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Reports
6.18.08: Amy from Randolph sez:
The Guided Reports Wizard and Statistics Wizards are relatively easy to use. Still, I think we should have some of the "basic" reports already set up. Pardon me (please!) for using Follett terminology - I figure that, as much as we may hate it, at least we know what it means.... Here are the canned reports that I use regularly:
From Cataloging Reports:
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Code table list
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Shelf list
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Titles added/updated
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Titles by category
From Circulation Reports:
Which just goes to show how useless a lot of those Follett reports are to me, anyway. On the other hand, no doubt other libraries do actually use some of Follett's reports, like "Reading Program - AR." (Just because I don't have a clue doesn't mean it's not useful.) So the more input we can get from folks about the reports they actually use, the better. The list above is in addition to the stuff listed below that Follett simply doesn't do.
Back to the Wizards: a lot of the terminology in the Guided Reports wizard is New Zealand (Maori?) to me. For instance, I'm not sure of the difference between "items," "biblioitems," and "biblio." The more we can rename with American library lingo, and even get rid of, the better, lest people be scared off from even trying to use this nifty tool.
As for the Statistics Wizards, I expect that most of what I listed above is accessible through these. However, they require an ability to conceptualize what you want the end result to be. So on the one hand, they're really flexible. On the other, you have to have a darn flexible brain in order to use them fully. Ergo, the more reports we can pre-define, the better. Then the report mavens among us can come up with nifty new permutations and share them.
Richard feels that the items on the reports wishlist should be either easily available through other development projects or the Koha community, already exist in K3, or can be easily created through the custom reports wizard. Therefore, assume that all of the reports listed below are likely to be available in our developed catalog.
patron reports:
- mailing list from patron list (i.e. easy mailing labels)
- circ. pattern using various fields in patron records (street, patron class, zip code, in town vs out of town patrons)
circ reports:
- using various pieces of bibliographic or item record data (e.g., location code, format, call number, date of publication)
- aging reports of various types (e.g., date of last circ, total number of circs)
- report on everything in a section that hasn't gone out since a particular date
- by item status (overdues, assumed lost, billed items); turnover rate; time-based circ reports (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly etc.)
for holds:
- by patron or item
- also an automatic report when something has more than a certain number of holds, so you can purchase additional copies --From the staff interface, go to CIRCULATION > HOLD RATIOS and that will give you a list of titles that have a large number of holds compared to the number of copies owned. It also calculates how many copies should be owned given the amount of reserves. -Rose
Amy Grasmick noted that the custom reports wizard built in to Koha 3 was very easy to use.
Patron Maintenance
Patron page setup:
- customizable categories (ie, for schools, homeroom, graduation year, etc)
- not have first name be required field for patron record (some of our patrons legally go by just a single name) --We can make any field we want mandatory or optional. Right now surname, zipcode, and cardnumber are set to mandatory on our Koha 3 beta server.--Richard
- more direct interface -- ie, less clicks to place reserves, or see a patron's phone number; make additions & changes on the same screen -- "get rid of the clunk" -- Holds are placed by searching for the book in the catalog and clicking on "Hold." A screen comes up to enter the patron who wants to place the hold and you are done. Patron phone number, address, email, etc is viewable all the time on the left side of the screen when the patrons barcode is scanned - to make changes, simply click on the "Edit" button. Also, patrons can make changes to their account information via the OPAC. Updated information is emailed to a librarian (except for new passwords, which are changed immediately and automatically through Koha.). -- Rose
User-initiated features:
- reading history for patrons who want it (something they have to initiate -- maybe checking a box?Patrons should choose individually, and not just off or on for all) Already built into K3--Richard -- This issue has been addresses by the Koha community on the mailing list. It looks like this enhancement has been discussed for version 3.2 per this document: http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=en:development:rfcs3.2:rfc32_readingrecordhistory --Rose Use private lists for the time being -- we may like this feature to be patron-initiated, rather than all or nothing
- email notification of overdues and reserves -- built in; may have to see if it is patron initiated --Richard -- patron just needs as email address on the account to receive email notices. They can request that from the library staff or on their own through the OPAC (as long as they have a username and password set up) - Rose
- user-initiated holds and renewals -- a message is received that an adminstrator has to check on it; participants wanted to make sure there was language about an item already out or unable to be renewed. -- built in.--Richard
With patrons able to see their own records, can we be sure that there are still administrative only messages that the patrons cannot see? Yes--Richard --On the patron Edit page, there is a Library Note area and an OPAC Note area to add any kind of note you want to the account. The OPAC note means it will be viewable by the patron - the library note is only viewable through the staff interface that only the staff will see. --Rose
There was a request for the ability to connect patron status (e.g., delinquency) with authentication protocols for time management and printer software for public access computers -- with the code open source, libraries with these sorts of issues should be able to easily integrate additional usage requirements
-- Ability to do so built in K3.
Both PC Reservation and Simpler SAM work with Koha.
editable overdue notices [ie Overdue notices set up so we can mail home bills to students--this mean either customizing the overdue notices (as sometime we need to edit whether the title is visable] or having several different types of notices to meet our needs -- Editing notices is as easy as clicking edit and typing whatever you want to appear in the notice. Overdue notices, library event notices, due date reminders, etc... are already readily available. To get there, just go to TOOLS > NOTICES from the staff interface. --Rose
-- Ability to do so built in K3; record should say child when printed out in reports -- for example, with overdues!
for our patrons under 16: children should automatically advance to an adult patron status at the pre-set age -- and students, automatically from one year to another (ie, freshman to sophomore)
OPAC
Links to pre-constructed searches (e.g., "Click here for this week's NYT bestsellers" or "Click here for DCF Award Books") -- Ability to do so built in K3. --These could also be placed in public lists. -Rose
Requirements for results:
- display item status displayed (so user doesn't need to click on individual item to check status) -- Ability to do so built in K3. --Item status is listed on the main search page of the OPAC. It will be listed as either Checked-Out or Available along with the numbers of copies available. - Rose
- allow the user to sort results by author, title, copyright, etc. -- Ability to do so built in K3. --On the top right of the page, patrons can sort by relevance, author, call number, dates, or title. Ability to refine the search is also available by click on the subjects listed to the left of the search results. The advanced search option is also available. -Rose
- some sort of bibliographic enrichment service that provides book covers, t.o.c., reviews, annotations or some combination thereof (e.g., Syndetic solutions) -- book covers built in K3. -- Book covers can be obtained from Amazon or Google. -Rose
- accepts mis-spellings -- for example, finds Salman Rushdie when you type Salmon Rushdie (think Amazon/Google -- "did you mean..." suggestions
-- It still refuses really bad mis-spellings, but searching with simple mis-spellings like "Salmon Rushdie" instead of "Salman Rushdie" or "bookmoble" instead of "bookmobile" does give the proper results. A "did you mean" message would be ideal or even a message requesting the user to check their spelling or to refine their search instead of just the typical "no results found" message might be good. --Rose
Add "request ILL' or "contact librarian by email" feature
Is there and RSS feed option? Noticed an icon near a number of search results. -- Yes, it will feed results from a specific search string to your feed reader. --Rose
It is not clear how to return to you patron account once an OPAC search is started (you have to click on your name on the top right). --This can be modified simply by changing the wording in one of the templates in Koha and a slight modification to the stylesheet. I have changed the wording in our active OPAC we have up and running at our library from "Welcome" to "Account Details" next to the logged in account name and I have made the font slightly larger. --Rose
Visual features:
- need search results in an easier to read font size
- possibly change location of book front photos to left?
- attractive, easy to understand icons of format type in initial search results -- There are icons built in K3, they're just not turned on.
- visual interface designed for kids
- simplified displays for search results and item records
- when looking up something in OPAC, I would like it if you could mouse over the titles and get a brief description of them without opening the full record (like the PBS website, or Old Navy website, or Netflix website)
This might fit in with the reading list (public vs private) that we talked about on Friday: is it possible to protect privacy but to allow patrons to build their own reader's list on our server? If they used their library card number to log in? They could compile a list of things they want to read by clicking & dragging, & then be able to tick them off (with a checkmark) as they work their way down their list. This could also be tied into the "Holds" so that when a patron added an item to their own reader's list, a message could come up indicating whether or not the item was currently available and if it was not available, could ask if they wished to place a hold on it. --Right now patrons can make book lists either public or private. They can edit or delete items from their private list, which cannot be viewed by the public. They can also easily check availablity by clicking on the title in the list. --Rose
Language was an overall issue with the OPAC. We all stressed the importance of natural language using words like "find books"! We also wondered what was the difference between the cart, a hold, a list (which cannot be printed or emailed)? We agreed it would be VERY useful to allow for staff and patron created public reading lists (ie, a list on your catalog of the summer reading titles for your local school), but that it should be able to be emailed or printed, and that patrons should be able to keep private lists (for example, a to-read list) that is also emailable and printable. -- Adding items to the cart will allow the patron to print, email, or add items to a list (public or private). Right now, the list is readily available whenever the patron logs into their account, but until a print/email function is available a patron who wants to print a list could certainly do so from the print function in the browser. --Rose
Patron view is considered too cluttered, and there were issues with font size. Can the font size be customizable? --Probably easy enough to do by modifying the stylesheet. Adjusting the monitor settings on the library computers is another option since home users have their own preferences too. --Rose
Participants felt the fuzzy search was WAY too fuzzy, and that the Browse by Subject (which was really browse by authority field) was too misleading, and the tag cloud searching did nothing, currently. All of these have been turned off.
Remove cart and add print and email feature to Lists: Cart only allows you to print or email and it can't be saved. In list you have to enter each record individually to print record or transfer each item in to List to print and email as a list. -- Check the test catalog and see if the set up is better now; Richard's done some work on this.
2.0 Features
- custom-built RSS feeds -- for example, for subject heading, author, or keyword searches in the OPAC
- tags, reviews, book covers --Amazon reviews are available if AmazonContent is set to ON. Comments from other patrons are also available as long as a librarian has approved the comment. -Rose
- Make comments (what happens? Does an administrator ok? Can we have stop words?) --You can moderate and either approve or delete comments under the TOOLS menu. - Rose
- Staff notifications/blog features/OPAC screen to have RSS feed that we can use to call attention to upcoming events or new titles. This feed could also be subscribed to by patrons
allow for some sort of visual (like clouds) that reflects the most popular circulating items from day to day. So maybe this becomes an option in the OPAC where you can click on a link to a screen which displays most popular fic, non-fic, audio, DVD. It would be interesting to contrast the actual circ statistics against other measures of popularity, like the NYT best-seller list, etc. -- You can search by the most popular items already, and results are returned as a list
add-on features:
Librarian’s Features
flexibility:
- bring up/check in/ check out patrons by name or barcode -- available in K3
- bring up materials by name or barcode --doable
- place a hold on an item by bringing up the item, rather than bringing up the patron record (for example, if three people want "Bridge of sighs" you should be able to type in the title and associate patron names with it, rather than having to bring each patron up individually and then searching for the title.) --In Koha, just search for the book in the catalog, click on "Hold" and enter the patron name or barcode and you are done. --Rose
- ease of ILLs, circulation ease, ease of adding patrons --All very easy since options are all pretty much available on the same page and different barcode formats are accepted as well. --Rose
- ease of changing items/batch process
- compatibility with receipt printers Should work. I'll be testing soon--Richard
- easy interface for importing MARC records In K3 there is a new import facility on the tools menu. I'm testing it now: it appears to work well.--Richard
- Good authority file (ie, see also...)
- Other options for status (ie, on order, on display, in repair) --Richard and I found this; it's on the screen where you catalog, I believe -- Stephanie --I believe this is on the "Edit Items" page. --Rose
- Sub-locations allowed (For example: our new library will have a complex layout and I need to be able to indicate where particular items are: new, display, oversize, etc.) --This is available on the "Edit Items" page. --Rose
- Inventory module?/compatibility with remote circulation and handheld scanners
- Save more than two past checkouts -- maybe three (good for audios where people leave out the cds) --By searching for an item in the catalog and clicking on "Checkout History," you can view all the past checkout history. I am not sure off the top of my head what the cut-off number is, but it is considerably more than three. --Rose
- Easy brief record cataloging (ie, not having to edit the MARC record, but having a form) On this one, I'd like to be able to add temporary records for borrowed collections from Special Services (large print) or the Regional Libraries (book boxes, etc.) To be able to do an easy add and easy delete for these records would be wonderful. --If I am understanding the statement correctly, you should be able to do this easily by adding or deleting items from a single MARC record. - Rose
- Good way to handle magazines and serials There is a special module in K3 to handle serials. Haven't tested it yet.--Richard
- Better way to import titles when a record already exisits (ie, downloaded MARC record for an item "on order" -- replace this copy record with the real one easily and automatically) The new import tool appears to be able to handle this.--Richard
- A way to block patrons from changing anything, something like Clean Slate does; securities? login with different amounts of permission Built in--Richard
Consoritia issues
Ability to expand searches to all libraries in the shared catalog or limit searches to one library. -- Built in.
Item records that (a) display all holding libraries, and (b) offer the option to view circulation data for all the holding libraries (e.g., total circs. & last date of discharge)
Questions on using a Linux server
Will we still need a Windows server for a client server? Can any MS products work on/with Linux? Will we be giving up Word and Excel and exclusively using Open Office products? MS office does not work directly on Linux.Open Office is the Linux equivalent, which handles MS files. That being said, if you are accessing Koha from a Windows machine, you can still use your MS products: K3 defaults to exporting in Excel format for reports. etc.--Richard
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