These troubleshooting tips are for member librarians of the New Hampshire Downloadable Books.
Librarians are encouraged to contact Bobbi Lee Slossar for further assistance.
First, do not panic -- but do not ignore the problem!
Contact Bobbi, if she is available. If not, do some initial testing on your own. Is the problem isolated to a single user or is there a widespread problem? Send a message out on the NHDB list to other member libraries to find out if they, too, are experiencing a similar situation. Contact our reps -- always listed in the Marketplace >> Support -- and carefully describe the problem with as much detail as possible and expressing the level of urgency. Read through the following authentication issues and see if one of the troubleshooting tips applies to your situation.
The first step is verifying that none of your patrons can log into the service. Be sure to test multiple logins. I suggest having multiple staff members try their own accounts before assuming the worst.
Once you have confirmed that none of your patrons are able to log into the service, you will likely need to contact your ILS vendor. Why? This type of outage primarily impacts libraries that have set up SIP authentication that allows their ILS to control patron access to the digital service. When the SIP server from the ILS vendor fails, the ILS vendor must be notified and they will typically restart the SIP server.
The good news is that this is typically resolved very quickly. It is also likely that more than one library with the same ILS vendor will be affected at once, meaning someone is very likely to notice the problem and report it to the vendor. The vendor will like fix the issue for all affected libraries at once.
In the unlikely event that the outage pertains to OverDrive or the OverDrive User Login Manager, contact their support techs in the Marketplace >> Support >> Authentication Support [button] and select the tick box stating that ALL users are unable to log in. This will escalate the ticket.
Your first step is ensure that this problem really only affects a single patron. Try logging into your account account from the website and encourage another other nearby patrons or coworkers to do the same. If this issue affects all users, see the FAQ above about all users not being able to log into the service.
If the library uses SIP2 to authenticate their NHDB users, try having the patron log into the library catalog. If the patron is unable to log into the catalog, work with your ILS vendor to see what the issue could be.
If the library does not use the ILS (SIP authentication) and instead uses the OverDrive User Login Manager to manage patron access to the service, log into the site and check if see if the number (remember the prefix, if used) is entered and valid. Contact Bobbi, if available. If not, contact the reps for questions about the User Login Manager and to get a login to your library account to manage patron access.
The User Login Manager functions in the same manner as the old LCM software. Librarians are able to:
The real news to the update is the ability for a librarian to add an expiration date to the patron number.
Please contact Bobbi to request an account for our OverDrive rep. Note that when you login, you will be prompted to confirm that you have the right to make changes.
If you are looking to edit the privileges of a specific user, use the "Search users" box.
Once you have found the user, you can update the user status as needed. Note that you *could* add a patron name. But why would you?
For libraries with short patron numbers, a PIN or password is often used. For those accounts, there is a field to change the password.
To add a single user, click on "Manage users" and then on "Add new user."
New users (and when editing existing users) can be assigned a user status and, most importantly, an expiration date (highly recommended).
It is possible to export your entire set of patrons and add in an expiration date to the file in a YYYYMMDD format. However, I recommend contacting me first before attempting it. (And I am always happy to assist.)
In the OverDrive Marketplace >> Support >> Authentication Support, it is possible for librarians to add or edit SIP authentication; however, it is highly recommended that librarians setting up SIP authentication contact Bobbi Lee Slossar for technical assistance before doing so.
Librarians should contact their ILS vendor and request the following information prior to submitting a support ticket:
IF YOU ARE CHANGING THE FORMAT OR LENGTH OF THE CARDS, YOU MUST CONTACT BOBBI PRIOR TO IMPLEMENTING SIP2!
While it is tempting to want to solve this problem by moving the patron to the top of the long waiting list, this is not fair to the patrons of the other 200 public libraries who are also waiting for the book.
Instead, look to see if there is a waiting list and how long it is. For older titles you may be relieved to see that the list is short. In other cases, consider providing the title in print.
Of note: If the patron takes no action on an available hold, the title will automatically be set to a 7-day "delivery later" option. This only happens once per title. If this is the first time the patron missed their hold, check to see if the hold was suspended for seven days.
Advertise the option to suspect holds for titles that they are not ready to read at this time.
There are times when you will need to submit a support ticket to OverDrive's tech support team. Here's how it is done:
Finding the Reports
Click on "Insights" and then "Checkouts."
Librarians, you may notice that if you run your activity reports by specific formats, you might not come up with numbers that sum up correctly when you run the report by all formats. For the best results, run your reports with all formats and sum up eBooks and audiobooks separately.
You will see that instead of giving you options to select a library, date, etc., a report loads by default. If you are using a shared login, you will see a report showing the results for a different library. Don't panic! Simply run a new report. Click on "Run New Report."
If you wish to see a breakdown of the formats checked out for the past month, select the following:
If you need to remove a library or other piece of data already populating the box, put your mouse over the information and click on the "x" that appears.
To make the drop-down list retract, click elsewhere in the box.
The report will show the number of each format checked out during that time period.
Tip: Change the Period Type from "Last" to "Specific."
You can also export the data to a spreadsheet by clicking the "Create worksheet" button.
If a library patron loses their library card and needs to be issued a new number, you'll need to follow the instructions below to make sure that the patrons currently checked out items, holds, and wish list items, etc. are imported to the new card number.
Merging Accounts (February 2016)
Note that these are inactive test numbers...
* The new card number must be added to the User Login Manager before merging. Contact Bobbi for more information if you don't know if your library uses the OverDrive User Login Manager or not.
This is a financial decision. Additional copies are purchased based on the number of holds.
A majority of the eBooks from the major book publishers are licensed by the copy for 12 or 24 months at a time. In order to keep the title in the collection after that 12 or 24-month period, the title must be relicensed. It would be financially challenging to relicense many years' worth of purchases and continue to purchase new titles. Librarians are encouraged to speak with patrons about the costs and expiring nature of digital licenses.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the New Hampshire State Library.