Service Queue Tab: What do you think?

Keystone's developers are working hard to add the duplication queue functionality to KLAS to support the Scribe 's high-capacity cartridge duplication-on-demand workflow. This development also serves as the basis to support KLAS' integration with the Gutenberg duplication system.

In this week's Key Notes blog post we shared a "Sneak Peek of the KLAS Service Queue Tab" including a screenshot of the tab from our development database. Please take a few minutes to read the post, look at the screenshot, and review the description of the tab. Then we invite you to share your thoughts, feedback, and questions here.

Seeing how we're already getting to experience things, we like it so far. I think it will be a really good addition.

In the weekly email Katy sent out, she mentioned using the new queue with PCC, but I don't see any mention of PCC in this discussion or on the sneak peek page. Is this, indeed, a tool that will be usable with PCC? As it stands, it sounds like we'd need Scribe or Gutenberg to make use of it.

Thanks for asking! The tab is intended for high-volume PCC / DOD setups--Scribe and Gutenberg. That was probably unclear in the weekly email, and I'm sorry for the confusion. Gotta watch those acronyms!

Right now, the Service Queue doesn't interact with the current PCC workflow. But the high-volume set-ups do share a lot of back-end stuff with the current PCC stuff, so it should be possible.

Do you think this tab would be useful for the current PCC workflow? Would you want it to replace the Select Titles screen or just to be an alternative?

There had been discussion at the last conference about a queue for PCC that would allow us to add items to a list to be added to the PCC when it came back to us. The idea, as I understood it, was that we would no longer have to wait for the cartridge to come back to us before setting up the titles that would go out next. If a patron requested certain books or a certain series, we could add them as the requests came in to us and they would be loaded onto the PCC when it came back. That's what I thought this was going to be, but it doesn't sound like it is.

Sorry for the delay in replying, I wanted to make sure I'm getting you the right information.

Actually, it sounds like from Version 7.7, original-style PCC using Cartridge Builder will be able to pull directly from the Service Queue if no Duplication Order is present.

So, as the requests come in, you could either add them directly to the service queue (and move them to the top or set whatever order you want) or add them as requests and allow the queue to pick them up the next time it refills itself. The next time the cartridge is returned, you could plug it right into the duplication PC. Cartridge Builder will link right into the functions we've built for the Scribe, check in the cartridge, pull titles from the Service Queue (in the order listed), and check it out.

Manual check-in and the Select Titles screen will become optional. Original-style PCC will essentially be running Scribe software for Windows--just without the high-capacity rack, high-quality Scribe hardware, and local cache of titles.

Sounds good! Patrick, can you tell me more about the trigger for loading the queue? Is it a nightly job, or is it triggered by the checkout of a patron's cartridge (to make a queue to be ready for the next time that patron returns a cartridge)?

Is there an update scheduled that will include this?

Thanks,
Maria

Great questions!

When you first create a Patron's Service Queue, you set a minimum for the number of titles. When the list gets down to that number (due to titles being loaded onto cartridges and checked out), a nightly process will refill it back to the Patron's maximum. There is also the option to force a refill at any time.

The Service Queue tab will be part of the KLAS 7.7 release. We need to do a little more testing before we can schedule the upgrade, but it's a high priority. We know people are excited about this and we're working to get it out quickly--without breaking anything.

Edited to add: the current functionality in testing for the 7.7 release is for Scribe and original-flavor PCC. Gutenberg integration (which will use this same tab) is still on-track for a December or January release.