Carousel Management

These are displays of records that show up in the catalog home page. If you click on the image of or link of the item, it will bring you to the record.

Figure 1. Carousel examples

Every library’s OPAC already has one carousel which is automatically maintained for new items, but you are able to make custom carousels from record buckets.

Custom Carousels from Record Buckets

Adding Items to a Record Bucket

Search for your materials in the staff or patron view catalog.
Add items into a basket.
When done, click Add Basket to Bucket.

Figure 2. Patron view option to add basket to bucket

Figure 3. Staff catalog option to add basket to bucket

You can add to an existing bucket or to a new bucket in case you didn’t create a new bucket yet.

Figure 4. Add to existing bucket

Figure 5. Add to new bucket

Optionally, you can add to a shared bucket, but this is only recommended if you and another staff member are collaborating on carousels.

It’s recommended that all bib records have an included picture of the cover. If you add a record without a cover image, the carousel won’t populate a picture and will just have the title available.

The carousel doesn’t have a minimum but the rotation feature does need at least four to do a full rotation without any duplicates.

Create a New Carousel

Go to Cataloging → Record Buckets.
Select the record bucket from the list in Bucket View.
Review the items you placed in this bucket.

Figure 6. Select record bucket

Figure 7. Viewing record bucket
If it looks good, click Return to Buckets, check off the bucket, go to Actions, and select Create Carousel from Bucket.

Figure 8. Create carousel option from bucket
Choose a name for your carousel.

Figure 9. Carousel name prompt

After creating the carousel, you’ll be brought to a Carousels Configuration screen. Make sure the correct library branch is selected if you work in a library system. You’ll see all the active carousels for your library.

Figure 10. Carousel configuration screen

Create a New Carousel Map

Go to Administration > Local Administration > Carousel Library Mappings.

Figure 11. Carousel Mappings screen
Click on New Carousels Visible at Library.

Figure 12. New carousels visible at library button
Fill out the form with the appropriate carousel and library. For sequence number put in whichever number you want the carousel to appear in order with 0 being first, 1 being second, 2 being third, etc. You can always go back and edit the sequences if needed.

Figure 13. Carousel visible at library form
Once this is saved, the carousel map will appear in the list.

Figure 14. List of carousels visible at library

Refresh OPAC

Finally, the last step in the carousel creation process is going into your OPAC and refreshing the page. The carousel should appear afterwards, but if it doesn’t, a restart of your browser and/or clearing cache is recommended.

Figure 15. Carousel in the OPAC

Automated Carousels

Carousel Configuration also has four other types of carousels that are automated so you don’t need to build a manual record bucket. These are handy options if you want to refresh your OPAC homepage with material on the fly.

To explore these options, go to Administration → Local Administration → Carousels.
Click on New Carousels.
Your automated carousels will be under Carousel Type.

Figure 16. Carousel type
Select your option and fill out the rest of the form.

Do not select Include descendants? under Owned By.

Carousel Filters

Shelving Location Filter

If you want to filter further, consider selecting specific Shelving Locations from the dropdown menu. Click Add to put in the list. Click X next to the selections you want to delete.

Figure 17. Shelving location selections

Age Limit Filter

Age Limit allows items to remain in the carousel for a certain amount of time depending on what the carousel type is.

Newly Cataloged Items with an age limit of two months will allow an item that was cataloged within two months from today’s date to remain in the carousel.

Note that depending on your maximum item limit, the carousel may kick out other items that may be within the age limit.

If you have 70 recently returned items that were returned within the 1-month age limit and the carousel has a max item limit of 50, then the most recently returned will remain while older returned items can get kicked.

While you can use different variations of time, we recommend using months. To properly add that, please type the number of months followed by “mon”. “Mon” is the proper syntax for the Evergreen carousels or else the carousel won’t save.

Carousel Maintenance

Adding Items to Carousel

When viewing a record summary in the staff catalog, go under Other Actions → Add to Carousel then select from the dropdown.

Figure 18. Add to carousel option from staff catalog

Figure 19. Add to carousel selection

Removing Items from Carousel

Go to Local Admin → Carousels. Select the appropriate carousel and click Link to Bucket.

Figure 20. Link to bucket option

This will bring you to the record bucket used for the carousel. Here you can select titles you wish to remove. The carousel will automatically refresh after changes are saved. Refresh your OPAC to see reflected changes.

Figure 21. Remove Selected Records from Bucket option

Refreshing Carousels

The “New Items” carousel is refreshed nightly, but if you have added items throughout the day and want that to reflect in the carousel, go to Carousels in Local Admin, then right-click over the carousel and select Refresh Selected. Manual or custom carousels you created cannot be refreshed; this only applies to automated carousels.

Figure 22. Refresh selected