Thinking of Upgrading?

Are you thinking of upgrading from Alexandria v6 to v7? There are many exciting changes in store for you and your patrons. With a current Alexandria Software Subscription, you can upgrade to the latest version for no extra cost.

Here's what you can expect before upgrading:

Transcript

Are you thinking of upgrading from Alexandria version 6 to version 7? There are many exciting changes in store for you and your patrons. As always, with a current Alexandria Software Subscription, you can upgrade to the latest version for no extra cost.

This document goes over what you can expect before upgrading. First, why would you want to upgrade?

The newest version of Alexandria is entirely web-based, meaning you can run Alexandria on all major browsers, on Mac, Windows, or tablets, and no installation is required for receipt printers or scanners.

This new, web-based Alexandria means a completely new look. Although the version 7 interfaces are new, in most cases they will seem familiar to what you have used in version 6. Not only are they more attractive, they are more intuitive, responsive, and more powerful. Some of the most exciting changes are to the patron searching tools.

Researcher is now a collection of refined patron interfaces that are visually engaging, modern, and intuitive for patrons of any skill level.

The new Explore Builder not only lets you fully customize Explore, but also allows you to add visual interfaces to Search. Create buttons that navigate to specific items in your catalog, to predefined searches, to saved lists, to external websites, to other panes in Search, to panes in Explore, to Bulletin Boards, and more—possibilities are endless.

Bonus: The Explore Builder includes hundreds of all new modern icons that are at your disposal. You can even share Explore panes with others via export and import.

Even with a completely new look, no search capabilities are lost. Search and Explore still allow your patrons to view details, filter results, place holds, view maps, write reviews, view on the shelf, and add to lists.

Lists! New to version 7, your patrons can now share their saved lists. They can choose to make the list Private or Public, and every Public list has a unique link. Students can share with their friends, teachers can share with their students, librarians can share with their teachers... and any list can be linked to with Explore Builder. This means your teachers can update and maintain their Reading Lists, and students can access them with the click of a button.

You may also notice improved performance because of the new way Alexandria manages your data.

Here’s a fun fact: We ran a thousand Circulation transactions per minute—to simulate a very busy library—and compared how many searches Alexandria could handle simultaneously. Alexandria version 7 could handle ten times more than Alexandria version 6. This means that when your library gets busy, Alexandria still operates at optimal speeds.

Say ‘hello’ to Slideshow, a new module for displaying a list of search results in rotation. Set it up on your library monitor to show Recently Added Titles, Award Winners, your saved list of Holiday books, or any other list or search term.

The next biggest change in the new Alexandria is to Reports, Utilities, Exports, and Imports, which have been redesigned for clarity and ease of use.

For Reports, Utilities, and Exports, the Selections have been simplified and separated from Options. Redundant reports and utilities have been merged. In other words, no more sifting through selections and options that don’t apply to the report you are running.

You can now standardize your reporting across all your libraries by sharing report formatting with other sites.

New label reports allow detailed customization of your labels. Choose what information is on the label, in what color, and even bold it.

There are several significant changes to Preferences. Address Books are now much easier to set up and manage with a dedicated Z39.50 address book.

The Researcher area of Preferences now includes settings for individual parts of the Researcher suite, and these settings have been reorganized. There is no longer a need for the version 6 Links feature, as that can all be done within the Explore Builder.

Wide Area Network, or WAN in version 6, is the ability to share resources across your separate libraries in a Distributed Union. There is an entirely new interface for this called Group Search, where you can set up which data stations are part of which search groups.

The new Group Search not only gives you better configuration options, but allows patrons direct access to the site they are searching. This means they are fully within the environment of that site, including its configuration and display preferences.

Authority Control is now intuitive even for those who don’t speak MARC. Easily edit your terms, plus the See and See Also, remove terms that aren’t used, and take advantage of the shadow text auto-fill in the Patron and Item modules.

In Items, the lists for Titles and Copies have been separated. Copies now have their own area, with a list that’s easier to view and work with than the scrolling arrows of version 6.

Remember the Title information is the MARC record, the information about the book, while the Copy information pertains to each particular physical copy of the book. Although it may take some

adjustment, every core feature you are used to still exists.

Considering all of these new features and updated interfaces, Alexandria version 7 is... awesome!

So... what’s the catch?

Well, spring cleaning is not limited to spring!

With all the improvements to Explore Builder, we will not be able to convert existing panes, so you have the chance to start fresh! Review your Explore panes to ensure your icons are updated and your custom searches are relevant.

Use the intuitive new interface to tailor-fit your patron searching experience.

Because of the redesigns and improvements to these modules, saved Reports, Utilities, Exports, and Imports will not convert from version 6 to version 7.In version 6.22.8 (or later) Reports, run the Operation Summary report. This gives you an all-inclusive list of every saved operation, so you can review the list for operations still in use, then recreate those saved operations in version 7.

Another way we’ve made Alexandria more user-friendly and relevant is by removing modules that are not used: Due to lack of customer interest, Orders and Budgets are no longer supported, and there are no immediate plans for their return.

Along with upgrading your software, now is the time to upgrade your printer. We are now offering a network receipt printer that can be shared by multiple stations and works with the new web interfaces. Contact our Sales Team to learn more.

• Multiple users
• Wireless printing
• No drivers to install
• Super fast thermal printing

Test out the new Researcher at demo.goalexandria.com.
Check out the Librarian modules at demo.goalexandria.com/librarian.
To see how Alexandria works in a Central union, visit CUdemo.goalexandria.com.