Update on Polaris 7.6 Upgrade

Innovative will upgrade our training server to Polaris 7.6 the morning of May 1st. Prior to the upgrade, Innovative will sync a fresh copy of production to training. Any data added to training since the last update on February 29th will be replaced at that time.

Training will be unavailable in the morning of May 1st when the upgrade is being performed. Production will be briefly unavailable at a time when libraries are closed. CCS will notify libraries when the upgrade is complete and access to training is restored. The What's New in 7.6 document has not been released yet. We will update you when it is available.

Learn more about the new features that will be available with version 7.6.

Updating Local Offline Client & Files to 7.5

Libraries are currently using Polaris Offline version 7.5 Directions for downloading local offline files and the Client have been updated for version 7.5 and can be found here. The links to download offline files and client are:

• Offline files: http://ccs.polarislibrary.com/offline/
• Offline client: utilities.polarislibrary.com

Log in with your individual Polaris username to download the new local offline mdb files. You will need to use the shared login to download the offline client (username HPL\CCSOffline; please contact CCS for the password if you do not have it already). You may be prompted to enter log in information more than once. Please use Chrome or Firefox to access the file sites; staff may find they are unable to access the sites using Edge.

Training

Training sessions are held online via Zoom. Register via L2. All sessions will be recorded and posted online for those who are not able to attend live. 

Upcoming Training

SQL Basics (April 25 & May 2) - This two-part workshop will dive into the database language that Polaris is built on. With SQL, staff can build their own complex queries to be used directly in the Find Tool. No prior experience with SQL is required, but familiarity with Polaris data is helpful. Laptops will be provided. This is a 2-part workshop. Registrants should plan on attending both sessions of the group they register for.

• Group A: Thursday, 4/25/24 (10:00AM-12:00PM) and Thursday, 5/2/24 (10:00AM-12:00PM)
• Group B: Thursday, 4/25/24 (1:00PM-3:00PM) and Thursday, 5/2/24 (1:00PM-3:00PM) 

Group A:

• April 25 @ 10:00 AM (Registration: https://librarylearning.org/event/2024-04-25/ccs-sql-basics)
• May 2 @ 10:00 AM (Registration: https://librarylearning.org/event/2024-05-02/ccs-sql-basics)

Group B:

• April 25 @ 1:00 PM (Registration: https://librarylearning.org/event/2024-04-25/ccs-sql-basics-0)
• May 2 @ 1:00 PM (Registration: https://librarylearning.org/event/2024-05-02/ccs-sql-basics-0)

What’s the Limit: Reports for Policy Cleanup and Staff Management ( June 4, 2024 @ 1:30 PM) - If asked, could you say what your library’s checkout limit is for Activity Kits or list which permission groups you’re in? Learn about where to find these ILS circulation policies and staff settings in “What’s the Limit!” Over the course of this 1-hour webinar, attendees will learn how to use policy-related Web Reports to: 

• Manage staff permissions 
• Identify how your library is using Patron Codes and Patron Statistical Class, and find opportunities for data cleanup 
• Use the Polaris Policy Web Report to answer policy-related questions on loan periods, patron checkout limits, and material type limits 

Searching in Leap for Technical Services Staff (v. 7.6 - June 17, 2024 @ 1:00 PM) - Do you still have questions about the Leap Find Tool? This webinar will provide an overview of Leap’s Find Tool for technical services staff. Attendees will have time for hands-on practice using Leap during the session. Topics include:

• An overview of the Find Tool.
• How to customize the Find Tool.
• Creating Record Sets.
• Power Search basics for saving default filters.
• Searching with saved SQL queries.
• Navigating between linked records.

Recent Training

• Leap Tools for Weeding (v. 7.5 - March 26, 2024) - Using new weeding tools in Leap, staff can adopt all or parts of this optional workflow to streamline the withdrawal process, alert staff of items that fall outside select weeding criteria, and/or require an additional review before items are withdrawn and deleted.

• Serials in Leap (v. 7.4 - August 10, 2023 at 10 AM) - With the Leap v. 7.4 update, you will be able to print serials labels and fully create serial holdings records.  This webinar provides you with an overview of the new and existing serials features in Leap, including the check in workflow.

• Cataloging in Leap (v. 7.3 Functions - March 14, 2023) - With the added capability of overlaying Bibliographic records in Leap, the full cataloging and copy-cataloging workflows will be available in Leap soon. This webinar will provide an overview of: importing bibliographic records from remote databases, importing bibliographic records from MARC import, editing bibliographic records in Leap, deduplicating bibliographic records in Leap, and creating new bibliographic records manually in Leap. 

• Acquisitions in Leap (v. 7.2 Functions) (Sep. 26, 2022; 1:00-2:00 pm) - Acquisitions in Leap (v. 7.2 Functions) will introduce the new purchase order line item and invoice functions that were added with the v. 7.2 upgrade. This includes the ability to credit invoices and invoice line items in Leap. Click here to view the recording.

New Documentation

New or updated documentation will be linked here when available.

7.5 Documentation

• Read about new features in the What's New in 7.5 guide!