Telephone Renewal System

The Telephone Renewal System (TRS) is an automated voice messaging system that allows patrons to retrieve basic account information via a touch-tone phone. By listening and responding to the TRS system's recorded messages, patrons can call a dedicated phone line to renew items and get information about their current holds, fines, and checkouts without interacting with library staff.

System Requirements

The Telephone Renewal System requires the following hardware and software:

• A computer running Windows XP Pro or Windows 7 and equipped with a Dialogic board and telephony software (the TRS computer).

  When your library acquires the Telephone Renewal System, Innovative provides a Windows workstation that contains all the necessary hardware and software. However, if you experience problems with the TRS computer or with the telephone renewal application, you can reinstall the telephone renewal system software and drivers.

• A network connection between the Telephone Renewal System computer and your library's Sierra server.
• Two or four dedicated telephone numbers that patrons can use for telephone renewals. (The number of lines depends on the capability of the Dialogic hardware you purchase.) These phone numbers must be different than your library's main telephone number.

Setting Up the Telephone Renewal System

To set up your library's Telephone Renewal System, complete the following steps:

1. Add the TRS computer's IP address to the TELRENEW entry in your library's Limit Network Access table.
2. Contact Innovative to configure any optional functionality for the Telephone Renewal System.
3. Connect the telephone lines you want to use for the Telephone Renewal System to the Dialogic board in your TRS computer.
4. Start the telephone renewal software on your TRS computer. If you are starting the software for the first time, the system prompts you to configure TRS options.
5. (Optional) Customize your library's telephone renewal messages.
6. When you are ready to begin accepting calls, choose the Renew button.

Using the Telephone Renewal System

To use the Telephone Renewal System:

1. A patron starts a telephone renewal session by calling your library's dedicated telephone renewal phone number.
2. The patron uses the Telephone Renewal System to renew items or listen to account information (such as current checkouts, holds, and fines).
3. When finished, the patron ends the session by hanging up the phone.

Managing the Telephone Renewal System

As patrons use the Telephone Renewal System, you can view current call activity and statistics. If you need to stop accepting calls to the Telephone Renewal System (for example, to reboot the TRS computer or perform maintenance on your Innovative server), you can disconnect the Telephone Renewal System.

Innovative recommends that you back up the following system files in case of system failure or if you need to reinstall the software:

• the C:\Telrenew\Voice directory
• the Telrenew.ini or Tel*.ini file

See also:

Telephone Renewal System Messages

Renewing Items by Telephone