NOTIS LMS Features:
Technical Services Likes and Dislikes

STAFF MODE

Likes

1. Multiple processing units and separate bibliographic records

2. GTO providing instant transfer of records from utility

3. Merged heading index

4. System is usually fast and saves keystrokes

5. "Term", "line" and "statement" commands save keystrokes

6. Can move back and forth easily between index screen and individual records

7. Ability to pass easily between resource files and production file; ability to derive from resource files and from other processing units

8. Access to all files/functions with one logon

9. Integrated display of series with other titles

10. Error messages and prompt for "done" command if operator tries to get ahead too fast

11. Automatic date changes that reflect updating in the bibliographic and item records

12. Automatic receipt dates on OPR

13. Ability to add data to notes fields in OPR

14. Dynamic link of O/P/R to OPAC

15. Online access to funds

16. Pay/receipt /claim info all together on O/P/R

17. Many other users with whom to share experiences

18. High level of system stability

19. Ability to create unlinked item records

20. Ability to relink items

21. Ability to update bibliographic and holdings information even if associated item has a circulation status

22. Ability to search by OCLC number and standard numbers such as ISSN

23. Dynamic updating of indexes

24. Support of MARC record for holdings and locations

25. Ability to create copy level notes

26. Use of both permanent and temporary location codes

27. The interrelationship between bibliographic, holdings, and item records

28. The authority record structure

29. Automatic MARC format error checking

30. Ability to have unique location codes for each copy

31. The way in which multi-volume works are handled

32. Supports multiple classification schemes and thesauri

33. Ability to block records from public view

STAFF MODE

Dislikes

1. Lack of basic word processing features such as line wrap, insert, etc. Related to this, dedicated terminals do not indicate when insert key is on, thus complicating matters

   Particular editing dislikes:
   

   1. It is difficult to replace a short one line 245 with a two+ line title; must trick the system into creating the second+ line. Usually just retype and delete the original.
   2. System is fussy about insertion toggle: if the cursor is too far to the right, system will give you a "wrong place" message, requiring returning cursor to home position, hitting insert key, then returning cursor to desired location. Cumbersome!

2. No local report generating capability; all reports done centrally except for vouchers, claims and P.O.s. Management reports must be requested; it would be nice to be able to ask for a listing of open orders by vendor and get it printed out at one's terminal on demand.

   No ability for staff in serials to develop customized reports of any kind -- we have to go through the BISON programmer, create a priority in his queue of programs to write, etc.

   I'd like to see a customized report function, so that printed lists of materials can be generated and still look good.

3. System is not set up to provide good technical service statistics easily.

   There doesn't seem to be a way to get DETAILED statistics, especially with regard to circulation.

4. Inability to do keyword/boolean in staff mode

5. Difficulty of adding diacritics

6. Shelflisting function lacking; call number index display difficult to work with

7. Call number index is not updated in real time

8. Cannot deal with "bound withs" well

9. NOTIS does not handle EDI, e.g., transaction sets for claims and claim responses, orders and order confirmations, invoices, etc.

10. Notes fields are too short, and there are too few, in both holdings and order records.

11. Unable to return to index in staff mode after using summ command; if examining a number of records, must re-enter search statement.

12. Having to reorder the summ screen each time a new item is added. This may be particular to Law, where replacement volumes have enum/chron data such as v.5 1995. Also, having to decrement the summ each time an item is relinked to a different record or copy holdings statement.

13. Limit on number of statements attachable to order records; requires creating subsequent "new" orders for prolific series (ex. International congress series) to post pay statements.

14. Invoice related dislikes
    1. Unable to alter invoice records after approval; no ability to delete a posting linked in error, or even to undo a single character mistakenly entered into one of the pay statement lines directly. There are times when it turns out that such info as date of coverage or volume billed was incorrect, and all you can do is put this in a note field which might accidently be deleted and which is not located next to the pay statement in question.

    2. Inability to override an approved invoice in certain instances

    3. Inability to eliminate invoices

    4. Inability to pull up vendor invoice by vendor invoice number

    5. Inability to call up vendor record by vendor name instead of needing vendor code

    6. Direct source/vendor address doesn't copy to invoice from OPR

    7. There are invoice statement space limitations

    8. Cannot input $0.00 charge for an item that is not linked. There are occasions when we would like to do this, but you have to put in a $.0l and a -$.0l to accomplish putting in a $0.00.

    9. Cannot put our bigger invoices into one BISON invoice -- we must artificially break up the invoice, subtotal the pages, and then create multiple, unlinkable BISON invoices.

    10. Limited number of pay statements per invoice

    11. Inability to regenerate vouchers (they can be reprinted only during a narrow 2-4 day window)

    12. Invoice/voucher ledgers are cumulative, rather than just printing out those invoices posted since the last ledger. This approach wastes paper and means that we have to re-mark those items previously checked.

15. Cannot generate call number labels for unbound pieces.

16. Cannot get to OPR from any screen other than copy holdings.

17. Cannot move backwards in guide screens

18. No way to cancel a keyword search, if an error has been made or simply do not want to wait any longer

19. Inability to really delete duplicate and error records

20. Cannot limit searches in any way to LC copy records

21. Cannot resequence copy holdings statements

22. Password restrictions are too limiting

23. No truncation capability to deal with 5000+ search results; also, stopwords create a problem when trying to qualify some searches

24. No online list of staff mode commands

25. Cannot automatically check backlog records against some sort of resource file to save staff time in doing so

26. Total lack of a bindery module

27. Inability to archive receipt and payment statements

28. NOTE and CLAIM field in OPR are too limited.

29. Inability to write free text memo

30. Inability to create a "Serials Decisions" list because of lack of word processing features

31. Inability to re-sequence OPR's in order to make the current ongoing order the first order displayed.

32. Inability to move OPR's and the linked items

33. Inability to get to end of OPR without knowing

34. Receiving is a two-step process (O/P/R and COPY HLDG)

35. Cannot reprint order

36. Cannot print order on demand

37. There are O/P/R statement space limitations

38. Order of statements (all pay/note/rec together) is inconvenient Statements are difficult to reorder

39. Action date must be in a specific format

40. Mod date always changes when O/P/R statement is edited

41. No next/previous capability when searching by NOTIS control number

42. Lack of a media booking system.

43. Would like to be able to scan inhouse use into item record and get management reports of use statistics by title.

44. OPR: We don't have the option of having checkin data display most recent: earliest or earliest: most recent. Because we want our current checkin data to read earliest: most recent, as the bound holdings do, we have to input checkin data in reverse order.

45. OPR: No specific bindery instruction field

46. OPR: No specific routing instruction field

47. Inability to request online that PX statements be sorted in numerical order. This is particularly a problem when volumes in a prolific series are published out of order. We have to move forward one screen at a time (usually 3-4 pay statements) visually scanning PX statements to see if we have already paid for a given volume.

48. Inability to move to end of PX statements quickly, e.g., with a single keystroke. This ability would be helpful in prolific series which are published in numerical order so that staff don't have repeatedly press the enter key to reach the end of the list to see whether a given volume has been paid for, to check the payment date, etc.

PUBLIC MODE

Likes

1. Keyword access

2. Can search by BISON number as keyword to go directly to record

3. Can express back to see record in staff mode

4. Can qualify keyword by most processing units

5. System displays notes in order in which they were input instead of forcing them into numerical order

1. All help screens are too wordy and confusing, especially for keyword; they should be simpler and also include information on how to qualify by processing unit

2. System does not let you know it is working when a search takes a long time

3. Inability to click on 856 (URL) field and go directly to Internet resource

4. Index does not order individual titles within series numerically.

5. In public mode, the screen that comes up when there are no items found in our libraries is very cluftered and hard to read. People don't understand right away what the system is saying.

6. From the perspective of music records, the title sort by 245 rather than 240 is a problem.