The upgrade to Sierra 3.1 is  scheduled for Monday, July 3 beginning at 7:00 pm.  This will require approximately two – three hours of downtime for both Sierra and the library catalog. We chose the date because it occurs during a less active time of the summer when the number of people affected by the downtime will be diminished. By scheduling it in the evening, it is less likely that staff workflow will be disrupted. If you foresee a problem with performing the upgrade on this day and time, please let me know as soon as possible.

As Sierra is upgraded, we don’t expect the system to be down for more than three hours, but we will send out an update should that time be extended for any reason.

New Features in Sierra 3.1

  • Web Management Reports no longer require Java (!!!)
  • Performance improvements for exporting review files especially for databases with high numbers of linked records
  • Performance improvements for exporting records from Data Exchange especially for databases with high numbers of linked records
  • Performance improvements for keyword searching in WebPAC especially for databases with high numbers of linked records
  • New Sierra holdshelf architecture: Provides increased stability and data integrity. In addition, Create Lists supports searching for items by hold On Holdshelf and Pickup By dates.
  • The maximum number of entries for the RLOC-BLOC Addresses table has been raised from 255 entries to 2000.
  • The maximum number of entries for the Branches table has been increased from 3600 to 10,000.
  • In Serials Checkin, allow vertical scrolling of boxes when card has more boxes than can fit in the window
  • Ability to Cut, Copy, Select All, and Paste field data when editing records in Cataloging 

Known Issues reported to Innovative that are resolved in this release:

  • After upgrade to Sierra 3.0, the status field in invoice records is not updated when invoices are posted
  • After clicking the “save” button (though the same thing happens when trying to close and being prompted to save) after either editing an existing issue box or adding a new issue box–missing pair error. Reported in Sierra 3.0.
  • Rapid Update: no calendar for some date fields Rapid Update does not offer a calendar dialog or prompt for the correct date format when rapid updatingsome date fields. Affected fields include patron BLK UNTIL and CIRCACQTIVE, item LOUTDATE, checkin CLAIMON, and course END DATE.
  • In Rapid Update, when staff choose a date field (like patron EXP DATE) and enter ‘b’ in the Value box, nothing happens. That is, the Current Command table remains empty, and the Start button remains inactive.
  • In the Check Out (Circulation Desk) function, when listing holds for a patron, long Arabic or Greek titles are truncated in the middle of the internal code for Arabic or Greek in curly braces. This results in a partial code displaying, not an Arabic or Greek character.
  • Initials are missing from the “Waive” message in the circulation overrides file, even though initials are entered in to authorize the waive when an overdue item is checked in.
  • Cannot move to next/previous record using keyboard shortcuts such as ctrl ] and ctrl [ or File – Next Record /Previous Record in such functions as Cataloging in Multi-Windows mode, in Compact Browse. It works in Create Lists.
  • Performance improvements to Fines Paid Mode for scrolling through the table and exporting data.
  • Reported in Sierra 2.3, the checkin card number sequencing in Serials is not displaying in the correct chronological order. Some examples provided by customer libraries show the checkin boxes in order for several months and then one from a previous year is displayed. Also, the checkin dates being displayed for many issues is years later than the publication date of the magazine issue. This non-standard display is happening on a wide variety of journal titles and not necessarily on every journal title held by the library.

If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Henley (henley.77).