The Mandarin Library Automation team is excited to release the latest version of Oasis, our web-based integrated library system. We are confident you will find many useful enhancements among the new and updated features.
Some important changes are found in the OPAC and Catalog:
1. Oasis now integrates with TABvue. Your patrons can easily click a link to access an ebook from this supplier of print and electronic books for students in Kindergarten through eighth grades. Thousands of current titles are available for you to add to your collection.
2. The Catalog also now makes it easy for you to collect statistics on your ebook materials from any supplier. A statistical “loan” transaction similar to in-house circulation is created each time the link in an ebook bibliographic record is clicked.
3. If you do not subscribe to Syndetics Solutions to provide your patrons with pictures of the book covers and extensive enriched record content, Oasis will now allow you to easily display cover images and summaries from Google Books.
4. When your patrons log into their own accounts, they will see some helpful changes.
a. My Account > My Info now includes ‘Welcome back, %FirstName%’.
b. The number of overdues is now displayed in My Account > My Info. If the user has overdues, a red exclamation mark appears next to the My Account entry in the menu.
c. If the location is a school, My Account > My Info now displays grade, homeroom, and teacher in place of address and phone number. For privacy reasons, the personal information of students is limited by not displaying the patron barcode and displaying only the initial of the student’s last name.
d. Large-size patron images are scaled down in My Account > My Info and in search results.
e. All comments are now correctly sent to the librarian for review before they are visible publicly.
5. To enhance searching,
a. ‘Select reading program’ is now the default selection for the Reading Program search filter. You can more easily see which reading program – Lexile, Fountas & Pinnell, or Accelerated Reader-- and what predefined or custom range you want to search within.
b. The German Eszett (ß) and the euro sign (€) are now handled.
6. It is now possible to change the number of results on the fly, up to 200. This allows librarians and patrons to more easily create and print lists, bookbag contents, and bibliographies.
7. You can determine more precisely which records to make visible to your patrons. A new field has been defined in Bibliographic records: 994. If 994#a = ‘0’, the record is ‘invisible’ in search results.
8. In cataloging,
a. Record Fetch has experienced some makeover to improve performance, and as well:
i. In order to improve relevance of Record Fetch results, queries are now sent as a phrase.
ii. All records added using Record Fetch are automatically displayed in a new search result.
b. When a new record is added with the Basic or Advanced Editor, the new record is now displayed automatically after saving.
In Circulation, among several other enhancements,
1. In Library Transactions, a Call Number column has been added before the Item column.
2. The Overdue loan count now displays in the Patron pane.
3. To help schools where the students come to the library on a certain day of the week, there is a new due date option – “Due date same day of week”. If this option is selected, the due date will fall on the first open day after a holiday that is the same day of the week as the loan date.
4. Receipt printing has been improved.
The Reports section has been updated to use the default Oasis theme style; eye-readable barcodes are no longer blurry; and the speed of report creation is much faster.
To see the entire list of changes, including the enhancements in Groups and Advanced Cataloging, read the full Oasis 2.9.2 Release Notes here.
For questions about moving to Oasis, about Oasis in the cloud, or about updating your current Oasis, contact us at automation@mlasolutions.com or call 800 426 7477 or 561 995 4010 ext 751.
Watch for upcoming free webinars covering new features, tips and tricks. And, as always, please continue to send us feedback.
EMAIL US: automation@mlasolutions.com