LINC Update

Top Vendor Selected

2012-01-26T14:48:31-06:00

At the IHLS January 24, 2012 Board Meeting, a recommendation from the LLSAP Working Group was approved to accept Polaris as the new IHLS automation vendor and to begin final contract negotiations with Polaris as soon as possible. This decision was made based on many factors including library membership and governance group evaluations, vendor demos, responses to the RFI, customer interviews, and information in each vendor's 'Best and Final Offer'.

A powerpoint presentation with an explanation of the evaluation process is available on the IHLS Web Site at:
http://www.illinoisheartland.org/sites/default/files/jan12_ILS_Vendor_Selection_Process.pdf

We know that part of the contract negotiations will involve development of a timeline for how and when individual automation groups (LINC, elCat, Silnet, and Gatenet) will migrate to the new Polaris product. More information will be disseminated as it becomes available.

MyMediamall redesigned website up on Thursday, 1/26

2012-01-24T11:43:43-06:00

MyMediaMall has a slightly redesigned web site that was made available to the public on Thursday, January 26.

ALA Youth Award Winners Announced

2012-01-24T10:40:42-06:00

Click on this ALA link to see the Caledecott, Newbury, and other youth media award winners announced at ALA Midwinter.

LINC Policy Council Meeting 1/25

2012-01-17T08:20:35-06:00

LINC Policy Council will meet on Wednesday, January 25, 1-3 pm at the IHLS-Champaign headquarters.

Authority Load completed

2012-01-17T08:16:02-06:00

We've run an end-of-year Authority Load process which added or changed 19,921 authority records in LINC.

IHLS-LINC Office Closed 1/16/12

2012-01-13T09:24:13-06:00

The IHLS-Champaign office will be closed for the Martin Luther King Holiday on Monday, 1/16/12. There will be no delivery. LINC support will be available via the emergency phone only (217-979-1182).

Overdrive (MyMediaMall) announces change to BrillianceAudio

2012-01-06T11:06:40-06:00

Effective January 31, 2012, as instructed by the publisher, BrillianceAudio will suspend making new titles available to the Overdrive (MyMediaMall) platform. This does not affect any BrillianceAudio titles (1,200+) that are currently in MyMediaMall - it does affect any new purchases or additional copies.

LINCPac redirects to Mobile Catalog

2012-01-03T10:26:51-06:00

We've been able to insert some coding into the LINCPac search page that redirects smartphone users automatically to a Mobile version of the Catalog (Library Anywhere). If you have patrons that prefer to view your library's catalog through a mobile application, please recommend this new functionality to them.

When mobile users access your catalog's web site, they will automatically be asked 'if they wish to go to the mobile version of the catalog' and they may be asked to download the free LibraryAnywhere App as well. It's free and it's easy! Library Anywhere communicates with LINCPac and allows patrons to search, place holds, and view their account information.

LINC Cataloging Center Update

2011-12-27T16:43:54-06:00

With the loss of Champaign Public Library and the Urbana Free Library as LINC cataloging sites, the IHLS-LINC Cataloging Center expects to see more materials sent to us for cataloging, as well as an increased volume of WorldCat Cataloging Partners and My Media Mall records to edit and import on a regular basis. As we manage this increased traffic and yet remain as timely as possible in returning materials, we ask the following of our customers:

1. Please search best sellers/popular materials at least twice in LINC before sending materials to us - preferably with a wait of 2-3 days between searches. We are loading WorldCat Cataloging Parners (WCP, formerly PromptCat) order records daily and it is very possible your best seller/popular item will appear in LINC in the interim. If a WCP invoice indicates that a vendor supplied a record, but there isn't one in LINC, that means the vendor supplied a substandard record, we didn't load it, and we need a copy of the item in question in order to ensure that our users can access it via a complete bib record.

2. Please flag any 'rush' materials - i.e., bestsellers, teacher requests, etc. We will move those to the head of the queue. If you need an item by a specific date, please indicate that date as well.

3. Acquisitions libraries may enter short bibs for materials not yet received, but please do not tag on to these records if you have actually received the item. Instead, send the material to the Cataloging Center. If you are not using acquisitions and would like to be able to add on-order records, contact Donna Schaal, dschaal@illinoisheartland.org, for training on this process.

4. Be sure to check the orphan materials list if an item hasn't been returned, http://www.lincolntrail.info/cataloging-orphanmaterials.html. Orphans are items that arrive without property stamps or owning information - we can't return them if we don't know who sent them.

5. Make sure that while processing materials you don't cover information that we might need for cataloging, including but not limited to: Information on the title page and title page verso of books; ISBNs; UPC codes on music, video and electronic resources; music, video and electronic resource publisher numbers (these often appear on the spines of video and CD containers.); names and addresses of publishers and distributors on music, video, and electronic resource containers. We realize this can be a challenge with some music, video, and electronic materials, but if we have to guess or try to carefully remove stickers and labels, it slows us down and may affect the quality of our cataloging.

Thanks for all of your help!

Data deletion for Champaign & Urbana

2011-12-27T12:19:48-06:00

SirsiDynix finished deleting Horizon items, borrowers, and titles owned by Champaign Public Library & Urbana Free Library over the Christmas holiday. There are some additional codes that still need to be removed, but these categories are done:

Titles - removed 183,702 bibliographic records

Items - removed 733,670 item records

Patrons - removed 87,445 patron records

Also, we've noticed a reduction in the number of active requests in Horizon - from 39,000 down to around 14,000 active requests.

We will be rebuilding the PAC indexes this weekend, based on advice from SirsiDynix. This will affect keyword searching only after libraries are closed. Any other issues or problems noticed by lbrary staff should be reported to the LINC automation staff at 1-217-352-0047 x1.