It’s election time again! The SHARE Executive Council needs members to vote to fill an empty Small Library Representative seat on the SHARE Executive Council.
On Thursday, June 6, 2019, we will complete the upgrade of the remote Polaris servers. Some of you may already notice that the Polaris toolbar looks slightly different, as you may have connected to one of the new servers.
We also found that some users running Windows 7 have experienced issues connecting to the new servers. These Windows 7 computers were missing various Windows Updates.
Although we do not have a specific list of exact updates required at this time, we generally recommend that you keep Windows up to date with Security and Critical patches as well as any updates (including optional ones) related to "Remote Desktop Protocol", "RDP", or "Terminal Services". Once we find the specific updates, we will update the Windows 7 Polaris Prerequisites section under Support -> Documentation to reflect the new requirements.
If you are still experiencing issues with Polaris receipt printing alignment (e.g.: library name starting in the center and wrapping around), OR if it's taking an unusually long time printing hold slips, please download the newest version of ScrewDrivers. Click "Read More" for more details.
As of the Polaris 6.2 upgrade, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome are the only browsers that are supported for use with LEAP.
Some libraries have reported that receipts printed from Polaris are being printed out of alignment.
The most common issue is the library name being centered instead of starting from the left margin, causing text below that to wrap around.
For some libraries, installing the latest ScrewDrivers update resolves the issue.
For those that still have the issue despite running ScrewDrivers version 6.8.0, we are currently investigating additional causes and will post an update as soon as we have more information.
If you would like to get a report of how much your library has saved patrons YTD, you can run a report via Simply Reports, Patron Report. Limit to your library and then save as an excel report. You can then total the amount. Above is an example of what you might include on the output.
When selecting the notification method for patrons in Polaris, you may sometimes come across cases where the patron is not sure who their cell phone provider is. In cases where the patron uses a prepaid phone or a no-contract phone company, you can use the lookup site to find out who the provider is.
As of September 1, 2018, Microsoft will deprecate the Remote Desktop Version 8 app and will require users to use version 10.
We have updated the macOS instructions to reflect the new version.
Click here if you need to configure Polaris to use version 10:
https://share.illinoisheartland.org/support/documentation/313
We now have a fix for the weird problems Polaris has with the latest version of Windows 10 (black boxes, parts of windows showing, right-clicking problems, etc.).
If you have Windows 10 Version 1803 (update released April 30, 2018), you will need to install the following Windows Update:
For 64-bit versions of Windows 10 (which most people have these days):
https://illshareit.com/downloads/share/windows10.0-kb4284848-x64.msu
For those unfamiliar with the site, illshareit.com helps patrons find nearby SHARE libraries.
Previously the site only allowed searching by zip code, which didn't always give the best results. The site now allows patrons to search by their home address, town, or zip code and uses Google Places to provide location auto complete which all help to provide patrons with more accurate results.