RA Usage

Good afternoon!

We have a question here in South Dakota!  I am looking to standardize how our RA's use KLAS's patron records so that they all use it the same way and enter the same codes, etc.  At present, each of our reader advisors has their own shorthand and does things slightly differently, which works for them, but is confusing if they have to look at another staff person's patron records to cover during sick/vacation time, or if we rearrange alphabet coverage slightly.  As we look ahead to retirements and just look to make things easier across the board, we are looking at having all RA's do things the same way, and create additional training materials for future RA's brought on board.  But the RA's here would like to know if that's common in other TB libraries?

Thanks!
Kate

In North Carolina we try to make sure we use standardized subjects in comments and such. We do use some abbreviations to shorten up the notes and each RA or for that matter any staff member who puts in a note puts their initials as part of the comment subject and in any expanded notes made on the patron record.
This has the effect of letting most of us be on the same page as often as we can (putting in comments wasn't always followed. Now it is mostly) and also for things like queries of comments it makes things easier. For example, BARD resets, which we track to tell us how often and how many patrons need their BARD password reset each month.
One other thing we have begun doing for what my department (digital services/reader support) does lots of, patron tech support and such, is use a note type with the code SPT, this way we can run a query at the end of each month to see how many of these calls we are supporting each month. I think it's a good time to standardize comments and other processes.
Considering we are heavy uses of the Reader Services Queue, all these things really help share the load.

I'm always in favor of consistent training and documentation! But there are also a couple things we can set up that might help: Note Types and Block Types.

Note Types: When adding or editing a comment, there is a drop-down menu that allows you to select a "Note Type." We can set up a list for your RAs to pick from to briefly and consistently identify comments, allowing them to use a more free-form descriptive subject line, and ensuring that the type field is standardized, typo-free, and easily queried. Some example Note Types would be: Ret mail; Left msg; Smile (for positive patron feedback); Alert (for the ultra-import, must-read stuff). 

Blocks: On the Blocks tab, you can apply a temporary stop to the patron's service, with or without an automatic end date, that will apply a yellow flag to the Status in the header. Blocks do not affect MOCs, so be aware that a patron's Direct serials will still go out. We recommend allowing only Existing Block types, rather than letting RAs add New Blocks, and can set up the list to include whatever block types you need. Examples include: Returned Mail; Phone # Disconnected; Temporary Hold. 

Does anyone else have an approach to keeping things consistent and ensuring that your patrons get good service even when they get a different RA than usual? Any useful Note Types or Blocks you have set up, or anything else we've done to make this easier for you?