Latest Posts

Upcoming Evergreen 3.12 Upgrade – June 11

Evergreen, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE is pleased to announce the network is upgrading to Evergreen release 3.12 overnight on Tuesday, June 11.

Downtime Information

  • The tentative upgrade window is Tuesday June 11 between 9:00 pm and 12:00 am.
  • We will add messaging to the public catalog 1 week prior to the upgrade.
  • This upgrade will be much smaller than our previous one back in January. Because of the timing and reduced actual database downtime, we will not be building a backup authentication server.
  • During the downtime window, the following will be unavailable:
    • Circulation and other staff functions
    • Web catalog
    • Patron self services like placing holds, renewals and signing up for ecards
    • Authentication via SIP2 (Overdrive, selfcheck, Hoopla, museum pass, EZproxy etc.) will be unavailable for a portion of the upgrade window.

Previewing 3.12

NOBLE staff can log into the training system to get a first-hand look at release 3.12, which we will be using for training and testing the new release. Here’s how to login and set search preferences for the old and new versions of the staff catalog: Logging Into the Training System.

  • Please let us know if there are newer staff who can’t access the training system so we can add their accounts.
  • The training system contains a snapshot of NOBLE data so there are holds, overdue, bills, etc., with all patron information anonymized.
  • Feel free to test things, including adding, editing or removing patron, title or item information. Anything you add or change will be gone the next time we update the snapshot for the training system. Nothing will transfer to the production (live) system.

What’s Coming in Release 3.12 And Beyond (presentation)
Evergreen Release 3.12 Upgrade Session (recording)

 

NOBLE Endorses Joint Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship

Challenged Materials, Executive Board

The NOBLE Executive Board unanimously voted to endorse the Joint Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship issued by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), the Massachusetts Library System (MLS), the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA), and the Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA).

As the statement reads: “Attacks on members of our communities, targeted at marginalized peoples, are more than book challenges. They are acts of intolerance and exclusion intended to silence diverse voices and views, while holding fast to homogenous viewpoints by historically dominant voices. These acts jeopardize everyone’s access to learn from different perspectives and limit the opportunities available for those isolated in their experience to realize they are not alone.”

NOBLE Upgrading to Evergreen 3.10 in January

Evergreen, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE is pleased to announce the network will be upgrading to Evergreen release 3.10 in early January. 

The upgrade will begin the night of Saturday, January 6. The system will be down from 6:00 p.m. Saturday until some time Sunday p.m. The system will be up and ready on Monday morning January 8.

Downtime Information

The extended outage for this upgrade is due to several factors:

  • The postgres database will be upgraded from 9.6 to 10. This involves dumping the entire database to a file, installing the new version, and importing the data back into the database. These steps take 4-5 hours each.
  • The operating system will also be updated which means that new application servers will be built.
  • Database scripts that add new features to the database are standard for most upgrades.

What is affected when Evergreen is down:

  • circulation and other staff functions
  • authentication via SIP2 (Overdrive, selfcheck, Hoopla, museum pass, EZproxy etc.)
  • web catalog
  • patron services like placing holds and signing up for ecards

We had a phone call with MOBIUS, our Evergreen hosting provider, about minimizing the effects of the down time and came up with a few solutions:

  • We will have a copy of the database put on a test system about a week before the upgrade. This can be used by staff to search for materials to get call numbers. We will send the URL to this system out the week before the upgrade.
  • Mobius will point the SIP server to the test system. We will pull the recently added patrons and import them so authentication will be available. Early in the upgrade and late in the upgrade the SIP server will need to be taken down, once to point to the test system and again to upgrade it and point it back to production.
  • Self check machines also use SIP and it will be important to not operate those during the down time. You don’t want transactions recorded on the test system.
  • Offline circ will be available to record circulation transactions. It is important to review Michele’s offline checklist prior to the down time.

Previewing 3.10

NOBLE staff can log into the training system to get a first-hand look at release 3.10, which we will be using for training and testing the new release.  Here’s how to login and set search preferences for the old and new versions of the staff catalog: Logging Into the Training System.

Online Ecard Registration Now Live

Patron Records, Self-Services

Online ecard registration is now live. This week NOBLE launched online ecards using a service from The Quipu Group. The ecard service provides a form to collect relevant registration information, verifies eligibility, checks Evergreen for duplicates, and immediately creates an active patron record upon successful validation. No staff intervention is required.

Ecards provide access to electronic materials and allow placing holds in Evergreen. Patrons can upgrade their card to checkout physical materials by visiting a library and presenting a photo ID to library staff. The Quipu service searches public data to verify that the patron’s last name is associated with the provided address. Business addresses will not work. Patrons will be assigned a home library based on their address and a confirmation screen and email will identify the home library. Duplicate checking will prevent patrons from signing up for multiple cards. Addresses in Massachusetts will be permitted but addresses outside Massachusetts will result in an error.

The library card is active immediately and good for 3 years. Patrons with a valid address but whose name cannot be matched to the address will be issued a provisional card good for 2 weeks. The ecard service emails patrons a welcome message that will include their newly assigned barcode number and a link to the home library’s website. Barcode numbers begin with a 5 and include the home library’s unique prefix.

A link to the form can be placed on library websites to promote the service: https://evergreen.noblenet.org/eg/opac/ecard/form

More details are available on the Ecard Page

Libby Enhancements to Magazines

Libby, Overdrive

It’s now easier than ever to find, read and manage magazines in Libby. Now you can find a magazine, open it, browse through the pages and start reading without checking it out. When you close the magazine, you’ll have the option to subscribe and have the latest issue automatically appear in the new Magazine Rack view under Shelf.

Here’s a good introduction to the new magazine options aimed at patrons:
A New Way to Enjoy Magazines in the Libby App

And here’s the updated Libby Help section on Magazines with answers to frequently (and not-so-frequently) asked questions: Libby Help: Reading Magazines

Hello NOBLE Libraries

Executive Director's Report, NOBLE

As I settle into my first day at NOBLE, I just want to say hello to everyone in the network and provide a brief introduction for those who have not yet had a chance to meet me.

Kathy Lussier photoMy name is Kathy Lussier, and I come to NOBLE as its new Executive Director having worked with member-driven library organizations for more than 20 years. Many of you may know me from the years I led the Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (MassLNC), a project where I worked with NOBLE and other Massachusetts networks to move to Evergreen. After the three participating networks were live on Evergreen in May 2012, I continued to work with these networks to coordinate shared development projects, help network staff with their Evergreen implementations, and advocate on behalf of Massachusetts libraries in the larger Evergreen community.

Since leaving MassLNC in December 2018, I have worked as Executive Director for the SAILS library network in the South Coast area of Massachusetts. As much as I enjoyed supporting SAILS libraries as they supported the needs of their library users, I am thrilled to return to working with NOBLE libraries again.

I consider it a privilege to be in a position where I can go into work everyday to support libraries and help them provide new and innovative services to their users. I strongly believe in the mission of libraries to build information literacy skills at a time when the information landscape has become so complex, to provide equal access to information regardless of a person’s means, and to stand up for the intellectual freedom and privacy of all users. I am also an advocate for open-source software as a means to respond to the growing expectation of users while maintaining the fundamental values of the library profession.

When I’m not working, I live in Seekonk with my husband, Paul; my two adult children, William and Emily; and my cat, Q-Tip (named for the small bit of white on the tip of the tail of this otherwise black cat). I enjoy hiking, biking and baking. Now that my youngest has graduated from high school, we plan to move further north, most likely to a NOBLE community.

Over the coming months, I plan to visit the NOBLE libraries to become acquainted with everyone working in my new library community. I look forward to meeting all of you and working to support your libraries!