We're dedicated to supporting each type of organization that uses KLAS. Here are a few examples of our ongoing efforts to connect with and serve our IRC / IMC users:

• Keystone staff attends the American Printing House for the Blind Annual Meeting where we host the IRC KLAS Users' Meeting.
• The KLAS Users' Conference Program committee makes it a priority to seek out / provide KLAS content that appeals our talking book library, resource center, and association users as well as content specific to each.
• In late October, Keystone is hosting an IRC Symposium at our office in Raleigh.

I wanted to take a few minutes today to highlight two upcoming IRC / IMC KLAS user events.

KLAS IRC / IMC Users' at 2019 APH Annual Meeting

On October 10th, Nancy and I will host the KLAS IRC / IMC Users' Meeting at the 2019 APH Annual Meeting. We invite you to join us at 8 AM in the Hialeah Room of the Hyatt to hear the latest updates about Keystone and KLAS, see new features being demonstrated, and provide us feedback about possible future development. Please let us know if you plan to attend before September 30, so we can have enough breakfast and (most importantly) coffee available.

Current meeting agenda includes:

• Welcome & Introductions
• Update on Keystone over the past year - news, new projects & customers, etc.
• Demonstration of new features in KLAS
• Question & Answer session - open discussion of what you need / want from KLAS

If there is anything in particular you want to ask about or to have us cover, please let us know! Your shared experience helps guide future development of KLAS (especially for IRCs / IMCs), and we value your input.

We will also offer four one-hour one-on-one consultation meetings on Thursday, starting at 1:00 PM. To sign up for one of these time slots, please contact me and let me know your preferred time (Ex: 1:00-2:00 PM). Meetings will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

IRC Symposium

Want an opportunity for even more in-depth training, round-table discussions, user feedback opportunities, and networking with Keystone staff and other IRC / IMC staff? Then make plans to attend the two-day KLAS IRC Symposium on October 29-30 at our office in Raleigh, NC.

We ask that all attendees have a KLAS Administrator role in their local system and authority to change records and policies for their KLAS system.

Interested? 

Here's the planned agenda:

We're offering this specially focused training workshop for $300 / attendee. Check out the "KLAS IRC Symposium" article for further details including travel and accommodations and the link to register.

I sincerely hope to see you at one or both of these events.

An updated version of the KLAS User Group bylaws was presented to the KLAS Users' Group on at the annual business meeting on June 6, 2019. The members of the Users' Group then proceeded to vote online to accept the bylaws with all suggested revisions effective July 1, 2019.

At 8:30 AM on Saturday, June 22 the Association of Specialized Government and Cooperative Libraries held their annual Achievement Awards Breakfast at the Grand Hyatt Washington as part of the American Library Association Annual Conference. Keystone is a proud sponsor of the breakfast and the ASGCLA / KLAS / NOD (National Organization on Disability) Award. This year two members of the KLAS Users' Community were honored at the breakfast, and I was excited to be there to see them recognized for their hard work to promote accessible libraries and inclusive library services.

Kim Charlson, Executive Director, Perkins Library, received the 2019 Francis Joseph Campbell Award citation and medal for "her strong commitment to inclusion and empowerment, her tireless efforts on the passage of the Marrakesh Treaty for the Visually Impaired, and her life-long passion for bringing the joy of reading to all."

• ASGCLA 2019 Francis Joseph Campbell Award Press Release

South Carolina State Library Talking Book Services received the 2019 ASGCLA / KLAS / NOD Award for its Assistive Technology Petting Zoo. "The Zoo was developed as a new outreach initiative in 2015 to raise awareness for Assistive Technology and its ability to make public libraries more accessible and inclusive. ... One of the most significant contributions the Zoo has made has been allowing South Carolina’s public librarians hands-on experience with Assistive Technology, creating a desire for the library to offer these tools on a daily basis."

• 2019 ASGCLA / KLAS / NOD Award Press Release

Below are a few photos I took during Saturday morning's Award Breakfast. You can see all of them in an album on Keystone's Facebook Page.

Kim Charlson poses for photos with 2 ASGCLA representatives after being recognized as the 2019 Francis Joseph Campbell Award Winner.

Kim shows off the citation she received as the 2019 Francis Joseph Campbell Award Recipient.

 Members of the South Carolina State Library staff gather around a table before the ASGCLA Awards Breakfast begins.

 ASGCLA representatives and South Carolina State Library staff pose with me for a photo after being presented with the 2019 ASGCLA / KLAS / NOD Award.

The certificate presented to the South Carolina State Library Talking Books Services as part of the 2019 ASGCLA / KLAS / NOD Award. They also receive $1000 from Keystone Systems as part of their recognition.

You can see the rest of the photos I took in the 2019 ASGCLA Awards Breakfast album on Keystone's Facebook page.

This brand-new feature for KLAS version 7.7 was debuted at the uc2019 pre-conference as part of the hands-on Effective Search Strategies session.

Queries in KLAS make it easy to find records that meet certain criteria. Unfortunately, it can be harder to search by what isn't there. Computer logic is just not very good at that kind of thinking... but now, there is a way to combine two queries in KLAS, allowing you to:

• Combine the lists of records that meet two different sets of criteria (i.e. match X and/or Y)
• Find records that are included in two different query sets (i.e. match X and Y)
• Subtract one Query from another (i.e. match X but do not match Y)

This feature is available in the Patron module in the version 7.7.8 preview databases, and will be available in the Catalog module later this week when the preview databases are updated to build 7.7.9

So... what's this about "subtracting" a query?

Queries have the option to search for fields that “do not equal” a certain value. However, this will only function correctly if that field can only occur once in the record, otherwise, it will find any occurrence where the field does not equal that value.

For example, you can query for Patrons whose “Main Status does not equal Active,” because patron records can only have one Main Status. On the other hand, if you query for “Patron Medium does not equal DB,” it will return all records that have another medium in addition to DB, because that medium does not equal DB. Furthermore, it will not return records without any Patron Mediums, because there is nothing for it to compare to the search value.

This is a matter of computer logic not working quite like human logic. To get the computer to understand what you’re looking for, break it down a little further to “find Active Patrons, then subtract all patrons with an Active DB Medium.”

Other times you may wish to use this tool include:

• Checking for Patron records with an Active Cassette medium but no Active DB medium.
• Checking for Catalog records by a certain narrator that do not have the “Foreign Accent” subject heading.

Ready to learn more?

Download this How-to document for step-by-step instructions, more information, and more examples. As always, if you have questions or need additional help, just let us know.

(And remember, this feature is available in version 7.7 only, so if you have not yet requested a preview database, be sure to get in touch! If you have requested a preview, you should be receiving a welcome packet and activation key shortly--we are quickly moving through the list of requests.)

• HowTo MergeQueries - docx
• HowTo MergeQueries - pdf

Last week the Palm Beach County Talking Books Service and the Friends of the Palm Beach County Library hosted the 2019 KLAS Users' Conference in West Palm Beach, FL. Attendees were offered hands-on training during the one-day pre-conference and then participated in three days of general and breakout sessions including workshops, seminars, and informal birds-of-a-feather discussions. Opportunities for networking with Keystone staff and other KLAS library staff beyond the official conference sessions occurred during breaks, lunches, the Welcome Reception, and our Thursday afternoon excursion to the Morkiami Japanese Gardens and Museum. Here are some of our favorite photos from the conference. To see more, you can check out our 2019 KLAS Users' Conference Photo Album on Keystone's Facebook page. If you want to share your own conference photos, feel free to upload them to this album on Keystone's Google Drive.

Below is the welcome slide we used throughout the conference. Drea took this photo from the second-floor balcony of the hotel on Sunday before the conference started--the rainbow seemed like a very lucky way to start the conference!

Keynote Speaker Carmencita Mitchell talks about the Waves of Change in inclusive library service.

Katy shares Tips & Tricks for Readers Advisors during a workshop on Tuesday.

Attendees loved the view from the balcony of the Lake Worth Casino during Tuesday evening's Welcome Reception.

We offered a choice of a seafood or a vegetarian paella option for attendees of Tuesday evening's Welcome Reception.

The cooks add shrimp to the paella just before it is served.

Drea and Chandra enjoying the Welcome Reception.

Nancy and Mitake answer the accumulated "Parking Lot Questions" attendees posted throughout the conference.

James and Chandra got the same wardrobe memo on Thursday. Like minds and such...

Excited attendees waiting on the Molley Trolley to head to the Morikami Japanese Gardens & Museum for an afternoon of networking with Keystone staff and other KLAS Users.

To see more, you can check out our 2019 KLAS Users' Conference Photo Album on Keystone's Facebook page. If you want to share your own conference photos, feel free to upload them to this album on Keystone's Google Drive.

Thank you for to all our attendees, speakers, and local hosts, and we look forward to seeing more photos and sharing more info from last week's conference in the near future.

We've uploaded all presentations for the 2019 KLAS Users' Conference submitted to date to a folder on Keystone's Google Drive and are working to link them into the conference app.

Also, we will be adding a link for each presentation below listed by day:

Monday Pre-Conference

• KLAS Scavenger Hunt IRC Version
• KLAS Scavenger Hunt TBL Version
• Effective Search Strategies in KLAS IRC Version
• Effective Search Strategies in KLAS TBL Version

Tuesday

General Sessions

• Roll Call / Ice Breaker
• 2019 Julie Klauber Award
• Keynote Address
• Keystone Highlights for the Past Year
• KLAS New Features
• Accessible Accessibility: Providing Access to More using Outside Sources
• Recording of Keystone Highlights and New Features Presentations - MP4

Breakout Sessions

• KLAS Administrators
• Interpreting KLAS Error Messages
• Tips & Tricks for Reader Advisors
• Handling Foreign Language Materials
• KLAS New Features

Wednesday

General Sessions

• NLS Report
• Responding to Changing Service Models
• Duplication on Demand: Better, Faster, Stronger, More!
  • Notes from the Scribe
• Online APH Census Registration
• IRC / IMC Roundtable

Breakout Sessions

• IRCs & TBLs: Brainstorming Ways to Partner
• Writing Accessible Instructions
• Making Friends with KLAS Statistics
• Training Your Support Staff
• KLAS New Features

Seminar Sessions

• Hits & Misses: A Look at Programming for those with Disabilities
• Duplication on Demand Petting Zoo
• Reporting on Reports
• Talking Book Service Ambassadors: Benefits, Challenges & Examples
• Curating Your KLAS Catalogue

Thursday

General Sessions

• KLAS Users' Group Business Meeting
• Connecting with KLASusers
• Keystone Staff Answers Your Parking Lot Questions

Breakout Sessions

• Circulation Birds of a Feather
• The Volunteer Experience: How to Grow and Retain your Auxiliary Staff
• Excel at KLAS: What can you do with KLAS & Excel?

Reference Documents

KLAS Users Directory
KLAS v7 System Recommendations
KLAS Windows Server Requirements
KLAS Linux Server Requirements

Note: These documents are subject to change prior to the conference and you must be logged-in to klasusers.com to access them.

2019 KLAS Users' Conference Overview Schedule

DOCUMENTS LAST UPDATED: May 28, 2019

Here's the latest overview schedule document for the 2019 KLAS Users' Conference in MS Word and PDF formats now including all general and breakout sessions as well as pre-conference sessions!

• KLAS UC 2019 Overview Schedule 05-28-2019 - MS Word
• KLAS UC 2019 Overview Schedule 05-28-2019 - PDF

2019 KLAS Users' Conference Agenda

DOCUMENTS LAST UPDATED: May 30, 2019

The conference agenda includes all pre-conference sessions and all general and breakout conference sessions as well as session descriptions, presenters, and locations. It is available in MS Word and PDF format.

• KLAS UC 2019 Agenda 05-30-2019 - MS Word
• KLAS UC 2019 Agenda 05-30-2019 - PDF

The Julie Klauber Award Committee and Keystone Systems are pleased to announce Brenda Boyd, Reader Advisor, South Carolina State Library Talking Book Services, is the recipient of the 2019 Julie Klauber Award. It was an incredibly difficult decision, but we were thrilled to have had three wonderful finalists from which to choose. We look forward to honoring Brenda on June 4 during the Opening General Session of the 2019 KLAS Users' Conference in West Palm Beach, FL.

This the nomination for Brenda submitted by Denise Lyons, Deputy Director of Statewide Development, South Carolina State Library:

Reason for Nomination

One of the most significant events that the State Library holds each year is the TBS Student Art Gallery and awards which is completely organized by Brenda Boyd. Children with different and special abilities, including a large number from the SC School for the Deaf & Blind, create pieces of art which are judged based on different age categories. All staff and people coming to the State Library are eligible to vote. The Director also selects a piece of art as a special recognition. It takes numerous months to plan such an event. There are the logistics of working with the art teachers well in advance of the contest and all the promotion needed to have the numerous selections. They need to be brought to the State Library for voting. After a month of voting, the winners are named in a press release and Brenda arranges the art on the first floor at the State Library, gallery style so that all may enjoy the art. All winners, families, and teachers are invited to the Awards Ceremony along with the TBS Advisory Board, patrons, and supporters. The awards are followed by a reception on the main floor. Staff help Brenda to implement a lovely and touching ceremony with the Agency Director as emcee and a guest speaker from the arts community. All participants receive some recognition. You can see albums of the last two awards here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/scsl/albums/72157679200574414 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/scsl/albums/72157692620252332. Staff attends the event and listens to guests talk about the importance of art for those with vision loss in particular and what inspires the young artists. Brenda coordinates the contest and the award ceremony each year and has done for several years. It is a program that has been copied by other State Library Talking Books Services. Brenda is a very strong advocate for the program and does tremendous work behind the scenes so that on the day of the event, everything looks lovely and runs smoothly. Art is celebrated and the artists and their supporters are recognized. The event is personal and heartwarming, and this spirit, the spirit of Julie Klauber, is in Brenda Boyd.

Effect on Library

Brenda’s ability to provide excellent service means that she takes as many calls a day as possible. The Readers Advisors take thousands of calls per month and there are only five RAs on staff. She provides regular and consistent information provided in a kind way to connect with the patron. We receive numerous recommendations from families who lose loved ones that used the service and from patrons themselves. Some comments from recent appreciation letters include “My grandmother is 93 years old and these books on tape are her LIFE,” wrote one patron while another expressed: “Thank you for sending me your Talking Books. They mean the world to me.” Finally, one gentleman in the southern part of the state wrote about his mother who passed, and he said “I want you to know how valuable this service is to those who cannot see.” Even one of our Library Board members recently wrote, “I can’t thank everyone for giving (name) her only pleasure these last several months. She lived with anticipation of the blue boxes in her mailbox. We are HUGE champions for this service.” Patrons sent donations to TBS based on appreciation for Brenda’s service, including one patron who stated they will set up a memorial in their will. This important service, running a special library within a library, is crucial to the culture of the State Library. We believe in serving the underserved and value inclusivity and accessibility in all we do. In the past few years, the TBS team has created a strong outreach program with accessible kits called the technology petting zoo, of which Brenda helps take into the field. They are working across departments to promote the service with the Communications Team and create an accessibility team with the Diversity and Inclusive Services consultant, part of the Library Development staff. These kind of cross-departmental programs are important for Agency staff to learn about the work of Talking Books and the patrons they serve. It is not only a mandate of ours but one we passionately embrace. For many staff, Brenda’s experience on the TBS team often makes her a great representative from TBS for committees and projects.

Job Responsibilities

Brenda is a Reader Advisor for the Talking Books Services department. Every day she provides assistance on the telephone to patrons to who call for a variety of services provided by the department. The TBS program is a lifeline for many elderly patrons who only have access to the talking book library (which includes digital and cassette recorders, large print, and braille collections) because it comes directly to their home. Others are restricted by health issues and cannot take advantage of traditional library service. Of the more than five thousand of TBS patrons, 226 are children. Being able to have a reliable system to access the information and connect to patrons preferences is an extremely important part of this very personal service. KLAS is most unique in this way and enables Brenda to be able to have reliable technology and a supportive community that assists the work serving our blind and physically handicapped community. Brenda is an active and knowledgeable user of the system, and participates in ongoing continuing education to increase her knowledge of the system and work of the Talking Books service.

Additional Comments

Brenda has been a wonderful asset to this agency, its work, and the work of Talking Books Services. Her dedication is unparalleled. She represents librarianship and its values in the best way, and stands as a model for others in the agency and across all libraries and service organizations. Thank you for your consideration.

Our "Stars of Keystone's Staff" series includes some basic info and insight into one of our staff members. We hope these posts will provide you a look into who makes up our diverse, supportive, and knowledgeable staff.

With KLAS 7.7 on the verge of general release and just a month until the 2019 KLAS Users' Conference, we thought it was a perfect time to let you learn more about Kyle Honeycutt, Keystone's Manager of Software Development in this instalment of our "Stars of Keystone" blog series.

Basic Stats:

Name: Kyle Honeycutt

Year Hired: 1994

Current Job Title: Manager of Software Development

Getting to Know You Q&A:

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?

A: Hearing of a need from customers, designing and programming a solution to that problem, and seeing the customers put that solution to use.

Q: What did you do before working for Keystone?

A: I was a student. This is my first job out of school. In school I did work as a lab assistant, helping other students debug their Assembly, C and Pascal programs.

Q: What are your hobbies outside of work?

A: I'm very active in my church, both working in teaching ministries, and working with the technology needs of the church. I am also the Secretary/Treasurer of a non-profit cemetery association, so I am actively involved in the management and operation of the cemetery. Otherwise, I do yard work, odd jobs, and garden work at our home in Raleigh and my home-place in Benson. We always had a large vegetable garden, and my Dad and I raised collards, a tradition I carried on after my Dad passed. I stopped most of that recent years, but hope to get back on my tractors in the near future.

Q: If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?

A: Home. I don't get to spend as much time at either of the places that I call home as I would like. Otherwise, I'd just like to spend a while traveling across the country, seeing the sights I've never seen and seeing how agriculture is done across our land.

Q: Do you have any pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

A: We have four cats – Maggie, Wendy, Teddy, and Stanley. We had not intended on adopting a fourth cat, but Stanley just showed up as a skinny stray a few days after Teddy got out. He's now a plump, happy part of the family.

Wendy is a sweet calico.

 Teddy is a black and white tuxedo kitty. He like lounging on laps.

Maggie is a grey tabby.

Stanley is a light orange tabby.

Our "Stars of Keystone's Staff" series includes some basic info and insight into one of our staff members. We hope these posts will provide you a look into who makes up our diverse, supportive, and knowledgeable staff.

With the upcoming release of KLAS 7.7, we thought it is good time to bring you our latest "Stars of Keystone Staff" so we can highlight our staff member who has helped to coordinate, support, and install many versions of KLAS in his time at Keystone. He is also the person our staff calls when we can't get on the VPN, we need our email account unlocked, or need to be reminded of how to log onto a customer's database after a change in IP address.

Basic Stats:

Name: Mark Gardner

Year Hired: 1985

Current Job Title: Manager of Systems and Networking

Getting to Know You Q&A:

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?

A: Solving problems, working on different projects, working with others

Q: What did you do before working for Keystone?

A: Programmer, Piedmont Microsystems

Q: What are your hobbies outside of work?

A: Country Music Concerts, Photography, Fantasy Basketball, Fishing, Anything blue (Doctor Who, M&M’s, etc)

Q: If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?

A: Austin Texas, Australia

Q: Do you have any pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

A: No pets, just occasional visits from our rabbits

Here’s the latest Notes from The Scribe for April 2019.

We are now Live on Version 7.7 and into a couple of upgrades.

When we last left you were just on to the Live Version of 7.7. Now we've had some updates and some issues were addressed. We are into at least our 4th iteration of updates and we've been live with full service to patrons since March 18.

First off, I'm happy to report that if you run into an issue it gets corrected pretty fast!!! There are some new tools for more accurate tracking of issues as they occur which allow Keystone to go right in and fix them. It's pretty impressive how fast some things can get resolved. I will tell you that the more detail you can provide, including screenshots, time of day and what you were doing when things happened makes things go much better.

Now onto the patrons and their experience...

From what we've gathered, so far, the patrons we have put on the new service, which we now call Books On Demand or BOD, have been impressed and enjoying the experience. What was once 12 patrons is now nearly 300 patrons as of this writing. We've been averaging adding 6-10 patrons a day. Our strategy has been to put all new patrons on the service, because this is all they will know and there will be no "bad" habits to break.

The other part has been adding transfer-in patrons and anyone who volunteers. Overall it's been a good experience. The other part now is adding existing (non-voluntary) patrons. This first batch of these patrons is a group of around 800 who use advanced digital talking book players (DA1), are not on BARD and have some form of automated (or Nightly) service type. To build a well-running service queue for patrons they have to be on a Nightly service type in order to serve them properly.

One caveat to this smooth running of nightly service types is in the Nightly List Only patrons. These are patrons who wish to be mainly served using their own lists of requests and reserves. The one preference that can also be used is a favorite authors, which should help supplement a list when it's empty. What we ran into initially were new patrons wishing to pick their own books but not offering up a list with anything on it. Also in many cased these patrons didn't give an authors to supplement requests. So this would cause a delay in getting their cartridges out to them while we backtracked or waited to get books. We want patrons, especially when they are new to the service, to be able to experience all of the advantages of this new system. Without any books to offer it will delay our ability to serve them in a timely manner and show them what things look like. As a solution to this issue we developed a curated list of books to offer up to patrons as a kind of sampler so they can see what we can offer them and so they can become familiar with their new digital talking book player and how things like the bookshelf work. This also offers staff a simple means of setting up patrons, as needed. Overall this has helped smooth out some of the initial wrinkles.

On another topic, in the last Notes from The Scribe we talked about tuning the number of books per turn per series takes some time to get adjusted just right. Our tuning of series to pull 2 books from series per turn has worked well. One additional area we needed to adjust was the number of reserves and requests per turn so that more of them will get turned over onto the patron service queue at a time. Along with this, we had some more seasoned patrons that we discovered were getting some newer books from favorite authors, since the system defaults to latest selections first, and they wanted to pull more of the back catalog of these items. So we adjusted the rules to pull oldest works first by Author just to see if this might help. So far so good. Things are working well. One other thing we tried out on 2 of our more particular patrons was setting up nightly auto-selection rules for them specifically and adjusting specific portions of their selections to tune them better and serve them more individually. In these cases, we have been successful in that they are much more satisfied with the individualized attention. This is a nice feature set to use in creating a more personalized experience.

On a final note, I have talked about putting into place good processes. What I would encourage beyond this is to allow these processes to adjust based on the people doing the job. The first part of a good process is seeing the bigger picture, but the second important part is to allow that bigger picture to account for the smaller parts that encompass the task by the people that are doing the task. One of the many benefits I have seen firsthand from this approach is having the people who are impacted the most become champions of the system and step up as teachers and trainers. Watching a process you have laid out being improved is quite satisfying. Seeing all of the things you envisioned at the beginning without being able to see it firsthand, is awesome. A couple of the following recent photos show a bit of staff interacting with the process. The way it looks in these photos is a little bit different than the original vision, but that's just fine.

Here's a couple of recent photos:

 A patron digital cartridge

 Inspection and inventory of BOD cartridges

Staff running BOD duplication

That's all for this edition of Notes From The Scribe. The next edition will come out with the next round of major updates and new features.

Below are the minutes taken during the KLAS Users' Group meeting held at the National Library Service 2018 Conference.

Carmencita Mitchell, 2019 KLAS Users' Conference Keynote Speaker

Carmencita, originally from New York, has made Palm Beach County her home for the past 16 years. She holds a baccalaureate degree in Humanities from New York University, an MA in English from St. John’s University, and an M. Ed in Higher Education Leadership from Lynn University. She has taught English Composition, Literature, Business Writing, and Public Speaking at several universities. She was a former faculty member of the American University of Nigeria where she held rank as full-time faculty, Director of the Writing Center, and teacher at the university high school.

Among her many research interests include: alternative modalities and composition pedagogy, including metaphysics and metacognition, medical humanities, yoga, and somatic studies, the philosophical constructs of the 18th century French Salon, and cultural studies.

She volunteers at and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Lighthouse for the Blind of the Palm Beaches. Carmencita was also appointed by the Palm Beach Board of County commissioners to the Palm Tran Service Board (PTSB)--and its two standing subcommittees--where she represents the disabled community at public meetings on issues of transportation. She has recently been elected Chair of that Board. Carmencita is also a member of the president’s advisory panel for the Hadley Institute for the Blind, where she offers advice on pedagogical improvements for the blind and visually impaired.Carmencita is presently an adjunct professor in the departments of communications, and developmental studies respectively at Palm Beach State College where she holds the distinction as the college’s first, visually impaired faculty member.

Finally, in addition to her academic pursuits and civic duties, Carmencita is also an approved Silver Sneakers Fitness and dance instructor and holds various certifications in yoga and group fitness as well as certifications in CPR, AED, and First Aid from the American Heart Association.
In her spare time, Carmencita enjoys yoga and reading Talking Books. She is devoted to the cause of helping the Blind and Visually Impaired community enjoy the “greatest quality of Life”.

Helene Kaufman Lundstrom, Welcome Reception Entertainment

Helene grew up in Bara, Sweden. Singing, dancing, and acting have been a big part of Helene’s life since childhood. She started singing in the church choir at age 11, the choir traveled around the country to perform. Around the same age, she joined a local acting group that worked on acting technique and improv when they had their classes. Helene got her first leading role in one of their musicals at the age of 14.

At age 14 Helene started taking voice lessons at the University of Music in Malmo where she studied for 3 years. She kept taking voice lessons, studying with 8 different teachers through her years of studying. Her real passion for dance started at age 11 when she started taking classes on a weekly basis, taking as many classes as time would allow :)

After finishing her performing arts-based high school Helene auditioned for the Ballet Academy in Gothenburg (Musical theater program) and she got in. Shortly after moving back home to Malmo she got the lead role as the Narrator in “Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamboat”, she played the role for 2 years to sold-out houses.

Helene got her big break as a singer/actress in 1995 when she was hired to do the voice over for Walt Disney’s movie, Pocahontas, in her native language, Swedish. In 1998 Helene was hired for Pocahontas II as well. Helene has also appeared in several episodes of TV's Disney’s Little Mermaid.

Helene’s passion for all 3 art forms, singing, dancing, and acting brought a clear path to musical theatre.
Helene’s favorite voice teacher, Jack Abraham, was the one, alongside with acting coach David Brunetti, the ones that started Helene’s journey to the US and the way into the USA was through AMDA in NYC.

In 2003 Helene met her husband while singing at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, FL and the following year made the move from NYC to Palm Beach.

After moving to FL Helene was working in musicals mainly but then moved into more of the band scene and corporate events, some of the places Helene has been seen at is The Breakers, Brazilian Court, The Colony, The Ritz, Hard Rock Casino, Isle Casino, The Addison, Club 21 in NYC and many more places.In 2007 Helene had the opportunity to open for Andrea Bocelli at a private birthday party in Fort Lauderdale.

Though classically trained, she is truly authentic and comfortable in any genre, pop, jazz, R&B, Broadway and classical. She has been able to be apart of musicals, corporate bands, voice over’s and being a studio session singer. In 2012 Helene was accepted into the Palm Beach Opera Chorus, she spent 5 years with the opera and did 8 operas at the beautiful Kravis center in West Palm Beach.

Early in her career, the following has been written in the Swedish press about Helene during her run in “Joseph” as the Narrator. “The Narrator, Helene Lundstrom, is blessed with a tremendously beautiful voice. The text is delivered in such a crystal clear fashion that not a single syllable is lost. She commands the stage with a natural, friendly presence.” “The Narrator, Helene Lundstrom, gives a flawless performance with regard to both acting and singing”

Helene got the Jullan Kindahl Grant in 1995. “Helene Lundstrom, the narrator in “Joseph” received SEK 5000, the reason for choosing her is as follows: An amateur who became a professional through her humble presence and strong charisma”

Praised by Disney; “Disney translator, Monica Forsberg was looking for new talent for the new Walt Disney movie Pocahontas. Helene was the perfect match. Disney in the U.S heaps praise on the young Swede, and say that she is the best foreign Pocahontas they have heard.”

It's almost time... after years of entering only five digits for your book numbers, NLS is nearly ready to roll over to DB100000. Wow!

Good news: this is not a Y2k situation. KLAS has always been capable of handling six-digit book numbers. In fact, that's why you've been entering them as DB0 all this time.

However, there will still likely be a few hiccups, and a lot of old habits, as you start entering those "DB1"s. Here are a few things to look at and think about...

Nightly ranges (Administrators)

Check your Nightly setup! The NSSubject program allows for a range to be entered, allowing you to force newer books to be selected first; make sure yours don't stop at 99999 (or even just 90000!). If you are in a system with branch libraries, check NSSubject-All as well.

Since this doesn't impact any staff workflows, we recommend you do this sooner rather than later. Check the attached screenshot for an example, and if you find this in your settings, update that DB099999 to DB199999 (or even DB999999).

If you feel any trepidation about updating your nightly settings, Keystone Customer Support will be happy to help!

Quick Requests

On the Quick Requests screen, you can use the Change Prefix button to switch from DB0 to just DB. However, it will go back to the default every time you log into KLAS. Never fear! You can change the default!

This change means you will need to type in the full six digits, starting with either 0 or 1. As a bonus: this will also help accommodate DBCs and DBFs, which may be more commonly requested if you transition to a high-volume duplication service model! It'll be a habit change for sure, but hopefully it won't slow you don't too much.

The other option, of course, is to backspace before entering a DB number over 100000. However, remember that these numbers will get more and more common. Eventually, you will want to either remove the 0 or advance the prefix to DB1 and backspace for the back catalog.

This default setting will apply to your entire branch, so you'll need to get everyone on board with one of these approaches. When you are ready to change the default, you'll find it in your Control Maintenance files: k7-CC - sequence 08 - Quick Request Prefix.

And again, this is a setting we are happy to adjust for you--just make sure that everyone in your branch is ready for the default to change!

Batch Add Items

Similar to the above, libraries that use the Batch Add Items function (mostly not copy-specific libraries) can update the default prefix in that tool. The location for that setting is Control Maintenance : k7-CT - sequence 07 - Batch Item Prefix.

...And what else?

As you go about your work for the next week or two, keep an eye out for "DB0" or anything you think could cause problems when DB100000 comes around.

If you find something or have a question, swing by the discussion post on the forum to let us know! Even if it seems obvious or if you aren't sure--your fellow libraries will appreciate the help as we all make this transition together.

And when that first six-digit book comes out, be sure to let me know what it is!

Keystone Systems and the 2019 Julie Klauber Award Committee are pleased to announce the three finalists for this year's Julie Klauber Award:

• Brenda Boyd, South Carolina State Library Talking Books Services
• Ruth Hemphill, Tennesee Library for Accessible Books & Media
• Maggie Witte, Kansas Talking Book Services

Congratulations to of each of you! You are each a valuable asset to your library and your community. Also, thank you to everyone who took the time to submit a nomination.

The recipient of the 2019 Julie Klauber Award will be announced in the near future.

Training your new staff on KLAS and / or getting refresher training for staff who have been using KLAS awhile is a topic that comes up in conversations with our customers on a regular basis. Back in May of 2018, Katy posted "Training Support", a Key Notes blog post asking for input on ideas for how Keystone can support your staff training goals. Please take a few minutes to go back and review this post again and share your feedback about the proposed Keystone training ideas on the linked "Training: How do you do it and how can we help?" forum post.

But, also please take a few minutes to look at the questions she asked for your input on including:

1. How do you train your staff?
2. What materials do you already use or what materials would you like to have?
3. What are your needs or wants in terms of evaluation, continuing education, certification?

In addition, I would like to continue the conversation with these questions:

1. What are your favorite KLAS training resources and methods?
2. What have you found to be the most effective resource to train new staff? What challenges have you had?
3. How do you keep established employees up to date on new features and functionality in KLAS? What keeps you from doing continuing KLAS training?

Please take some time to share your thoughts and ideas on the "Training: How do you do it and how can we help?" forum post. I'd love for this thread to turn into a valuable place other KLAS Users' looking for KLAS training hints and resources can turn to.

Hello, KLASusers! This week I thought I'd try something just a little different... let's talk about reporting, and specifically, what do you need to know?

KLAS has a lot of powerful options for finding information, from reports (there are some great ones featured in the Snapshot Reports blog post) to queries (and there are some good query tips on the Forum... check out the KLAS Core section of the Best of the Forum 2018 page). You can even combine queries and excel to search for information that isn't there.

But sometimes it's hard to know just where to look, and sometimes a piece of data you need can remain tantalizingly just out of reach.

So I'd like you to tell us what reporting information you're searching for!

Drop into the Forum Q&A: Let's Talk Reporting thread and see if you can stump us on:

• "Where do I find how many..."
• or "Is there a report that shows..."
• or even "Can I tell who..."

Bring all your reporting and data-finding questions and we'll do our best to bring you an answer!

There are a lot of exciting new features included in the KLAS 7.7 release, and they begin with a simplified installation process.

As part of the simplification, there will no longer be any external programs to install. Everything has been put into one installer so there are no longer separate steps to install a web client, support files, or XPrint. If you are currently using KLAS with Open VPN, this will be going away too. KLAS no longer needs a VPN connection to run, it instead will use https to establish a secure connection.

The new installer lets you choose how KLAS should be installed: For everyone who uses a computer – a process that would require admin access, or install for the current user only – which can typically be done without admin access even in secured environments.

The New Installation Process

To install KLAS 7.7, Keystone will provide you with two pieces – the KLAS installer and an Activation Code. This new installer (klas.exe) is digitally signed and will be used by all KLAS libraries. This will ensure that the version of KLAS installed is exactly the same version that was tested and verified at Keystone.

Double clicking the klas.exe icon launches a set-up wizard, similar to how KLAS installations has always worked but with a couple new options.

1. The first step is to specify your Activation Code. The code will be a long string of seemingly random characters, so copying the code from an email or text file is the best way to ensure the code is complete and correct.

2. The next screen allows you to choose how you want KLAS to install: either for anyone using the computer (which could require admin access in restricted environments) or for just your own user (which in many restricted environments is still allowed without admin access).

 After making this selection, the rest of the set-up process is pretty standard and the default options can be kept to complete the installation.

Why do we need an Active Code?

Since the same installer will be used by everyone, the Activation Code will ensure that you are connecting to the correct instance of the KLAS database for your library.

What does it mean to connect to an “instance” of KLAS? Historically you are used to seeing these as “live” and “training”. In KLAS 7.7, one KLAS installation will no longer set up both “live” and “training” shortcuts at the same time. Instead, the Activation Code will specify not only the KLAS library, but also which type of KLAS instance is being installed. Because of this, a unique Activation Code for “live” and a unique Activation Code for “training” will be provided to your library. The Activation Codes are not unique per user, but they are unique to your library. To install both live and training, two separate installs will need to be done using the same klas.exe installer but two different Activation Codes.

Updates

We will notify your organization when an update is available. Upgrades will most often be applied over-night and will be applied to the user workstations the next time KLAS is launched.

When you next open KLAS, you will be notified that there is an update that needs to be applied. Press the Update button and KLAS will automatically download and apply the upgrade to your workstation for you. Once the update is complete, the KLAS log in screen will display allowing you to log in to the now updated version of KLAS.

We are excited to roll out the KLAS 7.7 release. When it comes time for you to upgrade, we will provide you step-by-step installation instructions, the KLAS installer, and your Activation Codes to get you up and running smoothly and quickly!

Here’s the latest Notes from The Scribe for February 2019.

Where we're Live, Live, Live (on version 7.7)!!!

What we've noticed so far, after some initial stability issues on day of launch, is that the connections are much faster now.

This last month we transitioned from playing around with many more cartridge runs, thanks to having all 25 staff on the service now and our 12 pilot patrons are in full service mode now. Feedback, so far, has been mostly positive. We look to start all new patron on Books On Demand Service some time in March.

Staff have test driven the release notes for Version 7.7 and issues have been addressed and corrected. We're in a pretty good place right now.

With the latest update (Version 7.7.2), no more cross assignment of copies, which was an issue we initially had with the system assigning individual books available on the shelves even though someone was setup for duplication service. This doesn't happen anymore.

The service queue and orders tabs work well. They are a good team. One thing we've been able to use them for is some testing to make sure things like the Book announcement file is added and to make sure that the correct number of books are added to the cartridge in the order specified. We are thankful that this is here because prior to this we had to go in by a more back door method to see what's happening.

A recent article by Katy talked about series assignment and duplication service. I will tell you that, since having Nightly now being able to do series assignments as part of the duplication service, there are a couple of things to watch when you initially launch Version 7.7. First off, this way of assigning series books is new and was adapted from another type of Nightly process. We did discover something that will probably be addressed, but something to still check at first. Make sure that in your Nightly Setup you have the check box for Has Hads checked off. Otherwise, as we found out with our pilot patrons, they will probably be issued books they've had in a series before. Check the box and this goes away.

Secondly, tuning the number of books per turn per series takes some time to get adjusted just right. We currently have chosen to make 2 turns per run on Series. This allows for 2 books per series to be run per service queue. We do have one or two patrons that will be binge people. For these you can go in to Nightly and adjust on a per patron basis just this rule. Which is pretty cool when you put it into practice.

On a final note, I will say that you want to make sure you put good processes in place before you start using this system on a wider scale. Seeing how things will fit together and such is a good chance to update and take a closer look at how you serve patrons across your service. In our case we have a nice set of processes that we can look at for reference. The library's books on demand committee will be meeting again soon to talk about our steps of putting all new patrons on the service and moving forward with adding existing patrons. One area that looks good for this is our ILL patrons. I'm actually going through a list right now.

That's all for this edition of Notes From The Scribe. The next edition will come out with the next round of major updates and new features.

I have another 7.7 preview for you today!

As part of our continuing efforts to support the high-volume duplication service model, we have been working on another new tab for the Patron Module: the Orders tab.

Right now, both the cartridge itself and each of the titles loaded on it are listed individually on the Items tab, and it can be difficult to tell which titles were on which cartridge, or to tell which were pre-existing cartridges vs which were duplicated for the patron. Well, in KLAS version 7.7 and onwards, they will continue to be listed there, allowing you to continue using the tab you are already familiar with to quickly check whether a patron has had a certain title, what was the last thing sent, and so on.

However, when you need more detailed information or to see which titles were on which cartridge... now, you'll have the Orders tab.

For right now, this is a Read-Only tab, meaning that nothing can be changed or modified from this screen. However, you will be able to browse each duplication order sent to that patron in the top browse, and view all of the Titles from a specific order (and only the Titles from that order) in the bottom browse.

Using this tab, you'll be able to easily answer patron questions like "I accidentally sent the wrong one back! What was on the last cartridge you sent me?" or "Oh, what was that book I read right after the new Nora Roberts? It was the last one on the cartridge and I forgot to write the name down..." and even "Why did you send me that awful book?"

Here's a preview of what it looks like right now:

And there's more! While we think this will be a useful starting point, we have more development planned for the Orders tab, including:

More filtering options - such as Circ Status (Assigned, Out, Returned), date sent, and date returned

Functions - such as resend order (great for those "I didn't mean to send that one back!" patrons)

So what do you think? Is there something you'd like to find on this tab that isn't there yet? Any functions you want us to build in? Let us know!

Now that we've been doing this for a year, it's been great to take a step back, look at how it's going, and figure out places where we need to make adjustments. You may have already noticed some format changes in the weekly wrap-ups, trying to make it quicker and easier to scan through these and quickly spot any topics you may want to read up on. I will also be re-doubling my efforts to bring you great technical content (how-to's and development updates), but first: a look at the survey results.

First, I want to take a look at the question I felt had the most interesting responses! After the read more link, I'll go through the rest in order. (Note: questions are listed in heading 3 for easy browsing)

Would you like to see comments or tips from your fellow users? How comfortable do you feel commenting on the forums?
The second part of this question saw the full range or responses, from people who are confident and comfortable with replying, to those who are not at all. However: everyone who answered the first part of the question wanted to see tips or comments from other users!

I would encourage all of you to keep that in mind... even if you feel like you're newer to KLAS or if you suspect your comment might be too basic or even wrong... your fellow users want to hear from you! I promise, if I spot something that could use some correction or clarification, I will provide the extra info with respect.

Also, don't feel like you need to wait for me to post a topic that applies to you--you can post comments, tips, or questions any time, anywhere on the forums. They're here for you!

Do you read Key Notes blog posts?

• 45.8% Often
• 33.3% Once / Occasionally
• 12.5% Always
• 8.3% Nope

I think this is great! I'm so happy that so many of you are reading these posts often--and that others are dropping in occassionally for the topics that interest them.

And to the devoted "always" readers: you're awesome. Thank you so much for trusting us with your time and following along with us. That's exactly how I hope for this to work.

What are your favorite types of blog post?

• 91.3% Technical content
• 43.5% Users' Group content
• 34.8% Behind-the-Scenes at Keystone

We hear you! We will continue all types of content, but I will do my best to bring you the technical content you really, really want. And if there's a particular topic you want a "how-to" of or a feature you want a closer look at... let us know!

Do you like having a new post each week or would you prefer less to keep up with?

• 72.7% Weekly is good
• 27.3% Weekly is too often

I didn't know what to expect from these results, so I'm glad to hear our current format is working for most of you! For the rest: you have our blessing to skim the weekly wrap-ups and skip any weeks when you're too busy.

What do you think of our Notes from the Scribe guest posts?

• 57.1% Good, and I'd like to see more guest posts!
• 23.8% Good, but I'm not interested in other guest posts.
• 19% Not interested

We're so glad most of you are enjoying these! We'll also look for other opportunities to put up a guest post now and then... but if they don't interest you, don't worry. Guest posts will remain an occassional thing, and they'll be clearly marked in the wrap-ups so you can skip them.

Anything else you want us to know about the Key Notes Blog?
(Any topic requests? pet peeves? guest post volunteers?)

All of your comments are noted. In particular, I'd like to respond to one:

"It would be nice to be able to comment directly to a blog post instead of going into the forums."

I agree! Unfortunately, that is not something our current platform can do... but we will keep that feature in mind as we continue working to make this site more useful for you.

Do you read the Thursday Forum Tips?

• 70.8% Once / Occasionally
• 12.5% Often
• 8.3% Always
• 8.3% Nope

Very interesting! Since the tips are always short and sweet, I'd expected them to have a bigger following than the blog, but that doesn't quite seem to be the case!

I will watch for opportunities to make the Thursday forum posts even better, but in the meantime, I hope you'll continue to drop in occasionally for the tips that interest you... and maybe let a co-worker know if you see one that applies to their job duties. I'd appreciate your help in getting this content to the people who will find it useful!

Do you like weekly tips or would you prefer less to keep up with?

• 73.9% Weekly is good
• 26.1% Weekly is too often

Fairly close to the results for the blog... seems like weekly is still good for now, but between the 26 percent who find this too often and fact that most people only read them occasionally, we may decide to post fewer tips in the future. If we do, I'll try to make them twice as good to make up for it ;)

Have any of the tips encouraged you to try a new feature, change a setting, or do something differently in KLAS?

• 52.2% Yes, one or two
• 30.4% No
• 17.4% Yes, several

I thought this, along with the next question, might be a good metric for how useful the posts are. I'll be bearing the results in mind and thank you for the feedback.

If you come across a tip in the future that leads you to try something new or change something up, please reply on the forum or drop me an email to let me know. I'd love, love, love to know which tips strike a chord!

Have any of the tips prompted you to contact Customer Support for help or more information?

• 56.5% No
• 34.8% Yes, one or two
• 8.7% Yes, several

I'm sure Customer Support will be glad to hear I'm not inundating them as much as I could be! They're here any time you need them, but I will continue to strive to make things clear enough on their own that no additional help will be needed.

Anything else you want us to know about forum tips? Any topic suggestions or questions?

All comments are noted! To answer a couple questions:

"I also worry that they get buried on the forums. Maybe cross-post to a separate place on the main menu next to the Key Notes Blog on the left?"

Remember that you can always browse the forum by topic to check for any overlooked threads in areas that interest you--plus, you can subscribe to topics of interest, and hold onto the notification emails until you have time to follow up!

I think a list of everything might get too long to be useful, but I will create a "best of" page to keep track of and direct people to Thursday Tips that I think will remain relevant for longer. Thanks for the suggestion, and watch for this coming up soon!

"Are they moderated for content?"

Individual posts are not moderated--they go up right away. That said, we do moderate user accounts (only people who are confirmed KLAS users have their accounts confirmed) and only logged-in users can post.

Also, I am notified of everything posted to the forums and read it right away. I may occasionally move a post that I think belongs under a different topic, so that other users can find it easier, but I will never delete someone's comment (unless it is completely, objectively inappropriate, but I trust you all not to do that to me).

What prompts you to read content on KLASusers.com?

• 71.4% I read the Weekly Wrap-up email
• 57.1% I check the site on occasion
• 9.5% I read posts when a coworker or supervisor recommends them
• 4.8% I subscribed to the forums I'm interested in
• 4.8% I check the site regularly
• 0% I use an RSS feed

Looks like the wrap-up emails are working as intended! As I've said, we'll try to keep them easy to browse through so you can quickly spot topics that might interest you.

I'm surprised that so few have subscribed to a forum... this is a fantasic and very easy feature that I'd encourage you to consider! If there are one or two topics on the forums that apply to you (maybe NLS and KLAS Core for administrators, Patron Services for RAs?) give it a try. You will receive a clearly marked email with anything that is posted to that forum. And if you decide later that you'd rather not get those emails, you can always un-subscribe.

Conclusion

Anyways, thank you again for your time! I do think this will help us make this site and our other communications better and better. Also, I hope you will all feel free to contact me any time you have requests or specific feedback.

Here's to another great year and to making KLASusers.com the great resource you all deserve!