This week we're sharing user perspectives from the two libraries who served as pilot libraries for how libraries for the blind and print disabled will circulate magazines on cartridge (MoC) via KLAS. Michael Lang, Director, State Library of Kansas Talking Books Service, shares the Gutenberg experience and Jesse McGarity, Technical Operations Specialist II, Virginia Beach Public Library, Accessible Resources and Services, provides insights from using Scribe for MoC. A big thanks to Michael and Jesse for testing the waters, helping us improve the process for all of you, and for sharing their experiences!
MoC at Kansas Talking Books Service
Submitted by Michael Lang
Michael Lang, checking in with an update on some of the lessons we learned getting started with local MOC production in Kansas. We ran into a few issues, some were issues of our own making and some were bugs in the system that needed to be worked out. As such, my MOC circulation numbers aren’t going to be very helpful for anyone. Nothing was running as we thought it should have at first. We started, ran for a week, had to pause as the bugs were worked through, and then restarted.
We are running our serials as a separate medium, so that magazines will be loaded separate from books. Our plan is to send them out on a calendar basis, weekly on Wednesdays. We’re still trying to make sure that’s working as intended.
Most of the problems we’ve uncovered are being or have already been patched by Keystone and NLS. Here’s the main problems we ran into.
- Issue 1: Old, some very old, issues of magazines were sent to our patrons. We intend to only send out one back issue to a new subscriber. That’s not how it worked when the switch got flipped. I believe this has been fixed.
- Lesson 1: Pay close attention to which issues are being printed during your mail run at first.
- Lesson 2: Consider cancelling subscriptions for inactive NLS magazines, or patrons might get the last issue of American Heritage magazine from 2019 (fake example) and wonder why.
- Lesson 3: Look at your serials request lists in KLAS and see if anything looks funky prior to flipping the switch. Does someone have reserves for 2009 People magazines? Catch it before it goes out.
- Issue 2: Naming issues with Readers Digest caused multiple duplication errors, an issue that has been fixed by NLS.
- Lesson: Know where your report is for orders in error status and run it throughout the transition. Patron Module – Reports Menu – Statistics – Duplication Order Status.
- Issue 3: Bug in the system has led to 0 new files (books or magazines) being added to our system since 3/15. Almost fixed.
- Lesson: Sometimes being the pilot library breaks stuff, but if you can roll with the punches its worth it.
Overall, we’re excited about where this is going to get us when it’s all smoothed out. It’s given me a chance to email with Nancy and John a bunch which is always a treat 😊
MoC at Virginia Beach Accessible Resources & Services
Submitted by Jesse McGarity
In March, Accessible Resources and Services (ARS) at the Virginia Beach Public Library (VBPL) went live with MoC!
We are sending magazines out on separate cartridges from talking book. This is because we already had cartridges of separate colors (white for talking books, green for braille, and peach for magazines) and because we have a smaller patron size. We set the magazine limit to 15 per cartridge since they are smaller than books, with a max of two cartridges.
Some of the reasons we decided against sending talking books and magazines together is because we had the second color cartridge, but also because we did not want to confuse patrons. Additionally, we did not want to limit the number of talking books a patron would get.
After the first shipment it took us a week or so to figure out our settings were incorrect, but once we did, items started going out. The first two shipments were quite a bit for us (about 90) but as we wait for returns it has been much less. Right now our daily send out very low, about one or two. Hopefully has people realize we are sending them, it will be more.
The next step is to find a good way to add has/hads to each patron account, so they do not missing any issues.
