Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Jason Etheridge]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Kathy Lussier  wrote:
> I'm curious to know which pop-ups are suppressed using the "Suppress
> popup-dialogs during check-in."  Is it all pop-ups (including holds and
> transit, which we really need to see) or just the missing, lost, and claims
> returned pop-ups that seem unnecessary to most of the users here in MA?

In this case it is almost all of them.  I believe a Network error will
still pop-up.  For suppressed print dialogs, it looks at the
Auto-Print checkbox to determine whether to print something or not.
It's also auto "overriding" a lot of conditions if staff have the
permission, such as the patron being BARRED. :-/

We could do something like the Do Not Attempt Auto-Print setting and
make it configurable with some grunt work.  Right now the setting is
true or false, but we could make it a list of options.

So, for example, in a given section where the code says:

if (!suppress_popups) {

we could have it instead say

if (suppress_popups.indexOf('checkin.not_found') > -1) {

Might be worth doing before the web-based client gets here, but I
don't know what others would think.

There are also hooks for plugging in different sounds for any distinct
event you can get, even though we share the same sounds for a lot of
different events currently.

For speeding up check-ins within the staff client, there are two other
things you may want to consider doing:

1) if you're not using Booking, then comment out the open-ils.booking
section in  in opensrf.xml
2) don't enable the Barcode Completion functionality for partial
barcode lookups under Admin -> Local Administration -> Barcode
Completion

-- 
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[McCanna, Terran]

>> MassLNC had recently come up with some development requirements 
>> (http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2764) that would give Evergreen sites more 
>> granular control over which alerts display.<<

Great! I add my vote to revisiting that once the web client is complete. 


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Holly Brennan]

>>>>Yes, I can see why "Lost" and "Missing" probably wouldn't need an alert in 
>>>>our workflow either.

Our library staff need and use alerts for Lost and Missing. If something has 
been lost and is now returned, we need to decide whether we will refund the 
patron and put the item back into circulation - or perhaps it has been years 
and we don't even want the item circ-ing. There are many rules in Evergreen to 
"decide" these things, but we still want to take a look ourselves. We're a 
relatively small library so it's hard to let go of that personal touch.

Personally, I like the Missing alert because I get to celebrate a long-lost 
item resurfacing. "Yay, it's back!"

We also alert for number of pieces, so an alert pops up for EVERY audiobook and 
EVERY movie with more than one disc... and kits, books with maps, etc. I would 
say that in 98% of checkout interactions, there is an alert. They can be 
annoying at times, but it's our job to look at them.

I responded to this thread last week, before it became apparent that some 
people took offense to some comments. I work the circulation desk daily, so I 
spoke from my own experiences (and about myself) when I said that staff are 
often to blame. We're busy, multi-tasking, distracted people! There was not 
meant to be any talking down, and I'm sure this is the case for all those 
involved in this conversation.

-Holly



-Original Message-
From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of 
McCanna, Terran
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 12:56 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Yes, I can see why "Lost" and "Missing" probably wouldn't need an alert in our 
workflow either. Perhaps future development down the road could use color 
coding instead of popup alerts on the check-in screen for some of these types 
of alerts that don't require staff action? Something to think about.

I like the use of Check Parts for books that include CDs because that's so easy 
to miss when checking in otherwise. 


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

- Original Message -
From: "Buzzy Nielsen" 
To: open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:32:40 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?


There are a few popups that we've deemed unnecessary. For instance, there's a 
pop up that appears at checkin for a "bad status", requiring staff to affirm 
that they do indeed want to check in the item. Two of those statuses are "Lost" 
and "Missing". Our staff honestly couldn't come up with any reason why we 
wouldn't want to check in items with those two statuses, at least not given our 
workflow and processes. 

Another (admittedly self-inflicted) example are the "check parts" notices some 
of our consortium members use. Oh, how happy would we be to convince our fellow 
libraries not to use those ... 

Anyway, this is all to say that those messages do indeed slow down work flow, 
and they can be painfully slow to pop up on older computers. Fortunately, all 
of our equipment is pretty new, but I know our smaller libraries can have 
issues with the speed as they have the double hit of slow hardware and slow 
connections. 

Cheers! 
Buzzy 


 
Library Director 
Hood River County Library District 
502 State Street 
Hood River, Oregon 97031 
541-387-7062 
http://hoodriverlibrary.org 

On 04/14/2014 01:12 PM, McCanna, Terran wrote: 


Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little while, but 
when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall getting anything that 
I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall things that required some 
sort of staff action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were 
suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Kathy Lussier]

I'm curious to know which pop-ups are suppressed using the "Suppress 
popup-dialogs during check-in."  Is it all pop-ups (including holds and 
transit, which we really need to see) or just the missing, lost, and 
claims returned pop-ups that seem unnecessary to most of the users here 
in MA?


Libraries may not be performing brain surgery, but it doesn't mean we 
shouldn't strive to make our systems the best that they can be for 
library staff so that they can spend less time working in the ILS and 
more time working with their users. It's true -  if a book is put on the 
shelf without being checked in properly, it's not the end of the world. 
But if it happens a lot, the time spent fixing those errors that could 
have otherwise been spent providing other services to patrons start to 
add up. Brain surgery or not, what we all want is to make the most 
productive use of our time, isn't it?


Some library staff may find it important to be alerted every time a 
missing or lost item is checked in. The library staff I generally talk 
to do not think this information is important. Ideally, we should have 
control over which of these alerts display. Some libraries may want to 
get the alert of number of pieces when they are checking items in, so 
that they can make sure everything was returned, but they might not want 
this information when they are busy checking out these items to patrons. 
Right now, we can't distinguish between a checkin and chekout alert, but 
it would be nice if we could.


My hope is that the web client will help with some of the speed issues 
we've seen at checkin, but it won't help us gain more control over these 
alerts. I'm hoping we could see more development in this area once 
circulation has been moved over to the web client, because I think we 
could save time if some of these alerts were suppressed.


There have been some good ideas generated through this discussion. 
MassLNC had recently come up with some development requirements 
(http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2764) that would give Evergreen sites 
more granular control over which alerts display. We opted not to proceed 
with the development because of the upcoming freeze on new circulation 
features. However, it's something that I know many of our libraries 
would like to see us pick up again once circulation has been moved to 
the web client.


Kathy

Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
kluss...@masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier

On 4/14/2014 4:36 PM, Ruth Frasur wrote:
The web client will fix EVERYTHING!!  Even the kitchen sink (if you 
have a kitchen sink).



On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Betty Massie <mailto:bmas...@arlnc.org>> wrote:


Response # 2 from Georgia Pines -- ever the team player

-Original Message-
From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org
<mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org>
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org
<mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org>] On
Behalf Of McCanna, Terran
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:12 PM
    To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a
little while, but when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I
don't recall getting anything that I regarded as an unnecessary
alert - I only recall things that required some sort of staff
action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were
suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna
PINES Program Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, GA 30345
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org <mailto:tmcca...@georgialibraries.org>

- Original Message -
From: "Jason Etheridge" mailto:ja...@esilibrary.com>>
To: "Evergreen Discussion Group"
    mailto:open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org>>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:02:49 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

> Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.

One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design
decision that certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and
there was a great fear of users accidentally "scanning through" an
alert without noticing.

It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the
consequences of that decision, for example, with the menu option
Checkin
Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
(Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress
popup-dialogs during check-in" library setting.

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[McCanna, Terran]

Yes, I can see why "Lost" and "Missing" probably wouldn't need an alert in our 
workflow either. Perhaps future development down the road could use color 
coding instead of popup alerts on the check-in screen for some of these types 
of alerts that don't require staff action? Something to think about.

I like the use of Check Parts for books that include CDs because that's so easy 
to miss when checking in otherwise. 


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

- Original Message -
From: "Buzzy Nielsen" 
To: open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:32:40 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?


There are a few popups that we've deemed unnecessary. For instance, there's a 
pop up that appears at checkin for a "bad status", requiring staff to affirm 
that they do indeed want to check in the item. Two of those statuses are "Lost" 
and "Missing". Our staff honestly couldn't come up with any reason why we 
wouldn't want to check in items with those two statuses, at least not given our 
workflow and processes. 

Another (admittedly self-inflicted) example are the "check parts" notices some 
of our consortium members use. Oh, how happy would we be to convince our fellow 
libraries not to use those ... 

Anyway, this is all to say that those messages do indeed slow down work flow, 
and they can be painfully slow to pop up on older computers. Fortunately, all 
of our equipment is pretty new, but I know our smaller libraries can have 
issues with the speed as they have the double hit of slow hardware and slow 
connections. 

Cheers! 
Buzzy 


 
Library Director 
Hood River County Library District 
502 State Street 
Hood River, Oregon 97031 
541-387-7062 
http://hoodriverlibrary.org 

On 04/14/2014 01:12 PM, McCanna, Terran wrote: 


Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little while, but 
when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall getting anything that 
I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall things that required some 
sort of staff action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were 
suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Ruth Frasur]

The web client will fix EVERYTHING!!  Even the kitchen sink (if you have a
kitchen sink).


On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Betty Massie  wrote:

> Response # 2 from Georgia Pines -- ever the team player
>
> -Original Message-
> From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:
> open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of McCanna,
> Terran
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:12 PM
> To: Evergreen Discussion Group
> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?
>
> Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little
> while, but when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall
> getting anything that I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall
> things that required some sort of staff action such as routing, printing
> hold slips, etc. If alerts were suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more
> staff error?
>
>
> Terran McCanna
> PINES Program Manager
> Georgia Public Library Service
> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150
> Atlanta, GA 30345
> 404-235-7138
> tmcca...@georgialibraries.org
>
> - Original Message -
> From: "Jason Etheridge" 
> To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" <
> open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org>
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:02:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?
>
> > Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.
>
> One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design decision
> that certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and there was a great
> fear of users accidentally "scanning through" an alert without noticing.
>
> It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the consequences of
> that decision, for example, with the menu option Checkin
> Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
> (Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress popup-dialogs
> during check-in" library setting.
>
> It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the very
> least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library setting,
> despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love to have it
> enabled).
>
> --
> Jason Etheridge
> | Support Manager
> | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
> | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
> | email: ja...@esilibrary.com
> | web: http://www.esilibrary.com
>



-- 
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

Our Kickin' Website <http://hagerstownlibrary.org>  Our Rockin' Facebook
Page <http://facebook.com/hjtplibrary>  and Stuff I'm
Reading<http://pinterest.com/hjtplibrary/ruth-reads/>

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Betty Massie]

Response # 3, which seems slightly “catty” to me…

From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Ruth 
Frasur
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:28 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

The alerts, in my experience (which is a fair amount) are important.

There is an awful lot of information that is pulled from the db when items are 
checked in (as a default).  I haven't tried this, but I have to imagine that 
only displaying certain, essential columns should speed the process up (nothing 
to do with alerts).

Evergreen is only as slow as the equipment it's run on (server side and client 
side) and the pipes it runs through.  That's one of the things we signed up for 
when we decided to share a catalog.  The further you are from the server, the 
slower it's going to be.  While I can appreciate that it seems like everything 
is being blamed on the people running the circ desk, my experience has been 
that 75% of the time (maybe higher), that's the issue.  Please note, I'm as 
guilty as the next person.  I've tried to scan right through a hold notice or 
CD count while I was talking to the person on the other side of the counter.  
Then I had to go back and pick up where I messed up.

Thank goodness the circ desk is busy or we'd have other things to worry about.

As I tell my staff, we're not performing brain surgery.  If the book gets put 
on the shelf without being checked in properly, we're going to fix it and the 
world will keep spinning.  Please forgive me if any of your libraries are now 
offering brain surgery services.

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:12 PM, McCanna, Terran 
mailto:tmcca...@georgialibraries.org>> wrote:
Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little while, but 
when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall getting anything that 
I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall things that required some 
sort of staff action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were 
suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna
PINES Program Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, GA 30345
404-235-7138
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org<mailto:tmcca...@georgialibraries.org>

- Original Message -
From: "Jason Etheridge" mailto:ja...@esilibrary.com>>
To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" 
mailto:open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org>>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:02:49 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?
> Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.

One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design
decision that certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and
there was a great fear of users accidentally "scanning through" an
alert without noticing.

It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the consequences of
that decision, for example, with the menu option Checkin
Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
(Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress
popup-dialogs during check-in" library setting.

It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the
very least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library
setting, despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love
to have it enabled).

--
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com<mailto:ja...@esilibrary.com>
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com



--
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

Our Kickin' Website<http://hagerstownlibrary.org>  Our Rockin' Facebook 
Page<http://facebook.com/hjtplibrary>  and Stuff I'm 
Reading<http://pinterest.com/hjtplibrary/ruth-reads/>

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Betty Massie]

Response # 2 from Georgia Pines -- ever the team player

-Original Message-
From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of 
McCanna, Terran
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:12 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little while, but 
when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall getting anything that 
I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall things that required some 
sort of staff action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were 
suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna
PINES Program Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, GA 30345
404-235-7138
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

- Original Message -
From: "Jason Etheridge" 
To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" 
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:02:49 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

> Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.

One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design decision that 
certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and there was a great fear of 
users accidentally "scanning through" an alert without noticing.

It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the consequences of that 
decision, for example, with the menu option Checkin
Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
(Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress popup-dialogs during 
check-in" library setting.

It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the very 
least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library setting, 
despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love to have it enabled).

--
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Buzzy Nielsen]

  
  
There are a few
popups that we've deemed unnecessary. For instance,
  there's a pop up that appears at checkin for a "bad status",
  requiring staff to affirm that they do indeed want to check in the
  item. Two of those statuses are "Lost" and "Missing". Our staff
  honestly couldn't come up with any reason why we wouldn't want to
  check in items with those two statuses, at least not given our
  workflow and processes.
  
  Another (admittedly self-inflicted) example are the "check parts"
  notices some of our consortium members use. Oh, how happy would we
  be to convince our fellow libraries not to use those ...
  
  Anyway, this is all to say that those messages do indeed slow down
  work flow, and they can be painfully slow to pop up on older
  computers. Fortunately, all of our equipment is pretty new, but I
  know our smaller libraries can have issues with the speed as they
  have the double hit of slow hardware and slow connections.
  
  Cheers!
  Buzzy
  

Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State Street
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

  
  On 04/14/2014 01:12 PM, McCanna, Terran wrote:


  Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little while, but when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall getting anything that I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall things that required some sort of staff action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 




  

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Ruth Frasur]

The alerts, in my experience (which is a fair amount) are important.

There is an awful lot of information that is pulled from the db when items
are checked in (as a default).  I haven't tried this, but I have to imagine
that only displaying certain, essential columns should speed the process up
(nothing to do with alerts).

Evergreen is only as slow as the equipment it's run on (server side and
client side) and the pipes it runs through.  That's one of the things we
signed up for when we decided to share a catalog.  The further you are from
the server, the slower it's going to be.  While I can appreciate that it
seems like everything is being blamed on the people running the circ desk,
my experience has been that 75% of the time (maybe higher), that's the
issue.  Please note, I'm as guilty as the next person.  I've tried to scan
right through a hold notice or CD count while I was talking to the person
on the other side of the counter.  Then I had to go back and pick up where
I messed up.

Thank goodness the circ desk is busy or we'd have other things to worry
about.

As I tell my staff, we're not performing brain surgery.  If the book gets
put on the shelf without being checked in properly, we're going to fix it
and the world will keep spinning.  Please forgive me if any of your
libraries are now offering brain surgery services.


On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:12 PM, McCanna, Terran <
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org> wrote:

> Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little
> while, but when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall
> getting anything that I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall
> things that required some sort of staff action such as routing, printing
> hold slips, etc. If alerts were suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more
> staff error?
>
>
> Terran McCanna
> PINES Program Manager
> Georgia Public Library Service
> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150
> Atlanta, GA 30345
> 404-235-7138
> tmcca...@georgialibraries.org
>
> - Original Message -
> From: "Jason Etheridge" 
> To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" <
> open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org>
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:02:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?
>
> > Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.
>
> One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design
> decision that certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and
> there was a great fear of users accidentally "scanning through" an
> alert without noticing.
>
> It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the consequences of
> that decision, for example, with the menu option Checkin
> Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
> (Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress
> popup-dialogs during check-in" library setting.
>
> It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the
> very least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library
> setting, despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love
> to have it enabled).
>
> --
> Jason Etheridge
> | Support Manager
> | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
> | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
> | email: ja...@esilibrary.com
> | web: http://www.esilibrary.com
>



-- 
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

Our Kickin' Website <http://hagerstownlibrary.org>  Our Rockin' Facebook
Page <http://facebook.com/hjtplibrary>  and Stuff I'm
Reading<http://pinterest.com/hjtplibrary/ruth-reads/>

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Jason Etheridge]

> It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the
> very least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library
> setting, despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love
> to have it enabled).

For those wanting to experiment, try enabling both the "Suppress
popup-dialogs during check-in" library setting and the "Fast Entry"
checkbox.  You should be able to scan (and miss scan) items very
quickly.  But you do have to watch/listen for errors, and your
environment (server, workstation, networking) will still determine how
quickly each scanned row actually resolves into useful information.

-- 
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[McCanna, Terran]

Most of those alerts are important, are they not? It's been a little while, but 
when I've covered Circ and done check-ins, I don't recall getting anything that 
I regarded as an unnecessary alert - I only recall things that required some 
sort of staff action such as routing, printing hold slips, etc. If alerts were 
suppressed, wouldn't that cause far more staff error?


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

- Original Message -
From: "Jason Etheridge" 
To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" 
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:02:49 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

> Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.

One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design
decision that certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and
there was a great fear of users accidentally "scanning through" an
alert without noticing.

It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the consequences of
that decision, for example, with the menu option Checkin
Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
(Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress
popup-dialogs during check-in" library setting.

It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the
very least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library
setting, despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love
to have it enabled).

-- 
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Jason Etheridge]

> Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.

One thing I want to mention is that it was an intentional design
decision that certain workflows got "halted" by pop-up alerts, and
there was a great fear of users accidentally "scanning through" an
alert without noticing.

It seems like we've been slowly trying to mitigate the consequences of
that decision, for example, with the menu option Checkin
Modifiers->Ignore Pre-cataloged Items and the experimental Fast Entry
(Asynchronous) checkbox, and culminating in the "Suppress
popup-dialogs during check-in" library setting.

It may be time to rethink this behavior from the ground-up, or at the
very least, better document it (I had forgotten all about that library
setting, despite having wrote it, and I bet a lot of folk would love
to have it enabled).

-- 
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Vickie Turcotte]

Hello all,

I usually just lurk here, I learn a lot of things by following the
discussions.

But I wanted to speak up, as one of those front line EG users (after looking
up PEBKAC).

Circ is very busy, as already mentioned.  They need to go fast to get the
work done.

Evergreen is slow. There may be a million reasons why it's not Evergreen's
fault, but that's my experience.

Evergreen has lots of alerts - we tracked them for a week once.  The slowest
day had only 468 alerts that required staff to clear them.  Worst day was
743 alerts.  743 times that day, staff had to go to the mouse or the
keyboard to clear an alert.

Staff make mistakes,  but Evergreen provides lots of opportunities to make
mistakes.

This last thing is a personal issue of mine - sometimes it can be really
hard to convince the Evergreen staff that there's a problem.  User error is
not always to blame, but is often the first response when reporting a
problem.

Thanks for your time.


Vickie Turcotte
Head of Technical Services
Chelmsford Public Library
25 Boston Rd.
Chelmsford, MA 01824
978-256-5521 x106
Fax: 978-256-8511
vturco...@mvlc.org

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Ruth Frasur]

Rogan definitely wins the internet today.


On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 4:45 PM, Michele Morgan wrote:

> Just wanted to add one more thought to this thread.
>
> Our libraries deal with checkin errors as well. The same was true in our
> previous library systems, but we had a LOT of questions about items not
> getting checked in after we migrated to Evergreen.
>
> As others have mentioned, we have encouraged our libraries to turn off
> scanner beeps and rely on the sounds made by Evergreen, and stressed the
> importance of reading the screen.
>
> We've also suggested to our libraries that they try a few checkin tests:
>
> With a clean checkin screen, checkin a series of items and put them all on
> a cart in the order they were checked in. When the cart is full, export the
> entire list of items from the checkin screen. Match up the exported item
> list to the items on the cart. Items on the cart, but not on the list
> didn't get checked in and looking at the sequence of checkins may help
> identify how items got missed.
>
> This diligence has helped, and we could certainly say that the ultimate
> problem is that staff need to pay closer attention to the screen. But that
> doesn't mean we should let the software totally off the hook. As others
> have mentioned, misscans, the client not keeping up with staff, the need to
> click or tab to acknowledge messages, all require a lot of attention from
> the staff user.
>
> Circulation desks are busy. As previously mentioned, there is a lot of
> multitasking going on. It's the job of circ desk staffers to provide high
> quality service to their customers. It's the job of the software to provide
> high quality service to the circ desk staffers.
>
> Hopefully, the transition to the web based client should go a long way
> toward providing a smooth and intuitive interface so that the staff's main
> focus can be on their customers.
>
> -Michele
>
>
> On 4/11/2014 4:23 PM, Buzzy Nielsen wrote:
>
>> I think they're enabled by default. If you plug speakers in to the
>> computer or
>> turn up the sound, you should hear them. I will say, however, that the
>> default
>> confirmation sound for a successful checkin is pretty soft, so our
>> systems staff
>> replaced it with something more audible. Hopefully Brent will see this
>> message
>> and respond with more details on how to do that!
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Buzzy
>>
>> 
>> Library Director
>> Hood River County Library District
>> 502 State Street
>> Hood River, Oregon 97031
>> 541-387-7062
>> http://hoodriverlibrary.org
>>
>> On 04/11/2014 12:58 PM, Holly Brennan wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> In addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've also
>>> turned on
>>> Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That has also helped quite a
>>> bit.
>>>
>>> Wait, there are sounds?! How does one activate this?
>>>
>>> -Holly
>>>
>>>
>>
> --
> Michele Morgan, Technical Assistant
> North of Boston Library Exchange, Danvers Massachusetts
> mmor...@noblenet.org
>



-- 
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

Our Kickin' Website   Our Rockin' Facebook
Page   and Stuff I'm
Reading

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Michele Morgan]

Just wanted to add one more thought to this thread.

Our libraries deal with checkin errors as well. The same was true in our 
previous library systems, but we had a LOT of questions about items not getting 
checked in after we migrated to Evergreen.


As others have mentioned, we have encouraged our libraries to turn off scanner 
beeps and rely on the sounds made by Evergreen, and stressed the importance of 
reading the screen.


We've also suggested to our libraries that they try a few checkin tests:

With a clean checkin screen, checkin a series of items and put them all on a 
cart in the order they were checked in. When the cart is full, export the entire 
list of items from the checkin screen. Match up the exported item list to the 
items on the cart. Items on the cart, but not on the list didn't get checked in 
and looking at the sequence of checkins may help identify how items got missed.


This diligence has helped, and we could certainly say that the ultimate problem 
is that staff need to pay closer attention to the screen. But that doesn't mean 
we should let the software totally off the hook. As others have mentioned, 
misscans, the client not keeping up with staff, the need to click or tab to 
acknowledge messages, all require a lot of attention from the staff user.


Circulation desks are busy. As previously mentioned, there is a lot of 
multitasking going on. It's the job of circ desk staffers to provide high 
quality service to their customers. It's the job of the software to provide high 
quality service to the circ desk staffers.


Hopefully, the transition to the web based client should go a long way toward 
providing a smooth and intuitive interface so that the staff's main focus can be 
on their customers.


-Michele

On 4/11/2014 4:23 PM, Buzzy Nielsen wrote:

I think they're enabled by default. If you plug speakers in to the computer or
turn up the sound, you should hear them. I will say, however, that the default
confirmation sound for a successful checkin is pretty soft, so our systems staff
replaced it with something more audible. Hopefully Brent will see this message
and respond with more details on how to do that!

Cheers!
Buzzy


Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State Street
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

On 04/11/2014 12:58 PM, Holly Brennan wrote:


In addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've also turned on
Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That has also helped quite a bit.

Wait, there are sounds?! How does one activate this?

-Holly





--
Michele Morgan, Technical Assistant
North of Boston Library Exchange, Danvers Massachusetts
mmor...@noblenet.org

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Holly Brennan]

I would definitely appreciate more info, so I too can change sound settings if 
the defaults aren't great. Perhaps they are on currently, but we always have 
our circ desk computer speakers off to avoid blasting noise from those pesky 
internet ads. But our designated check *IN* station is rarely used for anything 
but. This could be very helpful!

Thanks, Buzzy! You never know what you might learn from these emails.

-Holly

From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Buzzy 
Nielsen
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 12:23 PM
To: open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

I think they're enabled by default. If you plug speakers in to the computer or 
turn up the sound, you should hear them. I will say, however, that the default 
confirmation sound for a successful checkin is pretty soft, so our systems 
staff replaced it with something more audible. Hopefully Brent will see this 
message and respond with more details on how to do that!

Cheers!
Buzzy


Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State Street
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org
On 04/11/2014 12:58 PM, Holly Brennan wrote:
In addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've also turned on 
Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That has also helped quite a bit.

Wait, there are sounds?! How does one activate this?

-Holly

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Buzzy Nielsen]

  
  
I think they're
enabled by default. If you plug speakers in to the computer or
turn up the sound, you should hear them. I will say,
  however, that the default confirmation sound for a successful
  checkin is pretty soft, so our systems staff replaced it with
  something more audible. Hopefully Brent will see this message and
  respond with more details on how to do that!
  
  Cheers!
  Buzzy
  

Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State Street
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

  
  On 04/11/2014 12:58 PM, Holly Brennan wrote:


  In

  addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've
  also turned on Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That
  has also helped quite a bit.
   
  Wait,
  there are sounds?! How does one activate this?
   
  -Holly


  

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Holly Brennan]

In addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've also turned on 
Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That has also helped quite a bit.

Wait, there are sounds?! How does one activate this?

-Holly



From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Buzzy 
Nielsen
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 11:23 AM
To: open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

And Rogan wins the Internet for today.

In addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've also turned on 
Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That has also helped quite a bit.

Thanks for your comments, folks!

Cheers!
Buzzy


Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State Street
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org
On 04/11/2014 11:46 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote:
The only method that guarantees complete attention probably violates the Geneva 
Convention.

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Buzzy Nielsen]

  
  
And Rogan wins the
Internet for today.

In addition to turning off the scanner beep, which helps, we've
also turned on Evergreen's sounds on checkin workstation. That
has also helped quite a bit.

Thanks for your comments, folks!

Cheers!
Buzzy
  
  

Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State Street
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

  
  On 04/11/2014 11:46 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote:


  The only method that guarantees complete attention
probably violates the Geneva Convention.  


  

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Holly Brennan]

>>Personally, I'm pretty sure we've got PEBKAC going on. At our local library, 
>>we've implemented work flow improvements and the problem has pretty much 
>>disappeared. Still, I thought I'd ask: have any of you experienced this issue?

It’s the general consensus, but I’ll chime in, too. Yep, easy to blame the 
software but staff are the likely problem. When our library switched to 
Evergreen a year ago, we noticed a SIGNIFICANT lag time increase during scans 
and in general (just switching screens/tabs takes a lot longer). And with that 
was an increase in the number of problems with books ending up back on the 
shelves while still checked out. We are still working on patience, but our rate 
of this occurring is back to “normal”..

An Evergreen-specific feature that could be causing this is the warning when 
something is mis-scanned. I never saw that with our former ILS. I think it 
would just take anything scanned and enter it without question. Evergreen 
doesn’t let you check something out (or in) that doesn’t exist. Again, the 
actual problem is with staff not looking at the message and going on to the 
next item. Same with hold/transfer messages.

Personally, I have found that turning off the scanner beep helps (with general 
workflow, not ILS-specific). But others freaked out when I did this with a circ 
desk scanner, so now it’s just the one at my personal desk that doesn’t beep. I 
know it helps me look at the screen every time!

-Holly

From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Buzzy 
Nielsen
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 9:02 AM
To: Evergreen general listserv
Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Hi folks,

We have libraries in our consortium that are claiming that Evergreen is not 
properly checking in items, i.e. that they're scanning the items for check in 
but the system isn't taking the item off the patron's account. We're running 
2.5.1.

Personally, I'm pretty sure we've got PEBKAC going on. At our local library, 
we've implemented work flow improvements and the problem has pretty much 
disappeared. Still, I thought I'd ask: have any of you experienced this issue?

Cheers!
Buzzy


***
Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State St
Hood River, OR, 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Rogan Hamby]

The only method that guarantees complete attention probably violates the
Geneva Convention.


On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 2:34 PM, Ruth Frasur  wrote:

> We turned the beeps off at my previous library which forced staff to look
> at the screen.  It still didn't always work.   They still didn't always
> make sure that what they expect to happen happened.
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 2:28 PM, McCanna, Terran <
> tmcca...@georgialibraries.org> wrote:
>
>> Agreed. Staff going too fast and not watching the screen has been an
>> issue with every ILS in every library I've ever worked at, and it's not
>> surprising if they're at the desk because they are so often trying to
>> multitask. I've worked several places (some using Evergreen, some using
>> those OTHER ILSes) that had a standard policy of checking in every cart of
>> books twice (usually once as they were turned in, then again checking a
>> whole cart before shelving) to catch things that were missed the first time.
>>
>>
>> Terran McCanna
>> PINES Program Manager
>> Georgia Public Library Service
>> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150
>> Atlanta, GA 30345
>> 404-235-7138
>> tmcca...@georgialibraries.org
>>
>> - Original Message -
>> From: "Elisabeth Keppler" 
>> To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" <
>> open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org>
>> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:59:37 PM
>> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?
>>
>>
>> Our cases of check-ins not going through seem to be almost always because
>> staff was going faster than Evergreen could handle. Because of the beep,
>> they think the scan was accepted and aren't always as vigilant about
>> watching the screen as they could be. This has also happened at check-out.
>> The result of that, of course, is that the catalog thinks the item is still
>> on the shelf and it doesn't appear on the patron's record at all. Joan's
>> suggestion of disabling the beep sounds like a winner.
>>
>>
>> Re pre-cats, we don't allow staff to use them. If a patron brings an item
>> to the desk that isn't in the catalog, we try to find another copy for them
>> but don't let them check out the copy in their hands until it can be added
>> to the system.
>>
>>
>> Lise
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Lise Keppler
>> Forsyth County Public Library
>>
>> 660 W 5th St
>> Winston Salem NC 27101
>> 336-703-3070
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Ruth Frasur
> Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
> Library
> 10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
> p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808
>
> Our Kickin' Website <http://hagerstownlibrary.org>  Our Rockin' Facebook
> Page <http://facebook.com/hjtplibrary>  and Stuff I'm 
> Reading<http://pinterest.com/hjtplibrary/ruth-reads/>
>
>


-- 

Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
York County Library System

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop
reading them."
-- Ray Bradbury <https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1630.Ray_Bradbury>

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit
me."
-- C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Ruth Frasur]

We turned the beeps off at my previous library which forced staff to look
at the screen.  It still didn't always work.   They still didn't always
make sure that what they expect to happen happened.


On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 2:28 PM, McCanna, Terran <
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org> wrote:

> Agreed. Staff going too fast and not watching the screen has been an issue
> with every ILS in every library I've ever worked at, and it's not
> surprising if they're at the desk because they are so often trying to
> multitask. I've worked several places (some using Evergreen, some using
> those OTHER ILSes) that had a standard policy of checking in every cart of
> books twice (usually once as they were turned in, then again checking a
> whole cart before shelving) to catch things that were missed the first time.
>
>
> Terran McCanna
> PINES Program Manager
> Georgia Public Library Service
> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150
> Atlanta, GA 30345
> 404-235-7138
> tmcca...@georgialibraries.org
>
> - Original Message -
> From: "Elisabeth Keppler" 
> To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" <
> open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:59:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?
>
>
> Our cases of check-ins not going through seem to be almost always because
> staff was going faster than Evergreen could handle. Because of the beep,
> they think the scan was accepted and aren't always as vigilant about
> watching the screen as they could be. This has also happened at check-out.
> The result of that, of course, is that the catalog thinks the item is still
> on the shelf and it doesn't appear on the patron's record at all. Joan's
> suggestion of disabling the beep sounds like a winner.
>
>
> Re pre-cats, we don't allow staff to use them. If a patron brings an item
> to the desk that isn't in the catalog, we try to find another copy for them
> but don't let them check out the copy in their hands until it can be added
> to the system.
>
>
> Lise
>
>
> --
>
> Lise Keppler
> Forsyth County Public Library
>
> 660 W 5th St
> Winston Salem NC 27101
> 336-703-3070
>



-- 
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

Our Kickin' Website <http://hagerstownlibrary.org>  Our Rockin' Facebook
Page <http://facebook.com/hjtplibrary>  and Stuff I'm
Reading<http://pinterest.com/hjtplibrary/ruth-reads/>

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Andrea Buntz Neiman]

On 4/11/2014 2:28 PM, McCanna, Terran wrote:

Agreed. Staff going too fast and not watching the screen has been an issue with 
every ILS in every library I've ever worked at, and it's not surprising if 
they're at the desk because they are so often trying to multitask.


Exactly this.  Plus, if you use alert messages/check-in notes, these 
have to be clicked through/tabbed through before you can resume scanning 
items.  The vast majority of our missed checkins come from this or some 
other form of PEBKAC.  We're pretty generous with the use of Claimed 
Returned (which TBH doesn't totally alleviate the customer service 
issue), but I'm constantly telling circ staff to SLOW DOWN AND PAY 
ATTENTION!


A.


Andrea Buntz Neiman, MLS
Librarian II, Public Services
Kent County Public Library
408 High Street
Chestertown, MD 21620
410-778-3636 x2115
www.kentcountylibrary.org

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[McCanna, Terran]

Agreed. Staff going too fast and not watching the screen has been an issue with 
every ILS in every library I've ever worked at, and it's not surprising if 
they're at the desk because they are so often trying to multitask. I've worked 
several places (some using Evergreen, some using those OTHER ILSes) that had a 
standard policy of checking in every cart of books twice (usually once as they 
were turned in, then again checking a whole cart before shelving) to catch 
things that were missed the first time. 


Terran McCanna 
PINES Program Manager 
Georgia Public Library Service 
1800 Century Place, Suite 150 
Atlanta, GA 30345 
404-235-7138 
tmcca...@georgialibraries.org 

- Original Message -
From: "Elisabeth Keppler" 
To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" 
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:59:37 PM
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?


Our cases of check-ins not going through seem to be almost always because staff 
was going faster than Evergreen could handle. Because of the beep, they think 
the scan was accepted and aren't always as vigilant about watching the screen 
as they could be. This has also happened at check-out. The result of that, of 
course, is that the catalog thinks the item is still on the shelf and it 
doesn't appear on the patron's record at all. Joan's suggestion of disabling 
the beep sounds like a winner. 


Re pre-cats, we don't allow staff to use them. If a patron brings an item to 
the desk that isn't in the catalog, we try to find another copy for them but 
don't let them check out the copy in their hands until it can be added to the 
system. 


Lise 


-- 

Lise Keppler 
Forsyth County Public Library 

660 W 5th St 
Winston Salem NC 27101 
336-703-3070 

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Elisabeth Keppler]

Our cases of check-ins not going through seem to be almost always because
staff was going faster than Evergreen could handle.  Because of the beep,
they think the scan was accepted and aren't always as vigilant about
watching the screen as they could be.  This has also happened at check-out.
 The result of that, of course, is that the catalog thinks the item is
still on the shelf and it doesn't appear on the patron's record at all.
 Joan's suggestion of disabling the beep sounds like a winner.

Re pre-cats, we don't allow staff to use them.  If a patron brings an item
to the desk that isn't in the catalog, we try to find another copy for them
but don't let them check out the copy in their hands until it can be added
to the system.

Lise

-- 
Lise Keppler
Forsyth County Public Library
660 W 5th St
Winston Salem NC 27101
336-703-3070

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Joan Kranich]

Hello,

Our libraries have also reported that after checking in items the items 
remained on the patron record.  We started on release 2.2 and now on 2.4 so our 
reports have not been specific to a release.  Some of our libraries have 
disabled the beep on the scanner and tell us that has improved the situation.

Mis-scans lead to the problem as well.  If the mis-scan occurs at check out 
staff are usually prompted to create a pre-cat record.  If they proceed with 
the pre-cat they are checking out the item with the mis-scanned barcode.  When 
the item is checked in with a correctly scanned barcode it does not remove the 
pre-cat from the patron’s record because the barcodes do not match.

Joan

Joan Kranich
C/W MARS Member Services
jkran...@cwmars.org
508-755-3323 ext. 21

From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Tony 
Bandy
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:07 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Hi Buzzy, folks,

We’ve experienced this a bit in our consortium as well and can’t seem to really 
track down a persistent identifying cause….best luck we have had has been with 
adjusting barcode scanners and telling staff to slow down on scanning things.  
Not real scientific, but seems to help…

-Tony

Tony Bandy
to...@ohionet.org<mailto:to...@ohionet.org>
OHIONET
1500 West Lane Ave.
Columbus, OH  43221-3975
614-486-2966 x19

From: 
open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org<mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org>
 [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Buzzy 
Nielsen
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:02 PM
To: Evergreen general listserv
Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Hi folks,

We have libraries in our consortium that are claiming that Evergreen is not 
properly checking in items, i.e. that they're scanning the items for check in 
but the system isn't taking the item off the patron's account. We're running 
2.5.1.

Personally, I'm pretty sure we've got PEBKAC going on. At our local library, 
we've implemented work flow improvements and the problem has pretty much 
disappeared. Still, I thought I'd ask: have any of you experienced this issue?

Cheers!
Buzzy


***
Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State St
Hood River, OR, 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Tony Bandy]

Hi Buzzy, folks,

We’ve experienced this a bit in our consortium as well and can’t seem to really 
track down a persistent identifying cause….best luck we have had has been with 
adjusting barcode scanners and telling staff to slow down on scanning things.  
Not real scientific, but seems to help…

-Tony

Tony Bandy
to...@ohionet.org<mailto:to...@ohionet.org>
OHIONET
1500 West Lane Ave.
Columbus, OH  43221-3975
614-486-2966 x19

From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org 
[mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Buzzy 
Nielsen
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:02 PM
To: Evergreen general listserv
Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

Hi folks,

We have libraries in our consortium that are claiming that Evergreen is not 
properly checking in items, i.e. that they're scanning the items for check in 
but the system isn't taking the item off the patron's account. We're running 
2.5.1.

Personally, I'm pretty sure we've got PEBKAC going on. At our local library, 
we've implemented work flow improvements and the problem has pretty much 
disappeared. Still, I thought I'd ask: have any of you experienced this issue?

Cheers!
Buzzy


***
Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State St
Hood River, OR, 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org

Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Jason Etheridge]

> We have libraries in our consortium that are claiming that Evergreen is not
> properly checking in items, i.e. that they're scanning the items for check
> in but the system isn't taking the item off the patron's account. We're
> running 2.5.1.

Buzzy, is it a case of items lingering in Items Out because there are
still unpaid bills attached to the transactions?

-- 
Jason Etheridge
| Support Manager
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: ja...@esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com

[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not checking in?

[Buzzy Nielsen]

Hi folks,

We have libraries in our consortium that are claiming that Evergreen is not 
properly checking in items, i.e. that they're scanning the items for check in 
but the system isn't taking the item off the patron's account. We're running 
2.5.1.

Personally, I'm pretty sure we've got PEBKAC going on. At our local library, 
we've implemented work flow improvements and the problem has pretty much 
disappeared. Still, I thought I'd ask: have any of you experienced this issue?

Cheers!
Buzzy


***
Library Director
Hood River County Library District
502 State St
Hood River, OR, 97031
541-387-7062
http://hoodriverlibrary.org