November 2008 Newsletter

Athenaeum Newsletter November 2008

  • Athenaeum Pro 8
  • Web Forum updated and revitalised
  • Support Options
  • Athenaeum Express upgraded to Pro & revised pricing
  • Training
  • Athenaeum Pro 8 System Requirements

Athenaeum Pro 8

Athenaeum Pro 8 is now being deployed! This is a major upgrade to Athenaeum Pro, with a long list of new features and an even longer list of changes and improvements to existing features. The feedback that we have had from early testers has been very positive and we are pleased to see the fruition of many months of work.

Many of the changes will be obvious to long-time Athenaeum Pro users. However, many of the changes are underneath, changing the way the program works for greater efficiency or to enable some of the new features.

Brief Feature list
You can see some of the the changes by downloading a trial of the software and experimenting and watching some of the introductory screen casts on our web site.

Here is a quick summary of some of the new features:

Interface

  • The user interface has been significantly updated, with more features available with fewer clicks;
  • More configuration options for guests (OPACs);
  • stronger, customisable account (log-in) controls;
  • direct access to the Athenaeum, Tech Notes web sites and the Web Forum from the main menu;
  • pop-out sub-menus give instant access to features with less navigation;
  • many screens easily resizable for your hardware with "sliding" content;

Some New Features

  • Stored searches can record user searches, allowing you to find search patterns, most common, unsuccessful and problematic searches
  • Periodicals allow you to store subscriptions, such as magazines, with automatic cataloging on a variety of flexible date criteria
  • Filter terms allow you to catch certain content (such as unacceptable language or even "TXT" speak) in user reviews
  • Self Issue modes allow users to issue items to themselves using their own secure log-in
  • Direct integration with the NZ based KAMAR Student Management System
  • Additional web viewer for each catalogue item, with the option of manual insertion of web addresses or a customisable formula for dynamic generation of web addresses (use this to build a web query based on an ISBN, title or author).
  • Flexible library recess and public holiday storage (downloadable automatically from our web site) assist in calculating due dates out into the future
  • Issue accounts can now be assigned to trusted borrowers (before, issue accounts were generic)
  • Guest search screen can include a clickable list of "popular" items
  • Guest search screen can incude a clickable list of "hot search topics"
  • Guest search screen can include an embedded web page managed by the library administrator such as your library's home page or web sites related to hot topics (i.e. help your searchers find alternatives to Wikipedia!)
  • Circulation history and analysis is "live" including the currently issued items
  • Circulation history stores more information, including issue times as well as dates; more powerful searching and more reports.
  • Borrower types can specify a "latest due date" (e.g. Year 13 borrowers might leave the school earlier, so they have an automatic earlier due date)
  • Borrowers have 4 more customisable fields as well as their own "latest due date"

Some updated features

  • Revisions to the way bar codes for borrowers and catalogue items are managed make them much easier to change on the fly
  • Catalogue "copies" are much easier to manage (i.e. multiple copies of the same item) with reviews and reserves now associated with copies of the same item
  • Item costs have been reworked with calculated totals and replacement costs separated - you can specify replacement cost separately from the internal accounting costs
  • Catalogue lists can be automatically sorted (stored as a preference)
  • FlexiSpell is now automatic (it can be turned off, of course)
  • Enhancements to the MARC import utility allows you to automatically specify characters to trim from the start and end of extracted fields - for example, automatic trimming of punctuation or separator values (/) from titles, authors, etc.
  • Options password now only used for overrides and similar authorisation - no longer required for most tasks for the library administrator
  • Conditional formatting highlights key aspects of many items - e.g. Titles for not-for-issue books appear in red, overdue items in circulation lists show red; etc.
  • Many fields include "auto-completion" based on previously entered values, aiding consistency and speeding data entry
  • search assists make it easier to enter search requests - for example to find all items issued in august, simply type the month number into your search field and Athenaeum will complete the rest; or to find all items returned on a Friday in 2008, you can enter "Fri 2008" in date fields, etc.
  • one step disposals
  • list filter buttons give you quick access to common searches in various modules
  • one click "increment/decrement" borrower year (form) buttons - aimed at schools not integrating their library with their student management system.

Upgrading

Please contact us with your details and we will advise the procedures and costs for upgrading and any other software required. The costs are a sliding scale depending upon your version of Athenaeum. We will either invoice you directly (NZ) or provide a discount coupon code for our web store.

Recent purchasers of Athenaeum Pro are entitled to a free upgrade until the end of February 2009.

Web Forum updated and revitalised

Have you logged onto the web forum lately? Noticed anything different? The forum has been updated to a new version of the forum software, with some minor feature additions and changes.

If you have not registered, please feel free to do so and log on and post your questions or submit your tips and techniques. Registration is free.

http://www.sumware.net/athenaeum/forum/index.php

Support Options for New Zealand and Australia

SumWare Consulting have free, pay-as-you-go and pre-paid for support options for our products. We recently added some new options, described below. Contact us for the current rates.

Free

  • E-mail support - support@sumware.co.nz. It has been free for 12 years and we plan for it to stay that way. Write down your thoughts and issues and paste a screen shot and you will find that we can answer most questions.
  • Athenaeum Notes web pages - http://www.sumware.net/athenaeum/athnotes/ provide free technical tip and suggestions along with a growing list of screencasts (movies) on how to do things.
  • Athenaeum Web Forum - is also a place where you can ask questions and get answers from SumWare Consulting and your peers.

Pay as you Go

  • Telephone support is a paid service, charged out at our hourly rate. Ad hoc support in New Zealand is via 0900 LIBRARY (0900 54 272) or pre-arranged phone support can be invoiced in the normal way.
  • Remote Connections - We have trialled a number of remote support options where we log directly into your computer and assist you with your mouse and keyboard and show you how to do things or solve problems. Remotely connecting to computers has proven to be very effective and fast. Also, it can be done without having your IT staff re-configuring their network and it is secure (that means that no-one can eaves-drop on the connection). All you need is a broadband internet connection and some free software you can download from our web site. This is billed at our hourly rate, in multiples of 15 minutes.
  • Remote administration - very similar to Remote Connections, but is co-ordinated with your IT staff for remotely administering the database aspects of your back-room servers.
  • On site call outs are for when remote connections aren't feasible (you don't have broad-band) or you would like on-site training. These are charged at hourly rates (minimum 2 hours) and may include travel costs.
  • Group Training

Pre-paid

  • Some libraries prefer pre-paid contracts. Telephone, Remote and On-site call-outs are available on a pre-paid basis, with a sliding scale of rates depending upon the number of hours pre-paid (pre-pay support is available in one, two or five hour blocks).

Athenaeum Express upgraded to Pro & revised pricing

We are simplifying the Athenaeum product range.

Instead of having Athenaeum Express fill the middle range for smaller libraries, we are introducing a tiered pricing for Athenaeum Pro for educational and rural institutions, depending upon the size of the relevant organisation.

For schools, this is related to the size of the roll. For rural libraries, this is based on the population served.

New Zealand educational pricing is provided on our web site. Contact us directly for other pricing, which is based on the web store price. Small libraries purchasing via the web store can use coupon codes to receive a discount at the time of purchase.

Current Athenaeum Express users are being offered favourable upgrade options - please contact us directly for details.

Athenaeum Pro Training

The next rounds of New Zealand Athenaeum Pro training (using version 8) are now being planned. The first sessions will be in various centres around Auckland, Waikato, Bay-of-Plenty and possibly Hawkes Bay and Christchurch. Other venues will follow, so if you would like to training in your area, please contact us.

We are currently planning Introduction; Intermediate/Advanced; and Migrating to Athenaeum Pro 8 sessions.

Athenaeum Pro 8 System Requirements

Athenaeum Pro 8 is still a proudly FileMaker Pro based application and is based on FileMaker 9 technology. It is also compatible with new operating systems, with many features exploiting aspects of new operating systems and FileMaker Pro 9. The system requirements from old versions have changed, so please read these carefully.

Software requirements for different types of installations are:-

  • single user - the Athenaeum Pro 8 run-time
  • networking - FileMaker Pro 9.0v3 or higher (peer-to-peer)
  • FileMaker Server 9.0v3 or higher (along with FileMaker Pro 9.0v3).

Operating System Requirements:

  • Windows XP Professional, Home Edition (Service Pack 2) with a Pentium III 500MHz or higher
  • Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, Home with an 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or higher processor
  • Mac OS X 10.4.8 with a PowerPC G3, G4, G5 or Intel-based Mac
  • Mac OS X 10.5 with a PowerPC G4 (867MHz+), Power PC G5, or Intel-based Mac
  • Citrix and Terminal Server: with Citrix ICA Mac Client version 7.00.407; Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Mac Client 1.0.3; Citrix ICA Windows Client 9.200; Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Servers; Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 for Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1