The Blog

Feedback Form - Librarians and Library Paras - please complete the feedback form.  We can use the information to communicate our needs with Accessit.

Where are we with things:

Inventory Training:  Tiffany will send a link to our training on Thursday.  When you get ready for inventory, contact Becca with any questions.
Important: Mark missing items Lost. Do not delete the record.  We will keep lost items in the system for three years before deleting them.

Kiosks: iPad Kiosks for Self Check are getting set up for distribution.  They will be available at our October 13th training.  Each building will receive two iPads and scanners along with accessories.  We have four schools testing and we are receiving positive feedback so far.

Billing: We received some excellent news yesterday at our meeting with Accessit.  They are making quite a bit of progress with syncing billing with Synergy.  Shane from Accessit gave us hope by saying he thinks it will be ready by January.  Good news!

ILL:  ILL should be the primary process for sending and requesting books from other schools.  This provides confirmation that your sent book has made it to the requesting building.  You can also see if another building is sending the book you requested.  We understand this is a different process from the past, but once it becomes more routine, we will appreciate the provided steps and know where each request is in the process. 

What we learned:

ILL:

We continue to learn more and more about ILL.  Overwhelmed? Don't worry. Start with filling ILL requests and putting in ILL requests for your students.  Once you feel comfortable with those steps, proceed to the information below.  Need more assistance with ILL?  Click here to view videos and directions. Contact Becca if you want a 1:1 session to review ILL and Holds.  She is happy to help!

Action Bar: This area is the bottom toolbar where you see ILL and Holds alerts.  If you see the double-arrow with a number at the bottom, click to view items you need to check the status or follow-up.

Management App > Management > Interloans or Holds: Locate all Holds or Interloans for your building (external and internal).  This list has everything, including items you do not need to adjust.  When would you use this option? Let's say you checked in a book, and a hold alert appeared saying this book is on hold for a student in your building.  You go to the Holds list from the action bar and do not see the hold.  Where did it go?  Check the Management > Holds area to find it.

Holds in the Action Bar: The item listed under holds in the action bar could be one of two things.  

View Overdues: List of all items with holds that are overdue.  You can "recall" these items, and an email can be sent asking the student to return the item. 

View Holds: The list includes items on your shelf/available with a hold.  This means you can fill the hold.

Series:  When searching for a series in the Web App, sometimes all the books do not appear.*  However, we can see the series under Full Series when we go into one of the records.  Click here to view a video that shows you how to do an Advanced Search and locate all books in a series.  Cool feature alert - when it shows all the books in a series, the book covers that are "grayed out" are not owned by your library. 

Manga:  We do not see the volume number of many Manga books in our catalog.  It will instead show that you may have 36 copies of the same title without showing the volume. Accessit and LTS recognize the issue and are working on a resolution. 

Resources:

Libguide link - Click the Accessit tab on the left to view a list of available guides.

Accessit Customer Portal

Next Steps:

Updated Student Photos:  Once school photos from your buildings are sent here, I can update them in Accessit.  I get a notification for each building and at random times.

Billing: Continue to work with Accessit and our Synergy team to finalize the process.

*If you are curious why all district changes are not automatic and quick, any change that needs to be made for the entire district (like staff checkouts or photos) gets loaded by each individual building.  Thanks for your patience as we continue to adjust settings and add new features.

Where are we with things:

Elementary:  Librarians are determining if they want holds turned on for students.  See spreadsheet to enter your information.

Feature Requests: As we notice issues with Accessit, we are placing "Feature Requests."  Some have already been completed and are off the list.  If interested, see the link to view our feature requests. *If you notice an item that you mentioned to us and it is not on the Feature Request, we may have been given the answer of "no" - they will not do that. **The items are randomly listed - not by date or importance.

Collection Analysis:  All records were submitted to our vendors earlier this week.  We are waiting for the vendors to process.  Keep checking your account to see if they were loaded. I hopefully will get a notification and post the details here.

Trash: Hopefully, you saw my email that asks you to pause deleting items in the Trash category.  We are investigating a different solution.  You can continue to use Write-offs for books to Sell.  Do not follow the directions to delete records permanently.

What we learned:

ILL
External Request: Missing the call # or other details about the book you need to grab off your shelves?  Double-click to open the book information from the list.  Click View Resource to view details about the book.

Multiple Copies Requested:  When requesting multiple copies of items, the request goes to multiple schools. If you receive this request and only have one item, no problem.  Following the steps Accessit provides, you will see under Step 1 the Partially Accept button.  Click that button and continue following the steps.  Accessit is "counting" the books that are sent.

Resources on the Libguide:

*Book Citations: Locate the citation for a book in the catalog.

*Mark a Book as Damaged:  Don't forget to check who has the book before checking in a damaged book.  See directions for the entire process.

*Mark a Book as Lost (Missing): We used to call it "missing," but Accessit uses the term "Lost". Same thing - click to find out the process.

• Find Book Barcode in the Management App: Not sure how to find more details about a book?  View this silent video to show you how to find the barcode.
• Using the Web App:  Use the Web App for check-in/out along with searching for books.
• Create a Book Alert:  When a book checks in or out, you can set up an alert to pop up.  This might be great for William Allen White books that you display in another location.
• Printing in Accessit: Guide to printing in Accessit.
• Alert Message when checking in or out: Create an alert when you check in or out a specific book.  (Example: Alert you to a William Allen White book so you can place on display.)
• Printing Class Lists - This also covers how to print in Accessit.
• Training Videos - Videos are available if you missed training or want to see it again.
• Accessit Search Widget - Adding a search box to Libguides
• Password Protect a PDF - Great idea for sharing database passwords.  
• ILL/Holds: View Zoom from September 1 about Holds and ILL.  Access the directions for ILL/Holds.

*New

Next Steps:

Patrons: Classlink has had some issues rostering schools.  Once that seems calm, we will adjust patron records.  Stay tuned.

Inventory: Learning the process and future implementation.

Updating the Discard Trash Directions: Stay tuned. We hope to have more information after our meeting with Accessit on Tuesday.

Survey:  We will be sending out a survey in the next couple of weeks asking for feedback about using Accessit, resources, and how we can help you with this transition.  

*If you are curious why all district changes are not automatic and quick, any change that needs to be made for the entire district (like staff checkouts or photos) gets loaded by each individual building.  Thanks for your patience as we continue to adjust settings and add new features.

Where are we with things:

Staff checkout: Staff checkout dates have been updated to the last day of school.  

Patron Categories: Updated the patron categories. Coming soon - more information about patrons, including adding, removing, and cleaning up patron records.

Union Catalog:  HS/MS/All Staff should be able to search the Union Catalog and place ILL requests.  They should also be able to place holds on materials in your building.  Elementary students will go through the librarian to do so.

Nonfiction Checkout dates:  Updated the checkout length for nonfiction and any other categories.

What we learned:

ILL: I appreciate the many questions about the ILL process and finding ways to make the workflow fit what we do.  I updated the directions to reflect the many questions including a great way to place a hold. (Thanks, Kay Bettis and Abby Cornelius!) Click here to view.  If you missed the Zoom today, click here to access it.

Write-Offs (Discards - Sell and Trash): During the Zoom with Accessit, we learned a little more using the write-off feature when weeding.  Next week, we will send out specific details for this step.  In the meantime, here are directions in Accessit for Write-offs.

Web App - We suggest librarians use the Web App to check in and out books and search for books. When you want to dig into the catalog, like adding tags, use the Management app. Why? Let's say you have a class checking out, and a student starts typing their Student ID before you can change the screen in the Management app - and the ID erases something on the library record. Or you are tired of typing two passwords each time you want to check out to students - the web app only requires one login. 

Last Sighted vs. Last Checked Out:  When viewing book information, you may see Last Sighted.  This refers to a time when the book was entered into the system but wasn't checked out.  For many, this may be the day the item migrated to Accessit's system.  Over time, we will likely see Last Sighted refer to the inventory date.

Borrowable: When viewing the copy record of a book, you may see the category Borrowable.  This does not mean the book is on your shelves and available to checkout.  Look at the next column, Due.  If it has a date, the book is checked out.  According to Accessit, borrowable means that the copy is not lost, damaged, or any other reason it could never be checked out.  

Resources on the Libguide:

*ILL/Holds: View Zoom from September 1 about Holds and ILL.  Access the directions for ILL/Holds.

Find Book Barcode in the Management App: Not sure how to find more details about a book?  View this silent video to show you how to find the barcode.

Using the Web App:  Use the Web App for check-in/out along with searching for books.

Create a Book Alert:  When a book checks in or out, you can set up an alert to pop up.  This might be great for William Allen White books that you display in another location.

Printing in Accessit: Guide to printing in Accessit.

Alert Message when checking in or out: Create an alert when you check in or out a specific book.  (Example: Alert you to a William Allen White book so you can place on display.)

Printing Class Lists - This also covers how to print in Accessit.

Training Videos - Videos are available if you missed training or want to see it again.

Accessit Search Widget - Adding a search box to Libguides

Password Protect a PDF - Great idea for sharing database passwords.  

*New

Next Steps:

Collection Analysis: Finalizing the process to send to vendors.

Patrons: Classlink has had some issues rostering schools.  Once that seems calm, we will adjust patron records.  Stay tuned.

Inventory: Learning the process and future implementation.

Special thank you to Craig Odle, Mary McCabe, Courtney Grimaldi, Joe Geist, Kristin Bowlin, and Bill Hume for piloting ILL before the roll-out.

*If you are curious why all district changes are not automatic and quick, any change that needs to be made for the entire district (like staff checkouts or photos) gets loaded by each individual building.  Thanks for your patience as we continue to adjust settings and add new features.