Introduction
Welcome to the third thing in 12 Things SWKLS. This month we will be learning about VERSO Patron Accounts.
The activities for this lesson are due July 31, 2016 at 11:59 pm central time and are worth 2 credit hours. Estimated work time: 1-2 hours.
If you would rather complete an alternate topic, please go to the alternate topic page and pick one from the list.
Content
Showing your patrons how to use your library catalog can:
- Open your collections to discovery by your community
- Allow patrons to see when their items are due
- Allow patrons to renew items
- Allow patrons to place holds
- Allow patrons to create reading lists
- Allow patrons to set up alerts when favorite new items are added to your collection
- Allow patrons to search your shelves anytime from anywhere they have Internet access.
Exercises: (Due July 31, 2016 at 11:59 pm CDT)
Tools you will need:
- A VERSO patron account
- A computer or Internet enabled device
- An Internet connection
- Check your webpage to be sure all VERSO links are up to date – hover over your catalog links, if the URL in the lower left panel don’t end in the word force then you need to update the link
- Read Catalog Help
- Log into VERSO with your patron account
- Practice Basic Searching on the Library Catalog
- Practice Checking Your Library Card Account
- Review Renew Checked Out Items and try if you have items out
- Set up an Active Alert
- Practice Creating and Managing Lists
- Show at least one patron how to use the catalog
- Post a comment down below with the following:
- Your Name
- One thing you learned in this lesson
- Fill out this form for verification
Extras:
- Create your own Catalog Help page for your webpage
- Log into a patron account on a tablet or smartphone
* A special thanks to Doreen Wright, Liberal Memorial Library, for sharing her resources.
33 comments
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My name is Stephanie Berning. One of the things I learned from Thing 3 is that it is possible to create your own personal book lists in VERSO! I thought that was awesome! I constantly have a running book list, mostly of books in my library, so now I can add them all to my VERSO account and keep track of them much easier. Thanks for the info!!
Author
Stephanie, I have a list of books that I want to read in the future.
That’s also what I learned…way too cool!!
I learned how to make and manage lists…pretty cool..I made a list of all the 2016-2017 W.A.W. nominees to read this year! Hopefully I can accomplish that 🙂
I have a question…each time the box that told me it saved the book to my list popped up, there was a box to check- prevent this page from creating additional dialogues. What does that mean and do I need to check it?
Author
Millie, if you check this box then the next time you add to the list it will not bring up the popup. If you want to know for sure that your addition to a list was saved then don’t check the box. If you don’t want to have to close the box each time then check the box and it will not come up.
I did my own personal list for books I want to read and then also set up an active alert for a couple of my favorite authors. I have list on our library site for different topics the pre-school class uses and then I can go to that list to check out books for their classroom. It has been helpful. Training someone else to use the catalog was pretty easy and self explanatory for them.
Author
Ruby, great ideas, thanks for sharing. Glad to hear that it was easy to train someone else.
I think it is great to be able to create a personal reading list. Also set up an alert for one of my favorite author, I received a noticication today! We are going to try and encourage more of our patrons to set up their accounts and use them on Verso! Thanks for anothr great lesson.
Author
Jean, it is great that you are going to encourage your patrons to use some of the tools in VERSO. I have my account set to let me know when there are new mystery audio-books. They are my favorite.
I have missed having the kids catalog, so I am very happy that I can create lists. We have a spinning book rack in the front area and I change out the books according to themes. Making lists will allow me to find books geared toward the theme I choose to do. Certain books will fit in more than one list. Are the possible lists endless?! I don’t want to bog down the website.
Author
Laurie, what a wonderful use of a list. I am not aware of a limit to the number of lists. I will find out and let you know.
I learned how to set up an Active Alert! I knew about the feature, but have never tried it. I will be showing more patrons how to use this.
Author
I was excited to learn several new things.
Thanks for the great printable handouts, Charlene!
I was excited to see that you could renew your own items. I also created an alert. I can see myself using this quite a bit since it’s always hard for me to keep track of when my favorite authors have new books. I can see the lists being really handy as well.
Author
Janelle, you just defined the whole purpose of this program to bring new things to life in what we already use.
I did most of this one on my phone, and most of it worked there. The one thing that didn’t seem to work as well was the checkout history. If I wanted to change the date and view a longer history it wouldn’t display on my phone. However, it would download a spreadsheet, so I could still see it that way. I love the list, I can now keep track of all the books we buy that I want to read but have to let the patrons have a shot at first 🙂 I think I’ll show the Book Club members how to use this next week, see how that goes, then go from there on training patrons.
Author
Ginger, what a great idea to show your Book Club members. I hope other people try this as well.
There is one thing I wondered about. If patrons can renew their items through Verso, is there a limit to the number of times they can renew them?
Author
Ginger,
Great question. Charlene will know the answer for this for sure. But, I think this is different from library to library and depends on the material type as well as the patron type. I went in and looked at your library, and in your library’s case patrons are able to renew most items 3 times. So I think this would be the same for the self-renewal. Again, I’ll have Charlene double-check this, but I think it’s right.
Author
Ginger, whatever your library rules are about renewals apply to what a patron can do on their own. In the case of your library, you allow 3 renewals unless it is a new book and then only 1 renewal. ILL cannot be renewed by patrons. Your library also blocks patrons from renewing items that have reserves on them. All of these rules are configured by the individual library.
Caleb Platt
How to set up automatic alerts.
When I tried to save my lists as a Tab Delimited Tab and tried to open the saved file nothing would show up. Am I missing something? Did anybody else have this problem?
Author
Caleb, I was able to save my lists as Tab Delimited Tab but it actually is only a text file. I could then open that in Excel. I will call you to see what the issue is. It may be that it is saving somewhere strange.
I am Audrey Flowers and I learned that I don’t have to rely on my memory for all the books I handle and say “This sounds good”. Now I can add to my list! I’m guessing the list will get longer faster than I can read, but what a cool problem to have!
Author
Audrey, anything that does not require us to rely on our memory is a good thing. Good luck showing your patrons this feature.
I enjoyed the review of for the patrons and really need to push staff to use this more so we can share with our patrons. I did like the list part as well – I had not used that and think I will create a books I’d Like to Read List so I don’t forget!
Author
Candi, the more that staff use VERSO as a patron, the more comfortable they will be with showing patrons how to use it.
My name is Dallie Vernon. I learned how to look at stuff from a patron’s perspective. I had never logged in as a patron before!
Author
Dallie,
I log in as a patron every now and again just to make sure what they are seeing is how I wanted VERSO to look.
Amy Brucker
Loved looking at Verso catalog from the patron view. Very easy to teach and navigate. I did not know you could set up Active Alerts, which I think a lot of our patrons will enjoy. I added one to see how it all works when a new novel comes in that we have on order. I also did not know you could create lists (as a patron). I think many people will enjoy this and being able to in an place holds/reserves from the list. We plan to do a lunch and learn to teach our patrons how to use these features. I liked reading Ginger’s comments about the usability on the mobile phone as well!
Questions from an admin standpoint…when I placed a reserve on a book checked out and a hold on one that was available, none of the staff seemed to get a notification. I am thinking I need to change something?
Author
I love the idea of a lunch and learn to show people the features of VERSO.
Your question about placing reserves with available copies prompted me to check your settings as well as our settings. What I found was that Auto-Graphics changed the settings in error during a recent update. What you need to do is go to Circ Admin, Define Pickup Locations, and click on Circulation Desk. Change the e-mail address from no-reply@librarycard.com to the e-mail address that should be notified when there is a reserve that has the item on the shelf. If you need any help with this just let me know. If the item is checked out and you place a hold it will automatically add your name to the reserves for that item. When the item is checked in it will popup that there is a reserve.
Thanks for checking into the reserve email! I have ours updated, but glad it may help others too.
One more question, that may be in our settings. I also noticed that once I placed a reserve, that I couldn’t delete it in my personal account. When I hovered over the “check” box a stop symbol showed up. Thoughts?
Author
Amy, You need to change a setting in your Circ Options to allow people to delete reserves. I will go ahead and do this for you and will show everyone how to do it at our VERSO User’s Group Meeting next month.
I learned how to manage and create a list. This was a fun activity!
Author
Ellen, I hope you will share this skill with some patrons that might enjoy it as well.