Hi All,
This post is to solicit your feedback on how we should update CarlX permission levels to fit with our new Alignment duties. You'll find an Excel spreadsheet attached to this post. It provides a layout of all permissions that local staff have for Carl.X. What we've done so far:
- Added a column for Access Manager, Access Specialist II, and Access Specialist I.
- We transferred all Circulation Clerk permissions to ASII, all Library aide permissions to ASI, and all Librarian permissions to Access Manager.
- Then we marked additional permissions that we thought would be useful with a red "x".
We think this is basically ready to send on to IT. Before we do that, would anyone like to share feedback on these permissions? Are there any permissions that we added that should not be given to that group of staff? Any additional permissions that we did not cover? Any other IT related permissions we should think about that are not covered by this document?
Obliged for your help,
Ben.
It would be helpful if the Access Specialist I staff could check in and delete issues of serials. Maybe they need other permissions for serials as well? Thanks for creating the spreadsheet.
Thanks for the feedback. Does anyone else want to weigh in on Serials permissions? Otherwise I'll follow Jessica's recommendation.
At least here at CT, it would be handy to for Access I to have the ability to check in serials, since checking in the daily newspapers as quickly as possible is a priority. Withdrawing issues is less time sensitive, so I would't have any problem leaving that out if it seems like it could cause trouble.
I do have reservations about giving permissions to a large number of people for checking in and withdrawing serials, because the
Serials portion doesn't operate the same as books when it comes to editing or deleting them. Right now when we edit or withdraw books from CarlX, we only have access to our library's materials. With the serials in Carl X, editing or deleting items can affect other libraries' materials as well. Please check further with Anne or TLC about serials, to determine if the permissions could be limited to the location where the employee works.
In the interest of speed, I'd like to leave the nuances to a later date. Based on Todd's and Karen's comments, it sounds like checking in Serials should be added to AS 1 permissions, but withdraw needs more discussion and should be left off for the moment. Does that sound good for now?
To get some clarity on what these permissions might mean, perhaps talking to someone in serials would be a good idea. Greg knows the check in process. I don't work with check in or withdrawing but I do know that it has to be done a particular way and opening up permissions without training might not be the best option.
I admit to knowing less about the Serials check-in process than perhaps I should. It sounds as though it is not as simple as one might expect. Therefore, I've updated the permissions recommendation sheet to leave the Access Specialist I permissions at the same level they were as Aides, with the addition of being able to view routing lists and view subscriptions. Someone please tell me ASAP if these "view" permissions could have any negative or unintended consequences.
This shouldn't be taken as a final decision. As I said elsewhere, we are going for speed over perfection with this first pass. Anyone who feels strongly about this can do the legwork and submit a recommendation to their manager, who will find the right person to pass the information to.
As the Collections point of contact, I'd be happy to take questions/comments to see what the public service side faces and try to provide answers on the serials processes. Basically, if a magazine isn't checked in properly it kills the entire grid.
Sadie -
"Basically, if a magazine isn't checked in properly it kills the entire grid." Having done these for a few years while at BI, there is nothing worse than checking in the wrong library or wrong issue. I agree that anything done should have limitations of being only at your branch. It is a nightmare when you have to go back and correct an error in Serials.
If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right the first time. someone else shouldn't have to come back and try to correct an error and be an SI - it's frustrating, its not an easy simple process and can be very time consuming.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard a frustrated "what happened?!" in our office when it comes to serials. CarlX makes is really easy for someone to check in things wrong or delete records accidentally. It seems like a lot of things are getting raced through in the system these days instead of slowing down and really looking at things. Let's slow down and make sure we're doing things correctly. The correct people need to be contacted to get information on things like this. Sadie and Greg are our serials experts. I'm glad Sadie saw this post on the forum. The forum is getting larger, with more questions daily and many of us don't have the time to peruse everything because we're trying to get our work done.
As far as I know, View permissions would not cause any problem in Serials. Someone in IT may be able to answer that questions.
ASII and all supervisors will be able to check in items in Serials or withdraw/edit items in Item Information. Greg will still update all grids and claims. Sadie will be the one to notify about subscriptions/renewals. Is that the current plan?