A few weeks ago I posted a query concerning Infocentre, asking who had it
up and running, problems etc. I was in the midst of a conversion from
Athena and was having terrible problems: leading zeros, only half my
collection converting, possible rebarcoding or just returning the
software. I heard from several people with a range of responses from "suck
it up and rebarcode" to some having the same problems and frustration to
others who were holding off purchasing Infocentre because they'd heard
about problems. A combination of my sales rep and numerous people at tech
support got the problems corrected and I am now up and running and love
Infocentre.
The biggest problem had been leading zeros. Athena had provided a "strip
leading zero" program that eliminated (but didn't solve) this issue.
However, since the program only ignored them but didn't actually
physically remove them the problem was still there when we went to
Infocentre. I was repeatedly told that there was no equavilent program for
Infocentre. At that point my only solution was to rebarcode half of my
collection since we have been automated for almost 20 years and have
multiple symbologies. Fortunately a frustrated e-mail to my sales rep
resulted in learning that there was ideed a way to strip the zeros from
the barcode numbers. After that was done and I figured out the correct
barcode setup I have had success and am now up and running.
The second problem I had was in searching the catalog. My search results
were not accurate. Sagebrush tech support was able to pinpoint the
problem and sent me a Sagenote with directions to re-index along with the
suggestion that we upgrade to 2.1. Once we upgraded to 2.1 and re-indexed
we have been running quite smoothly. I have come across 2 items so far
that were checked out in Athena but not checked out (evidently not
transferred) in Infocentre. I'm hoping this is the extent of items that
did not transfer accurately but won't know for a while. We intend to do an
inventory within the next few weeks and that should give us a better
picture of how our collection stands. I tried the zMarc cataloging
component today and it worked flawlessly. I am amazed at the speed with
which we can now catalog.
Overall, I am pleased with Infocentre now that we are running 2.1 and
have re-indexed. My thanks to Kim Fusco, sales rep and tech support for
getting me up and running. I do think that Sagebrush needs to do more to
help tech support by letting them know what programs have been developed
that can solve some of these issues that undoubtedly will come up from
time to time. Tech support staff are the ones on the phone with the
customers and they need all the tools and info at their disposal in order
to do their job and provide effective tech support to their customers. So,
if you are having problems with Infocentre hang in there and keep pushing
for solutions. They are available.
Liz
Liz McMahon
Library Media Specialist
Messalonskee Middle School Library
33 School Bus Drive
Oakland, ME 04963
lmcmahon@msad47.org
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