Friday Status Report, January 17, 2003

FROM:	HSLC News
SENT:	Friday, January 17, 2003
SUBJECT:	Access Pennsylvania Database Systems, Friday Status Report, January 17, 2003

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General l Access Pennsylvania Database l VDX Interlibrary Loan l VDX Tip of the Week l Support

General

***NEW STAFF MEMBER JOINS Access Pennsylvania DATABASE SUPPORT TEAM***

We are pleased to announce that Marc L. Sheaffer has joined the Access Pennsylvania Database project as Automated Library Systems Trainer. In this new position, Marc will be providing on-site and group training in the use of all Access Pennsylvania Database systems, including the VDX interlibrary loan system, the WebEdit holdings updating system, and all modules of the Millennium integrated library system. Marc previously was employed by Brodart Corporation as Manager of Customer Services and Conversion Services and brings over fifteen years of experience with the Access PA project from its original inception in 1986. Marc will be stationed in Williamsport, PA, where he will be centrally located to travel to participant library sites throughout the Commonwealth. You will be able to reach Marc via e-mail at sheaffer@hslc.org.

***IIMPORTANT NOTICE - Support E-mail Down on Monday, January 20, 2003***

On Monday, January 20, 2003 (Martin Luther King Day), the Access Pennsylvania Database Support Center will be performing a system upgrade on our e-mail server. As a result, we will not be able to respond to any messages sent to the support@hslc.org address until Tuesday morning, January 21, 2003.

Since it is a holiday, we expect most libraries will be closed, but if you are open and need assistance on January 20, please feel free to contact the Access Pennsylvania Database Support Center at 215-222-1532.

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Access Pennsylvania Database

Please continue to report any duplicate requests generated by the system. While the number of occurrences appears to have been greatly reduced with our recent software modifications, a few people continue to experience this phenomenon. If your requests are being duplicated (and you know you didn't enter them more than once), please let us know by sending an email message to the Access Pennsylvania Database Support Center. The email message should include the name or 5-character code of your library, along with the Request numbers of the original and duplicate requests. To check for duplicate requests, please log into the VDX ILL system after placing an ILL request in the new Access Pennsylvania Database. Make sure Requester Only is selected as Your Library's Role. Next, make sure Status=Pending is selected in the Status box along the right-hand side of the Request Search screen, then click submit. If you have two or more requests for the same item, please let us know. For instructions on how to cancel duplicate requests, go to: http://205.247.101.10/duplicate.htm Please note: we had one (1) report of system generated duplicate requests during the week of 1/6 - 1/10.

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VDX Interlibrary Loan

We are pleased to report that the VDX ILL system email alert feature has been fixed and email alerts are again being sent to all potential responders. Last month, the email alert feature was turned off because of a problem with delayed messages.

Each "email alert" message -- which the system sends to your current Access Pennsylvania Database ILL email address -- indicates the ILL request number, the date and time each request is received, and provides you with a link so that you may log into the VDX system to act upon the request. Keep in mind that each potential responder has two (2) full working days -- from the time of receipt of an email alert message -- to process a request before it expires from your responder results list and moves to the next library in the Rota configuration. Potential responders receiving email alert messages on Saturday or Sunday will have all day Monday and Tuesday to process the requests. We have found that small libraries and those libraries that monitor several ILL systems find the VDX "email alert" feature helpful. Although the "email alert" feature is initially enabled for all libraries with current ILL email addresses, it is optional. You may request to stop receiving these messages by sending a message to the Access Pennsylvania Database Support Center. If you make a change to your library's ILL email address, please make sure to inform the Access Pennsylvania Database Support Center. Keep in mind that "email alerts" are sent to potential responders only. Requesting libraries must track requests by logging into the VDX system and viewing their Requester Only requests.

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VDX Tip of the Week - Notes to Responders/Requesters

To view any notes included with an ILL request (i.e. need-by-date, special circumstances, etc.) follow these easy steps:


	1.	Log into the VDX ILL system and bring up your responder/requester results list.


	2.	Click on the print button for the request and scroll to the bottom to see any notes included with the request.

	3.	Another option is to click on the details button and scroll to the bottom of the main page for any notes included with the request.

We have asked Fretwell-Downing, the producer of the VDX ILL system, to change the placement of the Notes field to make it easier to read any special notes from responder and requesters.

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That's it for this Friday. The Friday Status Report will resume publication on Friday, January 3, 2003. If you miss a report or wish to read previous reports, you will find them on the Access PA web site at http://www.accesspa.state.pa.us under News & Tips/Access PA News.
Access Pennsylvania Database Support support@hslc.org.

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