WorldShare Circulation release notes, February 2024

Administrative actions

These items require immediate action or decisions.

Action
Determine when your library will preview and begin using the modernized Circulation staff interface at your workstations, etc.  After this release, each user will be able to easily switch between the legacy and modernized interfaces. The preview period will continue until at least May 2024 to give you time to learn, train others, update your local documentation, and provide feedback to the WMS team. Moving forward, most new features and enhancements will be available exclusively in the modernized interface.  You do not need to make any configuration changes to preview the modernized interface. The legacy interface will be displayed by default after this release. See below for more details. You may also want to review the resources in the OCLC Community Center, including the FAQs for WorldShare Circulation modernization and watch the demonstration video.
Determine if your library will use the new miscellaneous notification to send ad-hoc, custom emails to your patrons.  You do not need to make any configuration changes to use this feature. Any staff user with the Circulation Admin, Circulation Desk, Circulation Desk Privacy, Student Worker, or Student Worker Circulation roles will be able to use this feature by default.  You may want to provide guidelines to your library staff about when to use this feature. See below for more details.
Determine if your library wants to automate patron billing for borrowing (PFL) requests created by ZFL-Server, an automated ILL service available to libraries in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. You do not need to make any configuration changes if you want the system to continue to not bill patrons automatically for borrowing (PFL) requests.  See below for more details about patron billing for ZFL requests.
Determine if your library wants to submit non-WorldCat title identifiers in lending (AFL) requests when integrating with ZFL-Server, an automated ILL service available to libraries in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. You do not need to make any configuration changes if your ZFL-Server will submit OCLC numbers in lending (AFL) requests. If ZFL-Server will submit title identifiers assigned by your union catalog, your library will need to store those non-OCLC title identifiers in WorldCat bibliographic records for your library's holdings. You will also need a process to periodically update WorldCat to add new title identifiers and remove any duplicate or invalid identifiers. See below for more details about using other system control numbers in ZFL requests.

Preview 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.

A dedicated preview period for Circulation users will begin on 18 February and continue until at least May 2024. The preview period will allow your library to get familiar with the modernized screens while still being able to use 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 FAQs for WorldShare Circulation modernization and watch the demonstration video in the OCLC Community Center.

Use an improved interface for checking in items

In the modernized staff interface, you can now use an improved check-in screen to control printing preferences, view more helpful instructions for processing items, and more.

Log into the Community Center to view the demonstration video to learn more about the improved check-in screen.

For an example, see the image below. In general, the page is arranged in the same way and includes all of the same features as the legacy interface. However, there are some changes and new options to make it easier to process materials:

1. View more concise and clear alerts and other messages about items that you have checked in.
2. Choose to close the Settings accordion to gain more screen space for your work.
3. Select items in the data grid (table) and use the new bulk processing buttons to print or email one or more receipts.
4. Print individual receipts for holds, schedules, and routing by clicking the print option for each applicable row in the data grid (table).
5. View the date and time that an item was checked in along with any backdated date and time used during processing

View more item and request data and update holds directly from the title’s hold queue

It's now quicker and easier to manage the pending holds for a specific title. The improved title hold queue screen allows you to review all of the holds for a specific title, investigate fulfillment issues, update or delete holds, and more. The title hold queue can be found by navigating to a bibliographic or temporary item record and selecting the Holds tab:

Specifically, you can now add more columns with information about each pending hold to the data grid (table), including:

• Expires: The date when the pending hold request will expire and no longer be eligible for fulfillment
• External requests: Information about holds that were created by integrations with WorldShare Acquisitions, ZFL-Server, etc.
• Variant records: The list of bibliographic records in the same edition cluster that could be used to fulfill a title-level hold. Variant records will only be included if records were found and if the Fulfill using variant records setting was enabled in Holds and Schedules, Settings when the hold was created.
• Item barcode: The item barcode for the material requested in an item-level (specific copy) hold request.
• Pickup location: The pickup location currently assigned to the hold request.

Use the new Actions column to edit or delete a hold in the queue. If you do not have permission to edit or delete a hold, you will see the View action instead. If you have permission to edit holds, then selecting the Edit option will open the Editing hold request modal (dialog box) where you can easily change the pickup location, adjust dates, review and add notes, recall items on loan, and more.

See Circulation account roles for more information about roles that can edit and/or delete holds.

 Note: These improvements are available exclusively in the modernized staff interface. Enable the Preview Features option to see these changes.

Send an ad-hoc, custom email notification to a patron

You can now send a custom email notification to a patron directly from the WorldShare Circulation staff interface. For example, you may want to send an email to a patron that left personal belongings in the library or to warn a patron that their account will be blocked.

Log into the Community Center to view the demonstration video to learn more about the new miscellaneous email notification.

Use the new Contact patron > Miscellaneous option on the patron account screen to begin:

The Miscellaneous email modal will then be displayed.

The system will attempt to select the best Recipient email address in the patron record. You may select from other email addresses in the patron's record or type in a custom, one-time value. You may send a miscellaneous email to one recipient only.

As of this release, you must provide a Reply to email address. The email address that you provide will be the reply-to address as well as the recipient name in the message sent to the patron. Replies from the patron will not be processed by or visible in WorldShare; any additional communication will be managed by the reply-to address outside of WorldShare.

You must also provide a Subject line and text for the body of the message. Some rich text editing options are available including text heading options, text formatting for bold, italic, subscript, and superscript, both numbered and unnumbered lists, and text highlighting. These formatting options are supported by most email clients and are intended to provide accessible content for all users. Additional text formatting options will be added in future releases.

 Note: Formatted text may not display in the same way in each email client software. For example, text highlighting is supported by Gmail, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird but is not supported by Microsoft Outlook. We recommend reviewing test emails in each of your institution's supported email clients to better understand how formatting options will behave for your users.

If your institution has notification history enabled, then any miscellaneous emails that you send will be listed for auditing purposes, including the identity of the staff user that sent the message. Open the details panel to view the Sender name:

In a future release, the system will also give you the option to view and resend the content of the message from the notification history screen.

Monitor patron notifications more effectively with enhanced notification history

Notification history has been redesigned to make it easier for you to find all of the notifications related to a specific item or patron and to view all of the items that were included in a specific notification. If your library already has notification history enabled, all of your existing history data will be visible in the modernized interface.

You can review your notification history settings and retention period in OCLC Service Configuration > WMS Circulation > General/Admin > History > Notification History.

Log into the Community Center to view the demonstration video to learn more about the improvements to notification history.

 Note: These improvements are available exclusively in the modernized staff interface. Enable the Preview Features option to see these changes. When Preview Features is disabled, the legacy version of notification history will continue to display at the item level for emails sent before and after this release, but the new display and filter options will not be available. Notification history is only visible when viewing patron records in the legacy interface.

Automatically bill a patron that has created a borrowing request (PFL) in ZFL-Server

WorldShare Circulation's integration with ZFL-Server now allows your library to automatically bill a patron when a new borrowing (PFL) request is created.

By default, ZFL request fees will be disabled. To use this feature, you must update your ZFL-Server integration configuration in OCLC Service Configuration > WMS Circulation > Integrations > ILL Settings > ZFL by selecting Yes for the new Patron Fees option:

After you select Yes for Patron Fees, you will be required to complete the policy mapping table. Use the mapping table to choose the bill reason and fee amount by patron type.

When a ZFL instructs WMS to create a patron hold request, the system will evaluate the rows in the map in this order until a match is found:

1. Top to bottom (rows)
2. Left to right (settings in rows)

When the system comes to the row that matches the requesting patron's current patron type, it will attempt to create a bill using the bill reason and amount specified in the table and will not continue to the next row.

The patron will not be billed for a ZFL request if patron billing is currently disabled, if no match is found in the mapping table, or the amount specified in the mapping table is 0.00. 

When configuring the Patron Fees map, it is recommended to:

1. Create entries for specific patron types at the top of the map.
2. Have a row at the bottom of the map to cover all other patron types, if needed.

 Note: The system will determine if a patron should be billed for a ZFL request when the ZFL-Server submits a SLNPFLBestellung PFL messages to WMS. Patrons with existing PFL requests will not be billed retroactively after your library enables the Patron Fees option. In the same way, existing bills for PFL requests will not be updated or cancelled if your library disables patron billing.

Expand to view more information about the Patron Fees table for ZFL integration

Field	Description
Patron Policy	Choose the Patron Type that should be billed when a new ZFL borrowing (PFL) request is created.  Select the All option to bill all patron types not already specified in the rows above this entry in the mapping table.
Bill Reason	Indicate the Bill Reason should be used when creating the ZFL request fee. Note: The bill reason policy must be set to Applies to anything under the Associated With setting.
Fee Amount	Indicate the monetary amount that a patron should be charged for a ZFL request fee. If you do not want to assess a patron bill in certain cases, you can set the amount to 0.00.

Configure your integration with ZFL-Server to accept alternative title identifiers in lending requests (AFL)

WorldShare Circulation's integration with ZFL-Server now allows lending (AFL) requests to be submitted with non-OCLC title identifiers that your library stores in WorldCat bibliographic records. This feature will allow your union catalog to submit lending requests to WMS without requiring an OCLC number to identify the requested title. Specifically, WMS can now check your holdings and placing lending (AFL) hold requests using data that your library has stored in WorldCat 029 $ab (Other System Control Number).

By default, WMS will only accept lending requests from ZFL if an OCLC number is provided in the SLNPFLBestellung AFL message.

To use an alternative title identifier, your library must first ensure that your title identifiers have been loaded into WorldCat bibliographic records as 029 $ab. It is highly recommended to update WorldCat frequently to add new title identifiers and to remove any duplicate or invalid identifiers from records that you no longer hold or that have been assigned to a new title identifier in your union catalog.

 Note: If more than one WorldCat record contains an 029 that matches the title identifier specified by the ZFL request, then WMS will place the request on the WorldCat record that is currently held by your institution. Consider enabling fulfillment using variant records in your WorldShare Circulation configuration to allow any item cataloged in the same edition cluster to fulfill the request.

When your title identifiers are loaded into WorldCat, update your ZFL-Server integration configuration in OCLC Service Configuration > WMS Circulation > Integrations > ILL Settings > ZFL by selecting Other System Control Number (029 $ab) for the new Title Identifier Type option:

After you select Other System Control Number  (029 $ab), you will be required to specify the OCLC Library Identifier that has been stored in 029 $a. At this time, you may only specify one OCLC library identifier: WMS will only accept title identifiers from one union catalog for processing ZFL lending requests. Similarly, WMS cannot accept a mix of OCLC numbers and other system control numbers; all lending requests must use the same title identifier type.

 Note: Other system control numbers can be found in WorldCat by searching the on: index. For example, a record the contains 029 $a GBVCP $b 189560495 can be found by searching on:"GBVCP 189560495".

Support website(s)

Support information for this product and related products can be found at:

• WorldShare Circulation
• Neem contact op met OCLC Support
• OCLC Community Center
• Browser compatibility chart