UPDATE: 2019 Novel Coronavirus ("COVID-19") pandemic information

PrairieCat News

NEWS: PrairieCat Holiday Closure - Independence Day Observed and Independence Day

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 26, 2020 - 11:07am

ACTION:  Informational

On Friday July 3, 2020 PrairieCat will be closed for the Independence Day Observed holiday. Independence Day Observed is also a holiday for RAILS staff so there will be no delivery services on Independence Day

Independence Day Observed (Fri. July 3rd) and Independence Day (Sat. July 4th) are holidays for PrairieCat staff so there will be no on-call support on those days.

Support issues should be conveyed via the Help Desk app by submitting a ticket which will be addressed on the next working day (Mon. July 6th).

ALERT: Issue with items checked out under interim loan rules

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 24, 2020 - 11:01am

Issue: For items that were checked out by libraries using interim loan rules that gave an absolute due date of 06/26/2020, if your patron wants to renew that item, you will receive a due date in 2021!

Solution: The best way to handle this is to check the item in and then check it back out to the patron to ensure an accurate due date. (You can modify the due date, but that loan rule will still be in effect, so if the patron tries to renew a 2nd time, you'll have the same problem.)

NEWS: RAILS Current Library Reopening Status Survey

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 23, 2020 - 3:53pm

Action: Action Recommended (Complete Survey)

RAILS wants to help members stay updated on other libraries' reopening plans and level of service. RAILS will provide a reporting tool and service area map for you to review results and compare peer libraries beginning July 1. If/when your service offerings change, please fill out this form again. Only your most up-to-date information will display in the results.

NEWS: Reports Resuming - New Item Conversion

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 22, 2020 - 8:21am

Action: Informational

PrairieCat will be resuming the following system reports that were paused during the closure. PrairieCat staff continued to process the monthly statistics. Reports and statistics are posted on the website, log in to access: https://support.prairiecat.info/statistics
If you any questions about the reports, please put in a helpdesk ticket by emailing HelpMeNow@prairiecat.info.

These reports will resume the regular monthly reporting: 

NEWS: Hold Available Notice – Workflow Update

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 19, 2020 - 3:03pm

Action: Informational

PrairieCat has received some help desk tickets reporting that patrons are not receiving calls about holds being available. These have been due to a workflow where the library is trapping an item for hold and then quickly checking it out to their patron. The Hold Available Notices and the accompanying list of patrons that the system will call are generated at @1am and @2pm.

NEWS: Updating your OCLC ILL Lender Status

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 19, 2020 - 2:41pm

ACTION: Informational / Action Required

At the end of March as libraries were closing due to the shelter-in-place order PrairieCat made a request to OCLC for them to suspend lending for all PrairieCat members [Union, Full and Basic]. OCLC complied with the request and set your agencies WorldCat Supplier Status to NO.

NEWS: FY21 PrairieCat Election Results

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 19, 2020 - 10:25am

Thank you for participating in the FY21 PrairieCat Election. Welcome to the new members on the Administrative Council! The following were elected to serve 3-year terms as At Large Representatives on the Council. More information about PrairieCat governance here: https://support.prairiecat.info/gov

Administrative Council

At Large Seat:  Michele Arms, Cherry Valley PLD

At Large Seat:  Laura Long, East Moline PL

At Large Seat:  Charm Ruhnke, Peru PL

 

NEWS: Instructions for Handling Holds Returned by Delivery

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 18, 2020 - 11:06am

RAILS will be returning materials to libraries on 06/18 and 06/25. As you check these materials in, you may find that some of them were on their way to another library to fill a hold, but are being returned to you without having reached the requesting library. The attached instructions explain how to handle these holds.

Visit the RAILS COVID-19 page for the latest on RAILS Delivery: https://www.railslibraries.info/issues/178451

UPDATE: Status of Notices and Paging Lists

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 17, 2020 - 9:50am

Action: Informational

PrairieCat requested that Innovative restart the system wide paging lists and notices on Tuesday, June 16 in preparation for the return of RAILS delivery and ILL. However, the restart failed initially, which resulted in some timing issues with the notices. We apologize for any confusion this may cause your patrons as they start to receive notices via email, text, and phone. Below is the current status of these processes.

Please contact the PrairieCat help desk HelpMeNow@prairiecat.info with any issues.

NEWS: OMA Remote Meeting Legislation

Submitted by Elizabeth Smith on June 17, 2020 - 8:58am

Action: Informational

On Friday, June 12, 2020, the Governor signed P.A. 100-0640 (SB 2135) into law. This new law amends the OMA to expressly authorize public bodies to meet remotely without the otherwise required quorum present at the meeting place. The law became effective immediately. There is a detailed discussion of SB 2135 here.

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