By Wally Johnson
Created on 8/16/2005

Technical Note Summary:

This document was written to instruct in preparing Textbook Tracker for a new school year.

Updating your Preferences

At the beginning of each year the Calendar and Last Date of School preferences must be updated.  It is a good idea to review all of your preferences in Textbook Tracker to ensure that no other changes need to be made for the new school year.

Last Date of School

The last date of school preference, along with the starting and ending grade settings, control the patron grade level.  To update the last date of school preference, go to Edit-Preferences and choose School Information and Global from the pull-down menus.  Enter the date for the last day in your new school year, and then click Save in the upper right corner.

Image 1 – School Information Preferences

NOTE:  Patron Grade Levels are only updated if the patron record contains a Graduation Date.

Calendars

To update your Calendar go to Edit-Preferences, and choose Calendars and Global from the pull-down menus.  The calendar will display the current month.  You will want to go through the calendar month by month, closing the days that the school is not open.  Click once on a date field to close that day.  The word Closed should appear in red letters.  If you accidentally close a day, click twice on it to reopen that day.  This should remove the word Closed, indicating your school is open that day.  To close a day for the entire year hold down the Alt key (on Macintosh this is also called the Option key) and click on the day of the week you wish to close.

Image 2 – Calendars Preferences

NOTE:  WHEN CLOSING A DAY FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR, BE AWARE THAT THIS IS ONLY FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR.  MOST SCHOOL YEARS ENCOMPASS TWO CALENDAR YEARS, SO YOU WILL NEED TO CARRY OUT THE SAME OPERATION ON NEXT YEAR’S CALENDAR.

While setting up your calendar you may want to also include period due dates.  Period due dates are days that materials are required to be returned by, regardless of when the item was checked out.  Typically, one period due date near the end of school is sufficient for most schools, however others may be added if materials are collected at the end of a semester or term.

NOTE:  PERIOD DUE DATES ONLY APPLY TO PATRON POLICIES THAT HAVE THE APPLY PERIOD DUE DATES OPTION ENABLED.

NOTE:  IF YOU USE HARD DUE DATES IN YOUR POLICIES, NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO CHECK AND POSSIBLY UPDATE THEM.

NOTE:  IF YOU ARE USING CIRCULATION GROUPS, PLEASE REVIEW THEM.  IT MAY BE TIME TO ADD, REMOVE OR MODIFY YOUR GROUPS.  FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CIRCULATION GROUPS, PLEASE REFER TO THE TEXTBOOK TRACKER USER’S MANUAL OR THE TECHNICAL NOTE ENTITLED “CIRCULATION GROUPS.”

Updating Patron Information

Each school year, new patrons must be entered into the system.  Patrons can be entered manually or by importing a tab-delimited file.  Existing patrons can be also be updated.  For details on importing patron data see the section of the Textbook Tracker User’s Manual titled Importing Patron Information. 

All patron utilities can be found by going to File-Utilities, and choosing Patrons under the pull-down menu titled Utility Type.  Most batch changes to patron information can be done through the Replace Information operation.  The most common operations are replacing the patron policy or changing the patron location.

If your patrons have a graduation date, their Grade Level will change to Graduated once they graduate from school.  To remove these patrons, go to File-Utilities and choose Patrons under the pull-down menu titled Utility Type.  Choose Remove under the pull-down menu titled Operation.  Under Select By choose Grade and type Graduated in the field titled Start With.  Then click Run.

Each year, you should renew your expired patron cards.  The easiest method is to renew all your patrons at once.  Go to File-Utilities and choose Patrons under the pull-down menu titled Utility Type.   Choose Renew Patron cards under the pull-down menu titled Operation and then click Run.

Image 3 - Utilities

Textbook Tracker has built in commands that can update a patron’s homeroom and policy.  To modify the location of a group of patrons, type NP in the command line of the Textbook Tracker’s circulation screen, followed by the new homeroom, and then press Enter.  Any patron barcode that is typed or scanned while in this mode will automatically be updated to the new location.  To exit this mode, type a period and then press Enter.

Changing a patron’s policy is accomplished in a similar manner.  Type UP in the command line of the Textbook Tracker circulation screen, and then press Enter.  This will bring up a list of your patron policies for you to select from.  Select the appropriate policy and click OK.  Any patron barcode that is scanned or typed while in this mode will automatically be updated to the new policy.  To exit this mode, type a period and then press Enter.

Rebuilds and Backups

When starting a new year, it is a good idea to make sure your backups and utilities are on schedule.  The rebuild should be run once a month.  If you did not rebuild at the end of last year, it is a good idea to start the year off with one.  It is important to check the backup schedule and hardware.  It may be time to purchase more CD’s or replace worn out Zip disks.  For details on how to back up or on creating a back up schedule, refer to the section in the Textbook Trackers User’s Manual entitled “Backing Up Your Data.”  This is also a good time to double-check your archive options.  Go to Edit-Preferences, and choose Archive and Global from the pull-down menu. Make sure that your computer will be on and Textbook Tracker will be running when your database is set to archive. 

Image 4 – Archive Preferences

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT AT 1-800-347-4942.