Category: Executive Director’s Report

Reminder: Please use NOBLE support email addresses

Communication, Executive Director's Report
NOBLE is moving to a new case management system to better track support requests from our member libraries. This change should mostly be invisible to library staff.
However, I would like to remind everyone to please use the below support email addresses when asking for help from NOBLE instead of sending an email directly to a NOBLE staff person. With changes in staffing over the past couple of years that have resulted in shifting responsibilities, using a support email address ensures the request gets to the correct person. It also guarantees that your request will get immediate attention when a particular staff person is on vacation or attending a conference. The support email addresses also automatically put your questions into our case management system, reducing the likelihood that it could get buried in an Inbox.
For PC support, please email: pcsupport@noblenet.org
For all other support, you can email: support@noblenet.org

Nahant Public Library Joins NOBLE June 18

Executive Director's Report, Nahant
I am pleased to announce that Nahant Public Library will be joining NOBLE next week!
MOBIUS, our Evergreen hosting provider, will begin loading the library’s data into our Evergreen database on Sunday, June 14. Once the bibs and items are added to the Evergreen system, they will automatically appear in Aspen as well. The official go-live date is planned for Thursday, June 18.
We expect that several Nahant patron records imported into Evergreen will be for patrons who already have a NOBLE card from another library. Those patron records will eventually be merged, at which time the Nahant barcode will be designated as the primary barcode and the other library’s barcode will be set to inactive. If a Nahant patron tries use the inactive library card, one or both of the following behaviors will occur:

  • The following alert will appear when retrieving the patron using the inactive barcode:
    image.png
  • Circ staff will receive a “no” symbol when trying to scan any items for checkout.image.png
If you see this behavior when checking out items to a patron from Nahant, the fix is to use their Nahant card to check out their items or, if they do not have the card in their possession, to look up the patron by other means provided you have confirmed their identity according to the guidelines described in the Using Cards section of the NOBLE Borrower’s Card policy.
Feel free to send an email to support@noblenet.org with any questions. Please join us in welcoming Nahant to the network!

Patron Card Self Renewal

Borrowers Cards, Executive Director's Report, Self-Services

NOBLE will enable eRenew for public library patrons to renew their own library cards on Wednesday, April 23.

The eRenew service will be available to public patrons only and will renew card privileges for three years. If a patron changes their address, eRenew will utilize address/name checking to make sure the patron is associated with the address provided. Renewals that do not have address changes will go through unchallenged.

The eRenew feature will appear when a patron is logged into their account and the card’s expire date is within 30 days or beyond the expire date. Patrons will receive on screen and email confirmation when the renewal goes through.

The text on card expiration courtesy notices will be updated to direct patrons to online card renewal.

The eRenew software is provided by Quipu, the same vendor who provides eCard signup. When a patron renews their card, a name keyword will be added to their record, for example ‘quipu_renew_20264’ indicating that the card was renewed with the eRenew process along with a date stamp.

If address verification fails, patrons will be directed to contact a library to renew their library card privileges. Patrons must visit a NOBLE library and provide proof of address.

Let us know if you have any questions by sending a message to support@noblenet.org

NOBLE staff update

Executive Director's Report, Jobs
I am sorry to share the news that Gabe Jayroe has left his position as NOBLE Member Services Support Associate as of January 1. I know many of you interacted with Gabe over support requests, which he always answered promptly and with good cheer. We wish Gabe the best of luck in his future endeavors.
NOBLE posted the Member Services Support Associate position today. More details are below:
The North of Boston Library Exchange Inc (NOBLE) has a job opening for a full time (37.5 hours per week) Member Services Support Associate.

Join a highly collaborative team to help support the needs of the NOBLE member libraries. NOBLE is an innovative, member-driven nonprofit organization founded to improve library service through automation. Our membership includes 17 public libraries, seven academic libraries, and one special library.

The Member Services Support Associate reports to the Member Services Manager and is a team-oriented individual providing high-quality customer support to NOBLE member library staff and assisting the NOBLE training program.

NOBLE is a hybrid office. After an initial onboarding period, the Member Services Support Associate will have the option to work remotely two days per week. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; employer sponsored 403(b) retirement plan, optional tax-deferred annuity plan, and paid holidays, vacation, sick and personal time.

Please send a cover letter and resume to employment@noblenet.org by Friday, February 6.

View full job description.

E-rate Pilot Program

E-Rate, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE held an informational session on Tuesday, March 18 about an e-rate and filtering pilot program that we are kicking off this spring.

NOBLE members voted in 2001 to decline E-rate Internet funding if it means staying in compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act. A key component of the Act is that e-rate recipients must provide a content filter on all library-owned computers, including those used by staff, to block visual depictions that are “harmful to minors.”

NOBLE is implementing a pilot program with two or three libraries to test a filtering solution with the ultimate goal to 1) add a Cybersecurity measure against web sites with malware and 2) realize some cost savings in telecommunications services by supporting filtering at the CIPA level. Filtering technology has seen many changes over the past 20 years and the amount of money NOBLE could save has increased.

The session included presentations from e-rate consultant Aleck Johnson, who provided an overview of the e-rate program and its requirements; librarian Carrie Sherman of the Attleboro Public Library, who talked about her library’s implementation of filtering in preparation for e-rate participation, and NOBLE Systems Manager Martha Driscoll, who demonstrated the SafeDNS filter we are considering trying in pilot libraries.

For those who missed the informational session, the recording is now available.

Slides from Aleck Johnson’s e-rate presentation

Libraries interested in participating in the e-rate pilot should send an email to Kathy at klussier@noblenet.org by Wednesday, March 26.

NOBLE to move to Aspen Discovery System

Aspen, Catalog, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE patrons, students, and users will soon have a new way to access materials in NOBLE libraries and to manage their Evergreen accounts.

NOBLE members voted in January to approve a move to the Aspen Discovery System, which will replace the NOBLE public catalog to provide patron access to NOBLE libraries’ collections. The Evergreen staff client will continue to use the native Evergreen staff catalog.

NOBLE will join three other Massachusetts networks – CW MARS, CLAMS and Minuteman – that have already implemented Aspen. The discovery system will provide a more modern and dynamic entry point to our collections with a speedy search and tools to allow libraries to better highlight their collections.

We are still working out details with our support vendor, including a timeline, but we expect the implementation to happen this spring. We will be offering an introductory Aspen session in our upcoming workshop schedule and will schedule more in-depth workshops once a timeline is set.

In the meantime, if you want to take a peek at how Aspen works for other networks, I encourage you to visit the other Massachusetts Aspen implementations:

Much more information will be forthcoming. Feel free to let us know if you have questions.