SMS Notifications
SMS notifications are used by sites that want to contact patrons on their mobile devices with important messages concerning their account or general announcements from their library. The Send SMS Message wizard allows staff to create new ad hoc messages or select a previously created message template to send to library patrons. Library staff can use the View SMS Message wizard to view a log of SMS messages sent to specific users. Library staff create standardized SMS messages using the Message Template Manager wizard.
SMS messages can only be sent to patrons who have opted in to the service and provided the phone numbers to their mobile devices. For more information, see the SMS Notice Contact Info Tab and the Modify User Wizard.
Overview of the SMS Feature
SMS messaging is an add-on feature for SirsiDynix Symphony. In order to get this feature to work, the following steps must occur:
| 1. | Contact your sales representative. |
| 2. | Have the SirsiDynix installs team install and configure the feature on your SirsiDynix Symphony server. This includes getting a code from the service that provides the messaging feature, receiving a token from the SirsiDynix SMS server, and configuring settings and the database values to enable it. |
| 3. | If doing automated SMS messaging, a library administrator may set up message templates to be used with automated SMS messaging. The templates are shared by all libraries in the system. |
| 4. | If doing automated SMS messaging, a library administrator must configure the See "Notify Users Wanting Text Messages Report". This report should be scheduled to run during the day so that patrons get text messages during normal daytime hours. |
| 5. | If you want library circulation staff to be able to enter SMS numbers for patrons, you must enable it. See Display User Wizard Properties, Modify User Wizard Properties, New User Registration Wizard Properties, and Copy User Wizard (the setting for the Copy User wizard is located in the Register User Helper properties. To set the property, do the following: 1) Right-click CheckOut and select Properties. 2) Select the Helpers tab. 3) Click the Register New User button. 4) Select Show SMS Notice Contact Info Tab option.) |
| 6. | If you want patrons to be able to enter their own phone numbers and settings for what SMS text messages to receive, you can configure e-Library to include an area in the My Account area. For more information, see “Enabling SMS Configuration in My Account” in the Admin help for e-Library. |
It is important to understand that there is no guarantee of when the SMS message will be sent by the SMS server. It depends on the number of messages being sent, internet traffic, and the size of the backlog of messages that need to be sent. Therefore, you should not expect that the text message gets sent out immediately.
You also need to realize that the server will not allow more than one text message per second per site (based on the SMS server long code) to be sent. So, keep that speed in mind when you set up automated sending of the SMS messages. However, this does not affect the overall runtime of the Notify Users Wanting Text Messages Report because the SMS server queues the messages that it receives from Symphony.
Finally, if you create a message that is longer than 160 characters (this would only be possible when using tags), the system will split up the message into two or more messages. Therefore, you need to take this into account when planning for the number of messages you need to send, as well as the potential extra costs to your library since you would be charged for each message sent.
Wizards
The following wizards are available on the SMS Notifications toolbar.
| • | Send SMS Message Wizard |
| • | View SMS Message Logs Wizard |
| • | Message Template Manager Wizard |
Following a SirsiDynix Symphony upgrade, it is possible that the SMS feature may experience the following problems:
| • | The SMS wizards stop working. |
| • | Wizards that display SMS information (such as the user wizards) start to work slowly and fail to display SMS information. |
If these problems occur, your system administrator may need to make additional changes on the SirsiDynix Symphony server to restore previous wizard functionality. For information on this process, see the "Making adjustments to support Collection Exchange and SMS" section of the SirsiDynix Symphony Upgrade Instructions for your version of SirsiDynix Symphony.