planning pack312.doc.doc.doc

RefTrackerInstallation

Planning Package

As at release 3.1.2(last updated 27 August 2008)

The purpose of this package is to help you plan for the installation of RefTracker (either in-house, or as a hosted service).

Reading, and completing the appropriate parts of this package prior to installation will ensure that all of the information that is required for a successful installation, is available when the installation work begins.

Please ensure that the relevant parts of this document indicated in the table of contents on the following page, are returned to your RefTracker supplier’s Project Manager no later than 2 weeks prior to your installation date.

Ask your RefTracker supplier’s Project Manager for assistance if you need it!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ALL PARTS SHOULD BE REVIEWED

INDICATED PARTS TO BE RETURNED TO YOUR SUPPLIER’S PROJECT MANAGER

Page Date Sent

1. In-house Installation Planning (Page 3) . . . . . . . . . . .systems support to complete for inhouse installationssend only if using your supplier’s installation services

2. Installation Information Planning (Page 7) . . . . . . . . . . .administrator to complete for all installations

send only if using a system hosted by your supplier

3. Determining Initial Settings (Page 11) no need to sendadministrator to complete for all installations

4. Customisation Planning (6) . . . . . . . . .administrator to review for all installations

send only if using your supplier’s web style matching service

5. Installation (Page 30) no need to sendsystem support and administrator to review for all installations

6. Implementation Planning (Page 32) no need to sendadministrator to review for all installations

7. Support Information (Page 35) . . . . . . . . .systems support/administrator to send to your supplier

when installation is on a server at your organisation

RefTracker Planning Pack - Release 3.1.2 2 of 36

1. IN-HOUSE INSTALLATION PLANNING

1.1 Where your RefTracker server should be locatedRefTracker will be accessed by both librarians, and clients of the library. Both types of users access the system via web browsers, so both types of users must be able to access the IIS server of the server on which you load RefTracker, using HTTP (usually port 80). Your network manager may need to be consulted to ensure that this access will be provided by the server that you plan to load RefTracker onto. Don’t forget that even if you do not serve public clientele, your staff may wish to access RefTracker from home, so for this reason your RefTracker server may need to be accessible for web browser access from the Internet.

All RefTracker access is via email and web browsers so the server running RefTracker can sit behind a firewall. However if you run a secure environment you will need your security expert involved with the RefTracker installation to ensure all types of potential users have appropriate access to the system. The best test is to set up a question with an attachment, and with the text of the answer including some URL’s of internal material, and ensure that the attachments and URL’s can all be accessed by both users inside your network, and those outside it eg library staff working from home, and library clients accessing the system from home, as appropriate to your library. Sometimes the solution to making URL’s available is simply to advise the library which internal URL’s can, and can’t, be accessed externally, so that they can ensure that ones that are not available externally, are not used.

RefTracker can be installed in a web or a virtual web on the server that you select. And for sites wanting excellent security, it can also be used with an SSL certificate.

Note that the name of the server, and the name of the web that you choose to use with RefTracker all contribute to the length of the URL required to bring up RefTracker. Especially as RefTracker URL’s are included in emails that might need to be read by text based email clients with 72 character URL limits, it is advisable to use short server and web names.

1.2 Check your hardware’s compatibilityThe server that will run RefTracker must match the following configuration:- a Windows 2003 server - IIS Server 6 or higher running on that server with its SMTP service running or access to an email server- and access to an SQL server 2000 (preferred), or SQL server 2005 (including the free version Express with advanced services), system running somewhere on your network.

RefTracker is not heavy on processing power (a standard single CPU process should run at least 30 concurrent RefTracker users) and can be run on a server being used for other things.


This section should be completed, prior to installation, ONLY if your RefTracker system is being installed on a server in your library or IT department. The IT department systems support person responsible for the server on which RefTracker will be installed is usually the right person to work through this section as part of their installation planning.

This section is NOT applicable to those whose systems will be hosted by your RefTracker supplier.

Send this form to your Project Manager ONLY if your RefTracker supplier is doing your in-house installation for you.

The amount of disk space that will be required by your RefTracker installation will depend more on the number and size of attachments used in your answers than on the number or size of the answers themselves. RefTracker text fields such as the Question and Answer fields can store up to 2Mb per field per question, so the size of each individual record also varies enormously, but on average you should allow 25Kb per record (sometimes more for special libraries and generally less for public libraries). It is therefore difficult to estimate the ultimate size of a RefTracker database and software directory, however we recommend, as a broad guideline only, that you allow for growth of 50MB per concurrent reference user per year. At installation time RefTracker will require as little as 25Mb of disk space – the space taken by the software itself and the empty database.

To be able to install RefTracker you will need to know the internet accessible name of the server upon which RefTracker is to be loaded. If your RefTracker supplier is loading the software they will also need to know how to access the server by FTP.

What is your server’s Internet accessible address?

Server internet accessible address:______________________________

FTP access details for this server:______________________________(if your RefTracker supplier is doing your installation for you)

1.3 Check your server will be able to deliver RefTracker generated emailsRefTracker creates emails and delivers them to the Internet using the SMTP service of your IIS server, or an email server that you nominate. RefTracker does not (yet) accept incoming emails directly – any incoming emails are sent directly to participants email addresses.

If you are going to use the IIS SMTP service you will need to check that it is running by going to Start/Settings Control Panel/Administrative tools/Internet Services Manager and opening the tree for the server on which RefTracker is to be installed. A default web site and a default SMTP service should be displayed. If the SMTP service is not displayed you will need to go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add Remove Programs, and then select Add/Remove Windows Components and then view the details for IIS and install the SMTP service.

1.4 Your email server name or IP addressIn order to have emails that are sent from RefTracker show your domain name (and so not run the risk of being detected as junk mail for those running hosted systems), RefTracker needs to know the IP address or name of the server on which your email server or SMTP service is running. This information must be supplied during the installation process.

What is the name or IP address of the server upon which your email or SMTP service is running?

Name or IP address of your email/SMTP server:____________________________

1.5 Server Administrator accessYou must be signed on using an operating system administrator level signon and password, in order to install RefTracker. Therefore you need to obtain the Administrator user name and password for this server.

What is the username and password for the system administrator of the server on which RefTracker will be installed?

Server administrator user name:______________________________

Server administrator password:______________________________


1.6 SQL server accessAdministrator access to the SQL Server installation that you will use, is required in order to install RefTracker (SQL Server can be running anywhere in your network – it does not have to be on the same server as you are loading RefTracker). Therefore you need to obtain the SQL Administrator user name and password. RefTracker can use Windows integrated security.

A new database will be created within SQL server for this RefTracker installation and a user name and password will be associated with that database. The installation procedure allows you to choose the name and either create the required username and password, or specify an existing username and password. If your organisation has standards in relation database usernames and passwords, and where they need to be documented, you will need to find out about these standards and apply them.

What is the user name and password for the SQL server that will be used with RefTracker?

Name of server where SQL Server is running:__________________________(if not the same as the server on which RefTracker will run)

SQL administrator user name:_______________________________________

SQL administrator password:________________________________________

Choose a database name, database user name and password to associate with the new database that will be created for this RefTracker installation. Ensure that you comply with corporate standards for this information and how it is recorded.

RefTracker Database name:_______________________________________

Database user name:____________________________________________

Database password:_____________________________________________

Note for IT departments 1. A daily backup regime will need to be implemented for RefTracker covering both its SQL database

and the directory into which RefTracker is loaded.2. You should also check that your security regime covers the new RefTracker installation.3. Your library may need assistance changing the logo’s and other presentation parameters used in

RefTracker if it is important to them to customise the look of RefTracker (see the Customisation Planning Section of this document or the help files on Customisation).

4. You may also need to advise the library of any system limitations that will impact on RefTracker, for example, if you make any webs available that are not accessible from outside your Intranet, if your system limits the size of files that can be uploaded to your server, or if your email service limits the size of attachments.

5. We also recommend that, where your security rules allow it, it is of major advantage to libraries to have access to an Internet accessible web enabled directory where they can load information, and keep it up to date, so that instead of having to send attachments to clients that might go out of date, or fill email quotas, they can simply quote the URL of the information in the internet accessible web enabled directory.

Guidance on these issues is provided in the RefTracker help accessible using an administrator signon, once your RefTracker system has been installed.

Further guidance on how RefTracker is set up is provided in the RefTracker Support Manual that (for in-house install customers) will be delivered at the same time as your installation set. The latest version of the RefTracker Support manual is always downloadable from the RefTracker support site athttp://www.altarama.com.au/supportsite/custonly/custreft.htm


http://www.altarama.com.au/supportsite/custonly/custreft.htm

Which is also accessible from the System/Utilities page within RefTracker.

You will receive an installation set from your RefTracker supplier. The installation set includes installation instructions, release notes describing new features, and a zip file containing the installation program which includes the files to be installed. The installation process installs a RefTracker control program, the software, the database, and the web for the application. See the installation Section of this document for more information about the broader installation process, and the Support manual for specific installation instructions.

Software updates and patches, when appropriate, are also delivered with installation wizards.


With all of this information to hand, your RefTracker installation process should take less than 30 minutes to complete.Send this form to your supplier’s project manager ONLY if your supplier is doing your in-house installation for you.

2. INSTALLATION INFORMATION PLANNING

2.1 The name of your serviceSome libraries like to give their RefTracker installation a service name. Some use RefTracker but others use names such as KnowItAll and Ask-the-Library. See the notes about using a catchy name for marketing purposes in the Implementation planning section of this document.

What will you call your service?

Your RefTracker service name:______________________________ (installation parameter and parameter 1.1)

2.2 RefTracker URLOften libraries like to relate the URL that clients use to access their RefTracker service, to the name that you have chosen for the service eg if your service name is KnowItAll, the URL might be http://<yourServernameOrDomain>/knowitall or, if installed in a virtual web http://knowitall.<yourDomain>/This URL will bring up the client interface. Relating the URL to your service name can make it easy for clients to remember.

What do you want your RefTracker web name to be?

Your RefTracker web name:______________________________ (installation parameter) Note: for hosted systems your web name will be part of a standard URL eg http://<webName>.altarama.com or http://www.altarama.com.au/<webName>.

Note about the Staff URLStaff will access RefTracker using the URL you choose above suffixed with /staff.aspx therefore if you choose the RefTracker URL as shown above, the staff URL would be: http://<yourServernameOrDomain>/knowitall/staff.aspx or http://knowitall.<yourDomain>/

Note for hosted services – you will generally be allocated a systemically generated web name on the hosting organisation’s server. The allocated web name will normally be hidden behind the hyperlinks you


This section should be completed by ALL customer’s as the information is required for the installation process. It only needs to be sent to your supplier, prior to installation, if you will be using a hosted service provided by them.

To complete this section you will need to be aware of your library’s reference policies, and the objectives of your RefTracker installation, including the statistical information that you want to obtain about your library. Your nominated RefTracker system administrator is usually the right person to complete this section. Your nominated RefTracker system administrator is the person who will be responsible for determining and maintaining your RefTracker settings - parameters and system codes, and for resolving any problems with your RefTracker system.

Send this form to your supplier’s project manager when complete, only if you are using a system hosted by your supplier. If you are doing your own in-house installation, the person doing your installation will require this information to be able to perform the installation.

insert in your web pages, but if it is important to you to have a recognisable web name you should ask your IT department to create a web name that matches your choice above, on an in-house server and then map that web name to your allocated hosted web name.

2.3 Question number PrefixRefTracker question numbers have a prefix designed to identify them as RefTracker numbers as opposed to any other numbers that are issued by your library. Some libraries like to use their National Union Catalogue symbol as this prefix as it also identifies your library. However you can use whatever prefix you like that is 1 to 6 alphanumeric characters in length – note that experience shows that shorter prefixes make for easier to handle question numbers. Once chosen this setting cannot be changed. All other settings in RefTracker can be changed at any time, so the choices you make here are only your initial settings! However the choice you make here for your Prefix is a permanent choice!

What do you want your question prefix to be?

Your question number prefix: (installation parameter)

2.4 Active system administrator email addressYour System Administrator will be responsible for setting and maintaining system settings, and for resolving system problems. When problems occur or issues are identified by the system as needing attention, the system will send an email to this Administrator. You can have a s many systems administrators as you need in this system, this setting simply indicates the one accepting primary responsibility at this particular point in time.

This email address you choose here will be attached to the Administrator signon supplied with this system, so that it will be immediately associated with a user signon capable of selecting the settings (parameters and code tables) for this system.

Who will be your initial RefTracker System Administrator, and what is their email address?

The name of your nominated System administrator:________________________

Your currently active system administrator email address:___________________ (installation parameter and parameter 1.4)

Note for System Administrator:

Please see the Support section of this document for information about where you can obtain assistance in using this product from your RefTracker supplier.

2.5 Service email addressThis is the email address from where RefTracker emails will be seen to come.

If you have an in-house RefTracker system, this will be an email address on your local domain:- It can be a new email address that your IT department sets up for you specifically for this purpose, however you will also need to ask for this email address to be aliased to your RefTracker administrator, or another regularly monitored email address, so that any email non-delivery notices flow on to an email address where they will be seen and addressed, and any email arriving at this address, as a result of clients using the reply function in error, can also be addressed. It would be ideal if the email address was the same as your RefTracker service name e.g. <reftrackerServiceName>@<libraryDomainName>- However, if you already have an email address that is used for clients to send questions of any sort to the library, it would be a good idea to use that existing email address. Such an address will usually already be regularly monitored so that replies and non delivery notices can be seen and addressed.


If you have a hosted RefTracker system, we need to take email spam issues into account, so there are a number of options:1. You can use an email address that is from your own domain, but only if your IT department will allow relaying of your RefTracker messages through one of your local e-mail servers. Your IT department’s email administrator will need to allow "relaying" of email from the IP address of the server on which your system has been installed. We will provide the exact IP at the time of your installation (it will be in the format 208.53.36.XXX) 2. We can create an email address for you to use in our special domain that addresses the email message spam issue. It will be in the format [email protected] . So, for example, if you are the ABC Library, emails from your RefTracker service will appear to come from [email protected]. We will arrange for this email address to be to be aliased to your RefTracker administrator, or another regularly monitored email address, so that any email non delivery notices flow on to an email address where they will be seen and addressed, and any email arriving at this address as a result of clients using the reply function in error can also be addressed. Set up and maintenance of this email address is a free service.3. We can host a new domain, specifically registered for your RefTracker system. You can choose a new domain name that closely reflects your organisation (you can check availability of appropriate domains at web sites like http://www.register.com). For example, if your organisation is the ABC Corporation and your normal domain is http://www.ABCcorp.com you might choose a domain like http://www.ABClibrary.info . We would then install your RefTracker system so that it uses that domain (so, for our example, the RefTracker URL would be http://www.ABClibrary.info, and we would create a service email address for you in that domain e.g. [email protected] . We will arrange for messages going to this email address to be to be forwarded to your RefTracker administrator’s e-mail address in your home domain, or another regularly-monitored email address, so that any email non delivery notices flow on to an email address where they will be seen and addressed, and any email arriving at this address as a result of clients using the reply function in error can also be addressed. This is an included service of the RefTracker Secure Premium hosting service, but will cost $250 per year plus a one time $250 set up fee for users of lower level hosting services.

What is the email address to be used by RefTracker for sending emails to clients and staff?

Your RefTracker service email address:______________________________ (installation parameter and parameter 1.2)

2.6 URL for home page linkThis is the URL of the web page that you want your users (client and staff) returned to when they choose the library home page link in the client interface to jump out of RefTracker. This may be the home page of your library web pages, or perhaps a specific page within your site that refers to reference materials available – its your choice, but you need to enter the entire URL eghttp://www.altarama.com.au. or server/intranet/index.htm

What is the complete URL address of the page that you want users to be directed to if they choose the library home page link in RefTracker?

Your URL for the home page link: http://______________________________ (installation parameter and parameter 1.5)

2.7 Location ID to set client date formatWhere possible RefTracker detects the user’s preferred format for date (and for the future, language) from the LCID (Location ID) settings of the client’s browser and PC. However this is not always possible depending on the user’s browser and hardware. Therefore this setting has been provided to determine the date format that will be used when an LCID cannot be automatically determined for a user. This value should therefore be set to reflect the most likely location of the users of your client interface. For example, an English (Aus) setting displays dates as dd/mm/yyyy to users whose preference cannot automatically be detected. An English (US) setting displays dates as mm/dd/yyyy to these users.


http://www.altarama.com.au/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.abclibrary.info/

http://www.abclibrary.info/

http://www.abccorp.com/

http://www.register.com/




What is the language and date format preference for your client users based on the country in which they are most likely to be located?

The language used by your clients: English

The country where the majority of your clients are located:____________________

The date format preferred by the majority of your clients: dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy?(installation and parameter 0.9)

2.8 Server time zoneYour server may be located in a time zone that is different to your branches. In order to ensure that RefTracker can communicate with clients and staff using their own local time zones, we need to know the time zone in which your server is located. Time zones are described as UTC plus or minus x hours (UTC = Co-ordinated Universal Time, which is equivalent to the old GMT i.e. Greenwich Mean Time).

What is the time zone in which your server is located? Your RefTracker supplier will provide this information if they will be hosting your service.

Server time zone: UTC + or - ______ Hours or n/a to Hosted service (installation and parameter 5.1)


Send this form to your supplier’s project manager when complete, only if your supplier is hosting your service, or if your supplier is doing your in-house installation for you.

If you or your IT department are doing your RefTracker installation, you are now ready to perform the installation. Use the instructions in the readme.txt file provided in your software installation set, and the information gathered in this Planning pack section, to install the software.

The installation process ends with an invitation to go directly into the RefTracker system created. This facility is provided through a standard administration level user supplied with each system. The user id is “setup”, and the password is “reftracker”. When you sign on as this user, you will be presented with a once only request to enter much of the information determined in this section.

3. DETERMINING INITIAL SETTINGS


This section covers the minimum level of settings (parameters and code tables) that you will need to set to suit your specific requirements. All settings that MUST be reviewed and set before you begin use of your system are described here. But there are many more settings in the system, and, before you go live, you will need to review them all using the help information provided about them in the product and the training material provided at http://www.altarama.com.au/supportsite/custonly/training.htm

Note that the settings you choose here provide initial settings only. You can change these settings at any time in the future.

Entry of settings (parameters and amendment of code tables), into your system, is your responsibility, even if you have purchased a hosted system.

To complete this section you will need to be aware of your library’s reference policies, and the objectives of your RefTracker installation, including the statistical information that you want to obtain about your library. Your nominated System administrator is usually the right person to complete this section.

You can use the customer logon customer/support to the Altarama demonstration system at http://www.altarama.com.au/reftracker/staff.aspx to investigate any of the issues addressed here, if you do not yet have access to your own system.

This section is for your own planning only. It will assist with ensuring that your system settings reflect how you want to run your library. It provides a guideline for you to begin reviewing your settings once your system is installed. It should NOT be sent to your supplier’s project manager, as it is your responsibility to enter this information as described in this section. However sending this section to the person doing your RefTracker training will help them to understand how you want to use the system.

The person who did your system installation may have set up a user signon and password for the System administrator to use, so be sure to ask them for the access URL, signon and password. However, the system is delivered with a standard username and password that is used for the installation that may still be available. This user id is “setup”, and the password is “reftracker”. The staff interface is usually accessible at http://<your domainname>/<reftracker>/staff.aspxThe client interface is usually accessible at http://<your domainname>/<reftracker>where <reftracker> is the name of your RefTracker based service as selected in 2.1.and 2.2 of this document.

http://www.altarama.com.au/reftracker/staff.aspx

http://www.altarama.com.au/supportsite/custonly/training.htm

This section does not substitute for reading the Parameterisation and Customisation help included within in the RefTracker product’s help system or the System administration training manual, and reviewing all of the RefTracker settings, as it does not cover ALL possible parameterisation and customisation. It simply ensures that you will have considered all of the information that is ESSENTIAL to be set up before first use of the system.

3.1 Set up LocationsYou can have as many Locations as you like in RefTracker o both Staff and Client locations. You should set up a Location for every physical location at which you accept questions, and every physical location that you want to count client usage from. The benefit of setting up Locations is that you can obtain statistics on the questions being accepted at, or from, that location, and optionally you can allocate questions coming from specific client locations to specific staff locations.

There is no need to set up a location for questions coming in from your web pages or specific services that you offer, as questions coming in from your web pages or specific services that you offered can be counted through their “Received via” value, but you should set up a separate location for them if you have staff specifically allocated to man those services.

There is also no need to set up locations for every service point. Service points can be distinguished by their signons, so concentrate on the locations for which you want total incoming question counts.

As with most of the things required by this section, a good guideline for what needs to be set up can be found by looking at the statistics that you currently generate, or at the statistics that you would like to generate.

(set locations using the Locations function on the System menu)

Please list all of the staff and client locations for which you want to be able to obtain statistics, and supply all of the requested information for each location.

Your staff locations (you need to create a list to suit your library): 4 Char name Staff Location name Time Zone Working hours

eg 9am to 5pm

Examples ExamplesMAIN Sydney UTC +10 9am to 5pmMELB Melbourne UTC + 10 9am to 5pmYour short names Your location names


Your client locations (you need to create a list to suit your library): 4 Char name Client Location

nameTime Zone Staff location to

which questions from this client location will be directed

Examples ExamplesSYDC Sydney UTC +10 SydneyNEWC Newcastle UTC + 10 SydneyMELC Melbourne UTC + 8 MelbournePTHC Perth UTC + 8 MelbourneYour short names Your location names

3.2 Set up Request groups and request typesRefTracker can manage all of the different requests that come into your library. To allow these different types of requests to be handled efficiently the system asks you to categorise them at two levels. Request groups determine the broad categories of requests that come into your library eg Reference, Local history, Document delivery, etc. And at a lower level Request types allow these categories to be broken down into more specific areas eg within Reference you might define specific request types of Ready reference, Standard reference, and Research; and you might define request types of Photocopy request and Inter Library Loans within Document delivery. By providing the request group level, staff can easily search for, and obtain statistics on, all document delivery (for example) type questions in the system rather than having to work with, and accumulate, information about each of the different request types making up that group.

In a new system, the best way to see how your Request groups and types have been set up is to select DeskStats, and then expand (click on the box with the plus in it next to) each of the Request group headings in this screen.

The distribution values are only examples. You need to define the different requests that come into your library in terms of Request Groups and Request types so that RefTracker delivers sensible statistics for your library.

It is possible that within your organisation, the types of requests that are dealt with at your service points are different to the ones that are dealt with by the librarians in your reference department back room. If this is the case in your library you may want to set up a Request group called something like “Front desk services” and include the request types specific to those locations, like “Directional” questions, in the “Front desk services” group.

Request group:Request groups allow various request types to be grouped together in order to indicate the type of work that they represent. For example, there may be several types of reference questions coming into your library; science, arts, engineering, medicine, etc. They can be grouped as "reference" group questions so that the type of staff member required to answer them is clear, and so that statistics and searches can be easily made over all reference request types. Similarly you could group local history and community information questions as "community" questions, so that the staff required to answer these specific types of questions are clear.Request groups have images associated with them, and those images are displayed in search results such as the My questions, and Pool Views. The images are intended to provide a quick guide as to the type of information covered by this Question/Answer, and the type of staff member required to answer the question.


Staff members can choose to see the Pool Views by Request group or Location. This means that all requests of the same type can be seen together, and staff can concentrate on just the ones that are in their area of interest.A Request group must be associated with relevant Request types (see below).

(set this using the Request group code table under System/Code tables/Request group)

Distribution example values Distrib. Default Your values Your defaultCirculation Community issuesDatabase issuesDirectional enquiriesILLIn house issuesDocument deliveryReference Suggestions/Complaints

Request type:The Request type code table defines all of the request types that you will use in your system. A Request type designates the sort of question being handled so that you can obtain statistics about the different sorts of questions coming into your library. Request types can also be used to allocate questions to the staff most appropriate for handling that type of question (Staff location can also be used).

Request types are assigned to questions at the time of entry of the question (they are defined by the Request Form used to enter the question), and are chosen in the DeskStats screen to indicate the sort of question that was asked. You can create as short or long a list of Request types as you require - the default parameters provide an indicative list of the sort of request types a public library may wish to utilise. Some Request types eg Comments and Suggestions, have special meanings to RefTracker and so cannot be deleted, but you can change their names, if appropriate to your library.

Don’t be afraid to create as many Request types as you need for DeskStats – for example you might want to break a functional group like Reference up into subject areas, or by type of client. The more Request types that your staff have to choose from (taking the number that can be effectively used within one drop down list into account), the more detail you will get in your statistics about the types of questions being asked.

However for questions entered using Request forms, and handled by back room staff, you really only need as many request types as you are going to have forms to handle the different sorts of requests.

(set this using the Request type code table under System/Code tables/Request type)

Distribution example values Distrib. Default

Request group

Your values Your Default

Request group

minimum request typesReference general Reference Reference general ReferenceSuggestion Suggestions

/ComplaintsSuggestion Suggestions

/ComplaintsLost question Suggestions

/ComplaintsLost question Suggestions

/ComplaintsOther request typesCirculation enquiries Circulation Community information Community

issuesDatabase access Database

issuesDirectional question Directional


issuesFull text article request Document

deliveryEquipment problems Inhouse

issuesIT problems Inhouse

issuesILL request ILLLocal history Community

issuesPhotocopy request Document

deliveryReady reference ReferenceResearch reference Reference

3.3 Reference user sign-onsYou can set up as many staff sign-ons as you need, usually one for every one of your reference librarians i.e. everyone who is qualified to send answers to questions to clients. Your concurrent user licence limitation, i.e. the number of RefTracker licences or seats that you purchased, simply limits the number of these sign-ons that can be in use at any particular point in time.

You must have at least one (preferably two) administrator/s (set permission level to “Administrator”) who manages the settings in your system and issues arising from it. You can have as many Supervisors as you like, often one per staff location. Supervisors can see settings but not change them and are responsible for reviewing work, when that is required. Regular users are normal reference staff who correspond directly with end users. Probation users are usually Regular users in training. Their work is automatically sent to a Work reviewer for review before being sent to the client. Their Work reviewer in nominated in their RefTracker signon.

The table below will help you decide on the users to include, and the level of each user.

In addition to the information in the table, there are many other settings that allow RefTracker to operate differently for each individual staff member

Note that, for security reasons, the administrator user that is set up by the installation process (setup/reftracker) should be deleted after you have set up your new signons. The system will not allow this setup user to be deleted unless you have specified at least one new administrator user. To delete the setup user, logoff, then sign on as the new administrator user that you have setup, go to System/ Parameters 1.4 and change the active system administrator to be the new user that you have set up, then delete the setup user.

(set this using Reference users under System maintenance)

What staff sign-ons do you want to set up, remembering that at least one (preferably two) must be an administrator?


The staff to have sign-ons are:Name Email address Sign

-onid

P/word Location Permissionlevel

Work reviewer, only required if Probation user

Staff examplesMary Jones [email protected] MJ Mary9 Branch1 Administrator

Jill Smith [email protected] JS Jill4 Branch2 Regular

John Green [email protected] John JG06 Branch 2 Probation Jill Smith

Your sign-onsAdministrator

3.4 General user sign-onsYou can set up as many general sign-ons as you need without limitation, but only the number of general signons allowed by your licence, can be signed on at any point in time. There are two levels of General user sign-ons – General and DeskStats. General user signons allow staff other than reference librarians to participate in RefTracker by searching the knowledge database, using DeskStats, entering new questions, and even contributing to the response development, but general users cannot communicate with clients. Often libraries set up one of these signons for each reference service point, but if you prefer that DeskStats be provided in the main window instead of a separate window, there is no reason whey DeskStats users cannot be set up for reference service points . DeskStat user signons are designed to make use of DeskStats easier for those who primarily just use DeskStats. They have DeskStats in their main RefTracker window, with a header bar that also allows them to search the knowledge database, and enter new questions. They cannot work on questions or communicate with clients. Often libraries set up one of these signons for each circulation service point.

Even for general users, there are many other settings than those described in the table below, that allow RefTracker to operate appropriately for the individual needs of each user or service point

(set this using General users under System maintenance)

What general sign-ons do you want to set up?

The general sign-ons will be:Name Type Sign-on Password Location Work reviewerGeneral examplesCheckin Desk DeskStat

sckin ckin Branch1 Mary Jones

Anne Brown General AB Anne Branch2 Jill Smith

Your sign-ons

3.5 Request formsRefTracker uses Request forms to define the question details that can be taken for each type of request coming into your library, that needs to be recorded in full (as opposed to recorded as a DeskStat). The forms are used in either or both of the client interface, and the New/Quick question function of the staff interface. Request forms can even be used individually in your existing library web pages simply by inserting the URL of the specific Request form in the appropriate place in your web pages. You can





create different forms for each request type, different forms for each location in your library, and different forms for staff and clients, should you need that much differentiation.

This section is about collecting information about the Request forms that will be needed by your library so that you can start replicating them in the Administration setup training course.

So, to do that, you need to decide what types of queries coming into your library need to be recorded in full (so that they can be answered later, billed for, or put in the KB – they can even be entered in full just to save fuller details about the service that was provided, than can be recorded in DeskStats). Then you need to design a form for each query type. The request types you defined in 3.2 above may indicate the forms that you need – often one for each request type is appropriate (unless you will only be recording information about services that are completed face to face for that request type in DeskStats).

You can use one generic form for many different request types, but the more forms you design for specific request types, the more the system will be able to ask the questions specific to that request type, and automatically assign questions to relevant staff or groups of staff.

You may also wish to create Request forms in multiple languages. For the time being, the values that appear in the drop down boxes in a request form, will only be available in the one language that you have defined them in, but in the future, more and more RefTracker features will be available in multiple languages. You can even create email templates in another language to go with requests made using a form in another language.

By reviewing the forms provided in a RefTracker demonstration system you will get a good idea of the sort of things that can be achieved with Request forms. Your new RefTracker system will be delivered with some similar forms as starting points for your own customised versions. Reviewing and amending the distribution examples can allow your RefTracker system to be up and running in no time.

There are several system Request forms that are used by the RefTracker system, and setting these up to meet your needs defines the minimum level of Request forms work that must be done before using your system (the system forms that MUST be reviewed are the COMMENT, LOST and REF forms). But don’t forget that you also need to do at least one staff form, and preferably one for each of the other Request types that you want to accept on individual forms.

For each form you must decide the request type being addressed by this form (see 3.2 above), the layout that you need, which locations should have access to the form (Locations are as per your decisions in 3.1 above), and what should be done with these types of questions on arrival in the system (placed in the pool, allocated or closed).

The best way to do this is to have a layout for the form on paper before you start designing it in RefTracker – by either collecting an existing form that is used for that request type, or hand drawing your desired layout. By graphically showing each of the data elements that you wish to collect for a form, you can more easily map the fields you require, to the fields available for use in RefTracker.

The following sections should help you to plan the information you need to design Request forms. The intention of this information at this time is to enable you to gather the information required to make the most of the RefTracker training which will give you all of the information you need to create the forms you need in RefTracker, or to edit distribution forms to meet your specific needs. So before we ask you to gather and/or sketch out the forms that you wish to use, we are just going to cover a few of the things you will need to know about the allocation of forms.

An overview of question allocation in RefTrackerRefTracker allocates questions coming in from the client interface according to the allocation information set in the form Request form that was used to enter the question. The allocation set in the form can specify that questions should be automatically allocated to available staff members, be placed in the unallocated question pool, or be automatically closed and/ or automatically redirected. You would have them placed in the unallocated pool first if you want staff to be able to review questions on their arrival so they can choose the questions that they work on, or if you have a different person rostered on each shift to answering the arriving questions, or referring them to more appropriate staff


members. A notification email can be sent to a specified email address when questions are sent to the pool.

You would decide to allocate them directly to staff, if you want specific staff automatically notified by email when questions arrive, rather than having them check for arrival of new questions. If you choose automatic allocation to staff then the allocation is done based on flexible allocation parameters set in the form that was used to submit the question.You would decide to have a questions automatically redirected if you want to advise someone who is not a RefTracker using staff member of arrival of the question e.g. questions that need to be handled by your IT department, or ILL requests if they will be handled by a separate ILL department.You would decide to have a question automatically closed on arrival if it is the sort of question that does not require and answer form the library (for example a response to a survey question). Redirected questions can be automatically closed on arrival.

Location information is automatically provided with every question received from the client interface, based on the location of the client, or location information that you design into the form. You can also have clients choose a location before they start using any forms (parameter 6.1), and you can pass location information to a form by setting it in the URL that the client uses to access that form.

Location effects the Pool view in which the question will be seen, and/or can be used to allocate the question to staff at the local location. Questions that come in from your client web pages, can be distinguished from questions arriving at a location via the desk or phone, as their Received via value is automatically set to “web pages”, so there is no need to create any special Locations for questions coming form your web pages unless you have staff specifically dedicated to answering questions from the web.

The allocation of questions entered by staff is selected by that staff member when they record the question – they are shown the default set in the form but can override the default setting by selecting the pool, an individual staff member including themselves, or they can even decide to have the system automatically allocate the question to a staff member.

The layout of your Request formsSo now is the time to gather examples of any forms already in use in your organisation for accepting questions, so that you can create RefTracker request forms to replace them. Note that you may have requests being submitted as simple emails, and information about them should also be collected.

Each form should provide a reference interview suited to the particular Request type that it covers. In some cases you may need a different request form for questions that will be submitted using the client interface (often these forms need to be a compromise between a comprehensive reference interview, and a form that is not so long that it frightens the user away), to those used by staff (who can be trained to enter only the necessary information for this particular question, into a form designed to be comprehensive enough to handle the most complex of questions).

Don’t forget that you may also need forms for use with the Quick screen that will allow statistics to be gathered for things where you need more specific statistics collected than those provided for by DeskStats e.g. stats for training provided that collects the type of training, the trainers name, the date the training was held, and the number of attendees, for example.

To get you started with this exercise, the following provides information about the system forms used by RefTracker. No matter which other forms you wish to create, you must always amend at least these forms to meet your library’s specific needs. So take a look at the following information and it should give you some ideas about the other forms you will require. You can also look in the RefTracker demonstration system for a wider range of example forms.

All of the text in a Request form is customisable by you. Even field names are defined by you so that the use of fields can be specifically labelled to match the use of that field in your library, for example you may use the Age/Group field to indicate the Faculty of the person asking the question. There are even more fields for inclusion in forms than you see in these examples, for example bibliographic fields are provided to allow forms like Inter Library Loan requests to be created, and there are many “user defined” fields, so record the information that you need about each question type, before worrying about how it will be mapped to a RefTracker field type.


The COMMENT formUse for this form: This is the form that is used by the RefTracker client interface to accept Comments and Suggestions from clients. You access this form via the Comments link in the header bar of the RefTracker client interface.Request type: CommentLocation at which it should be available: Any (but you could create a different form for each of your library locations if they happened to need different data collected, or in some instances you need them allocated to staff by location) Allocation: You should set the allocation of this form to a person or group of people that you nominate to handle Comments and Suggestions. Please nominate the names of the staff who will handle questions coming in from this form.How should questions coming in from this form/s be allocated in your library?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Layout: Here is the standard layout for this form. Use it to plan any changes you will need. You can change all of the text on this form, and you can add and remove data entry fields from the form.


The LOST formUse for this form: This is the form that is used by the RefTracker client interface to accept requests for help in obtaining progress information, changing or cancelling questions, where the client has lost their question number. You can access this form from the “Ask us” link on the Check on existing question page in the RefTracker client interface.Request type: Lost QuestionLocation at which it should be available: AnyAllocation: You should set the allocation of this form to a person or group of people that you nominate to handle Lost questions – this would usually be a supervisor or administrator. Please nominate the names of the staff who will handle questions coming in from this form.How should questions coming in from this form be allocated in your library?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Layout: Here is the standard layout for this form. Use it to plan any changes you will need. You can change all of the text on this form, and you can add and remove data entry fields from the form.


The REF formUse for this form: There must always be at least one form in your system for accepting questions, and this is it. You can add as many more forms for accepting questions as you like – examples are provided in the system of the variety of forms that can be achieved. So this form can be a generic form for all questions coming into your system, or just the first of many that you will design. Some libraries choose to go live with just this one form available, and make more forms available as they become familiar with the system.Request type: ReferenceLocation at which it should be available: Any (or if it will be for a specific Location you must copy it to create a similar form for every other location)Allocation: You should set the allocation of this form to a person or group of people that you nominate to handle questions of this request type. Please nominate the names of the staff who will handle questions coming in from this form, or the department responsible for handling these types of questions.How should questions coming in from this form/s be allocated in your library?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Layout: Here is the distribution layout for this form. It covers the usual things asked in a reference interview. Use it to plan any changes you will need. Remember that you can have one version of this form for staff to use, and another (simpler) form for clients to use. You can change all of the text on this form, and you can add and remove data entry fields from the form.

Don’t forget that this is just the mandatory form for accepting questions. You can create as many forms as you like with different layouts to meet the needs of the different request types that come into your library. And even within Reference questions, you can have different forms for different subtypes of reference questions, should this be required in your library eg reference – science, reference -humanities, reference – medicine, and even a basic form that contains only contact information and the question for straight forward questions.


Other formsOnly the mandatory system forms that you must consider have been covered by this document so far. Many other fields are available for inclusion in forms e.g. bibliographic fields, and user defined fields, so collect examples of ALL of the forms used for accepting requests in your library, so that you can replicate them in RefTracker, after your system administration training.

There may also be processes that happen in your library that could benefit from being recorded for statistical purposes or for better control. Investigate these processes and, in hand written format, draft up a form that would suit each process. The RefTracker demonstration system has examples of lots of different forms that might spark your imagination about question types that could be handled by your new RefTracker system.

You will need a form for EVERY Request type that you will accept as a full question through RefTracker. Or in other words, the only Request types that you will not need at least one Request form for are:- those Request types that will only ever be used with DeskStats- those Request types that can be collected using the generic ALL Request form (probably only infrequently occurring Request types).

The Request form information that you gather here will be considered in your Systems administration training. The training will describe how to create forms in RefTracker. These example forms will be invaluable in terms of providing examples that can be used in the training, of how to relate the information that needs to be collected in each form, to the RefTracker fields that can be used to accept the information.

Other Request forms you will need to create – please send copies of ALL of the request forms that you have collected to your Altarama Project Manager so they can be used in your training.List all the Request types selected for your system (as per 3.2 of this document)

Is a Request form required for this Request type? Y/N

Do you already have a form for this purpose (if so please obtain a copy for replication in RefTracker using Request forms)

Example Local Studies Y Y (see form on local studies web page)

Copyright clearances Y NPhotocopies N -

Your values

3.6 QuickSearchQuickSearch, accessible on every RefTracker page from the system header, provides links to the web based resources that you commonly use to research questions, as well as to the RefTracker knowledge base search. By including your regularly used sources of information here, you are providing an integrated research capability in RefTracker.

There are three sorts of entries in the QuickSearch table:- the default QuickSearch which searches the RefTracker knowledge base for matches to the text

entered in the QuickSearch text entry box.- AutoSearch entries which search the nominated search engine or database for matches to the text

entered in the QuickSearch text entry box. For these entries a Query string needs to be defined for addition to the URL. RefTracker will automatically insert a “?” between the URL and Query that you define. Use the string “{searchterm}” in your query where the term to be searched is required. The RefTracker help files contain information about how to connect to some well known information sources. For other information sources that you want to AutoSearch you will need to look at the


documentation for the site, or ask the services support team for assistance in defining what the URL string required to perform an AutoSearch is – not all information services support AutoSearch.

- Bookmark entries open the nominated URL in a separate window so that tools and lists of information source can be used in this way. Bookmark entries do NOT utilise the text entered in the QuickSearch text entry box.

RefTracker is distributed with example entries for the QuickSearch list only, and so it is important that you amend the Bookmarks code table to specifically meet your needs.

Don’t forget to include access to your OPAC, and to any web page that you might have that contains pointers to your regularly used information sources.

(set the entries in the QuickSearch table using the Bookmark code table under System maintenance/Code tables/Bookmark)

Please list all of the web based resources that you would like linked through the Bookmark function, and supply all of the requested information for each Bookmark.

Your QuickSearch list (you need to create a list to suit your library): Description URL QueryAutoSearch ExamplesGoogle www.google.com/search ? Q={searchterm}Webster dictionary www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary ? {searchterm}Bookmark ExamplesRefdesk www.refdesk.comLibrarian’s index lii.org

Your descriptions Your URL’s Your Queries

Note for system administrators: This is NOT a complete list of the settings that you can determine, nor does it cover all of the considerations for installing a system that are covered in the Parameterisation and Customisation help. It is just a list of those settings that absolutely MUST be looked at BEFORE a service goes into operation, and the information that needs to be collected for use in your System Administration training.

As a part of your System Administration training we will be all the other settings in your system, but you can always obtain full information about the settings in your system from the Parameterisation and Customisation help in RefTracker.

As a quick check list, during and after the System Administration training, you will:1. Review all parameters and set them to meet your needs, including the text in the text files associated

with the 4.x parameters.2. Set your Locations.3. Set your user signons.4. Review all code tables and set them to meet your needs.5. Review the system Request forms and set up the other Request forms that you are going to need.6. Insert access to the staff interface into your staff Intranet or Favourites. 7. Check the features you want to make available in the client interface are appearing correctly, and

insert access to the client interface into your web pages.


http://www.refdesk.com/

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

http://www.google.com/search


This section is for your own planning only. It will assist with setting the run time determining the settings for your system, once it has been installed. It should NOT be sent to your supplier’s project manager.

4. CUSTOMISATION PLANNING

4.1 Minimum customisation recommended – name and logoAs a minimum you should use your own logo and Library/service name image (title image). The logo appears in top right hand corner of every RefTracker screen, and the title image appears immediately to its left.

These images can be easily changed by obtaining images of the correct size, saving them in the reftracker/program/images/local directory, and editing the appropriate parameters as per the table below. You may well be able to obtain these images from your corporate web site, but if not, they can be created with an image editor such as Microsoft Paint.

These images can be blank, and you can use one image of maximum 282w x 32h if you prefer.

Note for hosted system customers – if your hosting service provides FTP access to your system, you can use FTP to upload these images, otherwise email them to your RefTracker supplier Project Manager to who will upload them for you.

Parameter Number

Description Image size Your image name

3.5 Title image:This could show the name of your library, or the name of your RefTracker Service.

250 x 32 pixels

3.6 Logo:This should be the logo of your library. In the client interface it will be hyperlinked to your library homepage (or whatever other page you nominate in parameter 1.5)

32x 32 pixels

4.2 Other images that can be easily changed – background, bullet, and RefTracker logo Background and bullet images are commonly available. You can change either or both of these according to your need. The background image appears behind all RefTracker screens – common backgrounds provide a watermark, or a background colour, or perhaps even a stripe down a side of the page. The bullet image is the symbol used to emphasise available links in RefTracker – the distribution image is a multicoloured dot, but you can use a symbol of any shape or colour you choose.

Once again you may be able to obtain suitable images from your corporate web site, but if not they can be obtained from web page editors or from image sites such as those provide by Microsoft. Change these images by obtaining new images of the correct size, saving them in the reftracker/program/images/local directory, and editing the appropriate parameters as per the table below.


This section should be completed, prior to installation but can be implemented at any time. The extent to which you want to customise the look or your RefTracker system is up to you. No part of this section is mandatory.

Send this form, together with an electronic copy of your corporate style sheet, to your supplier’s project manager ONLY if your supplier is doing your Corporate Web Style matching.

Parameter Number

Description Image size Your image name

3.7 Background image:This provides the background colour. Standard backgrounds come in many colours, but you may have a standard background eg a watermark of your logo already in use in your corporate web pages. No background is a valid setting for this parameter.

Standard background image

3.8 Bullet image:This provides the emphasis point in front of functions in the system. Standard 9x9 bullets are available in many shapes and colours and can be obtained from image web sites, or, most likely from your corporate web site.

9 x 9 pixels

3.9 RefTracker image:This provides the RefTracker logo appearing in the top left hand corner of each RefTracker screen. You may need to change the colour to suit your colour scheme, but you can replace it with a corporate, division or service logo.

18 x 78 pixels

4.3 Matching your corporate web page styleCustomising the colours used in RefTracker is optional but desirable for many. We have therefore provided a number of standard colours that you can choose without the need for programming expertise. Symbols and text are grouped so that you can individually change the colour of particular groups. See the help within RefTracker for full details of what can be achieved.

However, if changing the colours is important to you, obtaining a copy of the style sheet or colours used in your corporate web site will assist with choosing the colours to be used.

Parameter 3.19 provides the option to use the “userdef.css file” for those wanting to customise RefTracker colours. You will need someone familiar with editing cascading style sheets, and a program that can edit .css files. The table below lists the major colours used in RefTracker. Try substituting the major colours from your corporate web style in userdef.css. Some trial and error might be involved to get the right mixture of colours. You can create a successful RefTracker colour scheme with less colours that listed here. More information on this topic is provided in the RefTracker help where it reinforces that you JUST take a backup copy of your edited .css file.

If you do not want to undertake this work yourself, or if the standard colours provided by RefTracker do not provide the flexibility that you need, your RefTracker supplier provides a corporate web style matching service based on the information provided by your corporate style sheet.

Answer this question only if you wish to change the colours used in the RefTracker screens (client and staff screens are changed at the same time). What are the main colours used by your corporate style sheet, that should be reflected within the RefTracker screens?


Distribution colour Your colourColour 1 SteelblueColour 2 LightSkyBlueColour 3 Alice BlueColour 4 NavyColour 5 DarkvioletColour 6 MediumvioletredColour 7 PalevioletredColour 8 SeashellColour 9 GreyColour 10 GainsboroColour 11 Whitesmoke

4.4 replacing the RefTracker client interface header with your corporate headerHere is an example of the RefTracker header being replaced by a corporate header. To do this you will need your web master to provide a header file for loading into RefTracker, according to the instructions provided in the RefTracker help or System administration training manual.

Other things that can be customisedOther things that can be customised include the following. Full details of how to make these customisations are contained in the Administrator/Installation/Customising section of the RefTracker help.- The text of the email messages sent to staff and clients.- The text used in several places in RefTracker eg in the Service Description provided in the client

interface.- The functions that will be used in your RefTracker system. Using parameters and the Data dictionary

you can configure out RefTracker functions that you do not need to use in your library.- The size of attachments that can be handled by RefTracker (Microsoft.Net usually limits attachments

to 4Mb each). See the installation instructions.



Send this form, together with an electronic copy of your corporate style sheet, to your supplier’s project manager ONLY if your supplier is doing your Corporate Web Style matching.

5. INSTALLATION

Installing RefTracker and entering its initial settingsThe following lists all of the steps required to install RefTracker and enter its settings to the point where it can be used by internal staff (e.g. for training staff). You should review the additional information provided about these topics in the RefTracker help, as part of this installation process. All of these issues are covered by the System Administrations training, and values for many are set during that course, however you will need to do some set up following the training.

1. Install the RefTracker software as supplied by your RefTracker supplier. You will be supplied a .zip file and a readme.txt file. Your systems support person should follow the instructions in the readme.txt file which explain how to use the installation wizard contained in the .zip file. (This step will be done by your supplier if you will be using a hosted system.)

2. Apply the upgrade and patch file/s, if any have been supplied. The reftrackerupgradeinstructions.doc file provides instructions for your system support person to apply the upgrade contained in the Reftrackerupgradennn.zip file, if one has been supplied. (This step will be done by your supplier if you will be using a hosted system.)

3. Confirm that the system is operating correctly as described at the end of the detailed installation instructions provided in the Support manual (This step will be done by your supplier if you will be using a hosted system.).

4. Ensure your IT department has incorporated appropriate security and backup arrangements for the new RefTracker installation. (This step will be done by your supplier if you will be using a hosted system.)

Hosted system users start here. . . .

5. Obtain administrator training from your RefTracker supplier for your administrators and supervisors. Supplementary self paced Administrator training is also available from the RefTracker support site (see the Support Section of this document for access information).

6. Sign on using the distribution administrator signon of setup with the password of reftracker, if a personalised one has not yet been set up for the System Administrator.

7. Enter the values requested by the initial one time setup page, using the values you decided on in the Settings, and Customisation Planning Sections of this document.

8. Review all parameters under System/Parameters to ensure the system will operate using the appropriate rules for your library. The system help will provide assistance with those parameters not discussed earlier in this document. Parameters displaying in data entry boxes can be changed at any time, so set initial values that you think will form a good basis. If experience proves that changes are required, you can make the changes as needed. For those wanting even more flexibility the data dictionary allows some other functions and fields to be configured out of RefTracker, if this will simplify operation for your staff.

9. Text files (the 4.x parameters): the system allows for several text files to be defined by the library, and the use of them to be turned off if required. All files are distributed with example text, but you may wish to turn off display of these files until you have been able to customise them for your specific requirements. Use the parameters under System/parameters 4.x to set usage on or off, to determine the file from which the text will be obtained. Check the system help for details of how to amend these files. The text files include:- A disclaimer included at the bottom of every email to a client.- A Service description, and a Frequently asked questions document, accessible from the client


This section provides a plan for the installation of RefTracker to the point were it is ready for initial internal use.

This section is for your own planning only. It should NOT be sent to your Project Manager.

interface- A Service guidelines (policies) description, and a Frequently asked questions document, designed specifically for staff, and accessible from the staff interface- A Whiteboard on the client interface that allows you to highlight messages of general interest to clients, such as “Library hours on Sundays have been extended to 2pm to 9pm”– Introductory text provided at the top of the client home page, allowing your to make this message as concise or descriptive as you want for your library

10. Set your Locations using System/Location and the values you selected in the “Initial settings” part of this document.

11. Review all code tables under System/Code tables to ensure that the drop down boxes and information tables that they control are relevant to your library. RefTracker is distributed with example values for all of its code tables. Code tables determine the values that will display in RefTracker’s dropdown boxes. You will need to examine each code table and ensure that the values used are the values for which you want to obtain statistics in your library. Codes table values can be changed at any time, so set initial values that you think will form a good basis. If experience proves that changes are required, you can make the changes as needed. The system help will provide assistance with those code tables not discussed earlier in this document.Information code tables, such as the Bookmarks code table, are provided with example entries only that will not be applicable to your library, so it is very important that you enter values applicable to your library in these tables.

12. Amend the designs for the following System Request forms:- Comment – the form used to for submission of comments and suggestions - Lost – the form that allows clients to submit requests for assistance with questions already submitted (when they are unable to find them, themselves using the client interface).- Ref – your first form for collection requests of type reference

13. Amend the distribution examples, or create new Request forms, sufficient to cover each of the Request types you have defined in your system (except for those that will only be used in association with DeskStats).

14. Set up your user signons using System/Reference users and General users.15. Delete the Distribution signon (setup) and use the new signons that you set up for all future access

now that your system is ready for your staff to use for familiarity, training and additional setup work as described in the next section! Be very sure that you have at least two System administrator signons in your system, so that if you happen to lose the password for one, you can still access the system via the other.

16. Insert hyperlink access to the RefTracker staff interface into your staff web pages, or have your staff save the access URL as a Favourite so that they have easy access to the system.

17. Move on to the steps in the “Implementation Planning” section of this document.

This section does not substitute for reading the Parameterisation and Customisation help included within in the RefTracker product, which provides more details.


This section is for your own planning only. It will assist with setting the run time parameters once your system is installed. It should NOT be sent to your Project Manager.

6. IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING

The remaining steps to going liveThe following lists all of the remaining steps that you will need to consider before your RefTracker system will be fully live. You will need to review the additional information provided about these topics in the RefTracker help, in order to implement them. You may wish to concatenate some of the steps according to the needs of your library:

1. Amend your existing reference policies and procedures manual to reflect changes brought about by the use of RefTracker's electronic environment. The contents of your policies and procedures manual will be individual to your specific service and should address issues such as the type of questions that will be accepted by your service and the amount of time that staff should be applying to specific types of questions.

2. Provide a training course for your reference staff users in the policies of the service you will offer and the standards of response that your will require, using RefTracker to re-inforce implementation of policies. RefTracker is easy for staff to learn using the provided help, but an introductory course for staff that shows them where to find the most common workflows used in your environment will provide a head start.Self paced training courses for staff and administrators are provided on the RefTracker support site (see access information in the Support section of this document).

3. Provide a familiarisation period where RefTracker is used amongst your reference staff only.4. Part of this familiarisation period time should be used to enter the standard responses that you are

already using (your FAQ file), into RefTracker.5. Review your system parameters and code tables, and amend your policies and procedures manual,

and your service guideline description, if necessary, according to lessons learned during the familiarisation period. In particular, the Bookmarks code table and QuickText code tables will benefit from being updated as a result of experience.

6. Provide training for the remainder of the staff in your library concentrating on use of the knowledge database, entry of questions that cannot be answered face to face and, if you wish to implement it, use of the unallocated questions pool and how questions can be worked on by non reference staff.

7. Go Live internally in stages, adding use by reference desks, then other staff. This will allow your other staff to become familiar with the system before client usage begins.

8. Once your other staff are familiar with the operation of the system, prepare your client interface for usage by reviewing the client interface parameters (6.x parameters), associated text files, and Request forms, and deciding whether you want to make the whole client interface available or simply just some of its pages.

9. Make the public interface to RefTracker (or the appropriate RefTracker request forms only if that’s what you have decided). You may wish to consider doing this in a controlled fashion by making it available at your OPAC workstations initially. By inserting easy access points on the desktop, and announcing the availability of a new level of service with an overview session for a client focus group, your staff can be prepared to provide assistance for clients using the service for the first time, and to encourage usage.

10. Review your policies for client usage in light of the initial client usage period, and reset if required. Amend system setting if required.


This section covers the steps involved in taking your installed RefTracker system, whether the system has been installed in-house, or as a hosted system, through to successful live usage. Further details are provided in the RefTracker help system, but this information will allow you to begin the planning process.

This section is for your own planning only. It will assist with planning the steps and timeframes for your RefTracker go live. It should NOT be sent to your supplier’s project manager.

11. Go live with usage of the service by clients on your Intranet (and on the Internet if you plan to provide this service) by providing links to RefTracker in your home pages. You can provide links to individual RefTracker pages such as the Ask new question page, and the Search knowledge database page, as appropriate throughout you web pages.

12. Take this opportunity to market your library!

Notes re marketing your new RefTracker service The installation of RefTracker provides an opportunity to market your library. An integrated campaign might start with a catchy name for the service and a logo that can be used as a consistent access point to reference services from your web pages. The name and logo can then be used to promote the service in all the usual ways.The logo should be used throughout your web pages as an easy access point to your reference (or assistance services). Link it directly to RefTracker, or link it to a page that describes all of your reference access points – desk, phone, email (link to RefTracker), and online (with a link to that service if you offer one).

Try these for some promotional catch phrases"Stop searching - start finding! Ask your librarian at www.<yourlibrarydomain>/reftracker"or"Got a Question? Get an Answer from your librarian! www.<yourlibrarydomain>/reftracker"

And some text to go with them -"Ask a question though an Internet search engine and you'll get thousands of possible answers. Ask a librarian and you'll get the two or three answers that matter most. That's what library professionals do. They find the right information and they find it fast.And now the library professionals at your library are as close as your web browser, no matter where you are. Submit questions in the library, over the phone, and now, via the Internet, and receive quality answers from your library professional. Obtain instant answers from our databases of relevant questions and information, obtain feedback on research being done for you. All part of the service at your library."“Finding information on the Internet isn’t always as easy as it’s made out to be. Librarians are the ultimate search engine. They know how to find information and they know how to tell whether information is accurate, current and from a reliable source”.

Try these for some marketing ideas-Use a catchy phrase, the service name and its logo in posters around your organisation and in the library.-Supplement the poster campaign with matching promotional items eg bookmarks, mouse mats, tee shirts, etc.-Give away business cards showing ALL your library contact details, so patrons can have your contact details in their wallets – a variation on this one is to make the cards peel and stick so those who want to stick the contact details to their school folders or to their computers, can do so. -Insert the service name/logo on every library web page to provide easy access to your library’s reference services. Supplement it with “Librarian available now”, or similar, to encourage users that a relatively fast response is possible.-Use the logo/service name in the promotional material at your OPAC terminals, and include usage instructions in your OPAC help cards.-Send announcements to newspapers and staff newsletters - don’t forget the “What’s new” part of your web pages.-Train staff so that they can talk about your new RefTracker reference service at all of the library’s service points, and during library tours.-Provide a client interface demonstration at a launch to your client audiences eg Friends of the library, with a question being found in the knowledge database and a question being submitted, progress checked, and a response received from a librarian.-Provide lessons in use of the system to library visitors during the first few weeks of the service.



This section is for your own planning only. It will assist with planning the steps and timeframes for your RefTracker go live. It should NOT be sent to your supplier’s project manager.

7. SUPPORT INFORMATION

General Notes about Support:

Support for the administrator of your RefTracker system is provided in a number of ways –

1. Planning information in this Planning Pack.2. Extensive information that is useful on an ongoing basis in the help system accessible from the

question mark in a book logo in the header of RefTracker.3. Automatic notification of information about errors in RefTracker with the ability to email the information

directly to Altarama.4. A RefTracker customer’s only web site which provides access to the latest news and information

about RefTracker, and the ability to submit additional comments such as enhancement requests. This site can be accessed through the system management/utilities page, or directly at http://www.altarama.com.au/supportsite/custonly/custreft.htmif you are asked for a username and password it is -user name: customerpassword: support

5. Throughout your time as a customer you will have access to the RefTracker development system. This will allow you to take a peek at things that are still in development, as well as being able to look at examples of Request forms that might provide ideas for your own system. You can access the development system’s client interface athttp://www.altarama.com.au/reftracker and it’s staff interface athttp://www.altarama.com.au/reftracker/staff.aspxuser name: customerpassword: support

For any additional assistance with RefTracker contact the support team at your RefTracker supplier.

Thank you for choosing RefTracker. Your support team looks forward to helping you obtain the most from your investment in this product.

For security reasons our installation is not accessible from the Internet. Note that this will limit the timeliness with which your RefTracker supplier can provide support.

OR


When your RefTracker system has been installed in-house, please provide us with the access details for your system, so that we can provide support whenever it is required.

It is important that you send this form to your supplier’s project manager as soon as your in-house installation is complete, so that we can use this access information to provide support for your RefTracker system, should it be needed.

This part of this section is not applicable to hosted systems.

http://www.altarama.com.au/reftracker/staff.aspx

http://www.altarama.com.au/reftracker

http://www.altarama.com.au/supportsite/custonly/custreft.htm

Our RefTracker URL is:______________________________We understand our RefTracker supplier may view this URL from time to time in order to diagnose support issues.

FTP AccessFTP access to the directory in which RefTracker has been installed would be an advantage if it could be made available. It will facilitate faster supportTo provide FTP access you need to1. Set up a username and login for us on the server on which RefTracker has been loaded2. Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Adminstrative Tools/Internet Services manager and open the tree for the server on which RefTracker is installed. Choose the default FTP site, and set up a Virtual FTP link to the program file of your RefTracker installation (<yourservername>/reftracker/program). Then provide write access for the user name that you set up for us.

FTP user name:______________________________

FTP password:______________________________

FTP server IP or domain name:______________________________


It is important that you send this form to your supplier’s project manager as soon as your in-house installation is complete, so that we can use this access information to provide support for your RefTracker system, should it be needed.

planning pack312.doc.doc.doc

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