Starting a New School Year with Alexandria v5.5x

By Wally Johnson

This document was written to assist Librarians in preparing Alexandria for a new school year.

At the beginning of each year, the Calendar and Last Date of School preferences must be updated.  It is a good idea to review all of your preferences in Alexandria to ensure that no other changes need to be made for the new school year.

Last Date of School

The last date of school preference, along with the starting and ending grade settings, controls the patron grade level. To update the last date of school preference for version:

5.5.0.0 - 5.5.1.1
Go to Edit-Preferences and choose Library Information and Global. On the Library Information tab and look for the field titled Last Date of School is.

5.5.2.1 - 5.5.2.4
Go to Edit-Preferences and choose Patron Management and Global. Click on the Levels tab and look for the field titled Last Day of School.

5.5.3 and later
Go to Edit-Preferences and choose Patron Management and Global. Click on the Grade tab and look for the field titled Last Day of School.

Image 1 – Global Library Information Preferences

Calendars

To update your Calendar, go to Edit-Preferences, and choose Calendars and Global from the pull-down menus at the top.  The calendar will display the current month.  You will want to go through the calendar, month by month, closing the days that the library is closed.  Click once on a date field to close that day.  The word Closed should appear in red letters.  If you accidentally close a day that should be open, clicking twice on the date will reopen it.  To close a day for the entire year, hold down the Alt key (also called the Option key on Macintosh keyboards) and click on the day of the week you wish to close.

Image 2 – Calendars Preferences

NOTE:  WHEN CLOSING A DAY FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR, BE AWARE THAT THIS IS ONLY FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR.  MOST SCHOOL YEARS ENCOMPASS TWO CALENDAR YEARS, SO YOU WILL NEED TO DO THE SAME OPERATION ON NEXT YEAR'S CALENDAR.

While setting up your calendar you may want to also include Period Due Dates.  Period Due Dates are days that books are required to be returned by, regardless of when the book was checked out.  Typically, one Period Due Date near the end of school is sufficient for most libraries.  An example of when to use a Period Due Date is if your library closes in the middle of the year for inventory.  Another example is if books must be collected at the end of a semester.

NOTE:  PERIOD DUE DATES ONLY APPLY TO PATRON POLICIES THAT HAVE THE APPLY PERIOD DUE DATES OPTION ENABLED.  CHECK YOUR PATRON AND CIRCULTION POLICIES TO ENSURE THAT THE PERIOD DUE DATE OPTION HAS BEEN CHECKED.

NOTE:  IF YOU USE HARD DUE DATES IN YOUR POLICIES, NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO CHECK AND POSSIBLY UPDATE THEM.

The Calendar can also be used to keep notes.  To create a note hold the Shift Key down and click on the day you wish the note to appear on.  There are three types of notes available:  Alexandria Researcher Alert Notes; Alexandria Librarian Alert Notes and General Date Notes.  Notes entered in the Alexandria Researcher Alert Note field or the Alexandria Librarian Alert Note field will be displayed on the appropriate client machine each time the client is started that day.  General Date Notes appear only in the Calendar Notes Report and in the Calendar itself.  General Date Notes are shown as a note pad icon on the date the note is set on.  Alert Notes are great for reminding both patrons and staff of important events, such as assemblies, meetings, scheduled library close time, holidays, upcoming due dates, and after school activities.

The Calendar Notes report can be found by going to Reports – Special Reports and changing the Report Name to Calendar Notes.

Updating Patron Information

A new feature added in Alexandria 5.5.0.0 is the Patron Grade Table.  This preference can be found by going to Edit – Preferences and selecting Patron Management and Global from the drop-down menus and then clicking on the Grade Table tab.  Upon updating to Alexandria 5.5.0.0 or higher from an earlier version, these preferences should be reviewed.  Please be aware that these options only apply if the This is a school library preference is checked under the global Library Information preferences.

The Grade Table co-ordinates with the global Library Information preferences and your students' graduation dates.  If your students' graduation dates are set for a year other than the year they leave your school, then the table must include all grades up to the graduating year.  The Year for each Grade needs to be set to the year that the student will graduate, according to the Ending grade in Library Information and the Graduation Date in the patron record.  To modify a Grade, double click on it or highlight it and click the ‘a' button.

Image 3 – Patron Grade Table

If your Ending grade is set to the last year at your school and the patrons' graduation dates reflect when they graduate from your school, setting up the Grade Table becomes much easier.  To correctly set up the Grade Table, first remove all grade levels that do not apply to your school.  To remove a grade level, highlight it and click the minus sign on the right hand side.

After having removed all the unneeded grade levels, you will next need to check each Grade to ensure that the Year reflects when the students leave your school.  To modify a Grade, double click on it or highlight it and click the ‘a' button.

Once your preferences are correct, it is time to add patrons.  Patrons can be entered manually or through importing a tab-delimited file.  Existing patrons can be also be updated using either method.  For details on importing patron data, see the section of the Alexandria User's Manual entitled Importing Patron Information. 

All patron utilities can be found by going to File-Utilities, and choosing Patrons under the pull-down menu titled Utility Type.  Most batch changes to patron information can be done through the Replace Information operation.  The most common operations are replacing the patron policy or changing the patron location.  The problem most often encountered when updating patron information is finding an acceptable selection range with which to make the change.

If your patrons have a graduation date, their grade level will change to Graduated as soon as that date is reached.  To remove these patrons, go to File-Utilities and choose Patrons under the pull-down menu titled Utility Type.  Choose Remove under the pull-down menu titled Operation.  Under Select By, choose Grade and type Graduated in the field titled Start With.  Then click Run.

NOTE:  TO ENSURE YOU ARE REMOVING THE RIGHT GROUP OF PATRONS, IT IS WISE TO RUN A PATRON REPORT SELECTING BY THE GRADE LEVEL GRADUATED BEFORE RUNNING THE UTILITY.

Each year, you should renew your expired patron cards.  The easiest method is to renew all your patrons at once.  Go to File-Utilities and choose Patrons under the pull-down menu titled Utility Type.   Choose Renew Patron cards under the pull-down menu titled Operation.   Then click Run.  All your patron cards will be renewed for one year.

Image 4 – Patron Utilities

Alexandria has two built in commands to update patrons' locations (homerooms), and their policies.  To modify the location of a group of patrons, type NP in the command line of the Alexandria circulation screen, followed by a space and the new location and then press Enter.  Any patron barcode that is typed or scanned while in this mode will automatically be updated to the new location.

Changing a patron's policy is accomplished in a similar manner.  Type UP in the command line of the Alexandria circulation screen, and then press Enter.  This will bring up a list of your patron policies for you to select from.  Select the appropriate policy and click OK.  Any patron barcode that is scanned or typed while in this mode will automatically be updated to the new policy.

To exit either mode, type a period and then press Enter.

Utilities and Backups

When starting a new year, it is a good idea to make sure your backups and utilities are on schedule.  The rebuild should be run once a month.  If you did not rebuild at the end of last year, it is a good idea to start the year off with one.  You will also want to make sure your backup schedule and hardware are in order.  It may be time to purchase more CD's or replace worn out Zip disks.  For details on how to back up or on creating a back up schedule, refer to the section in the Alexandria User's Manual titled Backing Up Your Data, or technical notes Windows, and Macintosh, and Starting a New School Year with Alexandria v.5.

This is also a good time to double-check your archive and rebuild options.  Go to Edit-Preferences, and choose Archive and Rebuild and Global from the pull-down menu.  Make sure that your computer will be on and Alexandria will be running when your database is set to archive or rebuild. 

Image 5 – Archive Preferences

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT AT 1-800-347-4942.