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OPALS
User Administration Guide

 
 
The user's database includes functions that permit manual data entry or data import of demographic information.

Main Menu | Information | Add | User Quick Entry | Quick Entry List | Edit | Delete | Group Editor | Print user barcodes | Import | Import Pictures

Information

To Find Circulation Activity of a User:

  1. Select Users> Information from the main menu.
  2. Type username or scan their barcode.
  3. Select User.
  4. Account Information will display on the screen which includes Guardian, Items on Loan, Items lost, damaged or reserved.

Add User

To Add User:

  1. Select Users> Add from the main menu.
  2. Enter the user information :
    - Minimally, a name should be entered. (OPALS does not need a user barcode to be able to circulate items.)
    - If your user has a Login Name, be sure to enter (and then re-enter) a Password that is at least 7 characters long. If you do not, an error will appear when saving the user.
  3. The User Type default should be "student". If not, Select the correct user type.
  4. If you are adding an administrative user check the appropriate permissions for this user
  5. Scroll down, click Add.  User created
  6. Continue adding users until finished.

User Quick Entry

An option to enter partial data in order to speed up new patron enrollment and circulation. Available through the menu choice >Items >Quick items entry. The user type is selectable and by default display the user type that has been chosen in the the system parameters"defCategory" variable.

Quick Entry List

This Menu choice allows you to quickly access any users who were entered with User Quick Entry but never edited for more complete information. If no user list is displayed, then there are no quickly entered users who have not been edited in any fashion.

Edit User

To Edit a User:

  1. Select Users> Edit from the main menu.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Type username or scan their barcode.
  4. Select User.
  5. Edit information in User Information box.
  6. Scroll down, click Save.

Add one User's picture

To add or change the picture of a particular user, choose the >User >Edit page and scroll to the bottom of the screen.

  1. At the bottom of the editor page select 'browse' and
  2. select the correct JPG file,
  3. then 'save'.


Delete Users

To Delete a User or Group of Users:

Note: Before most users can be deleted, they must be set to "Inactive" by using the User Group Editor. Those users who have never had any transaction in the library, will not need to be set to "Inactive" before deletion.

    1. Select Users> Delete from the main menu.
    2. Search for an individual or a group by selecting and entering information in search boxes.  Click Create List.
    3. For example:  To find and delete all inactive students in grade 12.
    4. Search "Grade" for "12", order by  "last name", status "inactive", User Type "Student". Click Create List.
    5. Put check mark in box for student to be deleted. OR click Select All if all students found should be deleted.  The selected records will turn bright green.
    6. Click Delete Selected.  Are you sure?  Click OK.
    7. Students are deleted.       

Global User Editing

To Globally Edit Information for Users
    1. Select Users> Group Editor from the main menu. There are many possible groups and sorting options.
    2. For example: To find and edit all students from grade 4 to 5. Make sure that you have deleted the group of users that have graduated.  Be careful to start with the highest grade number and work down till you get to the lowest grade number.
    3. Search "Grade" for "4". Click OK.
    4. Put a check in the box for "Select the whole list".
    5. Use the pull down menu to select "Grade" for the info box.
    6. Type "5" in the box right of grade selection. Click Update. Are you sure? Click OK.
    7. Continue doing the same for other grades.

To Print Barcodes for Users:

After new students have been imported into OPALS, 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.
    • All New imported users can be displayed if list is ordered by Creation date / descending.
  2. Select the users for which you wish to have barcodes printed.
    • Select Whole List (selects entire list)
          OR
    • Select Page (selects that page).  Selected records turn green.
          OR
    • Select individual records by clicking in the box next to the name.  Selected records turn green.
  3. After finding, Sorting and Selecting the new Users, click Print BC Label.
  4. 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 Adobe Reader installed on your workstation.)
  5. 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: Verify the following under Page Handling:

    1. Page scaling:  Choose none
    2. Auto rotate and center:  check box
    3. Choose paper source by PDF size:  check box

VIDEO TIP : To help make sure your barcodes align properly on the label stock  If you do not do this, the labels my print misaligned and therefore unusable.

 

Import Users

To Import Users from a Text File:

Create the file

You will want to import the new users using a ASCII comma separated or .CSV file. (If you are given your user records in an Excel file you may open it in Excel then use the Save As option to select a DOS - CSV format.)

NOTE: Make sure the file you import has a first line that describes the data fields. For example if you opened the file in a text editor like Notepad you would see formatting similar to the following:

FirstN,LastN,grade,Homeroom,Teacher,Barcode
Harold,Price,12,245,Ms. Gridley,827364
Harriet,Stow,11,245,Ms. Gridly,928465
William,Peters,09,356,Mr. Adams,392049

VIDEO TIP : View the following link for Tips on creating a Patrons CSV file for user import.

  • You may need to ask the office for the user information.
    • Ask for the user name (First, Last) 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 the incoming data to update the existing users, you must have a field that is common between this year's data and last years data. Usually that is the official school identification number. Most school libraries use the Students School ID number as a barcode number for the library.
  • If you importing only the new students and do not have access to the users school ID number, generate a number for them in the import file before importing the students.

Import the file

VIDEO TIP : View the following link for Tips on importing the patrons / user file.

    1. Click Browse to find the file for the "Select file to import" box.



    2. Double click file to import, and then click "Upload".
    3. The first record (the first line) of the text file should have the field descriptor names in it as was mentioned in the NOTE above. These descriptions are used to create the drop down selection list (see illus. below).
    4. 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.
      • User barcode, Last Name and First Name should minimally be imported from the import file.



    5. 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.
    6. When importing records with an existing database, you can select whether to match duplicate records by the barcode number or the student ID.
      1. Duplicated barcode is selected by default.
      2. If you do not have a matching id or barcode field, the imported data will simply be added to the existing data in the system.
    7. Click Import.
    8. Use the >User >Group Editor to check your new records.

Import Pictures

Upload library patron jpg pictures (color or black & white) that OPALS will display on the “Loan” transaction screen. The pictures must be in JPEG format. Most student pictures will already be be in JPEG (.jpg) format and so will work fine. If not they will need conversion

  • Images can be added individually as as a JPEG file
  • or uploaded in a batch (as a ZIP file) and merged either by library users’ names or ID numbers.

Batch Upload

Upload a batch of patron pictures by selecting >User >Import Pictures from the OPALS main menu. Several requirements must be met before uploading your pictures.

  1. The pictures must be in JPEG format. Most student pictures will already be be in JPEG (.jpg) format and so will work fine. If not they will need conversion.
  2. The picture files must be 'zipped' together into one (or more) file(s).

    Note : The zipped file may become too large to copy easily over the Internet connection to your OPALS server. In that case it will be necessary to zip them into several groups of pictures and import each group separately.

    Some workstations have a ZIP utility included and available in the Windows Explorer. Open Explorer to view your files and select the picture files you wish to include in the ZIP. Now, right click and look for the ZIP / compression options. If this is not available to you, many freeware zip tools are available to download from the Internet that once installed will give you this option. Ask your System Administrator.

  3. Each users picture must have a file name that consists of the library barcode number or of their own first and last name.
    • For example: P346278.jpg
      Or : Firstname Lastname.jpg
      Or : Lastname Firstname.jpg
      Or : Lastname, Firstname.jpg

Add one User's picture

To add or change the picture of a particular user, choose the >User >Edit page and scroll to the bottom of the screen. At the bottom of the editor page

  • 'browse' and select the correct JPG file, (single images do need to be Zipped)
  • then 'save'.