Author: Laurie Shedrick
Sierra Users Group to meet October 25th, 2023 at MHLS
The Sierra Users Group offers an opportunity for staff who use Sierra to come together with peers from other libraries to learn about new features, discuss the platform, and share ideas. The two-hour, in person, Users Group meeting consisted of release updates, feature showcases, and a forum for sharing.
If you have any projects, ideas, or questions you want to share, please email techsupport@midhudson.org and mention the Sierra Users Group.
The Fall/Winter 2023 meeting will include: MHLS staff will be freshly back from the Innovative Users Group, held in person this year in Phoenix, AZ.
We hope to highlight the following items in this meeting:
- LX Starter notices launch implementation/training
- Vega Discover launch implementation/training
- What is coming in Sierra version 6.1
- Training on Demand
Thank you for joining the conversation!
Phrase searching too inclusive & without relevancy
Observation: When results are found which do not include all keyword search terms, the result summary shows the unfound elements as “missing” with the term in a strikethrough font.
Encore does not show these results.
Reported: 11/18/21
Resolution: A phrase in quotes (when looking for exact phrase) resolves this. I am not sure that all keyword searches are phrases.
Training Survey
We are rethinking our training for Sierra and Encore. We need your input! Please take this brief training survey by 8/15/2020.
Tagging your collection
If you have ever thought that things should be easier to find in Encore, you might consider tagging items in your collection. Tags are indexed access points that can be used to find items in Encore and even curate them into collections. Those curated collections could be a permanent solution, or simply serve a temporary need. Tags can also provide natural language access to items, where Library of Congress subjects fall short.
Tagging in Encore has always been available, but only few libraries have taken advantage of it so far. So far, it has only been made available to staff, but some libraries choose to open it up to patrons too. Any user who is authorized may add a tag while viewing the full record in Encore. The tags must then be “approved” to be live in Encore by MHLS staff , who have administrative access. Tags can later be turned off too. Once enabled, tags can be used as a search term in Encore.
How have tags been used at MHLS? Mostly, to group items into curated collections.
Curating collections: Click the titles to view in encore.
The Phoenicia Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection
The Phoenicia Public library was one of the first libraries to use tagging to curate a collection. In their community fishing is HUGE! They have an amazing collection devoted angling, which they highlight on their website, but when it came to finding these items in Encore, there was no way to pull them together…until they tagged their collection! Today Today 727 items are included in this collection, which patrons can search in Encore from anywhere.
Columbia
Local History & Special Collections Roundtable
Monday, October 21st | 2:00 – 3:00pm | MHLS Auditorium
Facilitated by Nina Acosta, MHLS Assistant ILP Operations Supervisor
This interactive discussion group brings together experienced staff with those wanting to learn more about digitizing local history materials. This session will feature a brief presentation on the Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) & NY Heritage websites by SENYLRC’s Digital Services Librarian, Jennifer Palmentiero followed by group discussion.
Discussion topics may include, but are not limited to:
· Digitization workflows
· Setting priorities and goals
· Metadata
· Promoting collections