Schmidt if you have any questions.

Updates to Circulation Procedures

http://www.in.gov/library/files/Evergreen_Indiana_Circulation_Procedures.pdf

Transiting lost items

1. Procedures > Checkin > Lost Items. If a circulating library receives a lost item, they should check it in. They will need to override the status, making the item available to transit back to the owning library. Add an alert in the Item Attributes Screen explaining that the item was marked lost and then checked in so that it could transit back to the owning library: Lost item checked in at [name of library] on [date]. When the owning library receives the item, they can decide based on local policy what to do with the item and associated lost fees.

Updating resident patron accounts

1. Procedures > Patron Record Management > Updating Expired Patron Accounts > Staff members choosing to update a resident patron account at a different library than the patron’s home library should create an alert in the patron’s account to notify the patron’s home library with the following text: Patron account was updated at [name of staff member’s library] on [date].

BookWhere/WebClarity Information

BookWhere is offering a 25% discount, applicable to both the per seat and site license rates for BookWhere Suite. BookWhere/WebClarity is offering two informational webinars for those interested in learning about the product:

EI libraries BookWhere webinar
General public BookWhere webinar
EI libraries BookWhere webinar

Meeting announcement

Circulation Committee meeting, Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

Meeting minutes

Executive Committee minutes from October 11, 2011 were improved and approved at the Executive Committee meeting on December 13, 2011.

OverDrive Committee minutes from October 11, 2011 were approved at the OverDrive Committee meeting on December 13, 2011.

Filed under Classes, programs and roundtables, Membership News, Polices and procedures


Weekly Update – January 4, 2012

Posted by admin on January 4th, 2012 | Comments Off

Happy New Year, Evergreen Indiana!

2012 EG International Conference

Early bird registration for the 2012 Evergreen International Conference has been extended to January 31, 2012!

http://2012evergreenconference.eventbrite.com/

The program for the 2012 EG International Conference will be finalized and posted on the blog early next week.

Item barcode and library card orders

The Indiana State Library will be placing an order on behalf of Evergreen Indiana libraries that have filled out the item barcodes and patron library card surveys. If you are interested in ordering more sheets of item barcodes and/or GREEN or BLUE patron library cards, please fill out the appropriate survey below. I will submit orders on Friday, January 13 so please get your orders in before then.

Item barcodes: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/itembarcodes

GREEN patron library cards: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GREENlibrarycards

BLUE patron library cards: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BLUElibrarycards

Filed under Consortium Buys: Barcodes, Consortium Buys: Library Cards


Weekly Update – December 27, 2011

Posted by admin on December 27th, 2011 | Comments Off

Perry County merger

Tell City – Perry County Public Library and Cannelton Public Library will be officially merging on January 1, 2012, changing the total number of libraries in Evergreen Indiana to 95. The new library system name will be Perry County Public Library. Please note that the Member Library Abbreviations for Intra-Evergreen Indiana Library Lending on the Staff Training Documents website > Circulation Module will be updated with the following information:

TCPCPL: Perry County Public Library
TCPCPLT: Perry County Public Library – Tell City
TCPCPLB: Perry County Bookmobile
CNLPLC: Perry County Public Library – Cannelton

Pass Through Fund

In preparation for eventually expanding the cash and check payment program to all libraries in Evergreen Indiana, each member library will need to establish a Pass Through Fund (if you don’t already have one established). According to the State Board of Accounts, payment that libraries accept on behalf of one another must be receipted to the Pass Through Fund and deposited into the bank account on a daily basis. We have set up bookkeeping instructions for the six payment pilot libraries, in accordance with those instructions and you will also find a board resolution template below to establish a Pass Through Fund.

Please note that only the six payment pilot libraries are accepting payment on behalf of one another at this time. We hope to allow all libraries to participate in the cash and check payment program sometime in 2012. You may be certain that an announcement will be made in the Weekly Update blog.

Board Resolution template to establish a Pass Through Fund

Filed under Circulation Tips, Membership News


Weekly Update – December 20, 2011

Posted by admin on December 20th, 2011 | Comments Off

2012 EG Conference – Keynote speakers

I am delighted to announce the keynote speakers for the 2012 Evergreen International Conference!

Jono Bacon, Community Manager at Ubuntu, will kick off the conference on Thursday by sharing his passion for open source and his experience in working with open source communities worldwide! Being deeply involved and committed to the world of open source, Bacon will discuss the opportunity behind engaging the open source community. He will highlight the core areas of growing a community and will illustrate his discussion by using Ubuntu as an example and describe how Ubuntu has grown the global Ubuntu community. More about Jono

Galadriel Chilton, Electronic Resources Manager at the University of Connecticut and Indiana University graduate, will entertain and energize attendees on Friday by illustrating how important open source projects are to libraries through a fun and engaging comparison of libraries (as a habitat) and librarians/library staff (as a species) to an evolutionary biologist’s study of non-human animal survival. Through examples and stories, she will describe how survival of the fittest through competition is a misconception and that survival through cooperation leads to not only surviving, but thriving, and as some evolutionary biologists suggest, morality. Further, she will look at how integral – especially during times of economic collapse and deep budget cuts – cooperation is for libraries not just to survive but to evolve and how/why it is imperative that this cooperation move beyond sharing collections into the continued development of our tools and infrastructure such as open source systems like Evergreen. More about Galadriel

More information on each presenter is available at our blog.

Staff Training documents website update

You will notice that the Staff Training Documents website has been reorganized to be more intuitive. It is organized by module: Circulation, Cataloging, Local Admin, Reports.

Circulation committee minutes

Circulation Committee minutes from September 20, 2011 were improved and approved at the Circulation Committee meeting on November 10, 2011.

OPAC committee minutes

OPAC Committee minutes from August 25, 2011 were approved at the OPAC Committee meeting on October 27, 2011.

Filed under Circulation Tips, Industry News, Meetings


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