Receipt Printer: Help for Export / Import feature

This is a link to a very clear explanation of how to save your changes to the receipt templates so you don't have to repeat it at every workstation.

http://docs.evergreen-ils.org/2.0/draft/html/lsa-receipt.html

Teaching someone to roller skate in a windstorm

(this is a long post and not about a specific Evergreen issue.)

That's how I am feeling at times as I show this product to my staff. A slew of negative emotions can arise and then I have to tell myself what I tell others at the desk - " chill - it's not a kidney - no-one will die if (insert problem here)"

I also need to remind myself that it's not me but the system. And if I were just learning this for myself I could roll more easily with the punches but needing to teach it to others by a certain date is even more stressful.

I think it would be helpful if we could name more specifically the bigger issues around our concerns. (I will be using my experience doing software for Raytheon, GM and Draper labs. And then my stint as a math teacher). Naming things makes them less scary. And that is what is happening - we are experiencing fear. And did you know you can't learn and be fearful at the same time? The brain is hardwired this way. Math is a fearful subject for a number of students and to be effective it was crucial to get over the fear which was always in the background ready to pounce. I was intentional about my light hearted approach and liberal use of humor so that students did not dread coming to class and many actually looked forward to learning. I was also considered the hardest teacher in the school with the toughest grading. The bottom line was that the students acquired the skills - no matter what I had to do.

Applying this to us with Evergreen means we each need to find something that really makes us laugh. Seriously. Something like a one of those silly cat videos on YouTube. Something that gives you a belly laugh and you can do several times a day. You ask: How will I explain watching cat videos to my boss? Get a doctor's note and tell them it's medicinal.

Now that we know what is happening, I will attempt to explain why it's happening. The bottom line is that given our chosen profession - librarians - we are visual learners and as a result are most comfortable learning by reading . (The other two types of learning are auditory and kinetic). The problem here is that we have been given so little to read. This is a big handicap for us so we are starting the process already hampered. The method we are using to learn this is the same one used in medieval times - the apprenticeship - usually a decade long 'show and tell session' - great for kinetic and auditory learners. And two months is a bit shorter than 10 years...

So why is there essentially nothing to read? As usual the basic reason is money. The people who develop the code and create the system are not tasked also with the job of explaining it - either by writing a user manual or teaching a training session. It is the rare techie person who is also a good teacher to "civilians". And this is no slight on them. Asking them to do this is like expecting Einstein to teach algebra. So additional resources would be needed to bring in someone to write that user manual. This is an automatic when creating software for the military or NASA. Can anyone say "O rings?" The DoD has billions it will spend to make sure Private Smith can understand how to fix that NM786 under fire. Today more and more software makers are releasing software w/out documentation expecting other publishers to see an opportunity and publish manuals (like the Dummy series). For Open Source software ( "owned" by everyone) there is not as much demand unless it is very very widely used like the UNIX operating system. Large library systems have assembled some good documentation on Evergreen because they could afford to. Some of these have put them on the web.

Then there is the issue of instability. The Evergreen we had modified for MVLC began with some bugs. The modifications introduced more bugs. Add that to the fact we sat in the circ training where it turns out we weren't learning our MVLC system but one with all the bells and whistles. Then there was the confusion about the permissions...roller skating in a windstorm.

In the future, our consortium and others may see it as a wise move to pay for better training and user manuals up front. Ten hours of labor devoted to writing a manual may eliminate 100 hours of front line staff losing their minds.

Holds - behind the scenes

So far I have been in among the trees figuring out how to do holds. But here is look at the forest - the big picture of how Evergreen figures out what item goes where. (thanks to AD Kathleen at North Andover)

Passwords -they're different

Password management has changed from Horizons. The system is forcing more secure passwords and making them invisible to staff. Yes - you read that right. Current passwords will be migrated to Evergreen - but when patron logs on their account for the first time after the migration they will be asked to change their password to something like 7 letters with a number. New patrons will get a starter password that we are more familiar with - the 4 letter one. Once they logon to their account they will also be asked to change their password.

Here is the kicker - if a patron calls or comes in asking for their password we won't be able to see the field for the password - so we won't be able to tell them ...there is a fix though. We will be able to input a new one into their record- the prior 4 letter one. They then will log on with this and then be asked to change to a new one.

So can you imagine the first days of live Evergreen - not only will we be working on this new system - we will likely be fielding phone calls of people who have forgotten their passwords. This could be lots of phone calls right as we turn on the system. Someone at the circ training for Evergreen floated the idea of telling patrons there is a suspension of online activity for two weeks following Memorial Day. Putting this on bookmarks to put in holds; put on website etc. I have asked my director about this - she is thinking about this.

Holds Problems - affecting anyone else?

We had been unable to place any holds here at Boxford for anyone or anything. Happily, Jason has been able to fix most of them but it appears there is still one glitch. Anyone else seeing this?

Basic Problem:

I am unable to allow an item for library A patron to be picked up at library A if the item belongs to us. Library A is not Boxford.

Here is how I tested this:

The following use an item that belongs to Boxford and a hold is successfully placed

(32115000880425 - Learning to Ride Horses and Ponies):

Box patron, pu at Lowell

Box patron, pu at Boxford

Lowell patron, pu Boxford

The following also use the item belonging only to Boxford but we were unable to place the hold

We also repeated the process with (31481001117766 - Chansons) and still couldn't place hold.

Box patron, pu Boxford

Dracut patron, pu Dracut

If I were to spend more time doing permutations I might deduce if I am not filling in a field or if it is a bug. Have any of you encountered something like this?

Fixing Bugs using Screenshots

As many of us are learning there are errors in the Evergreen software. It's hard at times to figure out if the problem is that we just don't understand how to run it or if there is really something wrong. There have been problems with the permissions - the "feature" that acts as a gatekeeper for many functions. It is a mechanism that prevents easy overriding of alerts. In Horizons we could move past many blocks with ease - here it's like asking "Mother May I" for even the smallest thing. (Rumor has it that the big kahunas (directors) are getting together to hash this out for us). One of our issues was that we couldn't do anything with DVDs because they had the block msg "check for 6 discs". Evergreen thought this was an alert worth stopping - so it required authorization from a higher staff. I felt like I was 17 trying to buy cigarettes. We are also having a problem placing Holds - as in none for no-one.

Jason has fixed the DVD problem (thank you again Jason). To make it easy for him to diagnose it I sent him screenshots of the screens I was getting. Many folks don't know about this powerful feature that is extremely easy to use. You press one key and an exact picture of the screen as you are looking at goes on the clipboard. You then can paste it in a word or powerpoint document and attach it to an email and voila - Jason has an exact view of what happened.

The key is called "Prnt Scrn" and is usually on the top line of the keyboard where the function keys are. Once I realized I would be using this a lot - I kept Word open to a new document . As I encountered an error screen I would capture it and put it in the document. I would also try and repeat the error -causing procedure to show Jason exactly what process/items/patrons were triggering the weirdness. These screens would also go in into the word document. Once I had all the info I would send this document as an attachment to an email to Jason. This eliminates trying to remember the strange error msgs etc. (I tried to paste the screenshots directly into an email but to no avail - maybe some of you could tell me how to do this if it is possible?)

Evergreen Home Movies

This just in: Larry from MVLC just sent out this link - screencasts with sound. I know some of the more visual learners on my staff will find it useful. I haven't explored it myself yet. Thanks Larry!