New Library Extension Chrome plugin for Keys

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

We are delighted to announce that in addition to the free LibX plugin for Firefox and Chrome, a free Library Extension plugin for Chrome is now available for Keys Catalog users.

The Library Extension plugin is similar to LibX, but it only works with Amazon, and is only available for Chrome.  Like LibX, it will let you click over to the Keys Catalog record for an item whenever it detects an item on Amazon that is also in the Keys Catalog--it does this through a box that appears in the Amazon display:

If you click "Reserve your copy," then you will be taken to the Keys Catalog record for this item.

To install the plugin, go to LibraryExtension.com and follow the installation instructions.  You will need to configure it to work with Keys by looking under "California" for "San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park."  There are many other libraries that work with Library Extension--be sure to check out the list.

To find a LibX plugin to work with another library, select "Search for an edition for my community" from the main LibX page.

Note to other Koha users (the software that powers the Keys Catalog):  to get Library Extension plugin support for your catalog, simply visit Library Extension's Contact Us page and include the required information for your Koha catalog set up to be included in the next batch of supported catalogs.

Behind the scenes in Technical Services: Koha serials tweaks we like

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

We still feel very new to Koha, the software that powers our Keys Catalog of Library Materials, but we've discovered a few little features that make our serials work much more efficient.

Before I dive in, let me recommend ByWater Solutions' serials tutorials--like all their tutorials, they're great introductions and overviews.  We've found that even if the tutorial is for an earlier version of Koha, a lot of the functionality remains the same.

The first feature we've come to appreciate is the nonpublic note.  This note shows up in the staff client display of the title when the "Subscriptions" tab is selected, right above the table of received issues, for example (this is how it looks in our version of Koha, 3.08.05.000):

We're recording the source of acquisition, any other separately cataloged titles arriving on that subscription, and the mailing address to which the title is sent.

Why is this all useful?

When receiving an issue of a serial, we need to record the source of acquisition in the item record that is then created, but it's not visible anywhere on that screen--putting it in the nonpublic note solves that problem.  For example, here's Sailing in the middle of receipt--after it has been received in the "receipt box" but before any fields have been filled in on the new item record.  Seeing "NPSPURCH" tells us this is a purchased subscription (as opposed to one available gratis, via a donated subscription, etc.):

Eagle-eyed readers will also notice that these two subscriptions are addressed very differently.  Why?  When there is a staff change, or a change in job duties, or for various other reasons, the person actually paying for the subscription renewal can change.  If we have a problem with the subscription it's handy to have the exact address under which it's entered, and also handy when renewing, so we can make changes at that time.

We have also found that entering vendor information, even though we don't use Koha to generate claim letters, has proven very useful.  It's a central location, easily updated, for all the contact information regarding the source of our subscription, and has proven great when claiming (via email, phone, etc.) and renewing our subscriptions.

New titles in the Library, right from Keys

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

Although our new acquisitions are available from our WorldCat.org  profile page, which also provides an rss feed, there is now a way to see them right from the Keys Catalog home page:

Keys Catalog Screenshot

Like just about everything on the Catalog's home page, this link was easily added, and can easily be changed. For folks interested in the "Behind the Scenes" aspect of working with Koha (the software that powers the Keys Catalog), here's how it was done:

Once again, Nicole Engard's post on the ByWater Solutions blog about creating a new items pull-down menu came in handy--from idea's gleaned from Nicole, I was able to create the following search:

http://keys.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=acqdate%3D2012-08+not+itype%3ALOOSEPER&sort_by=acqdate_dsc

Note that "q=acqdate%3D2012-08" searches for records added to the catalog in August, 2012, and "+not+itype%3ALOOSEPER" is knocking out all the "loose periodicals"--I eliminated the loose periodicals added to the database from this search, since I think that this search should highlight the newly acquired books, videos, archives, etc., rather than every issue of every periodical checked in during the following month.  The last component of the search sorts the items by date acquired with the most recent first.  (This, of course, is easily changed on the search results screen--just open the pull down menu on the upper right and change "Acquisition date: Newest to oldest" to any of many other options

Then it was a simple matter of plugging it into our OpacMainUserBlock system preference--it's that simple!  In the coming week, when I've cataloged more items into Keys, I'll change the link so that with one click you can retrieve items cataloged last month, or simply click to see items cataloged this month.

We hope you like this new feature on Keys!

Browse by popular format on Keys

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

We've added a new pull down menu to the main page of the Keys Catalog--the ability to browse by popular format:

With this tool you can quickly retrieve all the archives, books, games, maps, musical CDs, musical scores, online resources, videos on DVD or videos on VHS in the Library.

To accomplish this, we moved the links to other catalogs; you'll find them under the "Other catalogs" link on the left side of the screen.

Interested in how we did it?  Keep reading!  Not interested?  Just click over to the Keys Catalog and enjoy the new feature!

Nicole Engard recently posted to the ByWater Solutions blog about creating a new items pull down menu, and for us, a light bulb went off!  As anyone who has gone to our Advanced Search screen has seen, we have a lot of item types.  Why so many?  Because we use the ability to search by item type for back room operations such as preservation surveys--for this, it makes a great deal of difference whether a sea shanty recording is on audio cassette, CD, or a vinyl record.

But the ability to retrieve in one search the most popular formats seemed lost in the huge sea of item types under Advanced Search, until we saw Nicole's blog post.  I was able to easily adapt her HTML to the formats that users ask us about searching the most, and then plug that into the OpacMainUserBlock preference of the OPAC global settings.  Be sure to let us know what you think of the new search tool!

Keys Catalog How-To: LibX Plugin

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

If you use Firefox or Chrome, there is now a LibX plugin for use with the Keys Catalog.

New to LibX?  Here's what it does:

It places a little icon your toolbar that gives you quick access to a Keys Catalog search; it's asking for an ISBN to search, but it will search keywords if you just put them in and hit Enter.  To reach an advanced search screen, leave the search box empty and hit Enter.

Why is it configured to search by ISBN?  To make searching from sites like Amazon easier.  Once installed, a little Keys Catalog icon will appear on some sites--in an Amazon listing it looks like this (see him just to the right of "[Library Binding]"?):

When that little Keys icon appears, you can click it, and you'll be taken directly to a Keys Catalog search to see if we have that exact edition:

Remember:  it's looking for that exact edition--we may have another edition.  If that edition of that title isn't found, you'll find yourself at a keyword search screen--if you'd be happy with another edition, just put in some words and see if we have another edition or reprint that would suit your needs.

If there are other catalogs that you use frequently, they might have a LibX plugin as well--you can search or browse for the public LibX plugin editions.

Behind the scenes in Tech Services: setting up Koha

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian) 

In the Technical Services area of the Library we do a variety of things including cataloging, serials management, book repair and preservation, and library catalog administration.  Recently our catalog administration got really fun.

When we first saw the test version of our new catalog, it looked like this:

Screenshot of Koha out of the box

Making it look like this was a blast:

Screenshot of current Keys Catalog appearance

Now, I love tweaking.  If I see a button, I click it.  If I see a menu option, I select it.  In my opinion, one of the most fun things about Koha is that we can change it and tweak it to suit our needs.  With frequent visits to the Koha Community Documentation site, and with the help of our hosting and support company, ByWater Solutions, I did a lot of this myself.  I didn't have to--they would have done it all for me--but I wanted to.  I wanted to get under the hood and click and tweak myself so that, well, I could click and tweak it whenever we wanted to click or tweak.

We didn't have to stay with the structure--we didn't have to keep that blue Koha bar, with areas below and above, but we chose to keep it that way.  We like it.  Other Koha catalogs have many other designs, and if you'd like to see more of them, check out Koha Users Worldwide on the Koha Community wiki.

In the white area, the column of links on the left and the whole central area is simple HTML that I keyed into appropriate boxes in the OPAC preferences of the Administration area of the staff client.  Whenever the reference staff have asked if they can have something changed on the Catalog, it's been so fun to say, "Sure!"  I can also use the News Tool to put a news alert in the middle of the page, or can even get fancy with book covers.  Lots of other areas are just as easily set up or changed.

I have to admit, it's been tempting to make the overdue notices say, "Return your late books or be keelhauled!"  I have wanted the date due reminder notices to say, "Your books will be due in the next three days--set sail for the Library, or it's the lash for you!"  Since only our staff can check out books...well...we'll see...

But as for the rest of the layout, great fun was had playing with the css to get the color and layout that we wanted.  The blue of the Koha bar was pretty, but we wanted a blue that suggested a deep, ocean blue.  Many blues were tried; only one blue won.  Once we had that, it was pretty simple putting in the rest.  ByWater helped me with the margins and the text size, and we came up with the current look.

Hope you like it!

The new Keys Catalog of Library materials

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian) 

We are delighted to announce the Keys Catalog of Library materials at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park:

Screenshot

Available online, the new Keys Catalog brings the Library to you.  Researchers will now be able to access records of all the cataloged holdings of the Library with live links to available electronic editions.  It also contains a growing number of records for archival collections that link to the expanded descriptions at the Online Archive of California.

Logins and passwords are freely available to anyone and allow access to Keys Catalog features such as lists, record tagging, and more.  Purchase suggestions may be made from any page, with or without a login, but if you have a login, you will receive updates on the status of your suggestion.  Contact us for a login, or to learn more.

With support and hosting from ByWater Solutions the catalog is powered by Koha, the first developed open-source integrated library system.  Koha is an enterprise-class ILS in use worldwide and is developed by a growing community of collaborating libraries.  We are proud to now count ourselves among the growing number of institutions in the Koha Community.