Koha ILS

Q&A from 17.05 Upgrade Webinars

by Jessie Zairo on Oct 19, 2017

AutoMemNum System Preference

  1. Can you have AutoMemNum turned on and make the library card number a required field?
    1. Yes, you can. This has been resolved in the 17.05.05 mini-upgrade.

ExportCircHistory Preference

  1. Can ExportCircHistory export the patron’s circulation history, or does it just do current checkouts?
    1. ExportCircHistory will only export the patron’s current checkouts. If you are keeping the patron’s circulation history, you can create a report that will pull their circulation history.

OPAC

  1. If a library enables the AllowCheckoutNotes system preference, does the email go the the Koha admin email address in global system preferences? or to the email of the library that owns the item from the libraries and groups branch email?
    1. Although the original bug 14224 was created for the note to be emailed to the librarian, currently the patron who left the note gets emailed.

Holds Slip

  1. Currently, reserves.expirationdate doesn’t display on hold slips and notices. We have a work around to be added to the Hold Slip.  Replace the <<reserves.expirationdate>> with the following syntax below:[% USE KohaDates %]

    [% hold.expirationdate | $KohaDates %]

Notices

  1. Can you resend a notice that succeeded?
    1. The bug 18439 only resends failed messages. You will not be able to resend messages that have successfully gone through or are in pending status.
  2. Is there a report that will report failed notices?
    1. Currently any failed emails will go to your email address listed in your system preference for ReturnpathDefault. However a report could be generated to capture the failed notice attempts.
  3. Is there a system preference that you have to turn on in order to resend failed notices?
    1. No, there is not. In 17.05 Koha will let you resend notices that failed by going into the patron’s account and clicking on the failed notice. Then, the Resend button will appear and clicking on it, resends the notice.
  4. Are the notices in foreign languages translated by Koha or do staff need to enter the notice wording in that language?
    1. Koha doesn’t have the functionality to translate the notice content yet, so staff will need to enter the wording that particular langugage.

Notes

  1. Where are notes saved in the database?
    1. They are located in the issues table when the items are still checked out. When they are checked in, they are moved to the old_issues table.
  2. Is it possible to get a report that shows us all the notices put on items?Yes, it is! We have created the following reports for you. All you have to do is copy and paste the SQL into a new report. As a side note, George Williams at North East Kansas Library System is also creating reports for this and will be posting them in the Koha wiki.
    1. This report generates a list of notes placed on items that have been checked in.
      SELECT borrowers.firstname, borrowers.surname, biblio.title, items.barcode, old_issues.note, old_issues.notedate
      FROM old_issues
      LEFT JOIN borrowers ON borrowers.borrowernumber=old_issues.borrowernumber
      LEFT JOIN items ON old_issues.itemnumber=items.itemnumber
      LEFT JOIN biblio ON items.biblionumber=biblio.biblionumber
      WHERE note is not NULL
    2. This report to generate a list of notes on items that are currently checked out.
      SELECT borrowers.firstname, borrowers.surname, biblio.title, items.barcode, issues.note, issues.notedate
      FROM issues
      LEFT JOIN borrowers ON borrowers.borrowernumber=issues.borrowernumber
      LEFT JOIN items ON issues.itemnumber=items.itemnumber
      LEFT JOIN biblio ON items.biblionumber=biblio.biblionumber
      WHERE note is not NULL
    3. What is the notedate field in those reports?
      This is a field in the database that shows the date the note was created.
  3. Do the notes show if the item is checked in via SIP?
    1. Right now, we are 90% certain that they do not show, but we are investigating this and will report back.
  4.  Is it possible to change the header for the Notes field to something else in case patrons use the notes field for more than reporting issues?
    1. Yes, it is! George Williams from NEKLS has created some jquery to do exactly that and posted it on the Koha wiki. His jquery renames this field “Report a problem”. You can find that jquery here.
  5. How does that note disappear from the record? Is it automatically added to the item record? Does the staff have to manually delete it or does it delete automatically somehow?
    1. The note will move to the old issues table.  The staff does not need to delete anything from the item- once this is checked in, the note will automatically move to the old issues table.

Lists

  1. Can the new wording “Please do not use this mail to request or renew books” that appears when you email a list be removed?
    1. Yes! Just submit a ticket if you would like this to be removed, and Michael can remove this wording for you.

CheckPrevCheckout System Preference

  1. If this preference is enabled, do patron accounts whose reading history is anonymized receive an alert when an item they are checking out an item they have previously checked out?
    1. No, the alert does not appear for patrons who have their reading history anonymized. It only appears for patrons who keep their reading history.
  2. Some of our patrons have circulation history enabled and others do not. Can the ones who have history enabled used the checkprevcheckout preference?
    1. Yes, they can!

OPACBaseURL

  1. During an explanation of the new visual enhancement – the OPAC view link on the Staff Client was discussed- where can a library go to add that link to their Koha Staff Client?
    1. This is a system preference called OPACbaseURL – you enter your library’s OPAC URL and this will allow the staff to toggle between the staff view of a record and the OPAC view of the record.

HEA

  1. Koha has settings that allow you to anonymously share your data with Koha. HEA is the collection of this shared data about Koha. Check out those statistics here – https://hea.koha-community.org/
  2. Is the HEA data collection cron job turned on by default?
    Yes, it is. If you would like to share your data anonymously with Koha, all you have to do is select those settings in Administration -> Global System Preferences -> Administration -> Share Anonymous Statistics. The transfer of data requires the cron job and once you turn on those settings in Koha, your data will be shared anonymously with the Koha community when the cron job runs. If you do not have these settings turned on, your data will not be shared.


Demo site needs to be upgraded
intranet.bywatersolutions.com has now been upgraded to 17.05.


Elastic Search

  1. Is there a session on Elastic Search?
    1. Yes! We just scheduled a townhall meeting on Elastic Search. It will be on December 7th at 2pm EST. We will record it. We will be sending out announcements on the partner list a month before hand.

Overdrive

  1. What’s the status with the Overdrive API?
    1. Overdrive integration is a part of the 17.05 upgrade, but it is currently broken. The Koha community is working on a fix and we believe that this will be available soon.

Upgrade Requests

  1. Should we submit a ticket if we want to schedule our upgrade for after 9pm instead of 8pm local time?
    Yes, please submit a ticket.

 

What is the URL for your blog?

  1. It is /blog/

 

 

 

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