[iBorrow] OCLC Issues

[Al Carlson]

iBorrow Users

OCLC and iBorrow have not been playing well together.  They got off to a
bad start when the server that connects them 'dropped' all of OCLC's
responses for the first week.  That generated a lot of repeated requests
from URSA/iBorrow, who thought OCLC was ignoring it.  And once a
computer program's feelings are hurt, things get ugly.

SirsiDynix fixed the connecting computer, then took all the 'bad' OCLC
requests, put them in the Recalled bin to make them invisible to the Day
End timer, and cleaned them up as best they could.  They deleted some
and put the ones that seemed to be OK back into your Received bin.  For
those that are still valid and that you want to process, that is a good
thing.  But some of them are not worth keeping.

Many of you have found out that you can't delete these records.  Well,
you can.  But they come back.  So, to start with, please send us
(carlsoa at tblc.org with a CC to farmerb at tblc.org) the iBorrow Request ID
numbers of all the ones you want to just flat out get rid of.  We will
pass those on to SirsiDynix with instructions to make them go away
forever.

That's a short term fix.  As a longer term fix, SirsiDynix is currently
creating a new status, tentatively named Pending at OCLC, that will let
you delete requests when you need to and will not consider an item
"received" when it is still in the OCLC mill.  We will let you know ASAP
when this fix is done.

We have also logged the problems that come up for you when an actual
OCLC item arrives and you try to Receive it.

If your library does not use OCLC, you can pretty much breathe a sigh of
relief and delete this Email.
If your library does use OCLC, and you think your ILL person/people
might not subscribe to the TBLC iBorrow list or Suntalk list, please
forward this to them.

Thank you.  And keep those questions coming in.

Al Carlson
System Administrator
Tampa Bay Library Consortium
1202 Tech Blvd. Suite 202
Tampa, FL  33619
813-622-8252 ext. 223

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