SAN JUAN ISLAND LIBRARY

Related pages

San Juan Island Library Web site

Previous columns

Trading Spaces

Report on Washington, D.C.

Thanks to Richard Civille

We Love Summer!

Mid-Year Progress Report

Rural Libraries in Washington D.C.

13 Library Services

New Face at the Library

May is Better Speech Language and Hearing Month

MORE COLUMNS

One Down, Two to Go

posted 07/17/2007
It was a very busy last week at the library. It may not have seemed especially so from a patron perspective, but the library staff was tied up in behind the scenes work. We had the first of three in person training sessions for our new catalog system. We spent three days in our storage space turned training room (the hot attic space) setting up logins, defining rules for checking materials in and out, creating accounts, and a number of other essential but not necessarily invigorating activities. Of course maybe it was just the heat.

Not all staff attended all training sessions as most were administrative and systems oriented. However, the one that all staff did attend was the session for searching in our new catalog or WebPAC (Web Patron Access Catalog). This is going to be the biggest change from the patron’s perspective. The new system will have a few new features that will enhance use and access to the catalog. Some of the new searching features include suggested corrections for misspellings, relevance ranking, and corrections for improperly formatted searches. The system is designed to offer you some sort of result or suggestion when you search rather than simply coming back with nothing.

New and improved patron functions include easy hold placing, freezing hold requests if you go on vacation, and the much requested ability to save your reading history. Saving you reading history has privacy implications and will not be the default setting but we will be able to offer it to those who request it.

As you become comfortable with the new system remember that the collection is exactly the same; this is simply a new system with different programming and interface to search and manage your account. We will also offer extra classes and demos on searching and managing your account.

In between now and our second training in September the staff will evaluate the catalog and try to find anything that isn’t quite right and make it work how we want. We will also begin customizing the WebPAC to put our look on it. We are scheduled to go live the first week of November. Although that may sound like a little ways off yet, we all know how quickly time flies!

Laura Tretter, Director
San Juan Island Library
360.378.2798
ltretter@sjlib.org

SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008

news @sanjuanislander.com

ABOUT US | ADVERTISING INFO | CONTACT INFORMATION |