Alexandria 6.22.1 Release Notes Build 20130220 =========================================================== Please contact COMPanion at 1-800-347-6439 or COMPanion Technical Support at 1-800-347-4942 with any questions regarding this update or for release notes for versions prior to 6.22.0. Documentation for Alexandria is available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/alexandria> ***** Archive and Backup your Data before updating***** ****Ensure that you are running a minimum version of 5.5.6 before updating**** System Recommendations: Alexandria v6.22.1 runs on the following operating systems: Mac OS 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8*. * Based on preliminary testing - Final Qualification Pending. Please see the following documentation for system recommendations: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/hardware_and_operating_system_recommendations> Overview of Major Features: Alexandria 6.22.1 is a minor release in the 6.22 series offering several enhancements as well as stability, reliability, and performance improvements. Review Management has been redesigned using our next generation of web tools and design techniques. This is the first of the many new web based interfaces to come. You can access Review Management from the 'Tools' menu in the Alexandria Librarian Workstation or at <http://yoursite.goalexandria.com/reviews> We now support scheduled import via FTP. Alexandria can now retrieve and process patron or item files from your ftp server. For large districts, you can even configure the system to "Share" a patron export from a student information system with other sites in the district, eliminating the need for your technology services department to create and distribute multiple, separate patron files. Special Considerations Due to multiple data enhancements, a full database rebuild may be required upon updating. COMPanion encourages all v6 users to update to this version at their earliest convenience. Current Alexandria v5 customers will need to contact COMPanion prior to updating to version 6. This update is included as part of your support subscription and version 6 will require new registration codes. v5 to v6 data conversion includes core
data such as item and patron records, transactions, patron history, authority control, acquisitions, etc. Quick reports and preferences that are no longer applicable will not be converted. It is highly recommended that administrators review their preferences and scheduled events settings due to a number of changes and differences. Scheduled Rebuilds and Archives will need to be reconfigured in the new v6 Scheduled Utilities module. A client update will be required for all installed Librarian Workstations. Please plan accordingly. COMPanion is aware of an issue currently that may prevent Librarian Workstation clients from recent versions prior to 6.21 from properly updating. Sometimes the update process will get confused and although it will appear the update is progressing, nothing is actually happening. If a client update is taking longer than a few minutes or if it reports to be running a version older than 6.21 following the update, the client application may need to be removed completely and reinstalled. Please contact COMPanion Technical Support if you require assistance. Instructions for installing Librarian Workstations are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/installing_alexandria_v6_librarians> COMPanion will no longer be providing a separate installable Researcher Client beginning with version 6.21.0. The Researcher interface is available through a supported Web Browser only. Many of the reasons that customers choose to install a separate client can be achieved by using web browsers in "kiosk" mode. Details on operating an Alexandria Researcher as a Kiosk are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/alexandria_researcher_in_kiosk_mode> Older versions of the v6 Researcher application may still connect and function; however, they will not be supported in the future. It is recommended all users become familiar with the Alexandria Researcher Web Interface at their earliest convenience. Details on the Alexandria Researcher are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/researcher_workstation> Beginning with version 6.21.0 COMPanion will only support email messaging via your own or other SMTP servers. COMPanion will no longer be supporting the built in SMTP feature. If your system was configured to use this option, you'll need to configure the program for a new SMTP server. If you need assistance with this please contact COMPanion Technical Support. Additional details for configuring Alexandria to work with your SMTP server are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/system_preferences:_network_services:_email> 6.22.x Specific Considerations Due to the reorganization of system preferences, the introduction of site preferences, and the elimination of operator preferences, upon update to 6.22.0 ALL customers will need to review their preference settings to ensure they still meet their needs. Please be aware that a sites preferences will be in effect for any
person logged into that site and there is no longer a need to configure these local settings for each operator. When operators are converted to patrons on update if a record is found to have the same User ID as an existing patron the system will maintain the operators access credentials and the patron will be reassigned a new ID. '_reassigned' will be appended to the original. For example: Jason_reassigned. Please verify the User ID in Patron Management if any person is having difficulty logging into the Researcher. Site Management is now located in the tools menu and is a central governing record and transaction management component in Alexandria, especially for a Central Union. This update requires that you review your site records and related address book entries: > All Patron and Copy site terminology is now controlled by the software and is hard-coded as Site. > Additional Copy Site Codes are obsolete and support has been removed. For central unions that were using these, the Site information from 852_a will be moved into former shelving, 852_d. > For central unions, on conversion into 6.22.0, a site record will be created for every site code found in Items, Patrons, and Address Books. Central Union Administrators will need to review site management immediately following update to ensure the site records match the actual facilities in their district so preferences for each site can be configured correctly. Site records are limited by your license with COMPanion. > A Site Usage Report is available to assist you in site management, configuration, and any clean-up you may need to do. If you access the Site Management Window with the "Option/Alt" key held down you will find this report under the actions menu on that window. All bookmarks and links that used to use #site= to point to a specific site on load of the Researcher will need to be changed to?site= for support in our future architecture. For those registered for Duplicate Barcode Handling in a Central Union please be aware that the barcode leaders for each site will need to be reset the first time you log in. Once you have updated you can not go back to a previous version. Additional Key Enhancements and Changes: Email: Added the Patron's name to the email subject for the Hold, In-Stock Hold, and Library Circulation Notice emails. Reports and other notices configured to be delivered by email to multiple recipients are now working - all recipients will receive the email rather than only the first one listed. Export: Study Program information can again be exported in Tab Delimited format.
Import: The Title Call Number is now taken into consideration when checking for matching titles on import. A 'Disable Call Number Checking' option is available in the item settings tab of the Import window for those that require this option. For most cases, COMPanion recommends the default setting where call number is considered in title match criteria. Central Union databases that are not utilizing title call number due to differences in shelving between branches may want to disable this option to avoid the creation of duplicate title records that vary only by call number. Policy Mapping is now functioning properly. Item Management: We are now adding Control Numbers to Items created in or added to Alexandria that do not have existing 001 or 003 MARC tags. The 003 tag is created as "COMPanion" and the corresponding 001 field will be a ID unique to the database in the following format: Serial+C+RSN. For Example; 7011234C4468. The Item Management window is no longer displaying invalid characters between the title and subtitle on Windows XP machines. Operation Management: The Rebuild and Backup utility now correctly reports completion to the operations manager and will no longer cause other operations to queue up behind it once complete. Scheduled Archive and Rebuild operations that are missed by more than one hour (because the server was offline) will no longer be ran immediately on startup. Instead, they will be ran at the next regularly scheduled time. Patron Management: The Patron Selection Window drop-down options for Location, 2nd Location, and Level now populate correctly with existing data entries. Patron Server: Support for the Patron Server has been eliminated and replaced by a new FTP Import feature. Please contact support at 1-800-347-4942 for assistance in migrating from Patron Server to this new and improved method of processing student information files. Preferences: The System -> Researcher preference to Enable Reviews has been restored. Added a new 'Place' option to Hold and Reservation Management in Security Preferences. The available options are now No Access, Place, and Perform. This allows librarians more options with security groups to place and manage holds and reservations themselves, place but not manage them, or no access to either option. The 'For Reviews, Show Reviewer As' name formatting security option is now working correctly. The 'Patron' Security Group currently controls this behavior for ALL users of the Researcher. Reports: Corrected selection, sort, and template formatting issues for the Study Program
1-Line report. Due to large attachments being rejected by many mail servers, we have removed the option to Email reports as an attachment and are instead supporting the ability to send a link to the attachment. The recipient can click this link to download the actual file from Alexandria. Any existing saved report that was configured in this way will be automatically reconfigured to send the link instead. Made some necessary formatting corrections for the Usage by Patron Policy Report. Researcher: The Place Hold and Place Reservation links are now visible even when a patron is not logged in. A patron must log in however when clicking one of these links if they have not already done so. Corrected issues affecting the status display in search results under various, less common conditions. In a central union, the site menu / filter in the Copy List window will now be set to the current site by default. A patron can change it to see copies from another site or all sites. Copies checked out to a special patron are now being properly displayed in the Copy List window. Researcher now loads the preferences for the selected site regardless of capitalization used for the site code in the URL. Fixed a bug that could cause a session timeout message to appear when clicking on the temp basket. "Through" searches denoted with the tilde (~) operator in the Simple Search are now functional. LDAP authentication to web applications is again functional. z39.50 Server: When a MARC record is requested from Alexandria via z39.50 and 852 holdings tags are included, we are now also including the copy status as part of the 852 subfield 1 in the format 'Status:Available', 'Status:Checked Out', etc., Alexandria 6.22.0 Release Notes Build 20120928 =========================================================== Please contact COMPanion at 1-800-347-6439 or COMPanion Technical Support at 1-800-347-4942 with any questions regarding this update or for release notes for versions prior to 6.22.0. Documentation for Alexandria is available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/alexandria> ***** Archive and Backup your Data before updating***** ****Ensure that you are running a minimum version of 5.5.6 before updating**** System Recommendations: Alexandria v6.22.0 runs on the following operating systems: Mac OS 10.5, 10.6, 10.7,
10.8*, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8*. * Based on preliminary testing - Final Qualification Pending. Please see the following documentation for system recommendations: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/hardware_and_operating_system_recommendations> Overview of Major Features: Alexandria 6.22.0 is a major update in the v6 series introducing a number of structural improvements benefiting Central Union configurations and enhancing stability, reliability, and usability for all customers. Additionally, this release improves on preferences management, operator and patron management, security, and includes a number of additional minor enhancements and fixes throughout the application. Improvements to Site Management and how sites and site codes are used throughout the system. Please see the following informational video: <http://www.goalexandria.com/videos/wiki/sitemangement.html> We have made a number of modifications to Alexandria's preferences including the addition of Site preferences. Site preferences allow central unions better control over specific preferences on a site-by-site basis. Operators have been converted to Patrons allowing for improved security and control. Administrators and librarians can now log into the researcher without having to maintain a separate patron account and patrons can be granted additional permissions easily as the librarian see's fit. Special Considerations Due to multiple data enhancements, a full database rebuild may be required upon updating. COMPanion encourages all v6 users to update to this version at their earliest convenience. Current Alexandria v5 customers will need to contact COMPanion prior to updating to version 6. This update is included as part of your support subscription and version 6 will require new registration codes. v5 to v6 data conversion includes core data such as item and patron records, transactions, patron history, authority control, acquisitions, etc. Quick reports and preferences that are no longer applicable will not be converted. It is highly recommended that administrators review their preferences and scheduled events settings due to a number of changes and differences. Scheduled Rebuilds and Archives will need to be reconfigured in the new v6 Scheduled Utilities module. COMPanion is aware of an issue currently that may prevent Librarian Workstation clients from recent versions prior to 6.21 from properly updating. Sometimes the update process will get confused and although it will appear the update is progressing, nothing is actually happening. If a client update is taking longer than a
few minutes or if it reports to be running a version older than 6.21 following the update, the client application may need to be removed completely and reinstalled. Please contact COMPanion Technical Support if you require assistance. Instructions for installing Librarian Workstations are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/installing_alexandria_v6_librarians> COMPanion will no longer be providing a separate installable Researcher Client beginning with version 6.21.0. The Researcher interface is available through a supported Web Browser only. Many of the reasons that customers choose to install a separate client can be achieved by using web browsers in "kiosk" mode. Details on operating an Alexandria Researcher as a Kiosk are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/alexandria_researcher_in_kiosk_mode> Older versions of the v6 Researcher application will still connect and function; however, they will not be supported in the future. It is recommended all users become familiar with the Alexandria Researcher Web Interface at their earliest convenience. Details on the Alexandria Researcher are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/researcher_workstation> Beginning with version 6.21.0 COMPanion will only support email messaging via your own or other SMTP servers. COMPanion will no longer be supporting the built in SMTP feature. If your system was configured to use this option, you'll need to configure the program for a new SMTP server. If you need assistance with this please contact COMPanion Technical Support. Additional details for configuring Alexandria to work with your SMTP server are available online at: <http://www.companioncorp.com/mediawiki/index.php/system_preferences:_network_services:_email> 6.22.0 Specific Considerations Due to the reorganization of system preferences, the introduction of site preferences, and the elimination of operator preferences, upon update to 6.22.0 ALL customers will need to review their preference settings to ensure they still meet their needs. Please be aware that a sites preferences will be in effect for any person logged into that site and there is no longer a need to configure these local settings for each operator. When operators are converted to patrons on update if a record is found to have the same User ID as an existing patron the system will maintain the operators access credentials and the patron will be reassigned a new ID. '_reassigned' will be appended to the original. For example: Jason_reassigned. Please verify the User ID in Patron Management if any person is having difficulty logging into the Researcher. Site Management is now located in the tools menu and is a central governing record and transaction management component in Alexandria, especially for a Central Union. This update requires that you review your site records and related address book entries: > All Patron and Copy site terminology is now controlled by the software and is hard-coded as Site. > Additional Copy Site Codes are obsolete and support has been removed. For
central unions that were using these, the Site information from 852_a will be moved into former shelving, 852_d. > For central unions, on conversion into 6.22.0, a site record will be created for every site code found in Items, Patrons, and Address Books. Central Union Administrators will need to review site management immediately following update to ensure the site records match the actual facilities in their district so preferences for each site can be configured correctly. Site records are limited by your license with COMPanion. > A Site Usage Report is available to assist you in site management, configuration, and any clean-up you may need to do. If you access the Site Management Window with the "Option/Alt" key held down you will find this report under the actions menu on that window. All bookmarks and links that used to use #site= to point to a specific site on load of the Researcher will need to be changed to?site= for support in our future architecture. For those registered for Duplicate Barcode Handling in a Central Union please be aware that the barcode leaders for each site will need to be reset the first time you log in. Once you have updated you can not go back to a previous version. Additional Key Enhancements and Changes: Authority Control: Patron and Copy Site authority control has been eliminated from the Authority Control management window, Item and Patron windows, and Authority Control Preferences. Site Management is the authority on permissible site entries in Alexandria. Circulation: The Patron Lookup window and Homeroom tab are now filtered by the current site in a central union. Implemented 'LA' command - this is similar to the 'L' command (Patron Lookup) but in a central union will ignore the current site filter and offer all patrons. You will always need to include a space with these commands to locate patrons with a last name beginning with the letter 'A'. e.g., 'L<space>A' and 'LA<space>A'. Implemented 'HWA' command - this is similar to the 'HW' command (Homeroom Window) but in a central union will ignore the current site filter and offer all Homerooms for the entire union. Circulation override dates are now cleared when a new user logs in. The circulation window -> Current Patron Pane is now reflecting the user defined terminology for 'Reading Program'. The Item Lookup window accessed using the T, ST, SA, or SC commands should now display title entries from both the 245 and 246 MARC tags with duplicate title only entries removed for titles with subtitles. In-stock holds for the in-transit patron no longer require overrides for check outs unless there are other complications, such as alert dialogs, policy overrides
required, etc. An error is now shown for In-transit items scanned in statistics mode. This is not permitted. Controller: The Patron Management Window is now available in controller to allow for the configuration of Operator Patrons. Database: Circulation Statistics have been completely revised to support enhanced reporting that will be introduced in future revisions. Item Management: Records must be assigned to sites configured in site management. In a non-central union this will be the registered site and can not be changed. For Central Union a drop-down control is now offered instead of an edit field to ensure consistent and controlled data entry. The Local Search in the Title Assistant is now respecting non-filing characters on the Title entry. The Title Assistant "Search for books only" option is now being remembered for the logged in operator along with the specified z39.50 server set. Implemented Publisher, Publication Year and Keyword search fields in the Title Assistant. OCLC Control Number can now be searched on the ISBN / LCCN field. Note that the server being searched must support these queries for OCLC Control Number matched records to be found. A MARC search performed on an existing item will now search on the currently selected item in both simple view and MARC view. Enhanced the Title Assistant Results Window to allow sorting results by column. If you do not select a column, the newest results get put at the bottom. If you do select a sort column, then all additional entries are inserted in sorted order. Inventory Date is no longer incorrectly updated by in-stock holds placed from the researcher. Mitinet: Support for MARC Mechanic, MARC Firewall, and MARC On Demand has been discontinued. Please Contact COMPanion Technical Support at 1-800-347-4942 if you have further questions of concerns regarding the removal of these features. Operation Management: When restoring from an archive all queued and running operations are set to canceled so they will not run on startup. Patron Management: Records must be assigned to sites configured in site management. In a non-central union this will be the registered site and can not be changed. For Central Union a drop-down control is now offered instead of an edit field to ensure consistent and controlled data entry. Implemented Patron 10, the default System Administrator. Setting a unique
password for this patron enables security, which is OFF when Patron 10's password is set to the servers serial number. Implemented a Security Level control for all patrons. A patron needs only one account to use the system - if they are assigned a security level to access administrative components they will be able to, otherwise they are patrons with patron level access configurable under Edit -> System Preferences -> Security. Patron Server: Username and Password credentials can now be updated and saved in the Patron Server Web Management interface. Preferences / Policies: Maximum Fine for Overdue Item is now properly disabled if Fines Limited by Item Cost is ON. Corrected issues with sounds that could occur on conversion from older versions. Hold Management, Reservations Management, Contact Information Management, Renewals, and Reviews preferences are now located in Security and can be customized per security group. e.g., patrons permitted to review items and patrons not permitted to review items, Patrons allowed to renew items in the Researcher and patrons not allowed to renew items this way. Simplified auto-hide preference. Titles can be automatically hidden in the researcher when all copies are lost, discarded, etc. Titles and copies can still be selectively hidden on a case-by-case basis. Reports: Preferences Reports have been removed pending implementation of all preference modifications currently scheduled for 6.22 and 6.23. Implemented Security Level Patron Report Selection Options. Copy Call Number selections now accepts brackets. Restored the Web Statistics report. Patron Second Location now included on the Circulation Notice Self Mailer if the 'Include Patrons Location' option is checked. Made several minor formatting modifications to numerous reports. Researcher: Results are no longer displayed in a paging interface. The entire list is scrollable and if more results are desired a 'Find More...' button is available when there are more results that could be displayed. Made relative placement of Title, Author, Call Number, and Medium consistent between results and details so this information can be easily located by the searching patron. In details view, series will now correctly show below subtitle rather than between title and subtitle. Added support for Fountas and Pinnell reading program. Fountas and Pinnell level range searches can be performed using the 'Interest Level' field in the Researchers Study Program Search. The range search should be formatted as follows: A-D Fountas and Pinnell levels are indexed from MARC tag 521_a with a 521_b beginning with Fountas and Pinnell. Enhanced support for Mackin VIA, Baker and Taylor axis360, and Soundzabound
resources. These items are now flagged in the researcher to be more visible to patrons. Awards link searches are now working. Results -> Series Sort now sorts numeric characters before alpha characters. Filter by status as well as other results filters are again working correctly Search breadcrumbs for filter actions are now working. Reset Search button now clears breadcrumbs. Fixed the Copy Information link on the details view so that it again opens the Copy Information Window. Added a 'Reservation' column to the Copy Information Window so patrons can more easily see when a particular copy will be available or needed to fill a reservation. Multiple items can again be added to saved lists in a single action. Updated nettrekker URL's to support recent changes they have made. Slip Printer / Receipts: Multiple Patron Details can now be printed without causing a "Too Many Open Windows" type error. The printing of Patron Barcode on receipts will now properly respect preference settings. The COMPanion Receipt printers can now be used from the self-service window. Many receipt preferences are now machine specific rather than site or operator specific and can be located under Edit -> Machine Preferences. For example, the option to automatically print receipts on checkout and the number of duplicate receipts to print are located here. Utilities: The undo script in the transfer copies utilities is now working and being generated at the specified path. Web Librarian: To access web librarian you must now direct your browser to IP Address/librarian /login redirects to /librarian. If you log in at a Researcher you will be logged into the Researcher regardless of Security Level.