(UO)

Navigator: Comparison Chart

last updated: October 16, 2008

  INNReach Navigator
3. Borrowing: System asks patron for name and unique identifier (barcode, univ ID, etc. -- varies by institution.

instantly whether patron has valid Summit borrowing privileges.

Borrowing: System asks patron for name and unique identifier (barcode, univ ID, etc. -- varies by institution.

Each library sends to OCLC brief info about the patrons in their database who are eligible for Summit borrowing. NRE checks this database at each request. In later upgrades there will be a paton interface (Patron UI) and things will be different. Will give details when that happens. Or when I learn them.





  INNReach Navigator
4 Borrowing: System asks patron to indicate pickup location.

Patron may choose any Alliance institution, and within that instutition, any of the pickup locations which have been authorized by staff at that site to be PUA locs. Many sites with multiple libraries and branches on one campus choose the main library as the PUA location for Summit.

Borrowing: System asks patron to indicate pickup location. Patron may choose any pickup location that is governed by her own Request Managing Location (RML). Explanation: Each patron is associated with only one RML. Each RML processes Summit requests only for the patrons associated with them. If one site has multiple RMLS, staff processing requests for one RML may not view the patron records or process requests for patrons whose home library is attached to a different RML at at their site. I don't think there are any sites today with multiple RMLs, however, so patrons at each member institution should be able to chose all the pickup locations offered by their institution. At present there is no possibility of selecting a pickup location from another institution as a PUA (INNReach term for Pick Up Anywhere).





  INNReach Navigator
5   Navigator Request Engine (NRE) goes to the patron's library and looks at the local OPAC and scrapes the screen for availability. If the item is available, the NRE/CircGateway attempts to place hold on the item using an Institutional Patron record ("Summit, for patron's library" which is the same as the lending library). If a hold can be placed, it is done. If it cannot be placed NRE moves to the next library in the rota and tries again.




  INNReach Navigator
6 Load balancing: INNReach staff use stats to change the order of institutions in the load balancing list. Load balancing: We'll give OCLC a priority list based on the most recent months and that is the order they'll use to create their rota. After we see stats, we'll change the rota.





  INNReach Navigator
7 Borrowing: INNReach software places a hold on the item in the lending library's OPAC for the requesting patron, and that transaction is also sent to the Summit catalog so that patrons know (when looking at either the local opac or the Summit catalog) that the item isn't on the shelf at the local library. The system sends a virtual item record (a small amount of info about that item) to the requesting patron's library and that info is placed inside the patron's record. The system sends a virtual patron record to the lending library's catalog and that info is placed inside the item record. Borrowing: NRE/CircGateway places a hold on the item for a patron record called "Summit, for (Name of borrowing institution)". This is why all Alliance libraries need to enable the "Same Site Requesting" feature which allows patrons to place holds on available items in their own library's catalog: the institution patron records in the local library's patron database need to be able to place holds on availble items in the local library's catalog.

Note about this hold placing process: When we first tried to figout out how to determine whether an item is circulatable to Summit libraries, we concentrated on the four elements which determine which loan rule (and therefore whether something is circulatable): Item Type, Patron Type, shelving location, and status. Some of these fields were not available to NRE. The solution was to first check for and "available" status, then simply place a hold for the requesting patron and let Millennium's Rule Selection Table) decide if the item could go out via Summit. This will work most of the time, as long as available items which are in the same shelving unit and have the same format (both are books, as an example) all circulate the same way. If some books in the same shelving unit do go via Summit and some do not, they must have a different IType.





  INNReach Navigator Notes
8 Lending Staff print INNReach paging slips. Lending Staff print paging slips from Millennium. Note about paging slips: In the OPAC requesting screen there is an option to allow patrons to indicate special needs when placing a hold on an item. This is called the Hold Notes box, and most libraries do not use this feature. However, we have strong hope that NRE will insert information (NRE request number, requesting patron name, pick up loc, and which institution the patron belongs to) into that box so that it will print on the paging slips. We've found a way to make that box invisible to the patron when she places her hold, yet detectable by the NRE software so when the hold is placed for the patron instution record, that info can be inserted into that box.

Another note about Millennium paging slips: NRE has the capability of printing paging slips, but this capability cannot be used because the info that we need (volume information, etc.) is not and cannot be included on that paging slip. (III's Z39.50 won't send all that info through the CircGateway to NRE, and in addition, not all Summit libraries have even the III version of Z39.50. Some don't have it at all). Also, NRE will not sort by paging location.

 




  INNReach Navigator Notes
10. Lending Staff check out the item to off campus site. This changes the status in the borrowing patron record to summit requsted, in the lending library's OPAC to a due date which reflects either a long or short loan. Lending staff set the item to "shipped" in NRE by keying in the NRE request number, wanding in the item's barcode, and choosing one of two radio buttons (for long or short loan). By adding the item's barcode to the NRE request record, staff will be able to scan that barcode (rather than keying the NRE number) to bring up the NRE record in subsequent transactions, saving much time. Also, if the paging slip isn't with the item after the patron returns it staff can use the barcode to bring up the NRE number easily.

Until this next step is automated by NRE/CircGateway, lending staff then checkout the item in Millennium Circ. This action removes the hold on the item and displays the status of the item in the local OPAC as the due date for the item (either long or short institutional loan period).

 




  INNReach Navigator Notes
13.   Sending items to branches before checking them in via NRE: the second an item is received in NRE the patron loan period is set. This means that RML (Request Managing Locations) which have more than one pickup location may want to send the items to the pickup location and have staff at that shelving location login to NRE and "receive" the item. If you're sending a book from Eugene to your Portland campus, for example, it might take a day or two for it to get there, and you might prefer to have the pickup noticed sent by NRE to the patron generated in Portland a day or two later.

Explanation of due dates:

The due date for the patron is assigned at the time the lending instiution changes the item's status to "shipped". Explanation: The patron's due date in NRE is a calculation based on the institution due date. Here's how it works:

  1. In intial configuration, Alliance staff tell NRE staff to use assign a due date of 32 days when the item is set to shipped from the owning library. That's the date the item is due back from the borrowing institution. It's also the same due date that we use in Mill Circ for the "institution loan period.) That 32 day period includes time for:
    --2 days transit from lending library to borrowing library
    --7 days on the hold shelf at the borrowing library
    --21 days checkout to the patron
    --2 days transit back to the lending library

  2. NRE knows to assign a due date to the patron which will be two days shorter than the one assigned to the borrowing institution since it takes two days to get back to the lending site. When the item arrives at the borrowing site and staff use NRE to "receive" it, the NRE system instantly assigns the patron a due date which is two days shorter than the one given to the instution.

    Example: Mt Hood Community College sets a book to "shipped" on November 1st, and sends the book off to SOU. NRE assigns an institution due date of 32 days: December 2. It also knows that the due date it will assign to the patron when SOU receives it in NRE will be November 30th, two days shorter. When it does get to SOU and staff set it to received, NRE automatically sends a pickup up hold email to the patron.

    Problems:

    • What if the patron picks up the book the day she receives her notice? The time she gets with the book would be 27 days! (21 days loan period plus 6 of the 7 days assigned to being on the hold shelf). If she picks up the book on the 7th day, she'd get just 21 days with it. Confusing.
    • What if it took the book 5 days to get to SOU, and she picked it up on the 7th day? not just 2? Those extra three days would come out of her loan period, and she'd get it only for 18 days. Confusing, confusing.
    Solution:
    When the borrowing library receives the book they ignore the due date that NRE wants to assign and put on the hold shelf slip (or however each library indicates what day the item is to come off the hold shelf) the day 7 days in the future. When the patron comes for the book -- regardless of when in those 7 days she comes, staff give a 21 day loan period to her.

    This manual process will continue until NRE/CircGateway can automatically create bib and item records in our local opacs and we can use Millennium Circ to check out the item to our patrons. In any event, the loan period for the patron that is assigned by NRE will not matter.

 




  INNReach Navigator Notes
14. Borrowing Staff check in the item. This enqueues a hold notice for the patron. The next time the hold pickup notices are run by staff, the patron receives the notice.
  • Borrowing Staff receive the item in NRE. NRE instantly sends the patron a hold pickup notice.

    Note: after NRE/CircGateway create the bib and item records automatically we need to turn off the automatic NRE patron pickup notice and use only the one generated in the local MillCirc system.

    Note: In November!!! for those who still have character-based functionality: NRE/Circgateway may place a hold on the newly-created item record using the requesting patron's unique identifier (barcode, univ ID, etc.)













  INNReach Navigator Notes
  INNReach Navigator Notes
19. Receiving the item back at the lending library: Staff check in the item in Millennium Circulation, remove book bands, and reshelve the item. The checkin causes the virtual item record in the patron's record to evaporate, the virtual patron record in the lending library's item record to evaporate, and the status in both the local OPAC and the Summit union catalog to return to "available" (or on hold if there's a second hold on the item). Unless there's a fine, the link between the patron and the item is permanently broken. Unless a library uses the "my reading history" feature of Millennium, there is no record of the patron ever having checked out the item. Receiving the item back at the lending library: staff check in the item in NRE, remove bookbands, and reshelve the item. The record of the patron having requested and checked out the item is archived for XXXX time. Until NRE/CircGateway automates this process, staff at the lending library check in the item in Millennium Circulation from the institional patron record.

Note: in the future, after Staff check in the item at the lending library in NRE, NRE/CircGateway will use the offline circulation system to check in the book from the local Millennium system's Institution Patron record. Note: When offline circ is used for checkin, after the transactions are uploaded to the Millennium server the Millennium software then gives a report about items just checked in that are on hold for somebody else. Before sending the books back to the shelves staff should note that report and retrieve the books with holds on them. See: CSDirect: http://csdirect.iii.com/manual/i_circ_informational_mt.html





  INNReach Navigator Notes
20.   PUA: OCLC has circulated a draft proposal for including Pickup Anywhere support into Navigator (as a separate product). Using this Navigator add-on, patrons will be able to select any configured location as a pickup location; items would be shipped from the supplying library to the patron's library and from there to the pickup location. We have opted not to accept this as PUA service since we could do it ourselves. So no PUA will be offered until the Navigator software can accommodate it directly.








  INNReach Navigator Notes
21.  
  • : PINTOCLC is working on a system where staff can "ping" the school at which the visitng patron is registered to see if they have current privileges. This "ping" doesn't allow staff at lending sites to see the whole patron database or probably even the whole patron record held by OCLC, just to validate. It may be ready in 2009.
  • Another possibility is for each lending site to have bookmarked the list of Summit Libraries' login pages to patron accounts and have the patron login so we can see if they're eligible. This only shows that at one time they had a record in their home institution's database: it doesn't how the expiration date. Unless they had something checked out and tried to renew (and got the "you cannor renew items because your registration has expired" message....).





  INNReach Navigator Notes
22.   NRE/Gateway They can offer only ILL-style staff-mediated renewals: staff at the patron's library messages the staff at the item's library, the item's library staff check the catalog for holds and either renew or not, and message back to the patron's library about the results. Until the Navigator system can offer unmediated renewals, we won't renew.

The core of this problem is the NCIP-based architecture of the Navigator product and the fact that the III Millennium system does not support NCIP as a responder. Actions which can be performed in the Millennium system - such as renewals - are problematic, since communciations are essentially one-way, from Navigator Request Engine to Millennium systems via the Circulation Gateway. OCLC is now considering this its highest priority among functions that are not currently available in WC Navigator. Kyle and Mark Kibbey have provided OCLC with good possibilities for enabling renewals.





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