Southern Ontario Library Service

VDX Troubleshooting and FAQ

• Troubleshooting VDX
   
• Questions on Dealing with Requests
• Questions on Handling Special Requests (media type, language, book club)  
• Questions on User (Patron) Records
• Questions on Bibliographic Searching 
• Questions on Reports
• Miscellaneous

Questions on Dealing with Requests

In the 2.74 note field at the main request screen, do you still choose the phrase "Request message" from the drop down menu so that your note goes to all locations?   Yes, there is no change to that.

On the 2.74 Service screen (in Requests) there are 2 lines for Service type, service type #1 and service type #2.  Do you enter the type in the first line, the second line or both lines?   You use the first line.  However, if you would accept a different service type you would also fill that in on the second line.  e.g. if you would accept printed OR an audio tape you can indicate both types and the responder has options on what they can send you.

What is "Add" button on 2.74  "Responder Results" screen for?   Though this feature is not used in the INFO environment at this time you can learn about it in VDX Help topic:  Attach Electronic Document.

Can I change the pickup location for the patron once the request has been submitted?   No

I can't find my request by Request #, or Title, etc.  Did it disappear?   Try adding Authorization status=Complete to your search with the request number or title if they do not produce results on their own.  When requests are in a Completed state they are not retrievable with just a number or title search.

Questions on Handling Special Requests

I have a patron wanting to order a few books in another language.  Since I don't have specific titles can I still make this a request?    If you need 4 titles, you need to send 4 separate ILL requests.  Indicate the age level and genre required. (eg. Adult fiction or nonfiction.  Juvenile picture books, etc).    Examples:

        Title: HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE PICTURE BOOK (JUVENILE) - Request 1 of 3
        Subtitle: ANY TITLES

        Title: POLISH LANGUAGE ADULT FICTION - Request 1 of  4
        Subtitle: ANY TITLES

I'd like to know what the best way is to order multiple copies of books. We have a monthly book club here, and I often need 4 or 5 copies of the same title.    One trick is to use tick marks on locations the Create Request screen.  If you find the title you need and it has a healthy location list request that one. Tick a couple and issue it as "Authorized" to those locs only.  Search title again (can use History/Rerun) and this time tick a couple of different locations... and so on until you have enough requests out there, each request going to one or two of the locations.   Another popular method in practice is to broadcast your book club title to the INFO-user list and when libraries email back that they can provide, send that library a VDX request (put their code in rota and submit "Authorized" to bypass DocFind Processor building a rota).

I got an ILL request by email from a Manitoba library. Can I enter this somehow on VDX for tracking & stats?    No. You cannot "create" a lending order in VDX. There is no blank Create request form in the responder function. You will need to use reply email to respond to the Manitoba request and keep manual statistics on this activity.

When I request a talking book I seem to be getting the book instead.  We have been putting in notes like "patron is legally blind" or "audio tapes please".  Any suggestions?    Select records in the database that are for books on tape. Type an instruction in Notes to elaborate your need.  Make sure you are changing Notes type to "Request Msg" from the "Send Yes" default so that all potential responders see the Notes. You can type AUDIO TAPE WANTED, NOT BOOK in the subtitle field so it really stands out on the Results screen brief display in case people are not taking a picklist printout where they would see your Notes.

Questions on User (Patron) Records

Can you edit the user barcode? Patrons often change library cards and it would be helpful to be able to change this field as well as being able to edit the other patron info.  No, that will not be possible until the future version 3.0 of VDX.

Questions on Bibliographic Searching

Is there a maximum number of locations that can be included in a search profile when we are creating our own search profiles?  You should not not exceed 15-20 locations in any profile that you create.  Doing so affects your search response time and impacts overall system wide performance for all logged in users.

Can you search for Large Print books  by a particular author?  Or videos?  Use Advanced and field labels with Boolean operators.    Try "large type" or "videorecording" or "soundrecording". 

        Author    john grisham   and
        Any        large type                 

When searching, is punctuation ignored by the search engine?    For the most part, yes.  However using punctuation improperly can also distort your search results.  Best practice is to avoid using punctuation all together in your searches.  

Questions on Reports

I notice that the Reports section has an option for Start and End dates.  What are they for?   You never need to use the Start and End date prompts for any reports that INFO uses.  They are part of the standard release or we would ask to have them removed.

Miscellaneous

With Email Notification to patrons, can the message be configured or will a standard template get used?
To some extent the standard template can be configured for the specific location, but it is then the email form issued to all patrons at that location when the Received action is performed.

For the new Auto-Responder feature in version 2.74 - will the items that get the automatically applied “Non Supply” response still be counted for our statistics as a request received and unfilled?  Yes, it will be counted in your monthly statistical reports.

Troubleshooting

I can't log on to VDX since I changed the password!    Make sure you are entering the password in the same case as you entered it when you created it. i.e. uppercase or lowercase.  Make sure you are using INFO as your Authentication Service.  Don't use your own library name for this.  If you have forgotten the password you can call the SOLS HelpDesk to find this out.  

Using Internet Explorer 6.0 and have Timeouts and Screen Display problems (i.e. when the buttons in the left-hand side of the screen will not display or if the screen splits in two).  Try lowering the Privacy level in your IE 6.0. as shown below.

1. Start the Internet Explorer 6.0 browser
2. Select Tools > Internet Options
3. Select the Privacy Tab. The default in the Privacy screen is Medium. Using the slider bar reset it to Low.
4. Click on the Apply button to save the change
5. Click on the OK button to close the screen.

Switched computers for VDX?  Or upgraded your browser?   You should reset the cache settings in your Internet Explorer as follows.  Select  Tools > Internet Options > General > Temporary Internet Files > Settings > Check for newer version of stored pages - Every visit to the page.

Are you having abnormal troubles with INFO VDX?   It may be because you have not recently cleared your browser's cache.  Doing this often clears up abnormal VDX problems.  

1. Log out of INFO VDX
2. Click on Tools > Internet Options.
3. Click on the "Delete Files" button in the middle of the window.
4. Put a tick in the "Delete all offline content" box and click on OK.
5. When hourglass disappears click OK to exit.
6. Close your browser.
7. Open your browser and try INFO VDX again.
   

Still having issues in VDX?  Libraries that are unable to work in VDX on a particular machine often have success by installing and using the Firefox browser instead of Internet Explorer.  It can be downloaded at this site - http://www.mozilla.com/