Greetings Directors,

At the May Director’s meeting we introduced an enhancement to the SMS Notification that will be delivered to Symphony on August 2nd.

As you know, the consortium utilizes OPLIN’s free SMS service. This allows staff to enter a patron’s mobile phone number@sms.oplin.org and the patron will receive notices to their mobile device.

As enhancements and upgrades are delivered to the Symphony suite of software, SMS notifications don’t always support the new feature due to a character limit supported by SMS, which is 160 characters.

Examples of new features impacted by character limitation:

eRC placing holds:  OverDrive is not capable of sending hold notifications in SMS format

Emailing Checkout Receipts: Receipts cannot be sent in SMS format

SEO has worked with SirsiDynix to have custom programing completed that will allow additional options in the Notify by field. EMAIL_SMS and SMS

What will change for staff when registering a new user?

Demographics Tab:

 Use the Notify by drop down to choose how your user wants to receive their notices.

     Your options are:

            EMAIL – email only

            EMAIL_SMS – both email and text

            NONOTICES – no notices will be sent

            SMS – text only

            STANDARD – used for print notices or for libraries that use automated phone notification

Addresses Tab:

1.     Email – If your patron wants to be notified via email, enter their email address in the EMAIL field in the Address 1 section.

2.     Text notices - If your patron wants to receive their notices by text, enter their cell phone number in the SMS field in the Address 2 section.

Note:  You must enter the phone number and the OPLIN format. Example: 7405550000@sms.oplin.org 

3.     Email AND Text messages – enter their email address in the EMAIL field of the Address 1 section. Enter their cell phone number and the OPLIN format in the SMS field of the Address 2 section. Example: 7405550000@sms.oplin.org 

·       Existing user data will be updated the morning of August 2^nd to accommodate this new functionality.

·       Once implemented, overdue and courtesy notices will continue to notify your users as they did prior to this change. 

·       All support documentation on our site will be updated by August 1st to support the upcoming change.

·       Here is a direct link to the updated Registering a New User Documentation

Regards,

SEO Support