CCS News
FEBRUARY 15, 2008
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
SVA – SVA was down completely on Monday morning and it turned out to be file space problems. We gave it more file space and it has been happy ever since. We are watching carefully because libraries reported problems with outgoing calls last week, but our reports look okay. We are tracking down incidents of call anomalies. Often these are a result of the patron not listening to the entire message, or the answering machine taking so long that the message starts mid-stream (that is why it is repeated). Call forwarding can sometimes be the reason or sometimes SVA does not interact well with certain carriers or answering machines. We are following these up to see the patterns, but if you are reporting an SVA problem, please send the patron name, id, phone number(s), carrier, cell or landline, answering machine or not, voice mail box or not, and anything else you might think pertinent via the Help Desk.
Help Desk – if we are working with you on a problem, please try to update the open incident related to the problem and not create a new incident. That helps us to keep track of things better. If we have closed an incident you are always welcome to open it up again to add more information and have us action again. Sometimes libraries reference the old incident in the new one and while that is not always preferable it does help. Thanks so much.
WELCOME to new Evanston Director Mary Johns, who starts in that job on Monday, February 18.
SUBJECT HEADING NEWS:
On Wednesday night our Sirsi system changed over 25,000 records that had the subject heading of “Films for the hearing impaired” back to the original heading of “Video recordings for the hearing impaired”.
These subject headings were previously changed last September so that CCS could keep up with LC’s current subject heading practice. But because of a large outcry by many libraries all over the nation, LC has decided that this was a hasty decision and decided to include both headings (“Video recordings for the hearing impaired” and “Films for the hearing impaired”) as valid headings. After some lengthy discussion by members of the SCRAP committee, it was agreed that it would best to just use one heading in our catalog. That heading will be “Video recordings for the hearing impaired”. Both headings will be valid though, and there will be a see-also reference so that there will be links between the two subject headings
LIBRARY CLOSINGS:
The Wilmette Public Library will be closed for Staff Institute Day on Friday, February 22, 2008. Regular hours will resume on Saturday, February 23.
Lake Villa will be closed Friday morning, February 29th for their annual Staff Development Day. The library will open to the public at 2:00 P.M. that day.
PUBLIC SERVICES JAVA TRAINING:
Now that we’ve finished the first round of Sirsi Java training classes, I’m starting to schedule local programs on topics for which Sirsi does not offer training (i.e. PAS and ILL). The first four local offerings will be for the PAS/Reference staff. Each session will accommodate up to 12 participants and I currently have the following dates on the calendar (there will be additional PAS, as well as ILL sessions scheduled soon).
Local training schedule:
For the week of March 3rd though 7th
At Northbrook - - March 4, 2008, from 1:30 to 4:30
At Northbrook - - March 6, 2008, from 1:30 to 4:30
For the week of March 10th though 14th
At Des Plaines - - March 11, 2008, from 1:30 to 4:30
At Des Plaines - - March 14, 2008, from 1:30 to 4:30
If you or any of your staff would like to register for one of the above PAS/Reference classes, please contact me and provide the name and email address of the person involved. There are no limitations (other than capacity) on the number of people from each library that may attend these sessions. – Ken Victorson
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know it’s possible to use a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F6) to shift between open windows in Java WorkFlows the same way Alt+Tab will take you from one open application to another on your PC’s desktop? Most of us are familiar with the Alt+Tab key combination to move between open windows programs, because that command is faster than using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts help avoid Carpel Tunnel stress. The Java WorkFlows shortcut works basically the same as Alt+Tab does in Windows. If you have more than one Java window open, press and hold down the Ctrl key and then press the F6 key to move backward from the currently open window to the previous open window. If you have more than two WorkFlows windows open, the command will continue to take you backward through the windows, in reverse order of the way you opened them, until you reach the first window of that session. Once you’re back to the first window, typing Ctrl+F6 will return you to the last window again and start the process all over. Ken Victorson
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 2/20, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
