Changing user sign-ons

This page provides the ability to administer the signon details of both Full and ServicePoint staff. It can be used by System Administrators and Supervisors from System/Users-Full or Users-ServicePoint, and a version of it can be used by all users from My Preferences in the staff Home screen.

Supervisors can only work with signons of permission level Supervisor or below.

For a description of the differences between Full and ServicePoint users click here .

The signon parameters are laid out in tabs, each containing parameters related to a specific area – information about the meaning and impact of each parameter in each of the tabs in provided later in this page.

Parameters that must have a value selected for them (mandatory parameters) have the mandatory symbol (usually a tick) next to their data entry box.

You can make as many changes as you like in as many tabs are you like before clicking on Update to save your changes. Changes made using this screen take effect immediately.

The name and permission level of the signon that you are working on always shown at the top of this screen.

For information about how to use this screen in the My preferences mode accessible from the Main staff menu screen, click here .

When used by Supervisors and Administrators, this screen is presented in four modes:

New: used to create a new user from scratch – this mode presents an initial screen asking for basic information such as the user’s permission level, then allows all of the signon settings to be entered. Enter values into all of the fields (mandatory fields at least) in all of the tabs then click on Update, and you new user signon will be created.

Edit: used when editing the details of an existing user – this mode presents the normal tabbed display so that you can make changes to any of the parameters displayed in any of the tabs. Click Update to save your changes when you are happy that al the information on all tabs is correct

Copy: used to create a new user by copying the settings for an existing user – this function creates a user with the same permission level (and other parameter selections except for contact details, as the user signon that you chose to copy. You are presented with the normal tabbed display with the Contact details tab open so that the new user’s name, email address, etc. can be entered. Check the setting that have been carried over on all tabs, before clicking on Update to save your changes to this new signon.

Admin mode: used to make any fundamental changes to a signon. Initially a menu of all of the admin functions that are currently applicable to this user shows. Choose the function that you want to perform. The possible admin functions are:
– Delete staff member – allows all trace of the staff member to be removed including reassigning historical and current work separately (when this option is chosen a new page will display asking for your reassignment selections, and asking you to confirm that you want to proceed with the deletion). Note that when a user signon is deleted, all trace of the user ever having been in the system disappears as all there work will be reassigned to the staff you select in this process. You may prefer to disable the staff member rather than delete them.
– Change enable/disable status – allows users to be disabled (retained in the system but made inactive – for example disabled users no longer appear in the list of staff that questions can be reallocated to) or enabled after being disabled. You might disable a staff member’s signon when they go on Maternity leave, and re-enable them when they return. When you choose this function a new page will display asking who this staff member’s current work should be reassigned to.
– Change permission level – allows the permission level of the user to be changed (up or down). Permission levels determine functions that this user will have access to. When you choose this function a new page will display allowing you to select the new permission level. You will be then asked to check the normal tabbed display of parameters to ensure that the current settings are still valid for this user’s new level of responsibility.
– Reassign active questions – reassigns all the open questions currently assigned to a staff member – can be used for any staff member at any time – for example if the staff member has reported in ill. When you choose this option a new page will display asking who this staff member’s current work should be reassigned to.
– Set user as the Active System Administrator – resets the Active System Administrator (the staff member who receives notifications about problems with RefTracker) to the selected System Administrator. When you choose this option the Active System Administrator is immediately reset. You will be returned to the Staff signon summary list where you can confirm that the Active System Administrator indication icon is now next to the user you just reassigned it to.

INFORMATION ABOUT PERMISSION LEVELS

Permission level: Click here for information about available permission levels. Permission levels, along with the type of RefTracker system you are working in, determine the level of functionality that is available to this user. Only Supervisors and the System administrator can set permission levels.

Work reviewer: When a Probation or General user creates an answer, the system notifies them that the answer will be sent to their work reviewer (as specified here) for checking and sending on to the client, and reviewing for KB inclusion. This field allows the staff member who provides this review process for this staff member, to be nominated, and so only appears when permission level has been set to Probation or General. Any staff member with permission level of Regular or above can perform the Work reviewer role. If the nominated staff member is unavailable when the Probation or General user needs work reviewed, the system will find an available Supervisor somewhere else in the system to allocate the work that needs to be reviewed to.

INFORMATION ABOUT EACH OF THE FIELDS IN EACH OF THE TABS

CONTACT DETAILS TAB:

Id: If entering a new user, enter a unique identifier of up to 20 characters for the staff member here. Keeping id’s to 4 characters or less might help to ensure unique display and ease of recognition!!!! The identifier can be alpha, or alpha numeric, but it cannot be all numerics and cannot contain punctuation such as an underscore. It can include both upper and lower case characters, but the system does not distinguish between upper and lower case when determining the uniqueness of an identifier.

This identifier will be used to identify the work of this user throughout the system, for example, it is used to identify that a question is allocated to this user. As this identifier will be stored in the database for some time to come this identifier must be unique amongst all staff in the system (both enabled and disabled).

Staff name: Enter or edit the staff member’s name as you want it to appear within the RefTracker pages (for example, the text you enter here will show at the bottom of each RefTracker page whenever that staff member is logged on to the system).

Staff number: If appropriate to your library, enter the staff member’s uniquely identifying staff number. This information is not used within RefTracker, however it is saved within the staff member’s signon information and is available for export to other applications. Your library will only want to utilise this field if they export information collected in RefTracker to other applications such as time management systems.

Network login: This field will only appear if parameter 5.3 has been set to allow Auto logon to be used in your RefTracker system. If Auto logon has been activated in your system, then, for users who want to use this feature only, the user’s unique IP address, or network login should be entered in this field as appropriate to the authentication method chosen in parameter 5.3.
The user’s IP address can be found by looking at the REMOTE_ADDR value in RefTracker’s System/Utilities/Server Variables screen, however, beware, this may change (and so be useless for this purpose) unless your network uses fixed IP addresses.
The user’s login details will generally look like
<networkname>\<logonname> e.g. LOCAL\SHIRLEY
You can obtain the exact text string value for this by looking in RefTracker’s System/Utilities/Server Variables screen for the variable chosen in parameter 5.3 when signed on as that user (the user would need to be temporarily setup with Supervisor or above level privileges to see this information an Anonymous Windows authentication would need to have been turned off).

Staff location: Choose the location of this staff member so that new questions entered by this user will be attributed to the correct location for statistical purposes. This location setting is also used to ensure that questions from this user’s location are allocated to them when allocation by Location is in use. To change the available locations the system administrator can use the System>Locations page.

Email: This is the email address to which messages about questions assigned to this Full staff member will be sent. It is the email address set up for that staff member in your SMTP compliant email system. This attribute is not applicable to ServicePoint users as they are not set any emails by RefTracker.

Phone: This is this staff member’s phone number (max 30 characters). At present it is only used in certain emails created by this staff member where it is appropriate to provide contact information for this staff member. However including it also provides your Supervisor and System administrator with easy access to your contact information.

Mobile phone: This is this staff member’s mobile phone number (max 30 characters). It is not currently used by the system, but it is envisaged that in the future it will be used to allow SMS\text messages to be sent to this staff member by RefTracker.

IM network and name: This is this staff member’s Instant Messaging network and user name. It is not currently used by the system, but it is envisaged that in the future it will be used to allow Instant Messages to be sent and received by this staff member in association with their use of RefTracker.

Password controls: Some user levels are allowed to change their own RefTracker signon password. This section will only show if you are able to change your own password.

As a security measure, no information about previously set RefTracker passwords, shows in this screen. Therefore, this Password line has been introduced to indicate that a password (perhaps even a blank password) has previously been set for this signon. Unless the password is specifically changed using the fields below this line, the previously stored password, will be retained whenever other changes are saved using in this screen.

Use blank password: RefTracker allows blank passwords to be used. Click this box, if you wish to use a blank password. Clicking this box will remove any password information that you may already have entered.

Password: Use this field to enter a password for the first time, or to change an existing password (it must be confirmed in the Confirm new password field). Note that passwords can be up to 50 characters in length and are case sensitive.
In accordance with standards for handling passwords, no information about any existing password is supplied. If you do not need to change your password simply ignore all of these password fields. If a user forgets their password, they can simply choose a new password using these fields.

Confirm password: Confirm the new password you have entered by retyping it here, only if you are setting or changing a password.

ANSWERING PREFERENCES TAB:

Availability: This indicates to the system whether this staff member is currently available to accept new questions, or is unavailable for accepting new questions. It also shows to all RefTracker staff users in the Reallocate screen and is used by them to assist with deciding who to Reallocate a question to. It is therefore, a good idea to keep your Availability setting up to date (an icon in your home page next to the My preferences link that allows this setting to be changed , and in the footer of every RefTracker page indicates your current availability status as a reminder of how it is currently set).  

Prompt for  Availability: Choose whether you want to be reminded to check your availability each time you lo in or out.

Automatic Availability: This should only be set by System Administrators and only for staff who work on requests when they are rostered on to do so.  It automatically sets them to unavailable whenever they log out.

Default request type: Choose the request type that this user specialises in, or choose All. This setting is used to have questions of the relevant question type allocated to this user, when allocation by Request type is in use. It is also used in the reallocation screen as an indicator to assist staff in referring questions to the most appropriate staff member. The available Request types are controlled by the Request type code table. Choose “Any” if you do not work primarily with one specific type of request.

Default received via: Choose the method by which this staff member most commonly receive questions – Desk, Phone, Email, etc. Note that this default will be used when the staff member enters New and Quick questions, AND when you enter statistics via DeskStats, so choose the value most appropriate to these occasions. Staff can change this value at any time using My preferences, so that if they usually accept questions at the Desk, but are about to do a shift of Phone support, they can change their Default receive via value to Phone, and then back to Desk at the end of the session to save them from having to make this change each time they enter a question or a statistic. The available Received via entries are controlled by the Received via code table.

Default New request form: Choose the Request form that this staff member should be presented with initially each time they go into the New question screen. This setting only determines the default form to be used – access to all other forms is provided via the Request form drop down box at the top of the New question screen. The None option is provided for those who have not yet made a choice and will result in the Default Request form being displayed as default in the New screen (or if it is not available, the first available Request form in the Request form summary screen).

Default Quick request form: Choose the Request form that this staff member should be presented with initially each time they go into the Quick question screen. This setting only determines the default form to be used – access to all other forms is provided via the Request form drop down box at the top of the New question screen. The None option is provided for those who have not yet made a choice and will result in the Default Request form being displayed as default in the Quick screen (or if it is not available, the first available Request form in the Request form summary screen).

Billing rate: If your library wishes to have the cost of answering questions automatically calculated by RefTracker, you must select the appropriate billing rate for this staff member from this drop down list (choose None if you are not using this feature). The values in this drop down list are provided by the Billing rate code table – the BIlling rate code table defines the hourly rate that, when selected, will be multiplied by all “Time used” recorded by this staff member, to create a cost for doing that work. Click here for more information about the billing rate code table and automatically calculating the cost of answering questions in RefTracker.

Qprint application: The application that this user will use to display and print the output when they use the Qprint function, is selected here. “Browser” means that the user’s default web browser will be used (provides a simple one step print process). “MS Word” means that Microsoft Word for Windows will be used (provides high quality prints plus the opportunity to amend the output when appropriate, and save it to a file when appropriate. Other applications can be allowed for by contacting Altarama (e.g. a Macintosh application for high quality prints).

Autostart timer: Allows each staff member to choose where they want the RefTracker time to be automatically turned on when they enter a screen that uses the timer

Answer default action: Allows the staff member to choose whether the Answer screen should be set to close automatically so that the answer they enter will be delivered when they click save, or whether they would prefer to have their system remain how it used to be , where you have to specifically choose close before your answer will go out.

SEARCH PREFERENCES TAB:

Click here for more information about the operation of Open questions , and the concept of the unallocated request pool.

Search refresh (mins): Choose the number of minutes that you wish to expire between each refresh of the Open questions screens. If you use Open questions to monitor the unallocated questions screen, you may wish to reduce this setting so that you can see and respond to newly arriving questions more quickly. The value specified is in minutes so the shortest refresh time possible is one minute. Select zero to prevent the Open questions screens from refreshing.

Answer database: Staff that are authorised to use only questions in the knowledge base, and staff in libraries where ONLY the things that have been selected for inclusion in the knowledge base are to be considered for reuse, should select Knowledge base.
Staff wanting to have the Answers search screen search the entire body of work that is held in RefTracker, for information useful for reuse, rather than just those questions that have been selected as suitable for searching by clients in the Knowledge base, should select Any.

DESKSTATS PREFERENCES TAB:

DeskStats preferences can also be changed using the Preferences function in the DeskStats screen.

DeskStats mode determines the mode in which DeskStats will first open – Live mode allows individual statistics to be entered with a single click. Batch mode allows multiple statistics to be entered using numbers.

Visible request groups determines the Request groups that will show in your Deskstatistics. Untick the Request groups that you will never use in DeskStats, to save space in your Deskstats screen.

SPECIALTIES TAB:

Specialties: Only Probation users and above can have Specialties set for them. Tick the areas of knowledge that you want RefTracker to identify as being specialties of this staff member. These specialties are presented to users when reallocating questions to assist them in choosing the right person to reallocate a question to. Specialties are general areas of staff interest that fall outside of the major areas of responsibility for your library, as these major areas of responsibility should be handled through the allocation of appropriate request types . If the area of expertise that you want is not in this list, system administrators can add it by using the Specialties code table in the Code table menu update page.

FUNCTIONS TAB:

Functions: If your System administrator or Supervisor has given you access to this tab, you can use it to remove functions from your RefTracker interface that you do not use – for example, if you do not use DeskStats and you want to simplify your interface by removing it from your main header bar, you can do so by unticking it in your Functions tab.

System administrators and Supervisors have access to a more powerful version of this tab that not only allows them to remove functionality to simplify a staff member’s interface, but for Probation level users and above, they can also add permission for additional functions. For example a particular regular level user could be given access to the Statistical reports functions (to take advantage of Excel expertise they may have). Click here for more information about how System administrators and Supervisors can make the most of this capability.

Functions removed by System Administrators or Supervisors, do not appear in the Functions tab of the staff member and so cannot be reinstated by the staff member.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE LABELS IN THIS SCREEN

The labels for the fields used in this screen are controlled by the Staff table in System/Data dictionary menu/0)System group.