Polaris Best Practices Tips and Tricks

Polaris Best Practices Team – Share your tips and tricks

Margaret Hazel Eugene Public Library, OR11:00 a.m.—12:15 p.m.

Admin TrackDallas 1 & 2

Why is this important now?

Here’s how to do it wrong:

Initial migration mistake – copy old workflows

Remedy – make them start using other new technology that they hate even more!

Seriously…

So what did we do?

The way to get a good idea is to get

lots of ideas

– Linus Pauling

Changed our priorities

Educating staff

Ahead of the PAC: Pointers for Plucky Polaris PursuitsMagic Spells PATRON: "What books do you have by NEE-CHEE?"STAFF: (TO PATRON): "Ah, yes, the famous German philosopher FRRRREED-RISH NEE-CHUH, just a moment, please." (smiling, secretly terrified, pretending to type...)

Tips

Ahead of the PAC: Pointers for Plucky Polaris Pursuits April 2007: Perplexing Polaris Puzzles

~~~Boolean Browsers Beware! ~~~ (for Advanced Boolean users)If you’re using the Library catalog to perform a Boolean search with a “CALL=” operation (this includes “CALL>=” and “CALL<=” searches), be sure to use an asterisk wildcard at the end of the number (for example, 817.5*). By default, the search is explicitly truncated, which means that a search for 817.5 will not bring up 817.5 BARRY or 817.5 PERELMAN – it would only return results for 817.5 with no name or date following the number. You can’t search “CALL=817.5 BARRY” either, because Polaris interprets the blank space (after the number) as the end of one search. So remember to use that wildcard!

FAQs

Polaris SearchesNarrowing down DVD/VHS searches#1: Search by Author to find directors or actors#2: Use the Search Options to limit by publication date#3: Keyword by Genre: Comedy films [or any genre from list below] >> Limit by: [select] Some popular genre subject headings:

Adventure films Animated filmsComedy filmsDocumentary filmsFantasy filmsFilm noir

Horror filmsMystery filmsScience fiction filmsSpy filmsSuspense filmsWestern films

“Reports”

Ahead of the PAC: Pointers for Plucky Polaris Pursuits

Often I’m asked for reports that can easily be gotten by using the Find Tool in the Polaris Tech Client, what some are calling the Polaris Shortcut Bar. The Scoping capabilities of this tool have increased with each new release of Polaris. For instance, how can you get a list of all the CDs that have a status of Missing from the Downtown collection? Hmm, maybe you should include Lost items as well since they aren’t going to be coming back any time soon…

Secret MessagesMissing volumes in a set pose a problem. Patrons see that a volume if missing and request that we replace it. However, sometimes I am not able to replace a single volume and I want to tell everyone that I've tried but we'll just have to live without it. In this case, I add a public note to the item record to communicate this. The note is viewable in all three catalog interfaces. In the tech client, go to the item record and click the Alert icon (left side, envelope/mailbox image). In the ActivePac and the PowerPac go to Availability. Just hover over the icon that looks like a piece of paper with a blue N. My note will magically appear.

For example, this note says "Unable to replace Season 6, Volume 3."

Customizations

Added tabs

Customizations

Changed Button labels

Did you mean…Polaris search for Did you mean?

Invisible man (sic) Envious moon

Felting hats Floating heads

Baldwin, alec Baldwin ale

*the piano The Pawnee

KIA sportage Gay spirituality

Studio at Large by Palleroni Studio large ballerina

Drywall drawl

Larrson, Steig Larceny sting

Kid knits Quiet nights

Downs syndrome Dance centerstage

Intranet Presence

Tech Intranet Site

Plus…

• Exploring oddities and submitting iTracs• Requesting inventive enhancement requests• Helping with the PUG enhancement request

voting• Helping with upgrades

Your turn!