We’ve posted a lot lately about our emergency preparedness, but is there anything you all can do to keep a minor disaster from grinding your services to a halt?

There is!

If you experience a network outage, whether due to bad weather, service provider outage, or construction chopping through your network cable, you can still work on checking in returned materials. This method will work if you can’t log into KLAS or even if you can’t access the internet at all. All you need is a computer (a laptop on battery power is fine) and a scanner.

Here’s how:

1. Open Notepad. Other word processors (such as Microsoft Word) can add formatting and metadata that will muddy the data. Basic Notepad leaves the text clean and ready to be imported.
2. Scan or type in the shelf ID indicating where the books will be shelved.
3. Scan the barcodes of everything for that shelf.
4. Repeat steps two and three as needed.
5. If you are on battery power, make sure to save the file frequently.
6. Save the file. You can then go ahead and shelve the materials as if they have been checked in.

This is an example of how your file should look (with, of course, your own library’s shelf IDs):

123F
01291237437
21012913274
20129137423
123G
20390746787
39287179034
30927405972

Then, once order has been restored and you can access KLAS again:

1. Open the Circulation Module – Batch Check In window.
2. Use the Browse button at the bottom of the screen and select your saved file.
3. The shelf locations and barcodes will be loaded in.
4. Press Submit.
5. KLAS will separate each shelf into a separate batch and check in each item.

Hopefully, you won’t need to employ this method. But if you do experience an extended network outage, there’s no need to let the books pile up!

As always, if you have questions or need some additional assistance contact KLAS Customer Support.