[Evergreen-circ] [Evergreen-general] Angular Circulation Testing during Feedback Fest

Mon Oct 7 17:33:46 EDT 2024

Confirmed, all the intended changes are strictly for the Experimental Circ
interfaces, which are still not complete and not ready for production even
with these pending changes.

I'd like to see these latest pieces merged to get more community eyes on it
and facilitate the next pieces of work.

ABN

On Mon, Oct 7, 2024, 5:20 PM Terran McCanna via Evergreen-general <
evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:

> It is only in the experimental stage at this point so needs testing to
> catch bugs, but it will not be the production interface until Evergreen
> 4.0.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 7, 2024, 5:11 PM Lussier, Kathy <klussier at noblenet.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi Terran,
>>
>> Thank you for sharing this info, Terran, and for sending the link to the
>> test server running this code!
>>
>> What a big change to the circulation interfaces! Modernizing the
>> circulation interfaces is probably a project that is long overdue, and I'm
>> sure there are a lot of good UI improvements on top of the accessibility
>> improvements. I don't have specific feedback on the interface, but I have a
>> question and also a concern related to the process for introducing a major
>> UI change to Evergreen.
>>
>> My question is whether this code is being considered for 3.14. From my
>> review, it clearly falls in the camp of new feature, and, with the beta
>> release already available, my understanding is that we should  no longer be
>> introducing new features into the release. Am I misunderstanding our
>> release policy?
>>
>> Here is my concern. As a community, I think we need to do a better job of
>> communicating potential major changes to the software before coding
>> starts.. By giving the community the opportunity to provide feedback at an
>> early stage, we can better ensure that these changes are going to meet the
>> needs of the majority of libraries using our community software. I have
>> this expectation of my community partners primarily because, when I first
>> arrived in the Evergreen community and started asking questions about
>> development, other community members emphatically told me that I needed to
>> share my plans early on. I listened. When I share NOBLE's plans for a
>> development project via the general list, I do so precisely because I want
>> to find out if the development is likely to cause problems for others using
>> the software. This worked well for the last project NOBLE funded. We
>> thought the OPAC visible flag should also determine visibility in the staff
>> catalog. We asked the question. Other Evergreen libraries told us they have
>> use cases for seeing in the staff catalog an org unit that is not visible
>> in the public catalog. We updated our requirements to incorporate this
>> feedback. My hope is that everyone gets what they want when that code is
>> eventually merged into the software.
>>
>> This update to circulation is a significant change to a place in the
>> software that is often used by part-time staff. Because they are part time,
>> training can be a challenge because there are specific issues they may only
>> encounter occasionally, and they need an intuitive way to help them address
>> it. Rolling out a major interface change will be tricky, and I would like
>> to know that our circ experts in this community have had enough time to
>> fully engage with this proposed interface and provide feedback before it
>> gets merged. I know it will not be forced upon people in the next release
>> because it's still in experimental mode, but once it gets merged, we've
>> essentially made the decision on behalf of the community that it is okay
>> for the circulation interface to make this shift.
>>
>> When I first came on board at NOBLE a little over a year ago, we had not
>> performed an upgrade in over a year because of another major interface
>> change that lost some features our libraries depend upon. We have since
>> upgraded with the most critical of these features restored, but I know of
>> at least one other consortium that has still held off on upgrading. That's
>> what happens when we make major overhauls to an interface without adequate
>> community feedback in the development at all stages of the development
>> process. The new interface may meet the needs of a handful of
>> libraries/consortia, but other Evergreen libraries then need to make tough
>> decisions about upgrading despite a critical feature missing or staying on
>> an older release as it moves out of community support. Greater community
>> engagement won't fix all of these problems, but it goes a long way in
>> mitigating them.
>>
>> I heard that the cataloging interest group recently had a meeting that
>> included a demo of the interface changes introduced to buckets. I think a
>> great next step for this project would be a similar presentation for those
>> heavily involved in circulation (I don't know if we have an active
>> circulation interest group.) Such a demo will ensure that more community
>> partners buy into the change to the interface and maybe even provide
>> suggestions for making it work better for those who work at their circ
>> desk, thereby benefiting everyone else in the community who may have a
>> similar concern.
>>
>> Beyond this project, I would love to see a set of best practices for
>> communicating with the community when embarking on a development project,
>> particularly when that development makes a significant change to people's
>> current workflows. I volunteer to work on this and am willing to pull
>> something together by myself, but I'm also happy to work with others if
>> anyone else wants to incorporate their feedback into the best practices.
>> After all, we are a community, and I know incorporating everyone's feedback
>> into this best practices document will make it better for everyone.
>>
>> Just my two cents for what it's worth.
>>
>> Kathy
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kathy Lussier
>> she/her
>> Executive Director
>> NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
>> Danvers, MA
>> 978-777-8844 x201
>> www.noblenet.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 7, 2024 at 4:07 PM Terran McCanna via Evergreen-circ <
>> evergreen-circ at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hello everyone -
>>>
>>> During Feedback Fest this week, please take a look at the updated
>>> (Angularized) circulation interfaces that are loaded onto
>>> https://butternut.evergreencatalog.com/eg/staff and available through
>>> the "Circulation (Experimental)" menu.
>>>
>>> Note that these elements are still missing from the new interface
>>> because they are not yet complete: Hold groups, refresh penalties, display
>>> alerts options.
>>>
>>> Also note that the old/current interfaces will still be the default in
>>> Evergreen 3.14, but the default will most likely change to these new
>>> interfaces in Evergreen 4.0
>>>
>>> Please add any issues you find with the new interfaces to the omnibus
>>> ticket here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/2065344
>>>
>>> Thank you!
>>>
>>>
>>> [image: logo with link to Georgia Public Library Service website]
>>> <https://georgialibraries.org/>
>>>
>>> Terran McCanna, PINES Program Manager
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Georgia Public Library Service
>>>
>>> 2872 Woodcock Blvd, Suite 250 | Atlanta, GA 30341
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>>>
>>> (404) 235-7138 | tmccanna at georgialibraries.org
>>>
>>> https://help.georgialibraries.org | help at georgialibraries.org
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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