BOOKMARK NEWS. From: Bookmark, Technology & Knowledge Management, GPO Box 1152, Adelaide, SA 5001 Courier R11/41

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1 BOOKMARK NEWS Department Education, And Children s Services To: The Librarian Issue 49:March 2012 From: Bookmark, Technology & Knowledge Management, GPO Box 1152, Adelaide, SA 5001 Courier R11/41 PAW2 ph (08) , fax (08) ABN Dean.Hodgson@sa.gov.au or Marion.Mitchell@sa.gov.au website: Contents: PAW2 Bookmark The new system National Year if Reading ELR A new barcode reader (from Gian Student cards (from Gian) Barcode abel problems Item loan and return notes Trick of the day Start of year tasks Rollover Due date problems Wincirc and missing books User groups Training On the PAW2 menu, the Control-C key combination is the way to reach the Controls. Greatly enhanced over the previous PAW, these controls allow considerable customizing. A colour manual is available for purchase at $ GST + $15.00 p&h with a $10.00 discount for those with support. Bookmark The current version at the time of printing is Bookmark v PAW2 v Wincirc v WebOpac v Please update your versions at least at the beginning of each term. The latest Bookmark updates incorporate the ability for community libraries to store the PLAIN barcode as an 'alternate barcode'. This barcode can also be used in WinCirc. The printed class barcode lists can now incorporate student photos. Sundry small errors have been fixed. We have received positive feedback to the PAW2 upgrade from users. If not familiar with it, PAW2 is a completely new version of Public Access for Windows. Don t forget to download the factsheets on our web pages about book covers and resource lists. Book covers have been enhanced to cope with variations in ISBNs, which are used as the filenames.. It turned out that the cataloguing data had 13-digit ISBNs whereas the book cover graphic used the 10-digit ISBN. Covers are matched via their ISBN. Bookmark, WinCirc and PAW2 have been modified to check for this situation and if a cover with an 10-digit ISBN that matches an item's 13-digit one it is now displayed. Thank you Di Hannaford 1

2 Bookmark 2012 the new system Work is proceeding on a completely new version of Bookmark. This is a new, all- Windows version and will be able to work on both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8. Some of Bookmark 2012's features include: - Additional cataloguing fields such as illustrator, edition, PRC, lexile, collection and supplier. - No limit to the length of data in fields -- e.g. a title or notes can be as large as required. - Can store up to one million items and one million borrowers. - Windows based, no DOS screens. It is hoped that Bookmark 2012 will be ready for release before the end of this year. National Year of Reading ELR School Library Survey A big thank you from the ELR team to those who completed their ELR survey forms. 2

3 From Gian (edited by Marion) Cipher Labs have released a new base level barcode reader called the Model 1070, The Cipher 1070 is offered at a lower price $ incl GST and the older and popular model 1000 at the new price of $ incl GST. The model 1070 comes with 3 year Warranty while the model 1000 keeps its 5 year Warranty. Gian would not recommend the model 1070 for reading some of those very fine and miniature bar codes you may encounter in jewelry shops or bar codes that may not be within specifications. Why would anyone now purchase the model 1000, 5 years Warranty maybe, well tried and trusted maybe. He is unsure why Cipher have released this new model and has no reason to think the model 1000 is on its way out despite it now being on the market for nearly 10 years. Student cards (Gian continued) Some users are experiencing difficulties with their bar code readers (of various makes and models) reading the bar codes on student cards they have acquired. The problems seem consistent in that the bar code readers work fine with their book bar codes but do not with these cards. Barcodes must conform to certain parameters that include accuracy of print and adherence to standards of contrast and reflectivity, if the barcode lacks contrast or is too reflective or is covered by a material that causes too much refraction it is the bar code or the whole student card that may be at fault and not necessarily the bar code reader. Another problem that causes poor bar code reading performance is when the bar code is covered by an overly thick transparent surface, normal Barcode readers are not designed to function under these conditions. If it is necessary to cover a bar code with a clear protective overlay then the material should be as thin as possible, suitable products are available for this purpose. The reason that the performance of bar code readers deteriorate when scanning through transparent overlays like plastic or glass is due to the phenomena of light refraction when light passes from one transparent medium to another, it changes speed, and bends. In net effect the image of the bar code reflected back to the bar code reader is distorted and is no longer of sufficient accuracy. Please see tion/ From the Help Desk Barcode label problems. For those folk having problems printing barcode labels and only getting the numbers!!!!!!!!!!! in big print, it means that the font must be installed first. See the factsheet on the Bookmark web page for instructions. If it worked last year and not now, usually it means that someone has changed the equipment. Item loan and return notes When a particular item is borrowed or returned a unique message can appear as a popup message. Eg 'Check that the cd is in the back pocket.' To add an Individual Loan Note, in Cataloguing Add/Edit in the Notes section of the item, type in the message and precede it by the long bar character from the keyboard. This character appears above the enter key on some keyboards and is shown as a broken bar. The shift key is pressed to activate it. Make it the last part of the notes so that anything preceding the symbol is not part of the note. 3

4 The three most important things are to change the due dates, rollover the students (steamrollers not permitted), and clear the statistics. Rollover For an individual Return Note, use the ~ symbol. This is also known as tilde or pling, before entering the note message in the Notes field in Add/edit. The tilde is commonly found in the top left hand corner of the keyboard and enabled when the shift key is pressed. When you borrow/return the item the note appears. Press any key to continue. Both symbols can be used on the same note. There are other general loan and return notes that can be added in System Controls <7> Messages. It is also possible to attach public or semipublic comments to a borrower. See P136 of the Bookmark manual. Trick of the day!!! Extending the use of Book covers for games etc No isbn???? For a game, realia, object etc. Photograph the object or the contents, and store the photograph in the covers folder with a short unique name. eg jenga. In cataloguing add/edit put the name word into the isbn field of the record eg jenga, save the record, and Voila there is a photo of the item available in public access but also visible from add/edit as well. Of course this means finding extra photography time, which I am sure everybody has!!!!!!!!!!!! Start of year tasks There is an end of year/beginning of year fact sheet on the webpage outlining different tasks. Delete your departed students first (in R <1>Mass delete borrowers. If you do not wish to delete those with outstanding loans put them in a group called left. When you do a mass delete it will ask if you wish to mark the outstanding loans as missing. Borrower types is used to sort out how many books, and how long they can be borrowed. What the borrowers can do ie their privileges. Year level is a borrower's academic standard, and is used for research or as the lynchpin for importing data from school admin system. Rule. A student can only have 1 year level. Groups are classes ie where the borrowers are located, and that is used for overdues, so that you can give the list to the class teacher OF ALL the students in that class. If it has not been changed correctly you will possibly miss sending overdues to students. If your import from your school admin system doesn t work check the Configure Borrower types in Import school admin data. Bookmark can import from the following administration systems. EDSAS SIMS MAZE Cosy Corner RM SIS Cases 21 DUX SAS SAMS One School Check up on the success or otherwise of the rollover by going to Borrower control <7> list all groups. If there are any classes with only students the students have probably been 4

5 missed during the update process. If a last year class is still there, there are students who have not been dealt with. Press F5 and type in the class name to find out the name of the borrower. Then fix them up individually in add/edit. REMEMBER once there are no students left in an old group it will disappear, like magic. KAZAM!!!!!!!!! Another checking spot is in Borrower Control <R>Annual class rollover <3>Class rollover. This is an easy spot from which to see the mistakes. Here all students are listed in alphabetical order. Press F4, and sort them into <4>Year level and use the down arrow key to check everyone. You can change them here very carefully BUT don t forget to F1 at the end. Congrats to all who have managed their rollover successfully. Ring us up and we will sort out those who didn t. Due date problems Bookmark has both borrower due dates and item due date categories. Both need to be updated. The best screen is <8> System Controls, <D> Due Dates. The dates can also be done in <1> Borrower Tables and <2> Item Tables, <4> Item due date categories. There are two types of due dates. One is a rolling or duration date as indicated by a simple number of the days by which the date will change automatically every day.ie 7 is 1 week, 14 is a fortnight etc. The other date is a fixed date which will stay the same until you change it. Don t forget the format must be 12-dec-12. Use the delete key to rub out what is already there when reaching the correct field AND press enter to move to the next line. Don t forget the F1 key at the end of the changes. Using Wincirc to bulk mark overdue items as missing There is an alternate global change method in the end of year factsheet for those not using Wincirc. In Wincirc, go to Controls. Choose mass change loans, selecting Change by choosing from a list. This gives a list of all items on loan. Click on the word date at the top of the list to sort the loans into date order, or any other heading, order that is desired ie put all the staff together by selecting borrower type, then, by name to put all the books out to the same person together. Click under the letters Ext so that it says yes to mark all the books to be marked as missing. Then click to change the status. Highlight to select the correct status and say ok! Are you sure? is the next question. Say yes and it is done. If you have changed the dates first, staff loans may also be mass extended from this part of Wincirc. Clearing statistics There is a changed screen in Reports & stats <5>Clear statistics. The first question it asks is about the annual archive backup. This is an extra, special backup you do before you delete your departed students on a special separate Usb which is then stored out of the library as a legal form of record. It may be needed for child protection stuff, or for auditing missing books in the future. This backup includes your book covers and photos unlike a normal backup Archiving your statistics is a separate operation, which is advisable. So that they are easily retrievable go past the archive backup by saying yes or no. Then <2> and <3> 5

6 should be done. This includes the archiving process. When you press 2 the program asks are you sure? When you press y it then asks if you wish to archive to which the answer is yes and it then asks for a year date ie 2011 or 11, and da da!!! it is done. The never ever options has been hidden so that it is now secret business and can not be touched accidentally. User groups South Australian user group information Mid North user group :week 4 each term. Co-ordinator; Sue Wright, Gladstone PS ( ) Western UGroup :Monday ;week 5 at 3.45pm. No meeting in term 1 or term 3. Co-ordinator: Jenny Jones St. Francis( ) Southern Ugroup:Tuesday; week 6 at 1.00pm Co-ordinator; Deb Rowe ( ) Eastern Ugroup: Wednesday; week 7 at 2.00pm. Co-ordinator; Denise Fitzpatrick, Thorndon Park PS ( ) Western Australian User Group meetings Wednesday week 3 after school Co-ordinator Marilyn Carter at Applecross PS ( ) Training Courses may be deferred if there are insufficient numbers to attend so please advise us in good time. On-site courses can be organized in SA metropolitan and near country areas, if required. An invoice is sent only after attending a course. Cost : $200+GST=$ per course. (includes lunch) Please contact for more details. or download the application forms from the Bookmark web page. SA courses for 2012 At 31 Flinders St, Adelaide SA 5000 These courses are conducted by Anne Ross, or Dean Hodgson. SA Introductory Friday May 11 th Friday May 25th Friday August 3 rd Friday October 26th SA Advanced Friday May 18 th Friday August 10 th Friday November 2 nd WA courses Held at SIDE Leederville, conducted by Ruth Loudon WA Introductory Thursday 10 th May Thursday 6 th August WA Advanced Friday 11 th May Friday 7 th August Ruth Loudon is happy to visit your school to train individuals or groups of 4 or less for a fee to be negotiated, depending on distance travelled. Her contact is jrloudon@iinet.net.au. Victoria Book Mark Pty Ltd run courses Victoria. Contact Barry or Gary on or through bookmarklibrary@optusnet.com.au This newsletter is written and edited by Marion Mitchell and Dean Hodgson 6