Customer communication:

Ever had a customer want their notices emailed to more than one address?

• When a teenage customer wishes to receive their own email messages (the business rule states that a parent/guardian’s email address should be used for all under 18 customers).
• When a customer would like to receive email messages at work as well as at home.
• If a customer has more than one email address they access regularly.

this is easy to do! the Millennium record can store multiple addresses for each customer and send email notices to all of them, providing the format is correct. Here's how:

Enter the email addresses into one email (z) field, separated by a comma but with no spaces. If there is already an email address entered you just need to enter a comma immediately after the last letter and then type the next email address. You can do this by typing straight into the existing (z) field, or by using the Edit > Edit field option.

At present, additional email addresses can only be added to patron’s record in Millennium (the OPAC on-line form will not allow more than one email address)

Talk with your circulation trainer for more information.

Payonline Security

Or more specifically the "sec_error_unknown_issuer" error

North Shore Libraries recently had a customer asking whether the Payonline security was up to scratch having received a "security error" message on connecting.

The "invalid security certificate" problem lies not with the Payonline site itself, but with an additional security layer added to Firefox V3. We have not had any issues with any other browsers, and we have tested all commonly used browsers and versions. If the customer has recently upgraded to Firefox 3, they will likely see more of this message as it is an issue with the new browser.

The Payonline site is secured by an SSL Certificate from Thawte, one of the largest security certification companies in the world. This certification is recognised by every other browser. The Payonline secure site is fully PCI DSS-Compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and its security has been independently audited as part of that process. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_DSS)

The certificate itself is issued to Auckland City Council, as this is where the servers are located. All credit card transactions are processed in New Zealand, and no customer card details are kept in the Payonline system.

Please feel free to refer any customer queries to us at the eLGAR office, but at this stage all we can suggest is that if the customer adds the Payonline site to their Firefox exception list the problem will go away. We are working on a resolution on this problem, but we are by no means the only ones facing it, and I cannot give a date for resolution at this stage.

Database Access

We are aware of the current issues with connectivity to online resources. We are investigating alternative access and authentication processes and will be testing some alternatives in the near future.

I will keep you advised of our progress.

Hamish

Return to Sender...address known

A pilot of the Held Item Delivery Project is scheduled for go-live at North Shore Libraries later in the year. As part of this project we are conducting a sub-trial called RTS Bag, as in the Elvis song...Return to Sender.

Pre-addressed courier bags will be available for purchase at North Shore Circ counters so that patrons can return borrowed library items with ease. Simple! No muss, no fuss.

RTS Bag is expected to take off as a practical service. More importantly, it will help us measure demand to assist the process and pricing model for Held Item Delivery.

We are in research mode and updates will be posted on the Blog.

eLGAR Strategy - progressing the next steps

Remember the eLGAR Customer Strategy published in November 2007? It was adopted by the Board as the eLGAR Strategy in recognition of the commitment made to benchmark all streams of work undertaken by libraries against a customer-centric strategy.

Since November the eLGAR Strategy has been progressed in a series of sessions by the Board, eLLF (the Library Leadership teams) and the original Customer Strategy Project Team examining current local and regional projects and where they align with objectives set out in three time strategic horizons.

Horizon 1: 18 months - Understanding the customer and removing barriers

Horizon 2: 36 months - Building capability

Horizon 3: 48 months - Extending the reach

Idenitifcation and gap analysis is currently underway. Determining alignment to the first objective of the Strategy will be on the agenda for group work at the next eLLF workshop in July. This objective is: "to define and measure the best eLGAR experience and how we are delivering on it". The process of defining the Customer Experience in terms of pivotal touchpoints with the library service was the subject of a workshop held on 29th May.