LBPD / Talking Books

James, Katy, and I hosted a KLAS Users' Group Meeting at the 2025 Northern-Western Conference for Talking Book Libraries. on Tuesday, August 5 to share updates about Keystone and KLAS, future development, allow attendees to ask questions and provide feedback to Keystone staff as well as connect with other LBPD KLAS users.

Below you will find the Presentation we shared as well as the Recording of this session:

• KLAS Users at NLS NW Regional 2025-08 (PPT)
• KLAS Users at NLS NW Regional 2025-08 (PDF)

The Batch Patron Status Review (BPSR) tool was created to help users manage outdated patron records and comply with NLS and local records lifecycle policy.

The expected lifecycle for patron records is either:

• Activeto Suspended / Deceased to Withdrawnto Deleted
• Activeto Transferred Out to Deleted

For each stage, the BPSR tool allows you to:

1. Query for patrons to advance to the next stage
2. Review the batch and print Labels to send notices
3. Post the batch to apply the status change to all reviewed patrons

Document Outline

• Opening Batch Patron Status Review
  1. To Suspend
  2. To Withdraw
  3. To Purge
• Effects & Considerations

Download

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Remember: You are always welcome to call or email Keystone Customer Support with questions! 

Items, Copies, and Consumables (oh my!)

Do you know the difference between the Item Tab and the Item List Tab, between Tracked and Consumables titles, and between a Copy and an Item? Do you know how to use Batch Add Items for tracked titles and consumables?

If you maintain physical, non copy-specific inventory at your library (that is, inventory where all copies are interchangeable), this reference is for you!

Contents

• Tab Overview
• Tracked vs Consumable
• Copy vs Item: What is the difference?
• Add a Holding
• Batch Add Items - Tracked titles
• Consumables Inventory

Download

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Remember: You are always welcome to call or email Keystone Customer Support with questions! 

For many years, Keystone offered regular Administrator’s Training sessions at our office in Raleigh. Not only did that allow us to give admins in-depth training on their own systems, but it also gave them the opportunity to get to know us and network with a few of their peers as they learned together.

However, travel costs are a barrier to some, and others are banned from business travel to North Carolina for political reasons. Then on top of that, we have a pandemic situation. Even Keystone staff isn’t going into the office right now, and we certainly aren't going to ask you to do so. The answer was clear...as much as we loved having you in person, it was time to offer admin training virtually.

We want to make sure attendees get just as much benefit from the online version as they did from attending in person. That means the online version needs to have just as hands-on, personalized, and interactive an approach as the in-person version did, including opportunities for discussion with the other attendees and introduction to several Keystone staff members.

Training Structure & Content

We took this opportunity to revamp and re-evaluate the structure of the training. Because the in-person version required attendees to stay here in Raleigh, it was kept to two (very busy, intense, somewhat demanding) days. To make it a little easier to absorb all of the information without eating too much into your schedules, we spread out the online version to four half-days running from 1:00-4:30 PM Eastern time each day. The lesson plan itself has been updated from a progressive tour of the admin menu to a more module and task-oriented approach.

Finally, to help attendees orient themselves to each topic and come prepared to discuss their own settings and needs, we developed pre-class worksheets for each session. These worksheets are not checked or graded, it’s fine if attendees don’t have time to get through them all, but they will help ensure you get the most out of the training.

For more information about what is covered, please see the Administrator’s Training – What to Expect article.

Upcoming Sessions

2024 Library for the Blind and Print Disabled KLAS Administrator Training

• Monday, March 25 - Thursday, March 28
  • Registration Deadline = May 16
• Monday, September 9 - Thursday, September 12
  • Registration Deadline = August 30

2024 Instructional Resource Center KLAS Administrator Training

• TBD by participants after individuals from at least 2 organizations commit to attending a session

Prerequisites for attendance:

• Attendee must have a KLAS Administrator role in their local system
• Attendee has authority to change records and policies for their KLAS system

Training Cost

The training still costs $600 per attendee, which covers the staff time needed to prepare for and run the training session. It comes with an Administrator’s Reference manual, which will be mailed to you (or provided electronically if that’s more accessible for you), the pre-class worksheets, and recordings of each session.

We hope this will allow more of you than ever before to benefit from admin training, as well as letting us continue to offer it safely. Be sure to let us know if you’re interested in joining in!

Registration Form

To register for an upcoming session or express interest in another date, please fill out the following form:

• KLAS Administrator's Training Registration Form

If you have any trouble accessing the form or if you have questions, please let us know! We hope to see you soon.

KLAS can generate customized Overdue notices for select Patron Types and Media, prompting patrons to return overdue items and report lost ones.

You can either use only the First Overdue Notice and send the same message even if the same item was included in a previous notice, or you can use escalating messaging.

Download

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What kind of messaging do you use in your Overdue notices? How often do you send them? Share your approach in the comments!

Imagine this: you've just done a successful outreach program with the local TVIs (Teachers of the Visually Impaired), and now you have a stack of applications for new Juvenile patrons. Wonderful... right up until you realize that you need to enter all of the exclusions for each of them. If you're picturing spending all afternoon entering them one at a time, and worried that you'll miss one of the little 'exclusion' checkboxes along the way, I have good news!

The Quick Preference function allows you to enter all of your common exclusions at once, either by typing them in or by copying and pasting the whole list for juveniles, incarcerated patrons, and anyone wanting just the "clean reads." 

And it's not just for exclusions, either--if you learn or create a cheat sheet for your library's top 5 to 10 subject codes, you can save yourself a whole lot of time when entering preferences for your new patrons.

One-time Prep:

Create a list of popular subjects and exclusions, either by looking up the subjects on the patron Preferences tab and jotting down the code, or from the Headings Maintenance screen. See the download below for specific instructions, or your KLAS Admin would likely be glad to create a list of common subject and exclusion codes for your library.

Using Quick Preferences:

From the patron's Preferences tab (Alt-4) in the Patron module, open the Quick Preferences screen from the Functions - Preferences menu or by pressing Ctrl-Alt-n on your keyboard. Enter each code on its own line, and put an exclamation point ahead of any exclusions to say "No!" to that subject. For example, an exclusion against Westerns would be entered as !WES for "No Westerns."

For more detailed instructions, download the full Quick-Tip:

Tips & Tricks

One option for an easy cheat-sheet is to use a blank application, and write the code next to each preference's checkbox. This ensures that you have the codes handy for everything on the application, and makes it easy to match up the codes to the application you are entering.

For easy copying/pasting of all the standard exclusions, you can also create a notepad .txt file with each exclusion on it's own line, prefixed by an exclamation point (for No!). For example, if my library's codes for Contains Violence, Contains Strong Language, and Contains Descriptions of Sex are VI, ST, and SE, my text file would be:

!VI

!ST

!SE

and so on through all the other exclusions.

I would then Save that file on my desktop or in my documents folder, and every time I entered applications from then on, I would open the file, select the whole list, and press Ctrl-c to Copy it. Any time a patron needed the whole list, or at least most of it, I would then use Ctrl-v on the Quick Preferences screen to Paste the list.

Do you use Quick Preferences? Do you have a lengthy subject code cheat-sheet on your desk, or do you have the codes for just the things on your standard application memorized? Share your tips in the comments--or let us know if you have questions!

The Batch Receive function allows you to easily add Equipment inventory in KLAS.

To add a Range of machines, they must be a complete sequence (common for boxes of new equipment), and must have numeric serial numbers, not alpha-numeric such as the EBZ braille readers. For non-sequential and/or alpha-numeric equipment, the Single option must be used.

Download

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Remember: You are always welcome to call or email Keystone Customer Support with questions! 

Is it time to reconcile what KLAS thinks it knows about your collection with what actually exists on the shelf? If you are getting Assignments for items you can't find, finding Items that were marked Lost, are moving or re-arranging your space, or just think it's time for a little tidying up of your database: KLAS has functions to help you reconcile your inventory shelf-by-shelf.

Process Overview:

1. Use Batch Update Items to query for Items on the target shelf.
2. Set the Items to LUN / Location Unknown.
3. Use Circulation Maintenance (Batch or Interactive) to scan the Items actually present on the shelf back to AVL.

See the Download below for complete instructions.

Download

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Remember: You are always welcome to call or email Keystone Customer Support with questions!