New to Tiny Cat - schools

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New to Tiny Cat - schools

1lorett01
Déc 7, 2021, 11:48 am

Hello all, I've been trying out LT/Tiny Cat as a possible alternative to the library software we are currently using at our school. Our trial will soon come to an end, and I've been collecting a list of questions about features. I hope you don't mind if I throw them all out here, as I am interested in responses from other users as well as developers.

1. Community - By chance is there a school library user group? I'm curious how other schools have applied LT to their school collections.

2. Cataloguing - How do you record multiple copies of the same title? (I think I've found my answer on the messageboards, but thought this was useful to flag up with developers :) )

4. Tiny Cat - Is it possible to suppress LT user reviews from OPAC results? I assume there is a way but may have missed it. Reviews are great but a bit wary about what outside content could be available to pupils.

5. Loans - Is it possible to suppress self-check out? I'm still looking at the circulation side of things, and loans are an area that I'd probably be most keen to connect with other users to set this up right.

6. Loans - It seems possible to check a book out to one user even while it is already on loan to another reader. Is there a configuration to prevent that?

7. Collections - Ideally we'd like to split the book catalogue into smaller collections (fiction, non-fiction, reference, etc.). Is it possible to set different parameters for each collection, for example set the reference collection so it prevents titles from being loaned out? Again, I think the answers are all there but I've not yet come across the right configurations - I perhaps picked a busy time of year to trial it!

8. Borrowers - Likewise, is it possible to group borrowers into different categories? For example, providing staff and pupils with different loan privileges.

9. Settings - Is it possible to set the catalogue's calendar to British standard (dd-mm-yyyy)? Otherwise I could see that might confuse both staff and borrowers?

10. Settings - I think I have the answer to this already, but is it possible to allow multiple staff admin privileges to the same catalogue?

I think that's all the questions I had come up with so far. I've been looking through the forums and they've already been a great help (watch out, Amazon covers!).

2kristilabrie
Modifié : Déc 8, 2021, 2:34 pm

Hi lorett01,

I'm not a developer but I run all TinyCat support, I'm happy to answer your questions, at least until you can hear back from others!

1. You can use LibraryThing's site search (top-right search box) and filter by Groups to find relevant Groups: https://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=school+libraries&searchtype=g.... The Librarians who LibraryThing Group will be close to what you're looking for: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/78/Librarians-who-LibraryThing.

2. LibraryThing and TinyCat unfortunately do not yet have copies management (the "Copies" field on LT existed long before any lending capabilities or TinyCat were developed), so you would need to catalog each copy of your book/s separately if you wanted to track lending for them. (This feature is on our list, we'll be sure to announce if/when we have any updates!)

4. (No #3, so I'll correspond to your numbers listed.) Yes! Customize what you want on your Detail pages here: https://www.librarycat.org/admin/settings/sections.

5. Yes, you can simply disable patron accounts and the Check out/Place hold buttons: https://www.librarycat.org/admin/settings/patronaccounts and https://www.librarycat.org/admin/settings/circsettings.

6. The library admin can do this, yes, but we have an alert on any checked-out book on both the Check in/out page and on book/detail pages (in the availability status section, if you have that showing), and also on any "Item Circulation" pop-up that you open. You should be able to tell when you're checking out a checked-out book.

7. Unfortunately, you can't set loan settings per Collection. The best way to achieve this, probably, would instead be to apply a custom lending status to all of your "Reference only" books, making sure to make that status mark the book as unavailable for loan. You can create other lending statuses from the Check in/out page and test it out for a few reference books at first: https://www.librarycat.org/admin/checkinout

8. Alas, we don't have loan settings that can be split up amongst your users/patrons. It is on our list to consider down the road, though. You can add custom patron fields to your TinyCat (from https://www.librarycat.org/admin/settings/patronsettings) and record the patron role/type, for example (student, teacher, etc.), for reference from your Patrons page if you need it (https://www.librarycat.org/admin/patrons). I hope this helps.

9. You can change the Circulation Date Format from your Circulation Settings (noted in #5).

10. Yes! See the pinned post in this TinyCat Group: https://www.librarything.com/topic/335236.

Please let me know if you have other questions!

3lorett01
Déc 10, 2021, 6:28 am

Hi kristilabrie,

Thanks for the tips and links, that is really helpful. So far, I've enjoyed trying out TinyCat.

Lol, right there was no question #3! I had deleted that one and forgot to reorder.

Thanks again!