HRMS Systems advise that since yesterday Peoplesoft will not be available. This is to give the Upgrade Project team sufficient time to convert data and run associated tests. The Library will be advised when the new v9.1 is again available after ‘go live’ early next week.
These are the effects on Horizon during this downtime:

– no new UC employee and UC visitor records will be loaded
– no UC employee or UC Visitor records will be updated
– for replacement Canterbury cards, no new barcodes will be loaded
Contact Helen (8719) for assistance for anyone caught out by these effects.

There may be unexpected changes to the Library set up after the new Peoplesoft is available next week but Library IT will be watching out for this. Please report anything unusual to them.

Lending will continue to create library external borrower records on Horizon and the Card Co-ordinator will continue to produce red topped library visitor cards during this time – business as usual for this group and for reciprocal borrowers.
Helen

As you are all aware, the email address field on all Horizon borrower records is ‘greyed out’ for most logins. This simply means that if a borrower requests that the address should be changed there is a simple process to follow at the desk. To refresh your memories, please read the Wiki page ‘Request email address change’.

The page provides information on when an email address can be changed and when it cannot. Quick rule of thumb – if the borrower is a UC Student or UC employee – UC policy is that the official email address must be used. If there are technical problems, refer them to ICT Help Desk for assistance to fix the problems.
Helen

A small but helpful rewording has been made by Library IT to a column header that displays in My Account.

Previously, borrowers would see in their ‘My Account’ that their Holds expired on a specific date e.g. Friday 16th July. As we know, this was technically correct but the item actually expired at the start of that date (before the Library opens) not the end of that date i.e. was unavailable for pick up on that date as it had either moved to the next requestor or back to the shelves.

In the Holds and Requests Tab, the column heading has been changed to ‘Collect Before’ (instead of ‘Expires on’). Hopefully this will make it clearer to borrowers that they should pick up the hold before the date specified.
Helen

You will have all noticed that Horizon student borrower records still contain the old style @student.canterbury.ac.nz email addresses rather than the new uclive addresses. The reason for this is that the old format addresses are still on Jade, and our records are copies.

A number of students have asked the Library to update Horizon with their new address so I have made enquiries with ICT Service Desk about this. This is their recent response:

Our development team are working on populating Jade with the current @uclive or @pg addresses depending on the type of student. Students have been informed that they should either check both accounts or set up a forwarding rule from Outlook Live to their new exchange account. I will send another message out to them all to ensure that they are aware of the current state. I am not sure of the time-line for getting addresses populated at this point – it is a delicate thing to change so they are ensuring they approach all systems owners before going ahead with the change.

Any ‘correction’ we make to student email addresses on Horizon can be overwritten by their address on Jade – a pointless exercise. Good to know that the ICTS development team are working on a global update.
Helen

Occasionally the situation arises that a borrower will place a request on an item that they already have out on issue. Horizon cannot prevent this occuring and it usually results in the item being recalled from the person who already has it. As the recall process cannot be cancelled, in this situation, library staff have to intervene to CKI the item, then re-issue it to the requesting borrower.

Library IT have made the following changes:

1) If the current borrower places a bib-level request or a request on the exact item they have out, then it won’t be auto-recalled.
2) The item will be listed on both the Requests on long-term loan and Request Exceptions reports for checking. Two new ‘exceptions’ have been added: Borrower has item request on own item [and] Borrower has bib request on own item.

Any borrower that appears in either of these lists should be notified by an Alert Block being placed on their record e.g. “Request [title] is already on issue to you.” Please check this report regularly.

Note that if the current borrower places an item request on a different item on the same bib record, then we will try to auto-recall.
Helen

Library web pages have now been updated to reflect the recent policy changes to maximum fines blocking borrowing on Borrowing and Fines page and the lowering of the recall fine rate on the Recalls page.

The intention is that only fines of $30 and above will block new borrowing at both the Self check machines and at a library service desk.

Please remember that the real Horizon block is still set at $50 (in order to allow online renewals that would otherwise be blocked by fines) so this still means that fines between $0 and $49 will not trigger a reminder Max fines box in the borrower’s record at checkout.

A Library news item on the changes to recall fine rates has been posted.
Helen

A borrower complained yesterday that she was given phone advice by a male librarian ‘with no hint of doubt in his voice’ that ‘it will be no problem if my husband collects the book provided he brings my library card.’ Unfortunately for this borrower, the item on hold was an interloan and as we must be particularly careful with other library’s books, no exception was made to give him the interloan. This misinformation understandably caused annoyance and I have apologised to the borrower.

Allowing someone to borrow using another’s card is not something we routinely do except when there is a prior arrangement due to circumstances such as the card holder being in hospital. I am well aware that Self Check machines do not check the identity of the person using the card but this does not mean we should advise borrowers that anyone one can use their card in all circumstances.
Please remember that currently proxy borrowing is only available for staff and disabled students.
Helen

Some of you may have noticed the sudden re-appearance of the old Horizon feature, automatic address checks. Donna investigated and found that all btypes were set to check addresses every 999 days – she has now changed this to 9999 days (pretty much never).
However, if some are still lingering from the old setting and you find one when opening a borrower’s record , please just save the existing address and close.
When a UC student wishes to change their address, they should be advised to make the change via UCStudent, so that the Library gets the updated copy of that record. Any change on Horizon directly, can be overwritten.
You can however update addresses directly on Horizon for borrowers who ONLY have a Horizon record e.g. external and reciprocal borrowers.

Card Office advise that due to the loss of a staff position in their area, they are unable to produce any new Canterbury or Visitor cards today (13/5/10).
Lending will not be doing any External Borrower registration today.
Helen