Tipasa release notes, May 7, 2023

Patron's need-by date

The patron notes now include the full date/time stamp in UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) for the need-by date specified on the patron request form. The date/time stamp is determined by the UTC equivalent of midnight at the beginning of the date specified by the patron. The matching logic for an automation on "any patron note" has been updated to interpret this new format.

Example

Document Delivery date fields

Date fields for Document Delivery now display in your library's local time zone and the preferred format for your locale. 

Example 

Email and notification date fields

Date and time fields in emails and notifications now display in your library's time zone and the preferred format for your locale. This includes the full request details email as well as manual and automated notifications. 

Example

Export date fields

For data exported from queues, dates in the exported files now display in your library's date format and the preferred format for your locale. 

Example 

Report Designer: Request Created Date/Time

For requests created on or after March 19, 2023, the Request Created Date/Time field now contains the specific time of the created date in your library's local time zone. Previously, the Request Created Date/Time value defaulted to midnight (00:00:00) UTC of the day the request was created.

This change will result in more accurate turnaround time fields or turnaround time variables created in Report Designer based on the created date/time of the request.

Example

Report Designer: All ILL dates/times

In addition to the Request Created Date/Time described above, all ILL dates updated on or after March 19, 2023, will display in your library's local time zone. These include:

• Borrower Cancelled Date/Time
• Borrower Received Date/Time
• Borrower Returned Date/Time
• Lender Shipped Date/Time
• Request Closed Date/Time
• Request Exhausted Date/Time
• Request Expired Date/Time
• Request Produced Date/Time
• Lender Assigned Date/Time
• Lender Unfilled Date/Time
• Request Purchase Order Date/Time
• Borrower Need Before Date
• Lender Due Date
• Request Copyright Committed Date/Time

For more information about these updates to Report Designer, see WorldShare Reports release notes, April 2023.

For any questions regarding recent time-zone-related enhancements, or how date/time stamps are displaying for your library, please contact OCLC Support.

Request automatically marked as complete when item marked as Returned​

When you request a loan from an off-system partner, you must manually update the statuses for the request. Now, when you mark an item as Returned, the system marks the request as Closed and populates the Return/Closed Date. You no longer need to wait for the off-system partner to confirm via email that the item has been received.

Due Date no longer required when marking an item as Shipped​

As noted above, when you request a loan from an off-system partner, you must manually update the statuses for the request. Previously, you were required to enter a Due Date when marking an item as Shipped, even when the off-system partner did not provide a date. Now, you can update a request to Shipped without a Due Date. The Due Date is no longer required at Shipped, only at Received.

For more information, see Off-system borrowing.

Configure a request form for off-system partners

In OCLC Service Configuration (by using your account with the WorldShare ILL Admin role), you can now configure a form to by used for lending to off-system partners.

To set up your off-system lending form:

1. Go to OCLC Service Configuration > WorldShare ILL > Request Forms > Lender's Off-System Request Form.
2. Customize the form content, labels, and informational messages to be relevant to off-system partners requesting from your library.
3. Use the Preview button to view what the form will look like.

After the May 2023 user portal release, you can provide your off-system partners with access to the form by sharing the URL shown below via email or a web page on your library's web site.

For more information, see Off-system lending by request form.

If your library is a member of a WorldShare Management Services (WMS) group, you have the option to configure a single form for your group. To consult about the best setup for your group, please reach out to OCLC Support.

Create and link user accounts with off-system partners

For staff at your off-system partner institutions to submit requests, you will need to create a user account for them and link it to the partner in the address book. This is also done within the Admin tab and OCLC Service Configuration (by using your account with the WorldShare ILL Admin role).

In the Admin tab

On the Admin tab, click New User.

The account data can be very minimal. (You only need to store information about the user here because there is additional partner information in the Address Book.)

The following fields are required/recommended:

In OCLC Service Configuration

Under WorldShare ILL, go to the Address Book and open the record for the relevant partner. Scroll down to find a new section for Borrower Account.

Search for and select the user, and then click Apply to link them to the partner institution.

In the Borrower Account section of the partner record, you now see the linked user. 

Currently, only one user can be linked to a partner. To change the user, you would remove the link to the user and then link a different user. 

For WMS groups, partners are shared across the group, so a user will be able to borrow from any library that's a member of that WMS group. 

For more information, see Off-system lending by request form.

Please watch for news and release notes in the coming weeks about the upcoming user portal install, which will enable access to the request form for users at partner institutions. We recommend that you NOT distribute any user accounts to partner institutions prior to the user portal install.