Polaris Product Update

What’s New in Polaris 4.1R2

• A year’s worth of development

– Industry leading eContent integrations

– Enhancements

– Contractual requirements

• First release of 4.1R2.1037 (April, 2013)

• Beta partners live on 4.1R2.1415 (April, 2014)

• Latest general release of 4.1R2.1439 (May, 2014)

eContent Integration3M Axis 360 Overdrive

Requires eConnector license

Requires Polaris API

Real time availability R2.1417 +

Circulation from PAC

Place holds from PAC

Circ synchronization from vendor apps

Circ stats tracked in Polaris

Hold stats tracked in Polaris Holds placed from PAC

Automatic import of new holdings

Consortia abilities

PAC eContent Search Results

eContent Real Time Availability

• Availability and holds counts populated in real time

• Patrons may see a message to log in for availability based on the use of Resource Groups

• When connected at the branch level, OverDrive Advantage titles are included in these counts

– SA setting controls this for a system level context

eContent Product Page Display

eContent Circulation from PAC

eContent Circulation from PAC

eContent Circulation from PAC

Federated Search

• Updates to Federated search

– Stripping ‘limit by’ filters from the federated portions of the searches, while leaving them intact for the Polaris database.

Syndetics PAC Product Page

Profiles

• Video / Music Profile

– Displays new content from Syndetics including summaries, release dates, genres, similar artists and movies

• Video Game Profile

– Displays new content from Syndetics including cover image, ESRB rating, star rating, game information, system requirements and more

• Based on UPC, OCLC number and ISBN matching

Web Accessibility Guidelines

• Changes were made to Mobile PAC to conform to Level A of the following WCAG 2.0 guidelines:

– WCAG 1.1.1: Text alternatives

– WCAG 2.1.1: Functionality through a keyboard

– WCAG 2.4.1: Mechanism to bypass blocks of content that are repeated

– WCAG 2.4.2: Page titles that describe purpose

– WCAG 3.1.1: Language of each page can be determined

Patron Custom Data Fields

• Define up to 10 new custom data fields for patrons

• Defined at the system level; filtered at branch level

• Also available in self-registration from PAC

• Fields are indexed and searchable

Permissions

• A new permission was added: Reactivate Request

– Branch level

– Holds permission

New Reports

• Payment Distribution Report

– Displays how much money was taken in at a branch for items belonging to other branches

– Allows each branch to return funds to the branch that owns the item

– Consists of all overdue, replacement and processing fee payments

New Reports (cont.)

• Billed Patron Summary Report

– Lists all patrons

registered at the

selected branch to

whom a bill has been

sent within a specified

number of days (not to

exceed 100)

– Lists date and amount

of each bill sent, as

well as date and

amount of any payment

Real time Request to Fill

• A requirement for a future development

– Closed stack pick list processing

• RTF processing no longer needs to be scheduled

• Requests now go immediately to ‘Pending’ if a copy is available according to standard rules

• Staff can fill requests sooner

Optional Pickup Branches

• Item record workform holds option

• Pickup at this branch replaced by a drop-down

• Drop-down can be filtered at the branch level

Bound-With Materials

• For research materials

• Multiple bib records -- one physical volume

• Each bib title is unique in the collection

• The physical volume is unique in the collection (one item record)

• No fee / license required

Bound-With Materials

• Host title displays constituent links in PAC

Bound-With Materials

• Constituent titles display the host link in PAC

Bound-With Materials

• Call number is taken from the host item (a constituent call number tag is also supported).

• Checked out status shows for all titles, both host and constituent

Bound-With Materials

• Hold requests are placed on the host volume

Linking Authority Records

• Authority records saved from remote databases

– New SQL Job: Authority Create Links

– Added to the queue automatically

– Will see if the new authority record can be used to authorize other, unlinked authority headings in the database

Bibliographic Record Export Options

• Available in both ExportExpress and the Staff Client

• Bibliographic records can now be exported in UTF 8 format

• If you have vendors targeting your database you should let them know that the default format is now UTF 8

• MARC 8 is still supported, but must be explicitly requested via the target database name

Fiscal Year Rollover Utility

• Has been moved from the server to an option off of the Staff Client’s Utilities menu

• Staff no longer require access to the server

Purge Orders and Invoices

• New SQL job: Purge Purchase Orders and Invoices

• Automatically deletes purchase orders and invoices for an organization based on the status and age of the records

Multi-fund Editing• Authorized library staff can now batch edit fields in fund

records:

– Beginning allocations

– Encumbrance and expenditure limits

Campaigns for Community

Promotions

• Polaris Campaigns is separately licensed

• Also requires licenses for both Community Profiles and Feature It

• Libraries can automatically create promotions for existing community or event records

• Based on terms in the keyword indexed fields in these records

Simply Reports

• Multiple ISBNs, ISSNs, UPCs or OCLC numbers are no longer returned for a single record

• If multiples exist, Simply Reports will return the first number listed in the record

• New MARC output columns for bibliographic and item list reports

– Sort ISSN

– Sort UPC

– Sort Publisher number

– Sort OCLC number

Integrated RFID options for

Terminal Server

• For libraries running Polaris via terminal services

• When integrated RFID is enabled on the terminal server, you can enable/disable RFID for a specific workstation

• Non-RFID stations can circulate normally, even without RFID equipment

NoveList® Select Content for 3M™ SelfCheck™

• A new SQL job, 3M NoveList Select Export, exports data to enable NoveList® Select enriched content for 3M™ SelfCheck™ units.

– When this job is run, all holdings in the Polaris database are exported in tab-delimited format with the following data:

• ISBN

• Polaris Item barcode

• Item record's call number

• Polaris bib record control number

• Title

– If a record does not have the following fields, it is not exported:

• Item barcode

• ISBN or UPC

What’s New in Polaris 5.0

• New developments include:– Family holds pickup– Floating by collection (only) with option to load balance– Automatically renew items– Item transition options: Lost to Missing or Withdrawn– Missing part check-in (phase 1)– Allow SIP check out for specific circulation statuses– Automatically flip bib ‘Display in PAC’– Carousel toolkit– Automatically close purchase orders

• Beta release planned (9/2/14)

• General release planned (Fall 2014)

Polaris 5.0: Family Holds Pickup• Using Associated Patron functionality, primary patron

can check out another family member’s held items.

– Check-out transactions are posted to Primary patron account

– Hold transactions are deleted from Secondary patron account

Polaris 5.0: Floating Collections• Existing floating options have

been moved to a new Floating Options dialog in SA, and a new option to limit by collection added.

• New permission and policy table allows entering collection limits.

• Option to load balance: – When collection limit is exceeded

at receiving branch, system checks all eligible branches (can float into, and has same collection) to find the one with the lowest ratio of number of ‘In’ items to the collection limit.

Polaris 5.0: Auto-Renew• New overnight SQL job renews items that are out to the patron• Existing blocks to renewal are honored

• New (renewal) due date = Current due date + Full loan period• Available at the System level, but Library or Branch can opt out• If a branch is enabled for auto-renewal, all items with that assigned branch

are eligible to be renewed• Patrons can opt out of receiving notification of an auto-renewed item

• Also allows patrons to opt out of all three reminder notices: Almost Overdue, Patron Record Expiration, and Inactive Patron reminder notices (PAC / Mobile PAC)

• Auto-renewal action recorded in item history, and transaction available for reports

Polaris 5.0: Lost, Missing, Withdrawn

• Two new item transition options in SA:

– Lost item transition

• Lost to Missing, or, Lost to Withdrawn

• Library specifies time period

• Option to charge accruing overdues

– Missing item transition

• Missing to Withdrawn

• Library specifies time period

• New overnight SQL job

Polaris 5.0: Missing Part Check-in

• Missing part check-in

– New “special item check-in” dialog

– New item circ status: Claim Missing Part

– “Courtesy notice” to patron

– Block item

– Transition to Lost or In (single record)

– Option to generate a charge (single record)

Polaris 5.0: Allow SIP Check-Out

for certain Circulation Statuses

• Library can determine which circulation statuses will no longer block patron at check-out

Polaris 5.0: Bib Display-in-PAC

• Automatically flip bibliographic record Display-in-PAC

– Selectable criteria, including:

• Presence of linked item records

• “Display-in-PAC” on linked item records

• Suppressed circulation statuses

– New overnight SQL job

• New “chained job sequence”

Polaris 5.0: Carousel Toolkit

Polaris 5.0: Carousel Toolkit

• Carousel Toolkit

– Generates Content Carousel for:

• Bibliographic record set

• System-supplied dashboards (best seller lists, new title lists, on-order and most circ’d)

– Source code or iframe code

– Specify PAC branch context

– Copy to clipboard

– Licensed

Polaris 5.0: Auto Close PO’s

• Automatically close Purchase Orders

– New overnight SQL job

– By enabling an SA parameter, libraries within a consortium can opt to auto-close their orders:

– Uses the same logic as existing Close PO (manual) functionality.

– Only purchase orders with eligible statuses will be closed.