Impromptu Report Documentation

The following document outlines the workflow for the suite of withhold_marks reports on the Cognos server. This workflow is specific to UW Circulation Services.

Step 1

1. Run the Cognos report “Marks_withhold 1” in newsbox "UW Reports and Cubes>Circulation Services>Administrative" to pull up everyone who qualifies for a marks withhold that does not already have a marks withhold note on their record in TRELLIS.
2. Run this only for the specific faculties and patron group that you want to work on.
3. Save the report as follows: View it in Excel
   Save the report to the folder in sharepoint at Lending Services\Fines, as mw_Nov_07.xls
   Edit the report in sharepoint, and do a “Save As” to your desktop, renaming the report to something you can remember to use in Step 2

Step 2

1. Delete the following columns: Institution ID, Faculty, Patron Note. These need to be deleted so that they don’t interfere with the email broadcast
2. Delete the Headings row and any rows for patrons that you know should not be included in the report.
3. Save the report to your desktop, but this time you must also save the type as “csv” You may need to verify a couple of times that this is really what you want to do.
4. Go to the email utility http://testtube.uwaterloo.ca/spammer/fortified_spam.cfm and set it up as follows:

From: Libcirc@uwaterloo.ca
Subject: Library Notice - Withhold of Marks
Paste in the text of the message from the Appendix below
Browse to the csv file you just created
In the final field, type in (very carefully so there are no typos): last, fine
Check everything once again!
Hit submit
Go to your desktop and clean it up

Step 3

1. Find the report in sharepoint and again save it to your desktop.
2. Delete/hide any rows from patrons for whom you do not want the note added
3. Delete/hide the headings row
4. Delete/hide every column except the institution ID column
5. With both MacroExpress and the Circulation client open, use the Macro called Cir-Adding Notes to Patron Files to read the list of ID number and apply the Marks Withhold note to the patron note fields.

Step 4

1. Using the same list of ID numbers as you used in step 3, apply the service indicator in Quest (done manually for now).

Step 5

1. Use the Cognos “Marks_withhold 2” report as time permits, to identify everyone who still has a note as well as any kind of outstanding fine, in order to review older problems for follow-up, as desired.

Step 6

1. Use the Cognos “Marks_withhold 3” report as a “quality control” report, that captures everyone who still has the marks withhold note in TRELLIS but no longer has any fines or replacements. This should be run at least once per term.