WorldShare Circulation release notes, July 2024

Introduction

This release of WorldShare Circulation provides new features and enhancements:

Use the modernized staff interface
Improved WMS SIP2 support for French and Spanish
Improved WMS SIP2 support for non-standard print widths
Bug fixes and performance improvements

Many of these enhancements are the direct result of your feedback.

Recommended actions

For this release, we recommend that you review the following checklists and complete the relevant tasks so that you can adjust your policies and workflows and train your staff. These checklists identify updates that we have determined as significant for most institutions. We encourage you to review all of the items in the release notes to determine whether there are other items that might require additional action or follow-up by your institution.

Administrative actions

These items require immediate action or decisions.

Action
Advise your staff members that the modernized Circulation staff interface will replace the legacy interface for all users on 21 July 2024. The preview period that began in February 2024 is now complete, and you will no longer be able to switch to the legacy interface. To learn more about modernization: Watch the WorldShare Circulation modernized staff interface overview and updates session (OCLC Community Center, May 2024). Watch the WorldShare Circulation modernization introduction to features (OCLC Community Center, January 2024) Review the WorldShare Circulation release notes, February 2024
Determine if your library's self-service kiosks or other SIP2-enabled devices should offer a choice of Canadian French and/or North American Spanish. After this release, the WMS SIP2 Service will extend its support for language codes 011 and 021, respectively. You may need to update the configuration of your SIP2 client software (e.g., a self-service kiosk) to allow your patrons to select a specific language when beginning a session, etc. See below for more details.
Determine if your library can now offer printing from your self-service kiosks and other SIP2-enabled devices. After this release, the WMS SIP2 Service will support maximum print width values of less than 100 characters when your SIP2 client software uses leading whitespace characters instead of leading zeroes. Your library may have disabled printing in the past due to this technical limitation. See below for more details.

Action

Advise your staff members that the modernized Circulation staff interface will replace the legacy interface for all users on 21 July 2024.

The preview period that began in February 2024 is now complete, and you will no longer be able to switch to the legacy interface.

To learn more about modernization:

Watch the WorldShare Circulation modernized staff interface overview and updates session (OCLC Community Center, May 2024).
Watch the WorldShare Circulation modernization introduction to features (OCLC Community Center, January 2024)
Review the WorldShare Circulation release notes, February 2024

Determine if your library's self-service kiosks or other SIP2-enabled devices should offer a choice of Canadian French and/or North American Spanish.

After this release, the WMS SIP2 Service will extend its support for language codes 011 and 021, respectively. You may need to update the configuration of your SIP2 client software (e.g., a self-service kiosk) to allow your patrons to select a specific language when beginning a session, etc.

See below for more details.

Determine if your library can now offer printing from your self-service kiosks and other SIP2-enabled devices.

After this release, the WMS SIP2 Service will support maximum print width values of less than 100 characters when your SIP2 client software uses leading whitespace characters instead of leading zeroes. Your library may have disabled printing in the past due to this technical limitation.

See below for more details.

New features and enhancements

Use the modernized staff interface

WorldShare Circulation's staff interface has been modernized and restyled to improve usability, navigation, and accessibility. The new interface was designed to be fresh and intuitive while minimizing changes to your workflows.

As of this release, all staff users will be working in the modernized interface. The preview period that began in February 2024 is now complete, and you will no longer be able to switch back to the legacy interface.

Modernization was driven by your feedback and includes many enhancement requests from the WMS community. Thanks again to the many members who have provided essential input for modernization; the WMS team appreciates your participation in focus groups and pilots, as well as your willingness to share your enhancement requests in the Community Center. Thank you!

To learn more about modernization, review the WorldShare Circulation modernized staff interface overview and updates session in the OCLC Community Center. Additional resources include:

Improved WMS SIP2 support for French and Spanish

The WMS SIP2 Service now honors requests for responses in Canadian French (011) and North American Spanish (021). Any SIP2 Custom Messages will be derived from your configurations for French or Spanish, respectively.

A language code can be specified by your institution's SIP2 client (e.g., self-checkout machine) in the following requests to initiate a patron session:

23: Patron Status Request
63: Patron Information Request

The requested language will be honored throughout the duration of the patron's session.

WMS SIP2 now officially supports the following SIP2 language codes:

000: Unknown (default)
001: English
002: French
003: German
005: Dutch
008: Spanish
011: Canadian-French
021: North American Spanish
024: United Kingdom

Note: If code 000 is provided, WMS SIP2 will attempt to use the language and locale configured for your institution in the WorldCat Registry. If your institution's language is not supported, WMS SIP2 will respond as if language code 001 (English) was provided.

Improved WMS SIP2 support for non-standard print widths

The WMS SIP2 Service now supports maximum print width values that include leading whitespace characters. The 'max print width' is a three-character, fixed-length field that specifies the maximum number of characters that your device's printer can fit on a single line.

This improvement only impacts maximum print widths that are less than 100 where your SIP2 client software could not add leading zeroes to the print width value.

For example, WMS SIP2 will now accept SC Status (99) requests that specify a maximum print width of 50 characters with and without a leading zero:

9900502.00AY1AZFCB0
990 502.00AY1AZFCB0

Note: If your SIP2-enabled device currently allows printing, then you do not need to make any configuration changes in your existing SIP2 client software. However, you may want to take action to enable printing if you were previously impacted by this issue.

Room scheduling: Custom data fields no longer display when searching for a patron

Patron custom data fields will no longer display when selecting a patron for a room schedule.

As of this release, the results displayed in the Search for Patron dialog will include name and barcode. If your library participates in a circulation group, then the patron's home institution will also be visible:

Note: Room scheduling is an optional module for library staff working in WorldShare Circulation. For more information, see Room reservations.

Bug fixes

Alert icon displays after successfully opening a patron's account

A misleading alert icon sometimes displayed in the top right of the patron's account screen in the WorldShare Circulation staff interface even if the account was opened successfully. This issue was more likely to occur if the page remained open with no actions taken for over twenty seconds.

As of this release, the error icon will only display if there is a problem accessing data about the patron's account.