Announcements
MSC System Outage Monday Evening Update (4/21)
The MSC experienced a system outage Monday (4/21) evening, beginning shortly after 5 pm. This was a full outage that impacted all SirsiDynix customers hosted on their SaaS Atlanta servers, which includes us. SirsiDynix had service restored after about an hour, but they are still investigating and have not announced the cause. We will keep you informed as we learn more.
But we also want to take this opportunity to provide some reminders about system outages in general.
The MSC team is available to provide support during regular business hours 8-5 M-F. The consortium does not have the resources to provide for on-call staff time, which was a contributing factor in the decision to move to SaaS in 2017. SaaS (Software as a service) is our hosting arrangement with SirsiDynix. Our Symphony server and other products are all housed on their servers, and their teams monitor and maintain those machines. This works very well; they have impressive uptime, and due to their staff around the world, they can provide very nearly 24 hour monitoring.
They can and do identify and resolve issues with our system outside of the MSC team's working hours and without our intervention. They did so in this case but since it was a full outage of their servers, the resolution was more involved and took longer than what we usually experience.
What this means for MSC member libraries is that while we encourage you to open tickets if you experience issues outside of our working hours, you might not hear back from us right away. You are always welcome to utilize the Offline client setting and MSC staff will assist you in getting those transactions loaded into the system as soon as possible. You are also welcome to use SirsiDynix's status tracker here: to check for overall system status.
It is a good idea to log in to Offline mode occasionally to make sure you and your staff know how to do it and that there are not any issues with that process. (But always make sure to uncheck the Offline box after you test it!). In case you would like to review the steps, here is a direct link to the knowledge base article: Offline Mode in Workflows.
BC Maintenance Tonight (4/22) at 10 pm MST
SirsiDynix will be performing system maintenance that will affect Enterprise, BCMobile, and BLUEcloud Analytics (BCA) tonight (4/22) at 10:00 pm for approximately 2 hours.
Enterprise will remain available, but some 'My Account' functions and hold placing functionality will be unavailable until the maintenance is completed. MSC Admins will post a notice on Enterprise informing patrons about this maintenance.
Changes to Call Number Analytics in May
In May, MSC admins will make changes to the way call number analytics separate parts in a set.
Instead of the system “forcing” a |Z in front of your volumes, libraries that use DEWEY call numbers will instead need to manually enter the |Z to create parts in a set or series that share a record. This change will reduce errors in the system, since the |Z currently shows up in many call numbers whether or not it is needed.
This change was presented at the Content Management Committee and MLA, and will be discussed further (including a short training) at the spring membership meeting in May. Examples, handouts, knowledge base articles and a recorded training will all be available to help libraries make this change.
System User Clarifications and Changes
We know that the system user setup and options are sometimes confusing, so we have expanded our definitions of what these are and made some changes to the users so that this is more clear, including adding a Group ID to all existing system users for easier identification.
There are 3 types of "system users"
- User IDs such as 'MTSCCIRC' or 'BILLINGSAMM' when a library has individual logins
- Used for actually signing into and using ILS applications
- User profiles generally start with the letter Z
- User Cat 1: SYSTEM
- Group ID: LIBRARYLOGIN
- User IDs that match your library policy name such as 'BOZEMAN'
- Used for many background system functions
- User profile is INTRANSIT
- User Cat 1: SYSTEM
- Group ID: LIBRARYACCOUNT
-
User IDs such as 'MSLA-MISSING' or 'FCL-REPAIR'
- Used for library staff to track and use items during regular library activities
- User profiles are usually the actual process, eg CATALOGING, DISCARD, DISPLAY
- User Cat 1: SYSTEM
- Group ID: LIBRARYPROCESS
Of these three types, the only system users that should have items checked out or placed on hold for them are the Library Process Users. The first and second type of system users are not set up quite the same way and checkouts or holds on those accounts do not always get handled by the server as you would expect since they are not "regular" users.
MSC admins have discovered inconsistencies with how some of these are configured and we will be making adjustments that will block checkouts and holds to system users that should not be used for regular circulation.
To avoid any disruption for you or your staff, if you are currently using a system user that is a Library Login or a Library Account for regular circulation, please open a ticket so we can set up a separate library process user with the correct configuration for you. If you are not sure which type the user is, you can check the Group ID and match it in the list above.
BCA Circulation Statistics 'Top Circulating Titles, Items, Collections' folder
MSC Admins have condense the majority of the reports found in this folder into one dashboard "Top Circulating Titles and Items". This dashboard contains both the static 'last 6 months' reports previously seen in this folder along with the various date range reports and can be filtered by both home locations and item categories. In the next several weeks, we will work to remove the older standalone reports contained within this folder. Staff will need to update any existing recurring subscriptions to the new dashboard.
If you need help switching over your existing subscription or if you have any questions, please open a ticket.
Spring School Survey Reminder
Attention School Libraries!
Instead of a spring school survey, MSC schools are being asked to submit a ticket when/if they need school grade roll-ups. Also, if your seniors or other students need special end of year due dates please open a ticket.
Options for 2025 end of school year due dates are: May 8, 9, 15, 22, 23, 27, or 30, June 5, 6 or 13. There is also an option for end of summer due dates of August 22.
Let us know what you need to help you prepare for your end of school year!
Did You Know?
"Ghost fields" are created when you do not use the red "X" icon when deleting information in a user account or item record. "Ghost fields" clog up the system and introduce errors in BLUEcloud Analytics (BCA) reports.
If you backspace the text inside the field rather than use the 'X' to delete it, a "ghost field' is created.
Upcoming Events
MSC Spring Member Meeting, May 6 at 1pm
Location: Zoom. Meeting details can be found on the ASPeN Events calendar.
MSC Office Hours on Friday, May 16 at 10 am & 2 pm
Location: Zoom. Meeting details can be found on the ASPeN Events calendar.
Member Spotlight
Do you have a great idea, event, or program that your library does that you'd like to let other MSC members know about? If so, we want to hear from you!
MSC Admins are including a new section to the MSC Newsletter that focuses on something cool happening at our Member Libraries.
If you have something to share, please open up a help desk ticket!
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