My name is Chris Amorosi and I am starting at NOBLE’s new Bibliographic Services Supervisor. From my very first job as a teenage library page at the Saugus Public Library to seven years as the Head of Technical Services at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, I’ve spent most of my working life at NOBLE libraries and have always lived in a NOBLE community. I was also a long time member and sometimes chair of ERDWG where I got to work with other librarians all over the system on improving the catalog and e-resource access.
I’m excited for this new and challenging direction for my career! I’ll get to support library patrons as I have done and also work together with all my librarian colleagues more closely than I could before. I’m looking forward to supporting you on all things bibliographic.
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Upcoming Evergreen 3.13 Upgrade – January 5
NOBLE is pleased to announce the network is upgrading to Evergreen release 3.13 on Sunday, January 5.
Downtime Information
- All libraries should expect to be down for the entire day Sunday, January 5. The system should be available by the time staff start working on Monday, January 6.
- We will add messaging to the public catalog one week prior to the upgrade.
- During the downtime window, the following will be unavailable:
- Circulation and other staff functions
- Web catalog
- Mobile app
- Patron self services like placing holds, renewals, signing up for ecards and self-check.
- Authentication via SIP2 (Overdrive, Hoopla, museum pass, EZproxy etc.) will be available for a large portion of the downtime, but will be down for a brief period.
- Libraries that are open Sunday can use offline circulation. The training system will also be available to look up call numbers, but the date will be one month old and will not include new titles.
- When the system is back up on Monday, if staff notice any unusual screens, we first recommend that you clear cache and refresh your screen. The Clear Cache Chrome extension allows you to easily clear cache from the Chrome toolbar. If those steps don’t resolve the issue, please contact NOBLE support.
Previewing 3.13
NOBLE library staff can log into the training system to get a first-hand look at release 3.13, which we will be using for training and testing the new release. Here’s how to login and set search preferences for the old and new versions of the staff catalog: Logging Into the Training System.
- Please let us know if there are newer staff who can’t access the training system so we can add their accounts.
- The training system contains a snapshot of NOBLE data so there are holds, overdue, bills, etc., with all patron information anonymized.
- Feel free to test things, including adding, editing or removing patron, title or item information. Anything you add or change will be gone the next time we update the snapshot for the training system. Nothing will transfer to the production (live) system.
Recording of the December 17 upgrade session | Slides
Register for January 14 Problems and Questions (P’s and Q’s) session
Register for January 22 Problems and Questions (P’s and Q’s) session
Upcoming Training and Upgrade Sessions in November and December
Training sessions in November and December:
(Online via Zoom)
November 19, 2 – 3 PM: List Maker: Making Bookbags of Selected Titles
Learn to use the List Maker to create a list of titles in the bookbag format, which you can share with patrons to make it easy for them to select titles, see what’s available, and place holds. This is a great way to create a list that matches titles from a book display, award list titles, staff picks, or titles related to any season, event or theme. Here’s an example of the bookbag format: Snowy Days
Registration
November 21, 10 – 11 AM: Meet Me at the Corner of Cat and Circ
How does the system decide how much to bill a patron for lost material? Why do we get so many alerts at the circ desk (or why don’t we get more?) What does Age Hold Protection mean, and how is it set up? What happens to missing and lost items — do they stay in the system forever? How do parts work? This session reviews how library loan rules work, and which elements of cataloging affect how circulation works. It is aimed at both circulation and cataloging staff (especially the designated representatives) and administrators.
Registration
December 3, 10 – 11 AM: Making Most Popular Books Lists
Learn how to use circulation data to create lists of the books, DVDs, etc., that circulated the most for your library, in the past year (or any time period.) These can be as general as adult fiction, as specific as cookbooks or can be lists of the most popular authors based on the checkouts of their titles.
Registration
December 5, 10 – 11 AM: Gemini AI: Hands-On Workshop
Gemini AI is Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot, available to everyone with a Google Workspace account at https://gemini.google.com. In this session, you’ll learn how Gemini (and other AI chatbots) “think” and what kind of tasks they can do as we work together through guided exercises and sharing screens.
Registration
Evergreen Upgrade Sessions:
(Online via Zoom)
NOBLE is upgrading to Evergreen 3.13 on Sunday, January 5. In these upgrade sessions, NOBLE staff will share the details of the downtime and provide an overview of new features to expect in the next release. Please bring along any questions you may have about the upcoming upgrade.
(Online via Zoom)
December 11, 10 -11 AM: Registration
December 17, 2 – 3 PM: Registration
Nice to meet you, NOBLE!
I would like to take a moment to introduce myself on my first day at NOBLE!
My name is Gabriel Jayroe (he/him) and I am coming on as the new Member Services Support Associate. I’ve worked in the NOBLE Library system for almost 8 years, starting at the Peabody Institute Library Main Branch and making my way to the West Branch Assistant Librarian.
I am incredibly excited to start this position that will let me support libraries and their users. I’ve been a library user since infancy and I hope my work helps to create inclusive and accessible spaces for people of all backgrounds. Some of my library passions are inclusive and diverse materials and ease of access for marginalized communities.
When I’m not at work, I live in Salem and like to spend time with my partner going to concerts, karaoke, art festivals, and old record shops. In my downtime I write poetry for literature journals, make art, and play video games.
I’m very excited to begin this new chapter in library services and I look forward to supporting all of you!
Fall Training Schedule Released
NOBLE has released its Fall Training Schedule: September – December 2024.
This fall, NOBLE will run workshops on Evergreen, List Maker, Google Workspace, Overdrive, Novelist and other topics, will also hold a series of roundtables and will host a Welcome to NOBLE session.
If you prefer a chronological view, you can see the training sessions as well as other meetings and events on the Staff Information System Calendar.
Summer Training Schedule
We have several training sessions coming up this summer on Evergreen, List Maker, Google Workspace and OverDrive. All are online via Zoom, will be recorded and will be repeated in the fall.
You can see the full list, divided by topic and with registration links, on this document:
NOBLE Training Schedule
If you prefer a chronological view, you can see the training sessions as well as other meetings and events on the Staff Information System Calendar