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Configure OPALS
for  a New Season
 

New Season Setup Guide

When school librarians come back from the summer, among the many challenges they face, is the setup of the OPALS library system for a new calendar season and importing the new students demographics into the user database. This guide will help.

Check the Date and Holiday settings

The Library opening and closing dates must reflect the current school year. You may check them by choosing >Administration > Preferences >Closing Dates Editor from the OPALS main menu. At the top of the page you will see two calendar icons that can be used to set the First and Last Date of your school year.
  1. Use the calendar icons to set the dates then press the "New" button

  2. There is a table at the bottom of the screen to display the days that the library will be closed. After pressing the New button, the table which displayed the dates that the library is closed, becomes empty.
  3. If no "Library Closing Dates" are displaying in the table:
    1. Click the link called "Statutory Holiday Picklist"

    2. Select the dates that the library will be closed

    3. Press "Add"
Add Dates to holiday list
There are two ways to add dates that are not on the list.
    1. Selecting the icon in the "Dup" column of a chosen holiday will add a copy of the same holiday below and automaticly increment the date by one day. (This is a  good way to select Christmass and New Years holidays.)


    2. Use the "Add more Closing Dates" button for any other date you wish to add. 
      1. Add a description to the blank line
      2. Click on the calendar icon and select the date

Prepare the system for new users

Most will need to add new users to the system. There are two ways to add new users.

Add each user manually.

This is easiest if you have only a very small number of changes to make.
  1. Select >User >Add from the main menu. (Click for more information)

Import the new users.

New users are imported using an ASCII comma separated or .CSV file. Make sure the file you import has a first line that describes the data fields. See example below

Globally Edit Graduating Users
If there is Grade information in the user record, it will be necessary to search and modify the graduating grade level with 'other' information. e.g. This will keep the previous grade 12 users from getting mixed up with the new grade 12 users.
  • For example: If the graduating users have "12" in the grade field, then globally modify those users to display "2006" (for example) in the grade field. 
  1. Select Users> Group Editor from the main menu. 
  2. Search "Grade" for "12". Click OK.
  3. Put a check in the box for "Select the whole list".
  4. Use the pull down menu to select "Grade" for the info box.
  5. Type "2006" in the box right of grade selection. Click Update. "Are you sure?" Click OK.
  • If you are putting in new users manually OR importing just the new users, continue to globally modify the each of the grades to bring them up by one grade. Be careful to start with the highest grade number and work down till you get to the lowest grade number.
Import the new Users
You may need to ask the office for the user information. New users are imported using an ASCII comma separated or .CSV file.
PLEASE NOTE: These files can be manually created or edited with a "text editor" like 'WordPad®'. If you use a word processor like "Word®" you must save the file in its original format or as a DOS Text file before it will work properly.
Most school administration systems can create these files from student data. Make sure the file you import has a first line that describes the data fields. e.g.
Idnumber,FirstName,LastName,Grade,HomeroomTeacher
ID2345691,David,Smith,6,Ednawacky
ID38974764,Paul,Chan,4,Alanstock
  • Ask for the user name (Last, First) and a homeroom or teacher for notices.
  • Also the user's grade or graduating date is handy as a tool to find and select exiting students - when the time comes.
  • If you are importing the complete list of students again and wish to use the incoming data to update the existing users, you must have a field that is common between this year's data and last year's data. Usually that is the official school identification number. Most school libraries use the Student's School ID number as a barcode number for the library.
  • If you are importing only the new students and do not have access to the use's school ID number, generate a number for them in the import file before importing the students.
  1. Go to the main menu and choose > User >Import.
  2. Click Browse to find the file for the "Select file to import" box.
  3. Double click file to import, and then click "Upload".

  4. The first record of the import file should have the field descriptor names in it as we mentioned above.
  5. Once you see the data column mapping screen, use the pull down menus of each field to select a column of data to match each field.
  6. User barcode, Last Name and First Name should minimally be imported from the import file.

  7. The "Save the above mapping when importing" data box is selected by default. This will automatically match your data next time if the importing data fields are in the same order.
  8. When importing records with an existing database, you can select whether to match duplicate records by the barcode number or the student ID. (Duplicated barcode is selected by default.) Incoming data will completely replace the existing data if there is a match. If you do not have a matching ID or barcode field, the data will simply be added to the existing data in the system.
  9. Click Import.
  10. Use the >User > Group Editor to check your new records.

Print barcode labels for new users 
             (Avery Labels 5160 or matching format: click to order online)

After the new students have been imported into the system, you may wish to print barcode labels to use in the library. The functionality is available in User Group editor (choose >User >Group Editor from the main menu).
  1. There are many possible groups and sorting options to choose by selecting the Advanced button in the Group Editor.
  2. After finding, Sorting and Selecting the new Users, click Print BC Label.

  3. This will start a PDF report using Adobe Reader 7.0. (The system may prompt you for installation from the Adobe website if you do not have it installed on your workstation.)
  4. The Adobe Reader print dialog panel will open with a picture of your labels. To send the report to the printer, Click on the Printer Icon.
NOTE before printing: Be careful to have 'page scaling' under 'page handing' set to None. If you do not do this, the labels may print misaligned and therefore be unusable.

Deactivate graduate users

Eventually you will want to delete the persons in your system who have graduated and are no longer in the school. It is fine to leave them in the system, but you may wish to 'inactivate' them. This will then notify the circulating librarian if someone tries to borrow an item with that user's name.

Users who have outstanding transactions cannot be inactivated or deleted. Users displayed in the User Group Editor will show a link that indicates the overdues/loans for any user in the system. This information is helpful in cleaning up transactions.
  • Users may be inactivated "one by one" with the User Edit function.
  • Users may be inactivated as a group by using the User Group Editor (choose >User >Group Editor from the main menu).
  1. Find and Select the graduated Users. (There are many possible groups and sorting options to choose from under the Advanced button in the Group Editor.)
  2. Use the pull down menu in the gray "Status" box to choose "inactive".

  3. Click on the Modify button. All the users that were selected who have no outstanding transactions will be set to inactive.

Add any New items to the OPALS New Items list

Any New Items cataloged into the system can be displayed for a selected period of time in the >Home >New Items list. To add new items to this list, from the main menu choose >Administration> Reports> Item Acquisitions report.
  1. Choose the date range in which you imported new items and click Create Report.
  2. To select all items for the New Items Display, click Select All. OR click boxes in front of individual items
  3. Click New Item and a dialog box will open.
  4. Click the Calendar icon to select how long items will remain in New Items Display. 
  5. Click Add All (to add all the items found) or Add Selected (to only add the items you have selected with a check mark).
To see New Items Display, Click New Items button under Home tab.