The Makeover includes brand new interfaces for Circulation, Patrons Management, Items Management, Tools, Operations, Message Center, and Preferences. It introduces Builder, your hub for customizing Researcher for your patrons, as well as Dashboard, a collection of widgets that show information about your library and let you jump to the functions you use most. You’ll also see a consistent top bar and side navigation that allow you to navigate the program and access critical functions from anywhere. Eventually the entire program will be updated.

To read about more specific changes, check out the Changes tab. You can also look at the Overview tab for information on the Top 5 Features and Changes You Need to Know.

With Version 7, which was released in 2014, we made the first big step to a modern, web-based product. But the computer world advances fast! With the Dream Makeover, we definitely want to improve how it looks and feels, but we are also updating the code to follow modern standards and be more usable on tablets and phones. This is a switch we slowly started with your Researcher interfaces back in 2015 with the release of Slideshow. And after addressing Scout, Patron Status, and Self-Service, we realized we needed to start updating Librarian interfaces as well.

Betas for these interfaces have been released. This means you can switch between using the new interfaces and the old interfaces in your own Alexandria library. This will be a great time to give it a try and take a look at all of the cool new features!

See the Timeline section on the Overview tab for more information.

Check out the Changes tab for a comprehensive list of what's changed and what's new in each module. You can also look at our Top 5 Features on the Overview tab to see what we're most excited about.

Copy IDs are not unique or searchable, and there is not a report that you can run which shows Copy IDs. Copy IDs have become irrelevant, and we encourage using barcodes instead. 

*However we have decided to retain copy id, now called Copy Tag, to allow you to individually mark a copy. 

Overall, you won't! We are, however, removing some unused options and moving some things around. Check out the Changes tab to see specifics. One thing you may want to be aware of is that there will no longer be a button linking to Researcher from the Librarian side navigation. If you use this often, a quick fix is simply bookmarking Researcher on your internet browser.

Feel free to contact Support at 1-800-347-4942 or support@goalexandria.com if you feel like something is missing.

Nope! This upgrade is included in your Alexandria subscription, as long as you are current. Still on v6? Learn about switching to 7! This is also a good time to consider switching to Cloud Hosting if you don't already have it.

We think so! With the addition of new in-app tutorials, What’s New highlights, and rollover help text information, we think learning the new interface will be a breeze. And, you’ll have videos and our 247/365 Support available to help you along the way. 

Yep! If you missed the webinar, you can watch it now, and see all the videos on our YouTube channel. We will also be hosting a free Q&A webinar. You can also purchase additional training by contacting our sales team at 1-800-347-6439 or sales@goalexandria.com.

Yes they can! From the old Circulation, Items, or Patrons, click on the purple warning icon on the top right. This will open the beta for you to work in. If you find any issues, please send them to uxteam@companioncorp.com! 

Reports are accessed from Operations. 

You can! The checkbox makes it easy to forgive an entire charge all at once, but you can easily forgive only part of the charge by unchecking “Forgive Remaining Balance,” and select “Forgive as a Payment Option” method. Enter how much of the charge you’d like to forgive, and click Process.

Yes! Our printable System Hotkeys Reference is in our Support Center Getting Started Resources, and has been updated. Also, you can find ALL shortcuts on the Hotkeys page. These have been updated.

You can pay multiple charges at once, but they will have separate receipts. 

No. You will need to us the System Patrons in Circulation to change copy status. 

Yes, you can specify the date added in the Advanced Search> More.

With the image saved to your computer, you can either drag and drop the image into the cover art space, or use the + icon and choose a file from your device. 

From Circulation, use the X command to clear the current Patron and Item panes. More information can be found HERE.

Not at this time. If there are ideas you want us to implement into researcher, please submit them here: https://www.goalexandria.com/ideas

No. Over the last several months, we have been working on improving and consolidating the reports–but any of those changes are outlined in the release notes. The functionality of the reports will not change in the makeover.

You can add patrons from your SIS by running a  Patron Import or with our SIS Integration.

You can access Advanced Bookings from Circulation. Any reports you run can then be accessed in Operations. 

Please learn more about modifying your Grade Table here.

Watch our Inventory Workshop.

Check out our YouTube channel!

Visit our Support Center.

Oh man! We have a great workshop for you.

 If you have used Alexandria or Textbook Tracker to catalog non-book items such as laptops, chargers and other technology it is a good idea to use a specific item policy or policies to manage them. In most cases you will want a title record for something like a Chromebook to include all of the copies instead of 1/1 with titles/copies. If you are using an import file, you will need to create a title record with an ISBN first so the import setting “Title update matching” works for title and ISBN/LCCN. Read HERE about how to catalog equipment in Alexandria. If you have any questions please call Customer Support at 1-800-347-4942 to get help with importing files.

You should consider advancing patron grades even if you update the students each year with an import file. Advancing your last grade to “Graduated” will allow you to remove students who have moved on to bright futures. Don’t worry, you will be able to keep records for any who have outstanding material or account balances. Read about End-of -Year procedures HERE and call Customer Support at 1-800-347-4942 if you need help with your Patron Grade Table or running utilities.

Of course you want to run reports on loaned or overdue items, and before you close the library for the summer you should consider cleaning out any lost and discarded copies. Run reports for lost and discarded material first before using utilities to remove them. One great feature of the Remove Lost/Discarded Copies utilities is that you can control which copies specifically to remove. This means you can retain copies from a specific date range, and choose between material that is lost or discarded from inventory, weeding or patrons. Read about best practices for lost and discarded copies HERE and as always, contact Customer Support if you have any questions or need assistance.

Yes, if a barcode is not included within the import file, Alexandria will automatically assign a barcode to those patrons.

You can! First, navigate to Tools > Preferences > Patrons > Patron Defaults tab. In the Barcode Settings section, specify the beginning number for auto-assigned barcodes – choose a number that doesn't conflict with your item barcodes and has enough room to continue sequentially for all future patrons. Learn more in Patron Defaults.

An admin account is simply a patron account with a different security group set (like District Administrator). New librarians should set their security group accordingly, usually as high as they are allowed to select.

Usually, this means the file is larger than 50mb. You need to separate the file into smaller sizes in order to import them.

This is generally used when importing patrons with SIF. Entering a date will not automatically advance the Patron Grades. Learn more about Grade Table preferences.

To forgive a charge for an individual patron, use Circulation.

1.  Make the patron current and go to the Charges tab. 
2. Select the charge (or by holding <shift> or <command> you can select more than one). 
3. Click Make Payment. (Or Forgive Charge.)
4. Click the box to Forgive remaining balance, and click Process. 

To forgive charges in batches, use the Forgive Charges utility. 

1. Go to Operations > Utilities > Patrons > Forgive Charges.
2. Use the Selections tab to choose who you are forgiving the charges for.
3. Use the Options tab for what type of charges to forgive, or in a specific date range. 
4. Click Run.

How do you want notice to be sent? If you'd like the program to do most of the work for you, try Automatic Email Notifications. Go to Preferences > Circulation.  In the Circulation Settings tab, click the Enable automatic email notifications checkbox. This feature automatically sends email notices to the patron's email address for in-stock holds, overdue fees, and a number of other things. Read more about it in Circulation Settings.

For those of you who want greater control over your notices – such as when they go out and to whom – use scheduled notice reports.  For example, you could set up an Overdue Items and Unpaid Charges Notice report for each grade or homeroom and schedule it to email the teacher every month so they can help remind students. 

1. Go to Operations > Reports, and choose the Circulation category and Notices subcategory.
2. Test out a few of the reports to see which ones work best for your situation. When you’ve found one, click Create Saved Report at the bottom right.
3. Next, go to the Saved tab, select the report, and unlock it for editing.
4. Build your report in the Selections and Options tabs.
4. In the Schedule tab, schedule the report to run at a specific frequency and time.
5. In the Notification tab, enable email notifications and specify to whom the notices will be sent. Separate email addresses with a comma.

And if you find it meets your needs, you can even use both methods at the same time!

To find your license and system information, go to your Circulation page, then select Special. In its sub-tabs you will find information like the Status Info, System Info, and License Info, which includes your Patron Count and details about your license.

In the Makeover, go to the help menu in the topnav and click About Alexandria. This will show you your patron/item count and how many you have left in your license.

1. First, make sure the file is tab-delimited (not a csv file). 
2. Make sure you have a way to match the patron information with the info in the file, such as barcode, RSN (Record Sequence Number), GUID (Gobally Unique Identifier), Government ID (SSN), Community ID (Student #), or Primary Email, First Name, and Last Name (all 3). 
3. See Patron Imports Best Practices for more information.

Each level has the access of all the groups below them, but does not have access to any security groups on the same level or above them. See Security Preferences for additional information.

Once there are no patrons listed in a homeroom anymore, the homeroom is removed. So, updating the homerooms manually, via import, or through authority control will remove any homerooms with no patrons. Contact Support for additional assistance.

Go to Imports and select Images > Choose File. Choose a ZIP file containing the images to be imported. If the file is larger than 50 MB, schedule an FTP import in the Saved tab. For best results, images should be approximately 186 x 240 pixels in size and either .jpg or .png format.

Genre information is pulled from the 655_a MARC tag. You can view and modify the data in the Items module using the Items Editor or MARC View Editor.

Yes! Add as many genre fields as you need for your patrons to find the item in Search. Keep in mind that only one genre will be displayed in the Items module, but you can click on the pencil icon to open the Genre Editor and view the rest.

The easiest way is to ask your vendors to include genre information in the 655_a field of the MARC record, so it's added upon import. You can also add it by editing your records manually or by using the MARC editing tools, such as certain Utilities or Authority Control.

We recommend running a report, first! The Copy Information Report and Patrons Information Report can show you exactly which items and patrons will be affected–just make sure the selections in the report match the selections in the desired utility. When in doubt, reach out to our support team at support@goalexandria.com.

Usually this means the wrong import type is selected on the left. Make sure you have Items selected, and the import should run correctly.

Resources Description & Access (RDA) is a newer standard in which mediums are stored in the 336, 337, and 338 fields and have three components separated by dashes, such as text-unmediated-volume (this one is equivalent to book). Since this medium format is a little harder for patrons to understand, you can add aliases (i.e. alternative names) that will show in Researcher instead. 

a. To remove Items that you have discarded, you can run the Remove Discarded Copies utility. We recommend running the Discarded Copies report first, to get a list of which items will be removed. 

b. Discarded Items in your database do count in your system counts, as they are still in your database. This is also true for lost items. They are in a pending status until they are removed. 

Whether adding series information manually or automatically via an Import or Utility, make sure the series is being cataloged in the 830 MARC field so the item displays and sorts correctly in Search.

Yes! To clean up duplicate records, run a Title Information report, and set the sorting in Options to “Title.” Then navigate to Items Management, and look up the titles. Decide which record you want to keep, then unlock the record. Using the Actions menu, select “Move copies to title” and enter the copy barcodes. You can also select the checkbox to delete the duplicate title record after the copies are transferred. Make sure to save changes! 

Title Assistant uses Z39.50 servers to search for items, so you may need to add more. Check out the z39.50 Preferences page for a list of resources you can use to bolster your Z39.50 list in Alexandria. You'll also find instructions on adding servers, creating sets, and more.

If you have overlapping call numbers in Maps, Alexandria will display a duplicate title or a duplicate copy. If the copies can be modified but were not intentionally added, this may be from an import running too many times and adding a new copy each time.

Go to Tools>Sites, and click on the gear icon and select Site Record Counts.

Lost and discarded items are checked out to System Patrons 1(lost) and 2(discarded).  Read about Lost Items here for more information.

Go to Tools>Import (or in the Makeover Operations > Import) and select the category of what you are importing. Upload the file from your computer, and make sure to configure the field map. Note: Marc records don’t need to be field mapped. See Import for more information.

The easiest way is by using the Set All Copy Locations or CH command in Circulation. This is much quicker than going into each item to change copy locations. Make sure to clear the command line when you’re done!  You can also run the Copies Information Report to help view and sort your items.

You can create a map using any type of image creation software, like Photoshop, Illustrator, Paint, etc. You can also take pictures of where the shelf is situated in the library, or hold an art contest with your students to create distinctive markers for each shelf. You can also use text to describe the location for the visually impaired. This article from Classroom Architect might help.

Absolutely! You can have as many maps as you need to accurately show your item locations. Though you may need to get creative with your call numbers if you're running the same call-numbered materials in different locations (i.e. 100S - 300S for a storage location and 100 - 300 for shelved items).

While you can only have one Slideshow active from the primary /slideshow location, you can always show additional Slideshows by creating Explore buttons that link to a Slideshow URL.

Bulletin Boards and their bulletins are created from Tools > Bulletins in Alexandria. Select a board on the left, or go to the Actions menu to add a new one. Then click the plus icon to create a bulletin for the board you've selected. 

For the bulletin you want to display first, check Show Bulletin at the Top of the Board on the bulletin – but you can only choose one; all other bulletins are stacked according to content and bulletin size. However, Alexandria does try to keep everything in a roughly boxed-out shape to utilize the displayable area.

Bulletin content is entirely up to you. Use them to showcase things happening at your school or facility, let your patrons know about upcoming releases or seasonal items; you can even give specific individuals the ability to manage and create bulletins for specialty groups and organizations. Read about Bulletins for more ideas.

Yes, any person added to your system will be given access to Patron Status and other patron-facing portions of Alexandria.

Yes, with your Security Group preferences you have the ability to control how much information (if any) that your patrons can edit.

Yes! After you've performed a search, you can share the entire list of results or information for individual item information. You can also create a custom search list and share that with anyone you like.

• A public list can be shared and viewed by anyone that you've sent the link to.
• A private list is viewable only to the patron who created it, when they're logged in.

That's all done through Explore Builder, which we'll be going over in a future workshop. 

To select a new pane, go to Preferences>Researcher, and click on Select New Pane, select the desired pane, and click OK. If you want to change the pane itself, go to Tools>Explore Builder, and make the changes to the appropriate Explore Pane.

First, go to the top right corner of the window and log in to your account. Next, search for and select an item, then click on the rating stars in the center of the window to view the reviews.

• Scout is more for a younger or less experienced audience, that is limited to only allowing you to view information and place holds.
• Search has more advanced features for refining and showing additional results beyond your initial query. 

Yep! You can set copies to in processing (i.e. checked out to the In Processing system patron #7) if they're in your library but aren't ready to be placed on shelves yet. They will automatically be marked as unavailable in Researcher, but you can hide them if you'd like. In Researcher Preferences, check the In Processing box on the Auto-Hide tab.