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Subscribe to PrairieCat Email ListsSave the Date: PUG Day 2018
PUG Day 2018 is now scheduled for Friday, September 28, 2018, at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, IL. The PUG Day Planning Team 2018 has recommended that PUG Day be move around the PrairieCat service area. As the event continues to grow, this provides more options for suitable venues. Tentatively, PUG Day 2019 is planned to be held in Rockford, and PUG Day 2020 to be held in the greater Joliet area. More information on PUG Day 2018 will be available by April. It is not too soon to be thinking about a poster session that your library might want to do for PUG Day. This is an unmanned “exhibit” (usually on a tri-fold poster board) about a cool service or special project at your library. Contact Judy Hutchinson or Liz Smith if you already want to sign up to provide a poster session.
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TRAINING: Tip of the Month - February 2018 - How to Withdraw Items Correctly
This month's Tip of the Month is a brief reminder of how to correctly mark items for withdrawal in PrairieCat. Remember that the item should NOT be checked out when it is marked for withdrawal (always check it in first), and that two fields in the item record must be updated for the withdrawal to be completed by PrairieCat staff.
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NEWS: ISL annual certification and ILLINET ILL Traffic Survey due March 31, 2018 for ALL libraries
ACTION: Action required
The Illinois State Library Annual Certification Process deadline for completion is Saturday, March 31st, and RAILS and PrairieCat staff are here to help. Every RAILS member must complete the two-step certification process, or risk suspension of RAILS membership and no longer be eligible to be a member of PrairieCat or receive RAILS services.
The ILLINET Interlibrary Loan Traffic Survey is the first step in the certification process. All PrairieCat members can obtain their library’s interlibrary loan statistics (for transactions conducted within PrairieCat) through the PrairieCat support website.
- Go to https://support.prairiecat.info
- Click on “Statistics and Reports” on the red menu bar.
- Change your date selection at the top of the Statistics and Reports page to 2017 Fiscal Year and click apply selection.
- The hold statistics in that group of reports provides the total number of materials loaned and borrowed on PrairieCat for your library for FY2017, the period you are required to report on for the Illinois State Library. Please note the ILLINET Interlibrary Loan Traffic Survey also asks for your state-wide, and out of state interlibrary loan statistics. You will need to add numbers for any interlibrary loan transactions outside of PrairieCat (e.g. OCLC, Share-Illinois) from another source to complete the report.
After successful completion of the ILLINET Interlibrary Loan Traffic Survey, you are now ready to go on to the second step of the certification process, answering the certification questions. You can log into the certification portal here: http://www.ilsos.gov/librarycertification/librarycertification?system=cert
Please let us know if you have any questions. You can contact the RAILS certification team at certification [at] railslibraries [dot] info or 630-734-5160, or the PrairieCat Help Desk at 877.542.7257.
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TRAINING: Tip of the Month - January 2018 - Estimated Fines and How Fines are Calculated in Sierra
This month's Tip of the Month explains how staff can view estimated fines in a patron's account when a patron still has material checked out. It also reviews how fines are calculated in Sierra, including how days closed and grace periods effect fine calculation. Please share these tips with any staff that work with fines in Sierra.
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Draft copy of the 10/24/2017 Circulation Committee minutes
The draft copy of the 10/24/2017 PC Circulation Committee minutes have now been posted.
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NEWS: Congratulations to Warren Township Public Library On Their Go Live Today on PrairieCat
Congratulations to the Warren Township Public Library who is "going live" for circulation today on Sierra!
Warren Township PL is the latest Union Listing member that has completed the process of upgrading their membership to Basic Online. They are also the last public library in JoDaviess County (northwest area of PrairieCat) to become a fully circulating member.
Congratulations to the community of Warren and best of luck to Library Director Elizabeth Myelle and the library staff!!
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TRAINING: Tip of the Month - December 2017 - Policies for Adding New Patron Records
This month's Tip of the Month reviews PrairieCat's basic policies related to adding new patrons into the database. Language was recently added to the Circulation Policy & Procedures Manual to clarify required fields in patron records, as well as a new appendix outlining the US Postal Service addressing standards that PrairieCat follows. Please share these tips with any staff that add new patrons to PrairieCat.
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