How to Hack your 
ILS and make friends 
on Campus
Sierra Upgrade
Music Stores
Audio Visual / 
Classroom Support
Project Scope
Build
Time
Barriers & 
Challenges
Results
Lockers
Lockers
Results: 
Music Department
Results: 
Library
Results: 
IT
Results: 
Students
Lessons Learned
Thank you 
George Villavicencio gvillavi@capilanou.ca 
Glen Greely ggreenly@capilanou.ca 
Trevor Smith trevorsmith4@capilanou.ca

Code4 lib 20141128 how to hack your ils and make friends on campus

Editor's Notes

  • #2 TREV
  • #3 TREV Upgraded from Mill to Sierra Jan – July 2013 IT PM was impressed with functionality & in working with us
  • #4 TREV Old IT project on the books but no money to buy software for tracking equipment Rental Works approved in approx 2010 for $10,000 Never bought or built
  • #5 TREV AV already used Millennium to checkout laptops projectors, room keys
  • #6 TREV Lockers and keys Equipment
  • #7 GEORGE & GLEN Had to get a new license Barcode Scanner Barcodes – Music Store had their own run of codes but works on their equipment
  • #8 GEORGE Hour every other week talking it out Sit down the next week and try to build Piecemeal work meant forgetting what we did the week before Started in March/April Deadline of August for the start of semester
  • #9 GEORGE & GLEN No direct benefit to library = PD work Could not get scoping from III to limit access – No $ Personnel changes due to funding cuts means no Equipment Students needed to pay a rental fee Cashiers office still wanted print copies so we could not Sierra is not directly tied into an online payment system. Cash and CC need to be reconciled To tie in a payment system you need to do PCI compliance How do you barcode something that is too big to scan? Ie a drum
  • #10  GEORGE
  • #11 GEORGE Lockers Fees upfront instead of fines – tricky
  • #13 GEORGE Done lockers and keys Need to do equipment They have a system with an active user group for support
  • #14 GEORGE Sharpened our skills Don’t often have a reason to get into the weeds of Loan rules, but now have a better appreciation Learned how to do templates
  • #15 GEORGE One less system for them to manage
  • #16 GEORGE Seamless experience- no new cards or logins
  • #17 ALL Build only the granularity you need Keep students the same and not SPECIAL music students Have actual benefits to the library so we can propose projects like this in the future which will benefit the library – ie not PD