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Updates from INFOhio Technical Services

by Charles Schmiesing 1 year, 9 months ago

As February gets underway and the OETC Conference approaches we wanted to share a number of updates with INFOhio Providers. We recognize this message is rather lengthy but hope that the organization of the message and timeliness of the topics will help you prepare for upcoming events and other developments. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us using https://support.infohio.org/

Topics in this message include:

  • INFOhio Presence at OETC
  • INFOhio Users Council Meeting
  • SymphonyWeb
  • Opening Reports with Google Workspace Tools
  • Proposed Change to Overdues and Notices
  • Active Student Patron Counts for FY24 Projections
  • OECN United Conference Registration
  • EZproxy.infohio.org to be Deprecated February 28
  • SirsiDynix Enhancement Voting
  • INFOhio Moving to a New Help Desk System

Thank you for taking valuable time out of your day to review the contents of the message,

Charles

 

INFOhio Presence at OETC

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming OETC Conference. Between our ICoaches, IPartners, INFOhio and MC staff, there will be 50 sessions that might be of interest to you, and that does not include the Ask the Experts and ITC mini-sessions in the exhibitor area. To help better prepare for your experience at OETC, review the following news items on the INFOhio Web Site:

INFOhio Users Council Meeting

The INFOhio Users Council Meeting will take place at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on Wednesday, February 15. While it is taking place during the OETC Conference, participants do not need to register for the conference to attend the INFOhio Users Council meeting. You and your User Council Representatives are encouraged to register to attend the Users Council meeting by Thursday, Feb. 9.  Note: The meeting registration is separate from the OETC registration, so Providers and Users Council Members should register for the Users Council Meeting, regardless of whether they registered for OETC.

More details about the meeting, including the link to register for the meeting, are posted in the INFOhio Users Council Group of Open Space.

 

SymphonyWeb

During the INFOhio Users Council Meeting we will be providing an update on SymphonyWeb, including encouraging those who do not qualify for the pilot program to reach out to their ITC to learn more about SymphonyWeb pricing. Last month ITC Directors were provided with the fees from the Management Council to ITCs for school systems interested in SymphonyWeb, as well as recommended fees from the ITCs to the school systems.

We recognize that any proposed fees and services need to be approved by appropriate boards, but we want to encourage you to speak to your ITCs administration so you can respond accordingly if a school system enquires about SymphonyWeb.

You will find some SymphonyWeb-specific documentation that has been quietly added to the WorkFlows Handbook. It is anticipated that the documentation will grow as we receive additional feedback from our pilot participants. Additionally, SymphonyWeb has been added to the INFOhio Library Services page where we hope it will generate additional interest.

 

Opening WorkFlows Reports with Google Workspace Tools

During the November Users Councill Meeting a participant inquired about opening reports from WorkFlows using tools included with Google Workspace for Education, such as Docs and Sheets. At the upcoming February 15 meeting we will share a video demonstrating the tool an INFOhio Staff Member developed a few years ago to help accommodate this request.

The process of enabling the INFOhio-developed app has changed since it was first made available a few years ago, so we will be sharing updated documentation and procedures related to the app very soon and sharing it with you accordingly.

 

Proposed Change to Overdues and Notices

Another topic at the Users Council Meeting will be a proposed change to the CIR : Overdues and Notices report where “NOTIFICATION OF OVERDUES ITEMS / FINES / FEES” would be changed to “LIBRARY NOTICE”. Such a change would impact corresponding scheduled reports and report templates, so if the Users Council is agreeable to the proposed change, we will be certain to announce a date/time the change will go into effect.

 

Active Student Patron Counts for FY24 Projections

On Friday, March 3, INFOhio will be gathering Active Student Patron Counts using for the purpose of projecting fees for INFOhio Library Services for FY24. ITCs are encouraged to use OHcountstudents.sh before March 3 to review the Active Student Patron Counts, but please refrain from using the script the morning of March 3.

ITCs that are aware of significant changes for FY24, such as additional libraries, or districts moving from one ITC to another, should share details with INFOhio using https://support.infohio.org/ so that we can provide accurate projections.

 

OECN United Conference Registration

The OECN United Conference, which will take place March 29-30, will have at least thirty-eight breakout sessions, networking time blocks, and six roundtables. Registration is now open! And is to be completed by the ITC Director, so please reach out to them if you are interested in attending. The Early Bird Discount ends February 14, but attendees can be registered by the ITC until the conference begins.

We hope you will join your colleagues there!

 

EZproxy.infohio.org to be Deprecated February 28

INFOhio has used an EZproxy implementation to provide home access to Literature Online: American & English Literature. The service has a number of security concerns, so we have decided to deprecate it at the end of the month. The vast majority of those on campus have their IP addresses registered and will be able to continue using Literature Online without issue, but please reach out the schools in your area that do not use your ITC for internet connectivity and remind them to contact INFOhio Support with their IP information if they have not previously done so.

Those at home with an Ohio public library card can use the Ohio Web Library, which is hosted by OPLIN to access Literature Online: American & English Literature.

 

SirsiDynix Enhancement Voting

It’s once again that time of year when SirsiDynix opens their user group voting period for enhancement requests. Your individual votes will help us to determine what are the most important enhancements we at INFOhio would like to see added over the next year.

There are two main ways you can vote on enhancements:

  1. Log in to the SirsiDynix Support Center at https://support.sirsidynix.com/ with your username/email and password. If you have any questions about what your username/email and password are, please let us know and we can provide you with that information. Once you have logged in, you can then enter the JIRA or enhancement number for an enhancement.
  1. The second way to vote on enhancements is to view user submitted enhancements in the Enhancement Request Forum. Again, you will sign into the SirsiDynix Support Center at https://support.sirsidynix.com/ with your username/email and password. Using the Community drop-down, select Enhancements Forum. To help narrow down the list, change the Forum Topic. Note: BLUEcloud Cataloging is found under BLUEcloud Staff Clients. Feel free to look through the list of Forum Topics and vote but please do not add any enhancement requests. If you have an enhancement request, please submit it to us using https://support.infohio.org/. 

Once you click to view an enhancement, vote using the polling feature on the right of the page. For our purposes, voting Want, Need, or Critical is preferred as that will help elevate the issue. You can also see if you have previously voted for the feature.

Official enhancement voting ends March 1 so please cast your votes as soon as possible.

 

INFOhio Moving to a New Help Desk System

INFOhio will soon be moving to a new help desk system, with the anticipated implementation at the end of the month. While the format of the email messaging is expected to differ, we anticipate that the interaction with INFOhio Providers and others will otherwise be unchanged. We will share more details regarding the implementation as it approaches.