Overview
Surpass Central provides the core functions of Centriva:

• Circulation and Fines
• Collection Management and Original Cataloging
• Patron Management
• Extensive Reporting Capabilities
• System Administration and Security Functions
• Printing Functions: Barcode Labels, Catalog Cards, ID Card

Surpass Central is a Windows-based desktop application built from years of experience and customer feedback.  Central provides for maximum flexibility, customizability, and efficiency, far beyond they limits of the "browser-based" circulation modules now offered by some companies.  The tabbed interface keeps menu options visible at all times, making navigation easy.  Screens can easily be customized to reflect the information you'd like to have visible.

Surpass Central includes a powerful built-in custom report generator, allowing you to easily extract exactly the information you need from your system.

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Highlights

GENERAL FEATURES

Tabbed Interface: Navigation is easy with the tabbed interface.  Sub-menus stay visible.  Screen areas are easily resized.  Grid displays are easily customized.

Context-sensitive Help: The help button is always visible in the upper-right corner of Surpass Central.  Clicking it from any screen will display help for the specific area you're working in.  Our help files contain the entire contents of the printed user's guide, complete with screen-shots.

Reading Program Options:  Import test lists from Accelerated Reader^TM or Scholastic Reading Counts!^® to enhance your MARC records automatically, indicating which materials you own tests for.  Some companies charge $300 for a service requiring a tedious export/import routine. Our built-in features allow you to keep the information in your catalog up-to-date at all times.

OPTIONAL: Surpass Reading Program Service automatically updates MARC records with Lexile^® Framework reading level and Accelerated Reader^TM and Scholastic Reading Counts!^®  reading level, point values, and quiz numbers.

Nine security levels: Assign uses to one of nine optional security levels.  All areas of Surpass Central and other Surpass applications can be set with a minimum security level to allow access. 

Lock Mode
To secure circulation when you need to step away from the desk, simply click the "logout" button and choose "suspend and secure".  Your password will need to be entered in order to gain access to Surpass Central again.

CIRCULATION

Universal hot-keys:
Quickly and easily jump to key circulation screens such as check-in and check-out and renew from anywhere within Surpass Central with a single keystroke!  Just press the corresponding function key.

Most efficient circulation:
In no other area of an automation system is efficiency more important than in circulation.  Making key functions and processes available with as few keystrokes or mouse clicks as possible is of prime importance when you have a line of waiting patrons to serve.  Surpass Central makes circulation a breeze.  The circulation screen is neatly divided into simple areas with a clean, uncluttered layout.  Tabs at the bottom provide quick access to patron status or current item status without the need to even leave the circulation area.  Compare the ease-of-use and efficiency of our circulation functions to that of any competitor and you'll immediately see the difference.  This will be especially true when comparing to the new breed of "100% browser-based" systems that some vendors are experimenting with.

Patron photos and book cover images: The circulation area of Surpass Central will display the photo of the current patron (if available) and even the book jacket image of the current title*.  See image above.

In-Library Circulation: Track your reference and other "non-circulating" items by scanning them into Surpass Central with your circulation scanner (or into Surpass Shuttle with a portable scanner). These items will then show up on reports such as circulation statistics.

Smart fields:  To circulate an item to a patron, you can scan or type the patron number or just type part (or all) of the patron's first or last name in the patron field.  There's no need to tell Central whether you want it to search by number or name -- Central automatically figures it out and searches.  If multiple matches are found, you can choose from the list.

Automatic, manual, or fixed date-due: easily change the setting on-the fly by clicking the settings tab in circulation.

Hourly and fixed-time loan periods:  Choose to circulate materials only for a given number of hours, or set a fixed time for materials to be due.  For example, you may set the due-date for a specific material type to 9 a.m. the next morning, regardless of the time it was checked out.  Or you may circulate certain items for one hour only.

Forgive fines: just check a box to forgive patron fines during check-in.

Flexible circulation rules:  As with most systems, Surpass Central allows you to set circulation rules based on the material type and the patron type.  But we go beyond the basics!  Surpass allows you to set a rule based on a temporary (or regular) patron group and/or a special group of materials for which you've created a bibliography.  This flexibility can be powerful when you wish to pull selected items from the collection for special projects and only circulate them to certain patrons, or to change the length of the loan period on the special group of material (perhaps shortening it to allow more patrons to use the special materials when they are in high demand).

ADMINISTRATION and PATRON MANAGEMENT

Automatic Patron Import: Schedule automatic patron imports, such as from a school student management system.  Transfer daily or weekly.

Patron Photo ID Cards: Easily create photo ID cards for your patrons.  Laminate with our heavy-duty 4" laminator to create credit-card sized cards, or larger cards with a notched hold for wearing on a neck lanyard or badge clip.  Choose a standard or customized card.

For the most durable color ID cards, choose the Surpass ID Card Printer or Surpass auto-feed ID Printer. Print directly from Surpass to ID card stock (30-mil plastic PVC cards, similar to credit cards). There's no need to cut or laminate!

Patron Groups
Create unlimited special patron groups and assign patrons to them.  You can then assign (or deny) special permissions to that group, using the group in circulation rules or reports.  For example, you might create a temporary patron group to allow  circulation privileges to a selected group of materials for a given time period.  Or you may want to create a report based on a patron group.

Direct Access to Patron Fines Ledger:  it's easy to view or print the fines ledger, or to make an adjustment (credit or charge).

CATALOGING

From beginners to experts:  Surpass Central makes a variety of "views" available to the cataloger.  Beginners may prefer to work in Simple View, while experts may prefer full MARC View or Template View.  You can also select card view, or preview to see how your record will appear in the Safari or Web Safari catalog. 

Custom Cataloging Templates: create your own templates for new material types.  Just drag-and-drop from a list of available MARC fields to select the fields you'd like to appear in your template.

Automatic MARC Punctuation: You don't have to be a cataloging expert.  Surpass Central features automatic AACR2 MARC punctuation.  Just click the save button when entering a new MARC records and you'll see the proper punctuation appear before your eyes!

Easy Authority^TM:  Use existing records as authority files to assure consistency in cataloging.  Lookup lists of authors, titles, or other data during cataloging.

Quick Cataloging: Surpass Central includes the ability to find MARC records at the Library of Congress by simply entering the ISBN. Simply scan the book’s ISBN barcode (or enter by hand) and  Quick Cataloging searches for a match. This feature is helpful when cataloging a few books one at a time. 

Direct Integration with Copycat: For more powerful cataloging, choose Copycat to download free MARC records from the Internet using z39.50 technology.  Simply scan the ISBN/EAN barcode, then send the resulting record directly to your Surpass database. You can search for a large group of records at one time.  Learn more about Copycat.

Print barcode labels, spine labels, and catalog cards:  print directly from Surpass Central to any laser printer.  Easily re-print labels or cards at any time without data re-entry.  Print to partially used sheets of labels so there's no waste.

REPORTS AND NOTICES

E-mail Notices: Send notices, such as overdue, fines, and delinquent notices to patrons via e-mail.  Even notify patrons when item's they've had on reserve are available for check-out. Learn more about notices.

E-mail notification to patrons when reserved item is available:
When checking in an item for which another patron has placed a reserve, Surpass Central will prompt you to instantly print the hold slip and reserve notice.

Powerful Built-In Custom Report Generator: Surpass Central provides a powerful report generator that lets you design your reports exactly the way you want them.  No third party reporting tools are necessary.  This completely flexible report generator allows you to specify any number of conditions to define exactly which patron, MARC, or circulation records to include in the report as well as define the sort order, the position and label for each column, and even the places for page breaks.  Simply drag-and-drop columns to re-arrange your report.  You are in complete control!  You can also share your reports so that other libraries in your district can use your report definition for their own needs.  Learn more about reports.

Report Export: Reports can be printed or exported to .HTML, .PDF, .XLS, or .DOC.  Learn more.

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