Symphony upgrade update

Libraries opened yesterday to the new Symphony ILS. Software updates went smoothly but there are a couple of persistent problems that will take a varying amount of time to fix.

• The most urgent problem is with the onshelf holds report. Item titles are no longer showing up in the report and staff only have the item call # to locate the item- which is not specific enough to make this process as efficient as it needs to be. Resolving this issue requires some back-end programming by Sirsi, and I am pressing them to assign someone to do the work ASAP.
  UPDATE (10/7): This morning's onshelf holds report are listing the item titles- someone at Sirsi had a bright idea for a workaround.
  UPDATE (10/10): The fix appears to be holding- no-one has reported additional issues with the report since Weds.
  
• Several libraries are reporting that staff cannot override the holds block when an on-hold item is checked out to another patron- usually a parent or spouse doing pick-up duty. This is another glitch that Sirsi is investigating, although this may be back to normal by tomorrow. The available workarounds are to check the item out to the card of the patron with the hold- alternatively it appears that if you try to override with CIRCOK and then try to check the item out again once the override fails, it will check out anyway most of the time.
  UPDATE (10/7): Holds blocks appear to be working now. Apparently the issue about items checking out anyway once an override fails is a known bug that will be fixed in an upcoming software patch.
  UPDATE (10/10): Once again, no further reports of problems.
  
• Directors Station isn't getting data from after October 4th. This is being looked into and will certainly be fixed before October data is needed by most libraries.
  UPDATE (10/10): Sirsi made some adjustments over the last couple of days and the system is once again adding data. Please remember to connect using the updated bookmarks that Ben sent out this week- I am still getting the occasional question that suggests some people are still connecting to the old version, which will be removed from the network on Oct. 31st. If you need help in recreating your custom reports in your new account, let us know.
  
• NEW ISSUE 10/10: Several users and library staff reported that library elf was no longer working for their patrons. This is a third party service that we do contract with, but I contacted them to notify them of the problem and it looks like the service is working again. For those of you who do not know what library elf is, click here.
  
• Some bibload reports need an additional entry that was not required when the original templates were set up. Jane will be following up with catalogers and making the necessary adjustments to the templates.
  UPDATE (10/10): Jane has updated templates and contacted the catalogers.
  
• Modifying holds is a slightly different process after the upgrade. Instead of making the adjustment directly in the item list using the widget, you now need to check the items you need to adjust in the modify column, check "apply same due date" and use the due date selector window to set the new date.
  
• If you are using the trap holds wizard for receiving incoming holds from transit, you will receive a set of confusing error messages. This use of trap holds was a workaround needed at some points because of problems with older peripherals. You shouldn't see it if you use the in-transit wizard options to receive incoming material, and use the trap holds wizard for items that are collected through the onshelf holds report.
  UPDATE (10/10): Libraries that have switched from trapping incoming holds are no longer experiencing this problem.
  
• Finally (so far) you will see some odd user name formatting for the time being. Symphony allows user names to be recorded in three fields- first, middle, and last name rather than a single field, and there is a report that needs to be run to convert the existing records to the three-field format. I'm doing some testing first because so many of our records are not formatted in a way that the report will recognize and i want to be sure they won't be corrupted. When you register new patrons you will be given the new fields, and it appears that it is still possible to search by patron name and locate people accurately, so this shouldn't have any effect other than looking odd.
  UPDATE (10/10): I will probably do this over the weekend because it will take a substantial amount of time to run.
  

I'm sure that other things will come up, although they will probably be of diminishing impact- but please let me know of any new problems you encounter, via email to sirsi.support or give the Division of Libraries a call and ask to speak to one of us.
Thanks for bearing with us during the migration!