Events

Koha Upgrades: Upgrade Webinars are Coming!

by Kelly McElligott on Jun 14, 2024

Webinars

Webinars will be held on Thursday, July 18th, and Tuesday, July 24th. Registration is required; the same content will be featured at both webinars. Both webinars will be recorded and available to view from our ByWater Solutions YouTube page.

What's New Webinar
Thursday, July 18, 2024
1:00 p.m. Eastern/ 12:00 p.m Central/ 11:00 a.m. Mountain/10:00 a.m. Pacific

Watch the Recording here.

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What's New Webinar 2
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
3:00 p.m. Eastern/2:00 p.m. Central/1:00 p.m. Mountain/ 12:00 p.m. Pacific

Watch the Recording here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Here is a link to the What's New Webinar agenda!

Questions and Answers from the Webinars

Questions and Answers:

[27753] Automate resolution of return claim when checking in an item Sponsored by Altadena Library District

Q: How do you add additional values for claim resolutions?

A: Here is a great blog post that discusses how to add additional values: https://bywatersolutions.com/education/koha-question-week-new-claim-return-resolution

Q: What if the claim is already resolved

A: It will not need to be resolved, so nothing happens.


Q: Do we need to change the reason every time we check in a claims return?

A: If you don't want to automate the claim return resolution via the new system preferences, you will select each time. The preference allows you to choose the default automated resolution reason.


Q: Is there a way to not charge patrons for items marked claims returned? If they claim they returned it then they should not be charged for it

A: You would set that preference in the ClaimReturnedChargeFee system preference.

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[22740] Automatically change lost status when item is paid for Sponsored by Cuyahoga County Public Library

Q: Will that also adjust the lost value if written off by the cron?

A: The write-off debit cron will be affected if this system preference is turned on.

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[15565] Place multiple item-level holds at once for the same record

Q: How does this work with Item Group Holds?

A: At this time, this does not work with Item Group Holds, you can only place one of these groups of items at a time.


Q: Is there a bug for having a "Select All" on that hold screen?

A: Not at this time, but something fun to file!

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[16122] Item record needs to keep local use count

Q: What is Local Use?

A: Here is some more information about local use tracking in the library, https://bywatersolutions.com/education/monday-minutes-statistical-patron-and-local-use

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[31357] Separate holds history from Intranetreadinghistory Sponsored by Cuyahoga County Public Library

Q: Holds Reading history retroactive?

A: Yes, provided that the library is already storing circulation history. This bug changes staff visibility of circ/holds history, splitting it into 2 different permissions. If they can see it now, but turn off the ability to see checkout history, they will still be able to see holds history


Q: What is IntranetReading History?

A: Intranet reading history is the preference of whether staff see patron reading history, independent of whether patron sees their own. Set by system preference.

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[6796] Overnight checkouts taking into account opening and closing hours

Q: Can this feature handle close times into the next day, like 1am for example?

A: Not how Koha has this currently set up, since 1am would technically be the next day. For example if your library stayed open until 1am on Monday since the hour the library closes is technically on Tuesday, you would leave the close time blank on Monday. But then on Tuesday, you would have to indicate your library is closed at 1am on Tuesday, but there is no place to have your opening hours on that same day, which means you can’t have split days in this process either.


Q: What about libraries that have a split day?

A: Not at this time.


Q: When there is a time associated with the due date, how does this show in a notice?

A: By default, the checkout date does include the date and the hour it is due,

[% issue.date_due | $KohaDates with_hours => 1 %]

Q: Any chance that the library hours might someday be tied into whether the holds queue generates? For instance, it wouldn’t generate except when the library is listed as open?

A: That is already in the Holds Queue setup, to look at libraries that are open/closed. If you are looking at including hours into this setup, this would be an enhancement bug that would need to be filed.


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[17617 ] Add the ability of sending a confirmation e-mail to patron when hold is placed

Q: What is the difference between this new notice and the HOLDPLACED notice ?

A: The new notice, HOLDPLACED_PATRON, will be sent to the patron when they place a hold. The notice, HOLDPLACED is sent to the library if a hold is placed and the system preference, emailLibrarianWhenHoldIsPlaced.


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[26170] & [35474] [36825] Add Protected Status //Add Icon for Protected Status//Unwanted Fields for Protected Status

Q: Can we protect Staff Accounts?

A: Sure!


Q: Can you batch protect accounts?

A: Not at this time, but a bug has been filed for this enhancement, https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=37360

Q: Will there be permissions added to this feature>

A: A bug has been filed and signed off for this enhancement: https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=36085

Q: Would love to be able to protect patrons with a specific patron category.

A: Great idea! I filed a bug, https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=37421
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[32610] Add ability to specify patron attribute as a date

Q: If you switch an existing patron attribute from its current setting to a date, what happens?

A: Once a patron attribute has been created, you can change the designation to date. However, if it was already connected to an authorized value, you would need to remove this authorized value designation first before you could add the date in the Patron Attribute set up.

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[30623] Copy Permissions from one user to another

Q: Reporting on staff members that have permissions?

A: In the Koha Report Library, there are several reports for gathering this information, see here.


Q: Batch Permission Plugin
A: Information about this pluging: Batch Patron Permissions Modifier Plugin


Q: Can we do patch pasting of permissions from the patron search?

A: No, at this time, pasting of permissions is applied from the individual patron’s permissions screen.

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[27153] & [35138] [36574] [36578] [36584] [36723] ElasticSearch should be keyword apostrophe blind & Enable configuration of facets with ElasticSearch & Adding more ElasticSearch fields to the index mapping

Q: Can we get more information about Elastic Search?

A: Monday Minutes: Switching to Elastic Search

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[6419] Add customizable areas to intranet home pages

Q: How do we access that cataloging cheat sheet?

A: This was created by KohaUS, all their reference material can be found here: https://koha-us.org/learn/#learn-quickref

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[34478] Report URL

Q: More information coming in a video

A: The Terrific Every Other Thursday tutorial video series just created a video on this: https://youtu.be/yqpgz_-v0Mc?si=eASfJsNQbrP56Lu8

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[33418] Allow setting overlay_framework for connexion imports

Q: How do we know what frameworks we are currently using?

A: I would suggest putting in a ticket to our systems team to investigate your library’s OCLC connexion settings.

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[27595] Place holds on accepted purchase suggestions - Sponsored by Bedford Public Library, Altadena Library District and St. Paul’s School

Q: Will the bug be fixed when adding to a basket from a purchase suggestion? Right now it brings up all of the accepted ones, even the ones already archived.

A: This has been resolved in this newest version of Koha.

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[33664] Add ability to cancel order lines in closed baskets

Q: If there are multiple libraries in the koha system, is there a way to set delete/cancelled items in a closed basket for a specific library?

A: Not at this time, however, a new enhancement is being worked on in the community that will link Acquisitions to Library Groups, allowing there to be more separation in this module for multi-branch libraries. That bug is 34299

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[32435] [33494] [35628] [35657] Updates to Cataloging Concerns

Q: Is there a place where I can learn more about this features?

A: We have that outlined here: https://help.bywatersolutions.com/cataloging#Cell-2616-PanelBody

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OPAC changes:

Q: Will these be applied to Aspen?

A: Please submit a ticket to our Aspen team to have your request added. In the months prior to the Koha upgrade, you can also look in the Koha section of the Aspen release notes for any release feature parity things done. https://bywatersolutions.com/news/aspen-discovery-announces-24-04-release-notes

Upgrade Resources

More Documentation for Koha 24.05

24.05 Koha Community Release Notes

More Documentation for Koha 23.11

23.11 Koha Community Release Notes

Monday Minutes Tutorial Videos

Read more by Kelly McElligott

Tags 23.11, 24.05