Updates Newsletter

September 21, 2022

Hello Evergreeners,

Welcome to Autumn!!

Patron Services Committee Update

The Patron Services Committee met on Tuesday, September 20.  This meeting and the one in June resulted in a few changes to the Circulation Matrix.  Here is a summary of those changes.

  • A new circulation modifier, equipment-limited, was added. It includes the same attributes as the equipment-restricted circulation modifier without the age limitation.
  • The number of autorenewals for the equipment, ereader, and hourly-renewable circulation modifiers was brought into alignment with the number of renewals. 
  • The circulation modifiers, videogame and videogame M-rated, had two optional loan durations added – 14 and 21 days.

Damaged Items Returned via Transit

You’ve likely experienced this.  Your patron receives an item from another Evergreen Indiana member library and returns it with damage.  What do you do?  Please remember that you should not be marking that item damaged unless you have consulted with the owning library.  Instead, send it back to the owning library with a damage slip downloaded from https://evergreenindiana.org and filled out.  Or, perhaps you received an item from another library that has undocumented damage.  You can also use the damage slip to document what you decide to do from there.  Please take a moment to review the options on the damage slip and determine how this should and will fit into your workflows.

Stories in the Cloud Competitive Grant Opportunity for Small and Rural Libraries

Stories in the Cloud allows your library to offer a custom, private label Dial-A-Story service.  They are currently accepting applications for a grant to award three small and/or rural libraries one free year of service along with a studio quality microphone to record content.  Find more about Stories in the Cloud here and the grant application here.  The deadline for applications is September 30, 2022.

Executive Committee Date Change

The October Executive Committee date has been moved to Wednesday, October 5.  This will be a non-voting meeting via Zoom.  The link for this meeting is in the calendar event listed on https://evergreenindiana.org.

Regional User Group Meetings

Registration for Evergreen Indiana Regional User Group Meetings is open.  Please join us to learn about new features in Evergreen Indiana 3.9 and meet up with Evergreen Indiana colleagues in your region.  Register Here

  • Central – October 25, 9 am CT/10 am ET, Hussey Mayfield Memorial Public Library, Zionsville
  • Northwest – October 27, 9 am CT/10 am ET, West Lafayette Public Library, West Lafayette
  • Northeast – October 28, 9 am CT/10 am ET, Kendallville Public Library, Kendallville
  • Southeast – November 1, 9 am CT/10 am ET, Jennings County Public Library, Mount Vernon
  • Southwest – November 4, 9 am CT/10 am ET, Mitchell Community Public Library, Mitchell

Library IQ Demos

The Library IQ Platform provides tools to see and understand your library’s data across key areas of operation.  The final demo, covering patron and demographic analytics, will be Tuesday, September 27 at 10:00 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET.  Evergreen Indiana and the eContent Committee are also looking at ways to make this product available to member libraries at a significantly discounted rate.  To find out more by attending this demo, register here.

Local Administration Refresher

The Executive Committee voted on June 8, 2021 to require all staff with local administration permissions to receive ongoing training to retain their credentials.  As a result of this vote, all staff accounts with these permissions must belong to one unique individual and a record of that individual’s training will be maintained similar to those with Cat1 permissions.  To make this requirement meaningful and accessible, two local administration refresher courses have been scheduled for those individuals who have already taken the Evergreen Fundamental Skills course and now only need to complete an annual refresher.  The two scheduled courses will be identical, recorded, and cover topics related to library management using the Evergreen ILS.  These events are listed in the calendar at https://evergreenindiana.org and are eligible for 1 TLEU.

Annual Cataloging Refresher

The Cataloging Committee has voted that this year’s annual cataloging refresher will cover new cataloging features in Evergreen Indiana 3.9.  Because this upgrade will include features from two major releases of the software, it’s been determined that covering these features in greater depth than a broader new features overview would be helpful.  All individuals with Cat1 permission are required to maintain their status as certified cataloger by participating in yearly training.  Participation in one of these scheduled events will fulfill that requirement.  Others without Cat1 permissions are also encouraged to participate.  The two scheduled courses will be identical and recorded and are eligible for 2 TLEUs.

Evergreen Indiana Upgrade Testing

Evergreen Indiana will be upgrading to version 3.9 this autumn.  We are hoping to have multiple testing environments set up at different times to make sure everything is in working order before launching the new version in early November.  If you are interested, please fill out this form.

You do not need to be a technological wizard to help with this.  We specifically need help from individuals in their libraries regularly.  We will be testing all aspects of the software which means anyone can participate.  

Dates of Note – Please refer to the calendar at http://evergreenindiana.org for more details.

  • EIPP Quarterly Invoices Available – Tuesday, October 4
  • EI Reports Interest Group – Tuesday, October 4, 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET
  • Executive Committee – Wednesday, October 5, 12 p.m CT/1 p.m. ET
  • EI Cataloging Interest Group – Thursday, October 6, 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET
  • Circulation in Evergreen Indiana – Wednesday, October 12, 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET
  • Holds & Transits in Evergreen Indiana – Thursday, October 13, 9 a.m. CT / 10 a.m. ET
  • Library Card Buying Pool – October 17-23