LINK 2.0 Koha

LINK 2 Koha Migration--the final stretch

We are closing in on the final month of our Koha migration.  This seems an appropriate time to provide an overiew of where we are at with the various aspects of this project.

Software Development

We are close to receiving all of our final development and we are testing as fast as we can.  We will then continue to work with LibLime/PTFS to fine-tune the projects based on the reports we provide them from testing. All development should be in place by the end of 2010 so that we have a stable database for you to do your final training in January (see under Training below).  The training database will be upgraded at that time. LibLime/PTFS is also working on the response time issues and they are working with all of our third party vendors to make sure those products work well with Koha. Please see the Development Projects status page if you are interested to see where we are at with all of the projects (ILS web site login and password required).

Preparation for Go Live

SCLS is preparing to support the ILS libraries during the Go Live on January 17 and 18. We will be providing a variety of ways to assist with what will most likely be a stressful period for the libraries.  Please read the recent blog post regarding the Go Live details. It is important that ILS libraries read this post as soon as possible as we are asking for information from you by Friday, December 17.

Koha Comments and Questions

We have continued to receive great comments and questions via the Koha Comments and Questions form. However we have had difficulty in keeping up with answering them! We have discussed this with the ILS Committee and they have agreed that it would be OK if we do not address each submission directly.  We will either add them to a FAQ or incorporate them in to our training. Please do continue to submit your comments and questions as we will continue to review them and they are very helpful to us.

Training

The hands-on serials workshops are being conducted now.  All other hands-on workshops are completed.  For the next several weeks, we recommend that staff continue to use the Koha Training database to familiarize themselves with navigation and the basic functions. When the training database is updated with our new development in early January, that would be a good time to conduct final in-depth training in the library. To assist with this we will be producing a variety of to-the-point webinars and online tutorials to address new development and specific functions. Staff will be able to watch these on demand. These will be posted on the Koha Training page. Now would be a good time to watch the webinars already recorded and also found on that page. If you have suggestion for training topics, please use the Koha Comments and Questions form and include the words "Training topics" at the beginning of the Comments box.

Data Migration

We have begun the final cutover phase of the data extraction.  On December 9, all bibliographic and item records were extracted from Dynix.  We are about to begin testing item records.  See the Migration Events page for specific details of the remainder of the data migration.

PR and Patron Education

The SCLS PR and Patron Education committees have been busy too. The PR Committee is working on ways to inform patrons of the various down-time and the changes coming to LINKcat.  The Patron Education Committee is developing materials such as bookmarks and online tutorials to assist patrons with using the upgraded LINKcat.

SCLS Technology Staff

The technology staff are working on various aspects of the migration as well.  For a peek behind the scenes, see the recent TechBits post.  It would be fair to say that virtually everyone at SCLS has been involved in the LINK to Koha migration in one way or another.

Detailed List of Library Events for Koha Migration

Here is a detailed list of dates pertaining to the SCLS migration to Koha.  This list includes cutoffs for various ILS services--such as report requests.  Also included are the dates for cessation of various activities on Dynix prior to the migration--such as last day to add new holdings.  If you have questions about this schedule, please submit them via the SCLS Koha Comments and Questions form.

REPORT REQUESTS

11/1/2010 Last day to request a report of Clubs & Organizations records
12/1/2010 Last day to request custom reports (Weeding, Serials, Patron, item, etc.)
12/28/2010-1/5/2011 year end reports on Dynix
1/17/2011-1/21/2011 Jan. 1-14 2011 year end reports on Dynix
All standard reports will be run as regularly scheduled

SERIALS

Ongoing--Review serials copy records (see blog post Serials Copy Record Maintenance) ; request a new Union List Report for another check!
12/9/2010 Last day to modify or delete magazine holdings (with exception of status)
1/6/2011 Last day to request new copy records on Dynix
1/7/2011 Last day to modify copy records Dynix
1/7/2011 Stop Serials checkin on Dynix
1/19/2011 Resume Serials checkin on Koha

ITEM MAINTENANCE

Ongoing--Weed! Request weeding reports through 12/1/2010
Ongoing--Clean up and delete Claims returned items (reports run 3rd Wednesday of each month; see blog post Cleaning up items with Claims Returned status).
Ongoing--Clean up items with problem statuses (Cleaning up items with problem statuses). 
9/8/2010 SCLS will run last Lost (L) and Items with statuses LT,M,T,D,MI for all items marked prior to 1/1/2010
10/18/2010-10/22/2010 SCLS will purge all items marked L,LT,M,T,D,MI prior to 1/1/2010
9/15/2010 Last day to submit requests for new and deleted collection codes
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to change existing collection codes (holdings summary or spine label)
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to batch change collection code/ITYPE on a group of items
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to batch change Status of items

ACQUISITIONS

Ongoing--Review old orders and clean them up
12/1/2010 Stop Ordering on Dynix
12/9/2010 Migrate funds and vendors for some libraries (as needed)
Mid-December (TBD) For those not migrating, set up 2011 fund accounts and vendors in Koha
12/23/2010 Begin ordering from 2011 fund accounts on Koha (but not before 2010 orders are canceled with vendor--see below) No receiving in GetIt yet!
12/31/2010 (or sooner) Stop Receiving on Dynix
1/7/2011 (or sooner) Cancel all remaining orders in Dynix (these will not be migrated)--will need to cancel with vendor
12/9-1/7/2010 Closeout 2010 fund accounts on Dynix--as scheduled by library when last order is canceled
1/7/2011 Libraries cease ordering on Koha
1/19/2011 Libraries resume ordering and begin receiving and invoicing on Koha


CIRCULATION/Patron
12/6/2010 & 12/7/2010 - Purges of Inactive Patrons based on parameters approved by the ILS Committee
1/11/2011 Last date to add, modify and delete patron records
1/13/2011 Cease circulation on Dynix
1/14/2011-1/16/2011 Libraries use Koha offline circulation
1/17/2011 First phase of libraries Go Live on Koha
1/18/2011 Second phase of libraries Go Live on Koha

LINKcat/PAC

1/13/2011 Last holds by staff and patrons placed on Dynix
1/14/2011-1/16/2011 LINKcat down
1/17/2011 LINKcat up on Koha

CODES

9/15/2010 Last day to submit requests for new and deleted collection codes
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to change existing collection codes (holdings summary or spine label)
11/24/2010 Last day to submit requests to batch change collection code/ITYPE on a group of items
12/31/2010 Last day to submit changes to Item Loan types (daily fines, max. fines, grace periods and notice intervals)

CATALOGING

ISBN forms (no cutoff ; we can hold)
Dup record forms (no cutoff ; we can hold)
Problem bib record forms (no cutoff ; we can hold)
12/9/2010 Last day to modify existing holdings (all fields except status)
12/9/2010 Last day to delete existing holdings
12/9/2010 Last day to add new BSE records
1/7/2011 Last day to create new holdings records

MISC

10/21/2010 Clubs & Organizations records--last notices printed / reports generated
11/1/2010 All Inventory Projects must be completed

Collection code cutoff for new and deleted codes is Sept. 15

If you have been thinking of adding new collection codes or deleting codes that you are no longer using, now is the time to do it. You will not be able to request new collection codes, or have any of your collection codes deleted, after Sept. 15, 2010. After Sept. 15, we will be finalizing and testing the collection code mapping that will dictate how all of the Dynix collection codes will migrate to Koha.

To request a new collection code, fill out the New Collection Code Request form. You can request deletes by using the Delete Collection Code Request form. Remember that if there are items attached to a collection code, it cannot be deleted. All items attached to a collection code must either be moved to a new code or deleted from the system before the code itself can be deleted. You can request that the collection code be changed on a batch of items by filling out the Batch Change Collection Code Request form.

Cleaning up items with problem statuses

Approximately four times per year, each library receives a report of items with a status of ME, PR, PM, EX, AV, B, DE, DIS, OR, R, ST, WD, XC, OV that was set at least 3 months prior. The next report will be run in early August. As part of data cleanup in preparation for the migration, we are asking all libraries to review this report closely and make changes to problem item statuses as appropriate.

For example, perhaps you set your current magazine issues to XC (CURRENT ISSUE/NO CKO) and change the statuses when a new magazine issue arrives. This report will show any older issues that were missed and still have the XC status. Perhaps you set an item's status to ME (Mending) but the status was not changed after the item was fixed and returned to the shelf. Or, perhaps the item cannot be fixed at all and should be deleted. 

Specific instructions for deleting holdings and changing item statuses using UHR are reviewed in Section XIV of the Linking Manual.

If you find that you have a group of items with the same status that should be deleted (e.g. ME, WD), you can fill out a Batch Delete Holdings Request form and SCLS staff will batch delete your group of items for you.

Cleaning up items with Claims Returned status

A report is run monthly for each library that owns items with a status of Claims Returned set one year prior.  As part of the ongoing cleanup of the database for the migration to Koha, we are asking every library to review the next report they receive (scheduled to be printed on June 16) and delete the older items.  Items with a status of Claims Returned are not deleted automatically during the annual batch deletion process.  They must be cleaned up and deleted manually.  Deciding whether or not to charge patrons for Claims Returned items is a local library policy; there is no system-wide policy.  Once the Claims Returned status has been cleared, the item can be deleted.

 

If it is not your policy to charge patrons for Claims Returned items, follow this procedure:

1.   Access the patron record. 
2.  At the PURF Summary screen, select the line item containing the item you are working on. 
3.   When the PURF detail screen is up, enter “L” at the command line at the bottom of the screen.  This will convert the Claims Returned status to Lost and charge the patron for the Lost item.
4.  Next, at the command line, type “W” to waive the lost charge.
5.  At the “Amount” prompt, enter the entire Lost charge to be waived.
6.  In the “Comment” prompt, enter information you would want to read in the patron’s PURF History for this item.  You could enter something like this, “CR item to Lost and charge waived. hjo/scls”.  You are not prompted to enter your initials after the comment so it is best to include them in the comment.
7. Once you have waived the charge, the PURF becomes **RESOLVED**.  The system will move the block into PURF History after the next Day End Processing occurs.
8.  Immediately delete the item as usual.

 

If it is your policy to charge patrons for Claims Returned items, only follow steps 1-3 and 8 above.

Thank you,

Heidi Oliversen and Vicki Teal Lovely

It's Spring! - time for some Weeding (Reports)

Actually, Weeding Reports are valuable at any time of the year; I could not resist the gardening allusion.

Weeding Reports can be requested at any time using the online report request form.  We request that you allow us three weeks to get your report back to you, so keep that in mind when you are torturing, ahem, assigning weeding projects to your staff. 

Why is this on the Koha blog, you might ask?  For two reasons; the first is that database clean-up prior to a migration is an essential task.  Weeding your collection of "dead-wood", so to speak, helps keep your collection and our database in very good shape.  Migrating a clean, trim database reduces the amount of post-migration clean-up.  The second reason is that the deadline for requesting a weeding report is three weeks before migration.  If you have weeding projects planned, please request the reports as soon as possible.  You can spread out the report return date if that helps with planning out the projects.

I promise, there will be weeding reports in Koha, I just can't say for certain right now when we will be able to start running them for you again. 

Serials Copy Record Maintenance

We will be migrating the data in your serials copy records to Koha. Now is a good time to make sure that they are in good shape.  If you haven't done so already, complete the January/February tasks in the Serials Annual Cycle of Maintenance Activities*. To assist you with this, I will be generating the Union List of Serials Report* for each library over the next few days.  We will be migrating both inactive and active copy records.  The goal is to delete as many inactive copy records* as possible prior to the migration. The following are steps to be used with the report in hand to help make sure inactive copy records that no longer need to be retained will be deleted.

• Any inactive copy record that does not have holdings associated with it will be deleted by SCLS ILS staff without further action from you.
• Look for straggling or stray items associated with a copy record. Can they be deleted so that the copy record can be deleted?
• Look for stray Special Issues. These need to be deleted from the copy record.
• Do you have holdings that go beyond your library's retention policy? Is it time to delete them?
• If you have a lapsed or cancelled subscription that is still Active, mark the copy record inactive* and mark any predicted issues you will not receive as "Not Available".

You may wish to take a look at the copy records (both active and inactive) that you will be retaining because they have holdings attached or represent a subscription with no holdings such as newspapers.  

• Check that the Collection Codes are correct on all copies for the same title.
• Check that Public Notes (if any) are accurate and appear on all copies for the same title.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this report or any of these procedures.

*Password required.

Scheduling Things

Several people have asked if they should be doing anything to prepare for the Dynix to Koha migration. As of right now, the only thing we have asked you to do is clean up your guardian field data (see Heidi's post from April 9).  Next week we will talk about sprucing up your serials data.

The SCLS ILS staff are working on a checklist of things that you can do to prepare your data and what the optimum time is for completing each task.  This list will include cutoff dates for services we offer such as running weeding reports.  The good news is that we have been working on the data load tests and your data is in really good shape.

The other question we get is when will training occur?  Most training will occur in June, July and August in a variety of formats and venues. We are working on a detailed training schedule.

We hope to get both of these documents out to you in the next two weeks.

In the mean time, we've opened up comments on this post.  Feel free to add any concerns that you have regarding data cleanup and training.  Your comments may help us with planning!

Patron Record Cleanup - Guardian field

During the data review after our first test load, we found problems with how some of the data is migrating.  For instance, in Dynix the Guardian field in the patron record is a free-text field that we use to record Parent or Guardian information for our juvenile patrons.  In Koha, this information will be migrated to a set of fields that allow us to record more than before.  In order to get the results we want in Koha, we have to change how the data is presented in Dynix. To this end, I am sending out instructions and a list of your patrons so that staff can modify the data in the record to comply with the new format.

Collection Code Cleanup and Cutoff Date

If you have been thinking of adding new collection codes or deleting codes that you are no longer using, now is the time to do it. You will not be able to request new collection codes, or have any of your collection codes deleted, after June 1, 2010 because after June 1, we will be finalizing the collection code mapping that will dictate how all of the Dynix collection codes will migrate to Koha. Once this mapping is finalized, it cannot be changed.

To request a new collection code, fill out the New Collection Code Request form. You can request deletes by using the Delete Collection Code Request form. Remember that if there are items attached to a collection code, it cannot be deleted. All items attached to a collection code must either be moved to a new code or deleted from the system before the code itself can be deleted. You can request that the collection code be changed on a batch of items by filling out the Batch Change Collection Code Request form.