Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our next guest blog post in response to this request is from Sam Lundberg, Reader Advisor, New Mexico State Library, Library for the Blind & Print Disabled.

COVID-19 and the New Mexico Library for the Blind & Print Disabled

In large part because of our small size and flexible staff, the New Mexico LBPD has been able to stay open and continue service to all ~2,600 of our patrons. Of our 7 staff members, 5 are working from home and 2 are coming into the office daily, but never at the same time. One staffer handles all of our physical delivery, along with outgoing and incoming mail each morning. Meanwhile, the other staffer handles all DoD and equipment orders each afternoon. All of our RA work is done remotely, with our phones going directly to voicemail which we check repeatedly over the course of the day.

With New Mexico closing down hard and fast, we were able to see the shutdown coming and prepare as best we could. One of the biggest things we did was send out our newsletter early. We had a mostly complete draft ready, which we edited to include our COVID plans on the front page and rushed to get sent out. This, along with our voicemail recording, alerted each patron to the two basic facts that 1) we are still open, and 2) things will be delayed a bit. We had a minor panic attack when all staff were ordered to stay out of the State Library building on Friday of the first week, but we were quickly able to be designated as essential and limited staff allowed to return to the building on Monday.

One adjustment we made to accommodate our new staff schedule, with the help of Keystone, was to reschedule some of our nightly functions related to DoD so that they run mid-afternoon. This allows us to check in DoD cartridges and then have new orders created for those patrons the same day, preventing us from adding on an additional day of delay beyond the 4 days we are already quarantining all incoming mail.

Our patrons have generally been very understanding. We have several patrons who normally insist on a callback, or will call repeatedly until they catch a live RA, instead leave a voicemail with their order. I know I really appreciated this because those first couple weeks were rather frantic with patrons trying to order as many books as possible as nursing homes and other facilities across the state went into lockdown. We are right in the middle of our year-long DoD transition, and this provided great motivation to move many more patrons to DoD service. While we have not increased the cutoff values for our patrons across the board, we’re regularly manually assigning books well above our usual limits.

We are still calling back patrons when necessary, especially for BARD support and other more detailed problems. To avoid patrons being able to gather staff personal phone numbers, our RA responsible for the majority of callbacks set up a Google Voice temporary phone number, which she can set to “Do Not Disturb” during non-work hours. This has been an effective, if ad-hoc, solution.

This whole circumstance has offered up opportunities to tackle a few large projects that we’ve had on the back burner. Series sequence cataloging, flushing out our local subjects, and contacting inactive patrons, to name a few. We’ve also gotten involved in the Rating Unrated Books project, which is a nice change of pace when you need it.

I think we are in a stable place as a library and should be able to continue service at our current level for an extended time, although not at the highest level of service we’ve pushed hard for recently. There is outreach we’ve had to scrap and, while review of local narration projects continues, current narrations are on hold. Even though we cannot speak with every patron, we are still getting books out. Our staff will keep going like this as long as we need to, with the continued resilience and creativity necessary during these extraordinary times.

Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our next guest blog post in response to this request is from Jesse Medina, Manager of the California Department of Education Press.

CDE Press has been the publishing unit of the California Department of Education (CDE) for over 50 years. Until last year, CDE Press operated completely out of headquarters, located in Sacramento, California. I have been with CDE Press, in various capacities, for almost 14 years. Ever since I started, CDE Press staff could only fulfill orders on computers at work and customers had to call, email, or even fax their orders in. After years of trying to move our sales online, we finally completed the transition in August 2019. CDE Press was finally able to provide 24 hours a day/7 days a week access to our customers all over the world. It ended up being perfect timing for what would happen in 2020.

When the direction from the CDE Executive Office to try and telecommute as much as possible in March, CDE Press would be equipped to handle the needs of customers while also allowing staff to work from home. It took a few days for staff to get used to (me included) but I am thankful that we were in position to be able handle this transition as smoothly as we did. A lot of credit goes to my staff, who were willing to take on different tasks, be available at odd hours, and work with our customers to accommodate their needs and situations as best as we can.

On a personal note, I have been appreciative of this time that I get to work from home. My wife has been working from home for several years so she was used to it. I get to spend more time with her and our three dogs. They love to go back and forth between the office and where I work to supervise us. Sometimes they even show up, both visually and audibly, in my virtual meetings. We also live close to both of our parents and have been able to share those resources that have been in short supply these past few months. We try our best to support our local restaurants and businesses as we know they are having a tough time with the restrictions.

With my staff, my family, and work, I am very thankful and consider myself very lucky! I hope you all stay safe and healthy!

Jesse Medina, CDE Press Manager

Hello KLAS Users from Jen Buzolich, KLAS Users' Group Vice President!

On behalf of your KLAS Users Group Officers, we hope this message finds you, your friends and families, safe and healthy during these unprecedented times! Here in California, it is hard to believe that we have been out of the office since March 16! Our team, like many of yours, has been practicing our flexibility and adaptiveness as we figure out new ways to go out about our daily tasks and support our patrons!

As we move forward, please remember the KLAS community is here to support you! The Key Notes Blog will be featuring guest writers sharing about how their organization is responding to COVID-19. Also, be sure to check out KLASusers.com to hear what our BTBL and IRCs have been doing during this time, get some great tips and tricks for working remotely, or even cook up a new dinner recipe! Read below for more news and notes within the KLAS community:

• An IRC Roundtable, hosted by Kathy Segers of the Tennessee Instructional Resource Center took place last week. Kathy demonstrated how she and her team use KLAS to conduct their annual APH census, followed by open discussion time. Having the time to collaborate as an IRC group surrounding KLAS allows us to work and learn from each other! We are looking for another IRC to host the next IRC Roundtable. Hosts can plan a specific topic or have an open forum for discussion. If you have questions or are interesting in hosting, please reach out to Drea.
• David Perrotta from NLS sent out an e-mail regarding referral code updates to the listserv, and several librarians responded. Each library is determining the best way forward to adopt the new standardized referral codes from NLS. If you haven’t yet read the message from David, please check it out and bring your comments or questions to the NLS Forum on KLAS Users at http://klasusers.com//forum/nls .
• On May 19 starting at 1pm EST, Keystone will be hosting Users’ Group meetings. These sessions will provide an overview of the new features of KLAS, updates from Keystone, and even some organization-specific breakouts. More information will be coming!
• This summer the current KLAS Users’ Group officers will end their current terms and shift into their new roles. This leaves a vacancy for the Vice President role and elections will be conducted to identify a new candidate. If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please reach out to Drea. The role of the Vice President is a one-year term, followed by a one year term as President and one year as the Past President role.

Our KLAS Users' Group officers contacted some KLAS users to ask them to share how their library / organization is faring and what policy, service, or other changes they may have enacted in response to library closure or limited staffing related to Covid19. We welcome submissions from any KLAS user who wants to share their experience during this time. Please contact Chandra Thornton, President, KLAS Users' Group or Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems if you're interested in contributing a post.

Our first guest blog post in response to this request is from Danielle Miller, Director & Regional Librarian, Washington Talking Book & Braille Library.

COVID-19 and the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library

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We are all experiencing a crisis most of didn’t imagine we would be in, and might not have felt adequately prepared to manage. These are unprecedented times and our libraries are vital resources for our patrons, yet many of us are finding we are having to stop, decrease, or modify services to our patrons in response to the pandemic. Washington State was the initial U.S. coronavirus epicenter. Home to the first case of coronavirus, and the first death on February 29th was in King County, where the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) is located. On March 2nd there were 14 more cases, 6 more deaths, and schools began closing. In response to the growing concerns about patron, volunteer, and staff safety, that same day we implemented new procedures in handling our mail. All books, including DBs, braille, LP, and any new items, were checked in or processed using gloves. Incoming materials were then set aside and marked with the date and were quarantined (not put into circulation or inspection) for eight days. PCC or our proto Duplication on Demand patron cartridges were checked in like others, using gloves, and then the cartridges were disinfected and received new (previously unused, or not used for a period longer than 8 days) mailing containers. Machines were disinfected and also dated and set aside for a period of eight days before going back into circulation.

On March 3rd we sent a message to our volunteers about all the safety measures we were implementing at WTBBL and letting them know they only needed to come if they felt comfortable doing so. We were open and operating as normal, but adding precautions for everyone’s safety. Our maintenance custodian was disinfecting all door handles, tables, water fountains, and frequently touched surfaces at least three times a day. The surfaces and chairs in the audio recording booths were being disinfected throughout the day. We added Kleenex and hand sanitizer in multiple locations throughout the building, as well as adding hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes in the audio booths. We also put up notices in the building and at the volunteer sign-in station describing the precautions we were taking. We did see a decline in the number of volunteers coming to the library, but many still came, especially volunteer narrators and reviewers.

By March 15th, there were 772 confirmed cases and our Governor announced that all entertainment and recreational facilities, including bars and restaurants, were to close. The next day, WTBBL closed to the public and all volunteers. All staff continued to come to work and perform their regular duties and we continued circulation of materials as usual while following the safety measures previously outlined. On March 17th, the number of cases had jumped to 1,009 and we were anticipating that the Governor would soon issue a stay-at-home order. Worrying we would could be sent home at any time and not be able to send out materials, we decided to do a surge in our circulation to push our extra books to our patrons.

For all patrons with cutoffs between 4-16 books, we increased them all by four books. Our average daily circulation is between 1,200-1,500 items and we raised our daily circulation cutoff from 2,500 to 4,000. So on March 19, 20, 23, and 24, we did circs of over 4,000 digital books. More than we have ever done! This push got four additional books, over 16,000 cartridges to almost 4,000 patrons. We had started our push to get extra books out just in time, as on March 23rd, Governor Inslee announced a “stay home, stay healthy,” order effective March 25th, and currently in effect until May 5th but may yet be extended.

Beginning March 25th, all staff started working remotely. We are checking our voicemail remotely, encouraging people to sign up for BARD if that is an option for them, checking and answering our WTBBL email, approving BARD applications and providing BARD support by email, and posting to our social media. Some staff are also working on various cataloging projects, our Audio Book Production Department staff are working on editing and review as they can, and we have some transcription work for our Braille Department in progress.

For many staff, they are working on taking trainings and staying current on email. For the most part we have not been able to access the building, but as of April 15th, we were able to resume the delivery of our returned book mail and our First Class mail. On our first day we received 20 hampers of books. We will be receiving our mail delivery daily and I will be going in three days a week to process First Class mail. Unfortunately, we are unable to send out any books at this time. We are all hopeful we can begin to return to work and start circulating books again on May 5th. The digital divide experienced by so many of our users, and the many, many voicemails begging for books we can’t send demonstrate what an essential service our patrons believe we are. As soon as we are given the all clear, we’ll be ready to be all hands on deck to get through all our returned materials and start sending out books again, so that all may read.

In the past few days, we've gotten more than a few questions about how to setup KLAS and / or prepare your library for a work from remote situation. If you haven't seen our earlier announcement, make sure to read this Important Coronavirus Info first, then come back for some additional tips.

The frequently-asked-questions I'm sharing our tips for are:

1. How can you connect to KLAS if you use a Mac?
2. How can I quickly increase the number of books we're sending our patrons and / or titles we're duplicating onto a cartridge for them?

If you have any other inquiries about how to connect to KLAS remotely or other ways to prepare your staff, library, & patrons for these unique circumstances, please contact Keystone Customer Support.

Finally, because we know these are stressful times, make sure to check out the Off-Topic section of the forums to "meet" our Work-From-Home coworkers (formerly known as pets).

Tip 1:

How can you connect to KLAS if you use a Mac?

KLAS staff-side will work on a Mac if it is running Windows as a virtual machine (VM) - this can be done using Parallels or VirtualBox (For example, our Keystone staff who use Macs run Windows in Parallels and then can connect to the KLAS staff side). If the Mac is able to run a VM with Windows, the specs should be enough to run KLAS inside that VM.

• This article from PC Mag has some good examples of how to run a VM of Windows on a Mac - https://www.pcmag.com/news/how-to-run-windows-on-a-mac

Once you have a VM set up, installing and connecting to KLAS works just like it does on regular Windows. If you are running KLAS 7.7, you should be able to launch KLAS, log-in and start working immediately (though Self-Hosted customers may need additional support).

If you are a KLAS 7.6 library, to be able to run KLAS remotely you will need to run a current version of OpenVPN before opening KLAS. This is the same process that you use at your library, you just need to make sure the VPN software is installed on the laptop if it isn't already. If needed, Keystone customer support can assist making sure you can connect successfully using SimpleHelp.

Tip 2:

How can I quickly increase the number of books we're sending our patrons and / or titles we're duplicating onto a cartridge for them?

Increasing the number of titles your patrons can receive is a great way to help get them enough books to tide them over in for a bit while you might be short staffed, or if your library closes for a period of time. There are a few ways to approach this:

Raise NS Cutoff for Everyone

The simpliest, way to do this is to temporarily raise your NSCutoff for all patrons. However, be very cautious if you choose to go this route as you might be unintentionaly overwhelming your circ staff and sending books to patrons you don't really want to. If you can handle the extra circulation and want to make a bulk change for all patrons, please get in touch with us and let us assist!

We can run a program that will raise every patrons' NSCutoff by a specific number, while keeping a log of the original setting. This way, once you've pushed out the extra books, we can return everyone to their usual setting. Again, however, bear in mind that this method can create a lot of extra work for your staff.

Raise NS Cutoff for a Query Set

Another way to handle this is to increase the NSCutoff for a select group of patrons. For example, one library contacted our customer support team seeking help to just this, but they did not want to send anything to patrons who've been inactive for over a year because they hit their max number of books and haven't returned them.

The way we suggested going about this was to:

1. Do a query for Active Patrons with a Last Served Date between 1/1/2019 - today, and an NSCutoff of 20 (or your library's usual cap).
2. Once you're in the Query Set you can then use the Batch Update Patron Profile function to change the NSCutoff for the selected query set to your new max number of books.
3. Don't forget that you have a library-wide maximum as well as the individual patrons' NSCutoff. If you need assistance adjusting yours, just let us know what the new hard cutoff should be.

See below for a document with information about the Batch Update Patron Profile tool. Also, note that this tool is only available in 7.7; for 7.6, you will need to contact us for bulk changes.

Raise Max Titles on Cart

If you are operating in a Duplication on Demand service model, you can increase the "Max Titles on Cart" value to globally increase the number of titles you are having KLAS put on a cartridge.

1. Do a query for Active Patrons with a Delivery Method of Duplication.
2. Once you're in the Query Set, use the Batch Update Patron Profile function to change the Max Titles on Cart for the DB Medium.  Leave all other fields blank to keep their current values!

Here's a Quick Tip document on how to use "Batch Update Patron Profile".

• QuickTip BatchUpdatePatProfile - MS Word
• QuickTip BatchUpdatePatProfile - PDF

Finally, don't forget to check out the Off-Topic section of the forums to "meet" our Work-From-Home coworkers (formerly known as pets) if you need a little stress-relief.

As efforts to slow the spread of the Coronavirus / COVID-19 ramp up, we wanted to share some info with you all:

1) Keystone Support will still be available

We are prepared to work from home if needed, and currently have no plans to close or restrict hours.

2) Working from home with KLAS

Working from home can't help you keep up with circulation during closures, but letting Reader Advisors (and other staff who do their jobs only or primarily in KLAS) work from home is easy with v7.7.

Because KLAS v7.7 secures your connection with seamless HTTPS instead of a VPN, Keystone-Hosted users can connect from anywhere. So long as your staff have access to home internet, they can take KLAS home with them. It will just work--no VPN or additional set-up required.

If you are still on Keystone-hosted version 7.6, you can connect from home using the instructions we gave after recovering from the SAN failure. No special VPN required, just the correct version of the OpenVPN software. If you need us to re-send instructions, let us know.

For Self-Hosted users, additional set-up may be needed to connect to your servers off-site. For 7.7, we should be able to create an activation key that will allow remote access. For 7.6, start with your own IT, and let them know that we're here to assist if needed.

Finally, if you have reduced staff handling your mail, we have strategies in this Forum Post: Short Staffed? Strategies to keep up.

3) Quarantined Inventory

If you need to quarantine returned books or other inventory from some or all of your patrons, contact Customer Support.
We can help you set up an addition circulation status (NAC:QTN), allowing you to track what inventory is currently set aside to allow any contamination to die off. If you find other measures are called for, we can discuss your needs and help you determine the best strategy.

In short, please know that we are here to support you and any efforts you are taking to stay healthy and protect your patrons.

First, we'd like to share a note with you from James Burts, Keystone Executive Vice President,

"Dealing with the new realities of Covid-19 has certainly been a very strange time. At Keystone, we began having staff wanting to work from home and self-isolate on March 12th, and over the following 2 weeks had increasing numbers of staff opting to work from home. As of March 30th, our local county mandated that we all self-isolate and work from home. I certainly hope you’ve not seen a change in our ability to support you all.

Fortunately, we’d already taken the steps necessary to allow all our staff to work from home effectively— steps we’d taken expecting that it would help us in the event of a snowstorm or hurricane that made roads unsafe. Instead, the road are nearly empty, but it’s simply getting people together that’s unsafe. Who would have thought??

We continue to be available to help you and your staff in anyway we can. Whether that’s helping create new workflows to quarantine materials, or helping your staff work on record cleanup while they are working from home without access to your collection— we are here for you all. We have provided some ideas for managing these strange times on KlasUsers.com, and are always interested in hearing other ideas you may have. If you have any questions, or any ideas that you would like to implement, please reach out to us. We’ll be happy to help talk through your thoughts, and help address your needs."

Next up, as part of our ongoing work to support you, a few more tips and tricks, this time for:

1. Strategies for serving patrons when you have a restricted card run
2. Blocking service to prisons or other institutions

Or you can follow these links for our previous suggestions:

• How can you connect to KLAS if you use a Mac?
• How can I quickly increase the number of books we're sending our patrons and / or titles we're duplicating onto a cartridge for them?
• Do I need to shut off Nightly?
• WebOPAC Notice
• Emailing your newsletter
• Record clean-up

Tip 1:

Strategies for serving patrons when you have a restricted card run.

Nightly sorts patrons that need service by:

1. Serve Code (least frequent to most frequent, with List Only ahead of Autoselect)
2. Last Served date (none to oldest to most recent)

This gives priority to patrons who haven’t been served for a while, and gives List Only patrons a better chance of getting their titles before they go out to Autoselect patrons. Under normal circumstances, this setup ensures that everyone will be served in a reasonable timeframe, even if you restrict your card run and don’t get to everyone who needs service each day.

However, these are not normal circumstances. If you’re currently running on a skeleton crew and severely limited card run, your Nightly Auto patrons might languish at the end of the list.

While these circumstances are in place, or even when the floodgates re-open and you need to play catch-up, you may want to switch up this order from time to time. If you would like to change up the order of the Nightly sort to give different patrons a shot at getting books, please contact Keystone Customer Support—and then be sure to let us know when we should put it back.

Tip 2:

Blocking service to prisons or other institutions:

If your Department of Corrections requires that service is suspended during this time, we can apply a block to all inmates for you. This will stop all circulation to those patrons for a specified period of time, though it does not impact their NLS direct magazines. Please let us know how to identify incarcerated patrons (such as by Patron Type), and how long you need the block to remain in place.

If a nursing home or other facility requests that you stop service to their patrons, you can apply a similar block. You would first need to set up a "Quarantine" block (let us know if you need assistance). Then, find the patrons who live in that place and add the block to each record. If you don't already have relationships set up linking the patrons to the facility, you can find them by querying on the address.

Quick Search –

• Main Status | Equals | A
• City | Equals | Raleigh

Advanced Search –

• Address | Street Address | Matches | 8016 Glenwood

This query will limit your results to active records in the target city, with an address matching the facility’s street address. The idea is to be just specific enough, hence why I recommend searching the street address only for the number and street name. If it isn’t a common street, you might even leave off the number, and review results to see if the facility has multiple buildings.

And that's it for this week's tips! We hope these have been helpful for you; please continue to let us know how we can help!

As we continue to answer questions and work with libraries to handle this challenging situation, I wanted to share some additional tips gleaned from our inbox and experiences working with your fellow users.

1. Do I need to shut off Nightly?
2. WebOPAC Notice
3. Emailing your newsletter
4. Record clean-up

If you have any other inquiries, please continue to contact Keystone Customer Support--we're still here to help!

Finally, because we know these are stressful times, make sure to check out the Off-Topic section of the forums to "meet" our Work-From-Home coworkers (formerly known as pets).

Tip 1:

Do I need to shut off Nightly while no one is in the library to handle circulation?

Short answer: Nope! The majority of Nightly circuation is generated by check-ins, so without any check-ins, the volume of assignments created drops steeply. It may find a few additional things over the next few days, but the number of assignments will continue to drop day by day until it has done all it can. Those assignments will then sit around until someone can come in and send them out, and that's fine! They don't expire and they don't interfere with downloads; though they might frustrate OPAC users who see the assigned Titles sitting on their Has Now lists that'll be it.

Tip 2:

WebOPAC Notice recommendations

Have you posted a notice on your OPAC yet? This is an easy avenue to get information out to patrons and those who order for them.

Something we saw one library include that we think is a great idea: Include the recommendation that patrons keep the books they currently have until you re-open! Not only will this keep them out of the pile of books awaiting your return, but even better, it will give them at least something to listen to in the meantime.

You can also let patrons know that local downloads (such as Shelf titles) along with BARD will remain available.

Need help posting the notice? Just send the full text with any formatting you want to , and we'll be happy to post it for you!

Tip 3:

Emailing your Newsletter

If you can't get to the office to physically mail a large print newsletter, you can at least email the contents to those subscribers who have an email in KLAS.

In KLAS 7.7, you can get a list of these patrons and their emails to export using this query:

• Patron - Main Status - Begins - a
• Subscription - KlasID - Equals - (your large print newsletter's KLAS ID, for example SER-NEW2)
• Subscription - End Date - Equals - ?
• Media - Pat Medium - Begins - L
• Media - CirMagStatus - Equals - a
• Address - EMail Addr - Is Between - 0 - ZZZZZZZZ

Version 7.6 does not have the ability to query on Subscription in the Patron module, so that one is a bit more complicated. If you are still on KLAS 7.7.6 and need a list of subscriber emails, let us know.

Tip 4:

Record clean-up recommendations

With circulation tasks unavailable, some staff may find themselves with extra time. If so: this is a great time to do some patron maintenance and catalog clean-up!

Patron module:

• Take a look at the Insufficient Requests Report to find patrons with as many or fewer requests as their NS Cutoff. You may need to contact these patrons to update their request list, or determine that they want to suspend their service. (Reports Menu -> Items and Titles -> Insufficient Requests)
• The Patrons Below Cutoff Report will find those patrons KLAS has been unable to serve, even after running Nightly a few times without check-ins. These patrons may need additional subject preferences or requests, or to have their older HasHads cleared out (for example, a patron who only reads Westerns). On the other hand, there may be something stopping them from getting service, such as no Reading Level or Language! (Reports Menu -> Service Provision -> Patrons Below Cutoff Report)
• The AutoSelect with No Subjects pre-defined Query is always good to check on now and then, to find patrons who either need to provide reading preferences or be switched to List-Only service. (Query Menu -> AutoSelect w/ No Subjects)
• And finally, the Batch Patron Status Review tool is the best way to find and review patrons who haven't been served in a long time, and Suspend them. Additionally, you can review patrons who have been Suspended for a long time and make them Withdrawn and purged.

Catalog module:

We have some Catalog clean-up tasks in the Are you Ready for Duplication? (And is your Catalog?) post.

Additionally, you can query for:

• Language - Not In - ENG,SPA (comma-separated list of all the languages your library has records for)

--to turn up any records with invalid language codes.

Anything else you want to check for? Need help with a strategy to fix something you've found? Let us know how we can help!

And that's it for this week's tips! Don't forget to check out the Off-Topic section of the forums to "meet" our Work-From-Home coworkers if you need a little stress-relief.

With the Governor of North Carolina's stay at home order going into effect, all Keystone staff are now working remotely. We're extremely happy to be able to continue you providing the support and services you have come to expect from us even during this challenging time. Our past few blog posts have been focused on tips and tricks to help you continue working and providing as many books to your patrons as possible depending on your library's current status. This week we'd like to share something a bit lighter, so here's some recipes from Keystone staff we like to cook when we're stuck at home.

Read on for our Keystone Quarantine Kitchen Recipes including:

• Sour Cream Pound Cake
• Margon's Brownies
• Crawfish Etouffee
• Homemade Chex Mix
• Mac & Cheese Pizza
• Sweet Potato biscuits
• Greek meatballs, burgers, or meatloaf
• Butternut squash and sausage soup

From Nancy Underwood Honeycutt, Manager, Customer Support

Nancy shared her recipes saying, "My brother just asked for my mom's recipe for pound cake. Turns out it is the same as what Paula Deen uses. I figure mom cut it out of the newspaper or magazine. I'll also send a bonus recipe for brownies."

Sour Cream Pound Cake

2 sticks butter
3 C sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp - 1 tbs vanilla
3 C flour
1 C sour cream
1/2 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar with mixer.
Add eggs and beat, followed with the rest of the ingredients
Bake in greased tub or bundt pan at 300 until knife inserted comes out clean and top is brown - about 1 1/2 hours.

Margon's brownies

(from family friends. We assume Margon was a relative in Nebraska)

3/4 C butter
3 squares chocolate
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 3/4 C flour
vanilla
optional -nuts

Melt chocolate and butter. Add to sugar and eggs and mix. Add flour, vanilla & nuts
13x 9 pan
250 degree oven
1 hour.
The top of the brownies gets a nice crust on it.

From Brian White, Senior Developer

Crawfish Etouffee

It's hard to beat Crawfish Etouffee. Since the frozen crawfish are available at WalMarts everywhere, it should be doable for most customers.

Emeril's recipe will suit just fine - https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/crawfish-etouffee-1-3645763

From Mitake Burts, Vice President, Products & Technology

Homemade Check Mix

This page has a number of different Chex Party Mix Recipes: https://www.chex.com/recipes/?chex-mix

Mitake says, "The advantage of making your own is that you can decide that cashews are vastly superior to mixed nuts, and not have to pick around the parts you don’t like."

From Katy Patrick, Technical Writer

Mac & Cheese Pizza

My family's favorite comfort food is Mac & Cheese Pizza.

Cook Mac & Cheese according to the box
Add a large egg and stir
Spread into foil-lined pizza pan. Or use a pie pan for a thicker "crust".
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes
Remove from oven, cover in pizza sauce, and add your favorite pizza toppings
Put back in the oven until the extra cheese is melted. I like to turn the broiler on at the end for a little extra crispness to the toppings!

From Marion Campbell, Customer Service Representative

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Here's what's cookin': Sweet Potatoe Biscuits
From the kitchen of: Dorothy Wright

4 cups packed of sweet potatoes
1 cup Crisco
1 cup of sugar
4 cups of self-rising flour

Peel sweet potatoes and boil until done.
While hot mash and add to them Crisco, sugar, and flour.
Mix good.
Work into biscuits.
More flour is sometimes needed. Depends on wetness of potatoe to be able to handle the mixture.
Bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes. Depending on size of biscuits.
Mix handles better if cooled.
Bake on greased cookie sheet.

From Drea Callicutt, Marketing, Sales & Communications Coordinator

Greek Meatballs

1 lb. ground turkey
1 package feta cheese
1 10-ounce box frozen spinach, thawed
1 raw egg
Greek Seasoning (I prefer Cavender's )
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 of a small red onion, diced
Italian Bread Crumbs
Oregano
Salt (I prefer Kosher Salt)
Black Pepper (I prefer Fresh Ground)
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Butter
Cookie Sheet

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the olive oil and the butter. When the butter melts, add the chopped red onion and chopped garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer the onion and garlic to a large bowl to cool.
Add ground turkey, feta, greek seasoning, egg, garlic, onions, and spinach to a large mixing bowl. Then add the Greek Seasoning, Oregano, Salt & pepper to taste.
Get your hands dirty. Take off your jewelry and stick your hands in the bowl and start mixing it all together. The bread crumbs you add incrementally until you get a good consistency. You want to mixture to be moist but not runny. If you add too many bread crumbs, you can always add another egg for more moisture.
Wipe a cookie sheet down with Olive Oil.
Roll meatballs together between your palms and place on the cookie sheet approximately 2" apart.
Bake for 30 minutes and 350 degrees.

Notes: I use this same recipe to make burgers, meatloaf and meatballs. For the burgers, I can get 3-4 from 1 lb. of ground turkey and will either pan cook them in some olive oil, or grill them. For meatloaf, I place the whole mixture in a loaf pan greased with a bit of olive oil and then cook it at 350 for approximately 1 hour. Meatballs can either be pan fried or baked. I prefer baked cause it helps to reduce the amount of fat.

Butternut squash sausage soup

8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
3 carrots chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1 onion chopped
1 butternut squash
3 cloves minced garlic
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Sage
Tarragon
Parsley
Ginger
8 oz Cream cheese
1 lb sausage

Preheat oven to 400*F.
Half butternut squash lengthwise and put in a casserole dish.
Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper.
Cook at 400* for approximately 45 minutes or until you can easily spear it with a fork.
Remove squash and set aside.
In a large pot sautée onions and garlic in olive oil on medium heat.
Season with salt & pepper.
Add stock, carrots, and celery.
Add sage, tarragon, parsley, and ginger to taste.
Scrape roasted squash out of skin and transfer to the pot.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, put lid on pot and let simmer for 2 hours.
Use immersion blender to combine vegetables until smooth.
Add cream cheese and blend again.
Brown sausage and transfer to pot.
Cook for another 20-30 minutes.
Serve.

While NLS provides the majority of the Talking Books collection, many libraries supplement this with locally recorded books and magazines. You've put a lot of time and resources into these titles, so of course you want to make sure these can get to your patrons, or even to share them with the other network libraries! But, as with everything else, the new Duplication service model and January's major server failure posed some disruptions to this. Let's take a look at where everything stands now, and where we're heading.

Read on for:

• DBCs available on BARD
• SHELF Titles
• Other Local Titles (Including Serials!)

Hopefully this will help answer your questions about making Locally Produced Titles available to your patrons and to the network!

DBCs available on BARD -

Locally produced books that have been through NLS' process and are avaible on BARD are fully supported for Duplication on Demand with any hardware setup (Gutenberg, Scribe, or traditional PCC). All you need are the BibRecs--any local storage using R-sync or any Duplication hardware can receive the files via NLS, and KLAS' automatic eDoc generation will make sure that aspect is in place. If you do not yet include DBCs in your regular MARC loads, and are moving to duplication soon, contact Customer Support to get them added in!

SHELF Titles -

The SHELF Project was created to support the sharing of locally produced titles before NLS provided the option to submit them to BARD, and is still in use. Libraries may chose to share titles via SHELF if they do not meet all of NLS' criteria, or if they have not yet been submitted (such as when a library has a large back-log of local titles). Additionally, SHELF supports serial titles such as magazines.

Unfortunately, SHELF was hit hard by the loss of our SAN server and back-up. Nothing was lost and support for downloading the existing Shelf Titles is still in place! However, the ability to upload new files to our new server is still a work in progress.

As part of this work, the database used to host SHELF has been upgraded from KLAS 7.5 to 7.7--requiring all of the SHELF-specific functionalities to be imported to the 7.7 baseline. While doing this, our developers are actively working on some long wait-listed improvements.

The ability to upload new titles to this new SHELF database and for SHELF to then distribute the MARC records and eDocs for those titles to the other SHELF libraries is still in process, but we expect it to be finished soon. When these are available again, they should be easier and better than ever! Here's how we expect it to work:

• File uploads will still use an FTP client, now directed to books.klas.com (just like other local titles for Scribe).
• The SHELF database will create BibRecs using the originating Library ID and original KLAS ID (E.g. UCSC-VDB0002). The originating Library ID, original KLAS ID, and SHLEF's new KLAS ID are kept in the 901 tag which gets propagated out to libraries.
  Serial titles will actually use serial records, rather than kludged monograph records.
• The BibRec Import/Export procedure is simplified to be more purely based on the MARC. There is no separate XML structure passed around for BibRec information or eDoc information.
• Edocs in the recieving libraries are created using the 856 tag information in the MARC data, making the titles downloadable over the WebOPAC.

Finally, once all of this is in place, SHELF titles will be fully supported for duplication via Scribe! Duplication will also be possible on Gutenberg or traditional PCC, but you may need to follow the procedures in the next section to make the files available to your duplication hardware and to generate eDocs that are valid for that system.

Again, all of this is still in the works, but watch the Release Lists and the Friday Wrap-up emails because it should be coming soon. I will also be making more specific how-to information available when the workflows are finalized and available.

Other Local Titles -

To Duplicate any title, you need three pieces: a BibRec, a file, and an eDoc that connects the two. To Duplicate local titles that are not availble on BARD, you will need to make the file available to your duplication hardware another way.

For Scribe: You may use your own local storage device (as with traditional PCC), but the Scribe Mini has it's own internal storage which makes this unnecessary. To add local tiles to your Scribe unit(s), you can upload the files to the centralized storage depository (books.klas.com) using any FTP Client. Shelf Titles will automatically be available, no extra upload needed. Serials are also fully supported!

In the future, we hope to support uploading local titles through KLAS itself rather than needing an FTP Client, but in the meantime, follow these instructions to upload local Titles to your Scribe:

• QuickTip - Upload Local Titles (Scribe)

For Gutenberg: It is also possible to duplicate local titles on Gutenberg, but please contact NLS for instructions on uploading the files. Support for local Serials on Gutenberg is in-process--we are just waiting on some assistance from NLS for final testing. 

• QuickTip - Upload Local Titles (Gutenberg)

For Traditional PCC: Because traditional PCC setups use a variety of storage solutions, it is hard to provide general instructions. However, most solutions allow you to connect to your local storage and add files via the network. Serials should work with traditional PCC. However, bear in mind that all local issues would need to be re-uploaded on a Scribe or Gutenberg once you transition. As such, we recommend you wait for SHELF to be available or for your choice of duplication hardware to arrive.

For Any: With any of these systems, once the files are in the right location and you have a matching BibRec, KLAS will create the eDocs overnight. Full instructions for using local Serials with duplication (currently available for Scribe and PCC, available soon for Gutenberg) are available:

• HowTo - Local Serials (Scribe)
• HowTo - Local Serials (Gutenberg)

"Hot off the Press" is blog series from guest blogger, Teresa Kalber. Teresa is the Network Systems Administrator at Colorado Talking Book Library. In this series, she shares her library's experience being one of the first two KLAS libraries to implement NLS' Gutenberg equipment.

The first four posts in the series are here:

• Hot off the Press: Part 1
• Hot off the Press: Part 2
• Hot off the Press: Part 3
• Hot off the Press: Part 4

Hot off the Press: Part 5, Problems and ongoing issues

Here is a recap of some of the issues we have/are experiencing with Gutenberg.

Service Queue/Order issues:

• With DoD, patrons now have to the entire collection on BARD. Because of this they are getting books in subjects they may not have been before and also getting a lot of the newer books. We get a lot of RA calls for patrons saying I would never order books like this. The RAs go through their subjects and work with them on getting them the type of books they like. This has brought up the issue that there is no easy way to empty the service queue. Each item must be deleted one at a time. If all the items are deleted out of the queue, KLAS hangs up and usually needs to be restarted.
• Because of the issue above, we are still in flux as to the default number of books we want in the service queue and where the refill point should be. This has also been problematic for us as it results in cartridges going out with less than the 10 we have them set for.
• When RAs are trying to create an order for a patron, it takes our system over 5 minutes to open the “Create Dup Order From Queue” screen. This makes it difficult to create orders for patrons when also taking phone calls because of the time involved. Many times they will have to make a note and go back and create the patron’s order later.
• Cartridges will go out for our on-demand patrons, so we need to have their NS Cutoff set to 0 to prevent that from happening.
• Local Recordings:
• We have been working with both NLS and Keystone to figure out how to get our locally recorded books that are not on BARD to work with Gutenberg. We think we have come up with a solution, but it will take some time to implement.
• Keystone is also working on having functionality for Serials in place for Gutenberg so that we can put our local newsletter on the duplications cartridges.

Cartridge Errors:

• When the service queue is filled, it will select books from our local recordings for patrons. Because we had not solved the problem with our local books, this would cause the cartridge have an “error” status. There is currently not a way to run reports or queries in KLAS to find these errors and make sure those patrons are getting service.
• Also for cartridges that are in error status – the books on the cartridge are not added as a has-had to the patrons record since the cartridge never got checked out. But since the cartridge is on the orders tab, those books are not eligible for selection. There is currently no easy way to get those books back on the service queue.

Gutenberg Hubs:

• Sometimes a cartridge is scanned and the internal and external barcode have not been linked. There is a way to configure a port on the Gutenberg machine to plug in a cartridge and have that connection made. NLS is now sending out the machines with this port already configured. Ours was not sent that way and I had to create the port myself. Once I configured the port, Gutenberg stopped recognizing the first hub in the toaster rack attached to that computer. I don’t know if the two events were related since we have ongoing issues with Gutenberg not recognizing hubs at various times. We are working with NLS on this. It’s a fairly simple fix, but it is an issue.
• Offender (Inmate) Accounts:
• We handle our offender mail separately from our other patrons’ mail. Because of this, we have not converted our offenders to duplication service since we don’t currently have a way to run their cartridge orders separately from the rest of the orders.
• Cartridge issues:
• We ordered a supply of cartridges from Perkins to help with the problem of large orders being created. The Perkins cartridges do not have external barcodes on them. We had to work with NLS to figure out a way to be able to use these cartridges with Gutenberg. Since we placed the order, KLAS put a fix in place to prevent orders larger than 4GB to be sent to Gutenberg for copying.
• We also ran into problems trying to repurpose the green cartridges we purchased to use. NLS had to make a setting change in Gutenberg for us to be able to use these cartridges with the system. However, we have to go into another computer, plug in the cartridges and unlock them with the DTB Protect software before we can use them with Gutenberg.

I hope you enjoyed my posts on our conversion experience. Both Debbi and I have documents we kept during the process that we would be happy to share. I’ve also started a post in the discussion forum if you have questions or would like me to cover something not included in these posts.

"Hot off the Press" is blog series from guest blogger, Teresa Kalber. Teresa is the Network Systems Administrator at Colorado Talking Book Library. In this series, she shares her library's experience being one of the first two KLAS libraries to implement NLS' Gutenberg equipment.

The first three posts in the series are here:

• Hot off the Press: Part 1
• Hot off the Press: Part 2
• Hot off the Press: Part 3

Hot off the Press: Part 4, Converting existing patrons

On November 4th, we began the process of converting our existing patrons over to the duplication model. We decided to go with our high-demand patrons (we have a separate patron type for high-demand) first, followed by students. Then we worked on converting the remainder of our patrons based on the number of books they were receiving. We initially set patrons up to get 1 cartridge with 10 books on it.

The first day I converted 100 patrons over. However, I realized that in order to complete the conversion by the end of the year, we would need to convert more than that each day. After discussing this with our mailroom supervisor, it was decided to convert 200 patrons each day.

As I ran queries in KLAS to find the patrons I needed to convert, I created Excel spreadsheets with lists of 200 patron ID’s and saved them as text files with the date I was converting them to DoD. Then I could pull the query into KLAS and use the Batch Update Profile tool to convert all 200 patrons at one time. Then I would scroll through the records to verify everything looked like it should.
One of the problems we had early on was duplication orders being sent to patrons that had a block on their account. As I was scrolling through the patrons, I would find those patrons and make their digital book service inactive so no cartridges would go out. Once the problem was fixed in KLAS, I changed all these patrons back to active for digital books, so those that had an automated date to restart service would get a cartridge.

One week after a patron was converted to DoD, I would to run the same query again and bump their number of cartridges up to 2, and after another week, set them to our max of 3 cartridges. We gradually increased their number so they didn’t get all 3 cartridges at once and also to try and not overwhelm mailroom staff.

Most days, we were getting around 250 orders. We figured once our conversion was done, we would get somewhere between 300-400 cartridges per day. In order to try and meet those numbers and see how it would affect mailroom staff, I upped the number of patrons being converted to DoD to 300 per day.

Around mid-November, we noticed that KLAS and Gutenberg didn’t appear to by syncing again. Orders we created in the morning we not being sent to the Gutenberg machines. We were unable to serve walk-in patrons because their orders wouldn’t go through. After looking into the problem, we discovered that the batch manager was being overwhelmed with creating service queues for the patrons I had converted that morning. After figuring out this was the problem, I didn’t do conversions until after 3:30 in the afternoon. John C. at Keystone also mentioned putting something in place on KLAS so the service queue would function more efficiently (not sure if this was done or not).

Around the same time, NLS had problems with one of their servers, and our duplication order didn’t run in the morning. Because I had converted patrons in the morning, our order didn’t start copying until 3:30 in the afternoon. That caused us to have almost 1000 cartridges the next day. I guess it was a good test for how much duplication we can get done in a day.

With this large order, we realized the copying process went fairly quickly and we could easily make this many cartridges each day. However, printing the mailing cards took most of the day. So we decided to invest in a 2nd printer to alleviate the bottleneck at the printer.

On 12/3, I converted the remainder of our individual patrons to duplication and also the 200 organization accounts we had on automated digital book service. This resulted in our largest duplication order of 1,015 cartridges, although I’m not sure why. Once this conversion was done, I spent the next 2 weeks moving all the patrons up to 3 cartridges each. The process was completely done by 12/11/19, which worked out great since we needed to be closed the week on 12/16 due to a building maintenance issue.

Statistics for 11/4/2019 – 12/31/2019:

• 15,721 cartridges sent out
• 3,790 cartridges returned
• 4,711 patrons received duplication cartridges

Up next: Problems and ongoing issues

"Hot off the Press" is blog series from guest blogger, Teresa Kalber. Teresa is the Network Systems Administrator at Colorado Talking Book Library. In this series, she will be shares her library's experience being one of the first two KLAS libraries to implement NLS' Gutenberg equipment.

The first two posts in the series are here:

• Hot off the Press: Part 1
• Hot off the Press: Part 2

Hot off the Press: Part 3, The Pilot

We received our equipment on a Friday and got everything working on the following Monday. Even though we had the system working on Sept. 23rd, we didn’t do any testing until I returned to the office on Sept. 30th.

When the Gutenberg system is first installed, it is operating in “sandbox” mode and is connected to the preview database for KLAS. We tried to push through a few orders for staff from the preview database, but they weren’t being copied onto cartridges. It was finally determined that KLAS and Gutenberg weren’t syncing with each other so the orders weren’t getting processed. Once Keystone restarted the syncing process, the orders came through. So on Oct. 2nd, we switched from sandbox to production mode so we could really test the system by starting the pilot.

We began the pilot with 50 existing patrons. For the existing patrons, we decided we would send out 2 cartridges with 3 books on them so we could get them back during the month long pilot and test the return part of the system too. We also made the decision to not send books out to new patrons about a week before we started the pilot. So since the end of September, all the new patrons have been put on the duplication model. New patrons were set-up to receive 3 cartridges with 10 books each on them.

On Oct. 3rd, we sent out our first 76 DoD cartridges! Yay!

The most consistent problem we noticed in the first few weeks of running Gutenberg was that daily KLAS and Gutenberg would stop syncing and we’d have to contact Keystone to restart the process. Because the problem was so consistent they wrote a temporary fix to automatically restart the service each morning to try to help with the process. Within 2 weeks of starting the pilot the problem has been solved and a fix applied during an update of KLAS.

We also had problems with serving walk-in patrons due to the time it would take to process an order. At first, Keystone and Gutenberg were only syncing every 15 minutes. So we would place an order and potentially have to wait up to 15 minutes to see if the order synced or not. If it didn’t sync and we needed to contact Keystone to restart the service, another 15 minutes would pass. Many times we would just pull individual books from the shelves and check them out using front desk since we are unable to assign books to a duplication patron. However, I believe the sync times have been cut down and we don’t usually have problems serving walk-ins now. An order for a walk-in patron, will be sent fairly quickly, even if we are still in the midst of making cartridges for the day. So mail room staff have to check mail cards as they scan each completed cartridge to look for the walk-in patron’s order.

A big learning curve came in how to best figure out how to set the nightly settings for DoD, since it works a little differently than it did before. When I would call Nancy, she would tell me “theoretically” it should work this way. I had to just make adjustments and then see what happened afterwards. Luckily our pilot patrons were very understanding during the process.

Other minor problem we encountered (that have all been fixed now):

• Service queue was adding all the books in a series, even if the patron had already had them before.
• Service queue was adding oldest books from request list, when we had the system set to add the newest books first.
• KLAS would allow orders larger than 4GB, which would then sit on Gutenberg since we didn’t have a cartridge big enough to copy the order
• Duplication orders were still being processed for patrons with a block on their account.

On Oct. 22nd, we participated in a conference with NLS, Keystone and Georgia to discuss how we felt things were going with our pilots. Both of us agreed that there were some minor problems, but nothing to prevent us from moving forward with beginning to convert the rest of our patrons over to DoD. We decided to start the conversion process at the beginning of November with the goal of being completely done with the conversion by the end of the year.

Statistics for our pilot (10/3 – 11/1):

• 644 cartridges sent out
• 192 patrons on DoD
• 91 cartridges returned

Up next: Converting existing patrons

"Hot off the Press" is blog series from guest blogger, Teresa Kalber. Teresa is the Network Systems Administrator at Colorado Talking Book Library. In this series, she will be shares her library's experience being one of the first two KLAS libraries to implement NLS' Gutenberg equipment.

The first post in the series is here: Hot off the Press: Part 1.

Hot off the Press: Part 2 - Setting up and testing the Gutenberg Equipment

Warning: a little geeky

On Friday, September 20th, our shipment of equipment arrived from NLS. We received:

• 2 Gutenberg workstations with monitors, keyboard, and mice
• 2 scanners – 1 for check out, 1 for returns
• 2 sets of 20 cartridge slot toaster racks
• 2 sets of USB hubs to attach the toaster racks to the computers
• 2 surge protector power strips
• Lexmark Printer

All of the items are clearly marked with tags to show you how to connect everything.

Back of the Toaster

USB Hub

Hub Top

Computer Back

I immediately set-up the equipment so we could begin testing since I was scheduled to be on vacation the following week. NLS sends instructions in an email of what to do once the equipment arrives. One of the functions on the Gutenberg equipment is a “health check” app. In my hurry to get everything set-up, I forgot to run the health check and contacted both NLS and Keystone to let them know the equipment was installed and turned on.

Picture – HealthCheck_LI (screen shot of Gutenberg desktop with HealthCheck icon circled)

John C. contacted me and asked if I had run the health check since they were unable to connect to our Gutenberg equipment. Since we received two machines, NLS sets one up as the main computer (called CO1A and set with a static IP address) and the other as a secondary computer (called C01A-2). When I ran the health check I found that CO1A wasn’t connecting to the VPNs it needed to access.
I came in on Monday so we could troubleshoot the problem. I contacted our Network Administrator and had him monitor the firewall and traffic coming in and out of the Gutenberg machines using the static IP address we gave CO1A. He could not see any traffic being blocked or any firewall rules preventing access to the system. While I was on the phone with him, I was also having email conversations with NLS and Keystone staff about the problem.

Finally, during a conference call with John C and Mark at Keystone, Mark made a comment about CO1A not connecting to our DNS server. I looked at the settings on the machine again and realized the IP address for our gateway server had been entered as the IP address for our DNS server. Once I corrected the IP address in the settings for CO1A rebooted it, everything starting working. Then Mark and John C worked their magic to finalize the connection and push a test order through the system.

So lesson learned – double check all the settings on the Gutenberg machines very carefully once they are received and set-up.

Up next: Testing the system

Welcome to the "Hot off the Press" blog series from guest blogger, Teresa Kalber. Teresa is the Network Systems Administrator at Colorado Talking Book Library. In this series, she will be sharing her library's experience being one of the first two KLAS libraries to implement NLS' Gutenberg equipment.

Hot off the Press: Part 1

A little delayed, but as promised we are sharing our experience of converting over to Gutenberg duplication as our main circulation method. This first installment will cover our pre-planning steps.

Our Director has been excited about using duplication on demand since she first heard about it. Knowing this and also knowing our KLAS server was reaching end of life and would not support KLAS 7.7, I began conversations with both our IT department and Keystone as early as December 2018 with a plan to have our server replaced by June 2019. I also started discussions with our security officer and our network administrator about DoD to ensure we would be able to use the equipment on our network without issues.

In May 2019, we found out we had been chosen to be the self-hosted pilot site for Gutenberg integration with KLAS. Our IT department had set-up a new virtual server for me and agreed to allow Keystone to submit an image to be placed on the server to run KLAS. Their caveat was that they would not provide support since the software didn’t conform to standards. Since they have never provided support for our servers anyway, I didn’t see this as a problem.

Things we needed to think about between finding out about the pilot and getting the Gutenberg equipment in September:

• Placing an order for additional mail cards beyond what NLS provides
• Preparing cartridges and containers to use for DoD
  • Placing labels on unused cartridges and containers
  • Stripping labels from used cartridges and containers and replacing with new labels
• Notification of patrons – we did a blurb in our newsletter and that was our only notification to patrons.
• Selecting patrons for the pilot (if you do one)
• When to start new patrons on DoD (we started new patrons when we started the pilot)
• When to zero out copy allotment so no new books come
• How to cut-over patrons once the pilot is complete
• Initial default number of books on a cartridge and default number of cartridges (We used 10 books/3 cartridges per patron as our default)

Both NLS and Keystone have documents of things to consider during planning stages. NLS also has a great overview of the necessary IT requirements. Once I received this document, I forwarded it to our Security Officer and Network Administrator to ensure there would be no problems in using the Gutenberg equipment on our network. I think opening these lines of communication early helped the process go more smoothly.

We were finally able to convert to KLAS 7.7 on August 19, 2019. This gave us about a month to iron out any issues before receiving our equipment from NLS on September 20th.

We can always think of plenty of things to work on and improve, come up with new features, and generally decide how we think KLAS should look and work. However, what we think is important to implement might not be what you, the users, really want to see.

~ Katy Patrick, September 4, 2018, Re-Convening KDAC Key Notes Blog Post

The KLAS Development Advisory Committee (KDAC) serves an advisory role to Keystone on new features being developed for future releases of KLAS.

Goals:

• Solicit and review KLAS Development Suggestions
• Report on activities at the biennial KLAS Users’ Conference
• Communicate with constituents.

Guidelines:

The committee approved an updated set of guidelines on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.

• KDAC Guidelines Approved 01-22-20 - MS Word
• KDAC Guidelines Approved 01-22-20 - PDF

Membership:

Committee members representing the following categories of KLAS Users plus a Users' Group Officers' Liaison:

• Large regional libraries
• Mid-size regional libraries
• Small regional libraries
• Subregional libraries
• Special Organizations / Schools
• Instructional Resource Center (IRC) / Instructional Materials Center (IMC) Users
• Up to 3 at large members with priority given to IRC representatives

Breakdown of all KLAS Libraries and Organizations in the above-defined categories:

• KDAC Library Breakdown 2018 - PDF

Current KDAC Members

• Tony Bucci - Arizona Talking Book Library, KLAS Users' Group Officer Liaison
• Sam Lundberg - New Mexico Talking Book Library (small Talking Book Library), KDAC Chair
• Shawn Lemieux - New York State Talking Book & Braille Library (large Talking Book Library), KDAC Secretary
• Dianne Keadle - South Carolina Talking Book Services (mid-sized Talking Book Library)
• Ricardo Cisneros - San Francisco Public Library - Talking Books and Braille Center (subregional Talking Book Library)
• Donald Salvato - Xavier Society for the Blind (schools and special organizations)
• Christina Quitana - Arizona Instructional Resource Center (Instructional Resource Centers)
• Crystal Grimes - Oregon Talking Book & Braille Library (member at large)
• Dan Malosh - Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library (member at large)
• Pepper Watson - Oklahoma Accessible Instructional Materials Center (member at large)

As thunder sounds over the Keystone offices and we enter peak hurricane season, it seems like a good time to revisit our Disaster Preparedness and Recovery procedures.

We’ve posted about this before, and the 2018 Post is still applicable, so feel free to have a look back at that one. But technology is ever-evolving, and we’ve been keeping up. Here’s an overview of some changes:

7.7 Procedures

The back-end changes in KLAS version 7.7 mean that creating and restoring backups is a different process from 7.6. As 7.7 was being created, new procedures were researched, tested, and implemented to ensure that data would be well-maintained going forward.

Cloud Storage

We have increasingly been pivoting to storing back-ups in the cloud, so that they are safe and retrievable no matter where disaster strikes.

Keeping that data secure and private is of course a high priority. We’ve also done extensive testing on the best methods for generating those backups and restoring them, so we can be confident that all the data is being kept, that it’s refreshed on the right schedule, and that we can get it back in place on our local servers ASAP if needed.

Finally, those cloud servers need routine maintenance and updates. As we need more of them, that has made a lot more work for Lee, who keeps on top of regular system updates for all of our servers including the cloud-based ones. So, he has also implemented a new system that will allow him to enter commands or initiate updates in one place, and have them out to all of the cloud servers at once. (I wouldn’t mind something like that for my chores... imagine doing one load of laundry and when you’re done, two loads are clean!)

New On-Call App

Finally, our on-call staff have switched to a new monitoring app, ensuring that they will continue to be notified right away if something goes wrong with the servers and any emergencies can be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Last year we published the first KLASUsers.com content survey to assess how we'd been doing after our first dedicated year of weekly blog posts and discussion forum tips. This year we've continued with this content, added more, and also implemented the Weekly Wrap-ups that are emailed to the KLAS Users e-list. As we round out year two, Katy and I want to check-in again so we can continue to provide information of interest and in a format that you find useful. Therefore, please take some time to complete the 2020 KLASUsers.com content survey and help steer us in the right direction as we move forward.

We promise it's not too long and will be open until February 7th.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! We're doing this for all of you, so please chime in to let us know how it's going!

Thank you for your participation. Our survey is now closed.

I recently took a look back at Keystone's 2019, but New Year's isn't just about looking back... it's also a time to look ahead. The 2010's are coming to a close, the '20's are moving in, and our library customers are at a turning point in Talking Books service.

So what might be coming over the next decade?

Duplication and Beyond

Ten years from now, I expect that all Talking Books libraries will be duplication- and electronic-only for their circulation. Not only will all libraries have a Scribe or Gutenberg (or perhaps some third option!), but the majority of circulation will probably not go through the mail at all....rather, it will wirelessly download to the new generation of players.

With Duplication Service taking so much of our attention over the last year, and the transition being such a big topic... it's a little strange to look on down the road and remember that this likely won't be the primary mode of circulation for very long! Of course, that very much depends on when the new players come out, and if wireless delivery is the primary mode as we expect. If things do keep moving in that direction, though, the learning curve and work of transitioning to Duplication-only won't be for nought! We have done our best to make sure new development to support Duplication Service will also be able to support wireless delivery. Once we get specs for the new machines, you can be sure we'll get to work quickly on getting new workflows in place while using as much of the already in place "support structure" from duplication as possible.

New & Improved KLASusers

I also think there will be some big changes to KLASusers.com over the next decade. I want it to be easier for you to find, follow, and comment on the types of content you want.

The Talking Books libraries have a wonderful, supportive community, but emails get lost in the shuffle so easily, and conferences only come every so often. We've been seeing an increase in use of the forums, which is fantastic! I hope to see them become a better and better source for answers and community. The Instructional Resource Centers are also making those connections, including starting a series of online roundtable discussions!

We hope to continue facilitating more and more interaction on KLASusers, as well as storing instructional material in various formats and hosting webinars (or whatever other learning and networking opportunities future technology holds in store for us).

KLAS Version ???

We definitely have ideas about the future of KLAS. We want it to be better, faster, and easier to learn... all without losing any of the power and control you expect. We haven't forgotten our plans for a web-based version, which should offer us the above as well as better resizing and the ability to adapt to different displays. But just as this was put on hold to move Duplication to the forefront, we will continue to put our users' needs first in determining development priorities.

A big part of this is our work with KDAC and the rest of the Users' Group committees, but remember that you are also always welcome to post suggestions, requests, and considerations for future development on the forums.

I think the next ten years are going to be incredible--and I can't wait to see what they have in store.

Every year, Keystone's staff get together for a bit of fun one Friday during December. Everyone contributes a dish to our potluck lunch and brings a gift for our White Elephant gift exchange. For this week's blog post, I thought y'all might enjoy a look at some of last Friday's festivities.

We had a wonderful spread of food including all the holiday favorites like sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and more!

This year's potluck included a battle of the soups between John O's Sausage Toretellini soup and my Chicken Taco soup, but in the end, both were declared a winner!

This year James and Colin contributed what might have been "THE BIGGEST APPLE PIE EVER" (TM). In addition to being enormous, it was also super tasty!

It's always fun to try to figure out who brought what present. Be careful, heavy doesn't always mean good. ;)

Happy Holidays from the Keystone staff! One of the greatest joys of this season is getting to say THANK YOU for the opportunity to serve you and to wish you the very best for the New Year!

I don’t know about you, but when I stop and look back at how far we’ve come since January, how my goals and focus have shifted to keep up with your needs and all of our new developments...it’s been a long year!

KLAS Version 7.7

The new version of KLAS is a major update, with some big changes on the back-end, high-volume Duplication on Demand support, and a rapid “Agile” development cycle.

The Beta deployment of 7.7 to North Carolina Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at the beginning of the year allowed us to track down and fix a ton of issues -- all while getting Gutenberg integration in place and developing the new deployment processes. We were finally able to start bringing more libraries on board in May, and are now working on bringing our IRC/IMCs up on the new system as well.

All but three Keystone-Hosted libraries now have at least a 7.7 Preview database, we’re making steady progress on self-hosted libraries, and we’ve begun work on the Perkins National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (PNDB)’s database as well as our first 7.7 IRCs!

It has been a long road, but we’re now well on our way to a full conversion to 7.7. Development for the new version has been rolling along beautifully all the way up to our current version, 7.7.20.

New Features

There have been too many New Features over the past year to name, but here are some highlights:

• The new installation and upgrade processes reduce or eliminate the need for admin access, IT assistance, and multiple downloads.
• KLAS can now handle the extended UTF8 character set, including more diacritics.
• HTTPS encryption replaces VPNs to keep your data secure while allowing a more streamlined installation.
• eCommerce Integration is now available.
• The Merge Query Function has been added to the Patron and Catalog modules, allowing you to do more with queries than ever.
• The ability to Query on Patron Subscription information is now available in Patron.
• The Apply / Remove Headings to Query Set tool allows you to update Subjects or other Headings on a batch of Titles all at once.
• The Batch Update Patron Medium tool allows you to apply Profile changes to a batch of Patrons.
• You can now print eDocs from the Shipping Wizard.

And that doesn’t include the numerous new features implemented to support Duplication on Demand!

Duplication on Demand

As those who’ve used or are still using the original PCC workflow know: it’s a very hands-on process and unfortunately prone to errors.

The new Duplication workflows, which leverage a dedicated appliance such as a Scribe or Gutenberg, were designed to shift as much of the work as possible from library staff and external programs back to KLAS itself. A complete conversion to Duplication on Demand, rather than just using DoD or PCC as a supplement to traditional circulation, is a huge paradigm shift which necessitated some trial-and-error -- and a whole lot of development.

We found it necessary strike a balance between updating and re-using old processes (like mail card batches and the nightly programs now used to refill Service Queues), completely new programming, and everything in-between.

We are very pleased that we now have four libraries actively using Scribe (with a fifth being brought online this month) and two live on Gutenberg!

The duplication workflows continue to be refined as we receive feedback from our pioneering libraries including the new KLAS screens (such as the Service Queue and Duplication Order tabs), the duplication appliances, and all of the communications in-between that make it all work.

KLAS Users’ Conference 2019 and More!

In early June, 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. It was a great opportunity to work with some of you in person during a hands-on pre-conference, a variety of Keystone- and user-led sessions, and even a duplication Petting Zoo where we demonstrated the workflows of both the Scribe and Gutenberg.

However, as we head into the off-year between conferences that doesn’t mean there aren’t any opportunities to learn more about KLAS or network with your fellow users. We introduced a variety of other opportunities this year -- from Q&A Webinars to an IRC Symposium. Thanks to all your positive feedback, we’ll be offering even more things like this next year as well!

KLASusers.com Content

Finally, we’ve made a significant effort in the last year to be more proactive in communicating what’s happening at Keystone and with KLAS. We hope you’ve found it beneficial even when we’re racking our brains trying to come up with yet another blog post topic or forum tip. So, if there’s something you’d like to have us cover in a webinar, a blog post, or a discussion forum tip please let us know.

In sum, it has been an amazing (and busy, and sometimes difficult, and ultimately rewarding) year, and I am looking forward to discovering what 2020 will bring.