Symphony Go-Live Update (Dr. Lawson)

Email from Dr. Lawson on Thursday, July 11, 2013:

Dear HPL,

Kudos to Syma and the team leading this gigantic effort. They have done a fantastic job and are owed tremendous gratitude from us all. Let them know we appreciate them when you see them around.

And, I send my deep appreciation to the entire staff - for your patience and tenacity as we get through this bumpy period.  This is not an easy transition – but it will get better. The new system is fabulous and it will soon be familiar to us and the glitches will fade.

Please hang in there and do your very best to help each other and our customers with the new system.

Thank You,
Rhea Brown Lawson, PhD

Director, Houston Public Library

We link people to the world.

Symphony Go-Live Update!

Email from Syma on Thursday, July 11, 2013:

I know it’s been a long, hard day for most of us but, honestly, tomorrow will be better J 

·         Most of the circulation related issues were due to the fact that an awful lot of our offline circulation information did not load into the system as quickly as anticipated.  Items that had been checked in offline still showed checked out, customers who had registered offline were not showing up in the database, and so on.  The load of offline circulation information will be completed by tomorrow morning so most of these issues should be resolved.

·         The one year expiration date for new cards has been corrected and should work properly tomorrow.

Issues being worked on:

·         Length of receipts and/or multiple single receipts for the same customers

·         Strange check-out periods somehow related to a card’s expiration date

·         Minor fines blocking check-out

·         Holds wrapper issue

·         Enterprise catalog display problems, especially in Internet Explorer.  We recommend you switch to Firefox or Chrome for a better, although still not perfect, display.

One thing that is not a glitch and that we will just need to get used to is that when a new staff person takes over at a terminal, the person leaving needs to close Symphony Workflows and the new person needs to re-open Workflows and log-in.  There is no short-cut.

Please keep those calls and emails coming in.  If we don’t know what the problem is, we cannot fix it.  The IT Helpdesk should be your primary contact point.  We have a team of HALAN, IT, LMS, and SirsiDynix staff stationed nearby so issues reach us quickly.

Thanks for all you do.  It is deeply appreciated.

Syma

Library Cards Created During Offline

Email from Fred Schumacher on Wednesday, July 3, 2013: 

Greetings all.

Customers who register for new cards while we are in Symphony Offline will be unable to use those cards on the computer reservation system.  On Monday of this week you should have received an envelope containing pre-made computer use cards (see below for original message).  You should issue one of these cards to any new cardholder who you register in Symphony Offline, as the new library card created in Symphony Offline will not allow them to use the computer registration system.  On 07/11, when the offline circulation files are uploaded to the Symphony server, the cards created in offline will start working with the computer reservation system.

Thanks,

Fred Schumacher

-mm

DigitalLearn[dot]org: Video on HPL Digital Literacy

Published on the recently launched digitallearn.org site, this video was posted highlighting Houston Public Library's digital literacy efforts and a few of our members.


Our BTOP Tech Instructors have done an amazing job to develop the skills of our members and change their lives through the hundreds of classes taught every month. Thank you, Willie and Ken, for all you have done and continue to do at Hillendahl and Ring Neighborhood Libraries!
-Marcos