WYLD Office Report for October 18 and November 8, 2005
SirsiDynix merger update
Things are going smoothly. Companies are merged. Actions are being taken to have the help support folks in both using the same metrics for customer satisfaction measurement and more importantly for improvement. Little loss in the developer/programmer community with the merged company so new, improved and corrective software development cycles are being done more quickly and thoroughly.
Access to Client Care site of Sirsi
I encourage all Council members to make regular visits to the Sirsi Client Care customer website. This access is very helpful if you want to see information about the next upgrade, the release notes for that upgrade which include enhancements, corrections, and additions. They are lengthy so you may not wish to print them out until that version has been put into general release. This also includes access to the Getting Ready for Unicorn GL3.0 Multimedia Tour an interactive introduction to the new features of Unicorn GL3.0.
After our RCouncil conf. call it dawned on me that I could make a generic shared RCouncil login. It might work for general scanning of information at the Client Care website of Sirsi. But it is better to have your own login because you can receive emails about subject areas of interest such as Cataloging, Circulation, Unicorn-general and the like. We can talk about this if you wish during our Nov. 8 conference call.
To login: http://www.sirsi.com/Solutions/Prodserv/Services/clientcare.html Click on the blue "Login to Client Care" button. Again, if you want a login or need to renew it call or email me. I can also give you a 15 - 30 minute online tour of its key areas any time over the phone.
Upgrade updates:
GL 3.0 WYLD upgrade has not been scheduled. TAZ and WYLD our test and production servers need Solaris operating system upgrades first Marc is working on upgrading them to Solaris 10. I asked Council to help the WYLD Office determine which libraries use the test server for training and practice AND more importantly, how much advance notice does our Office need to give member institutions about a major change to the test server, TAZ, e.g., putting GL 3.0 upgrade on TAZ.
The latter information well give us a better sense of the timing needed for alerting libraries using TAZ for training and/or practice. This also gives you advance notice that new upgrade will be available soon for testing.
We hope to upgrade TAZ by mid-November 2005. Again, just the test server. The earliest WYLD server upgrade target would be over the December holiday period. I think that is an unrealistic target. More likely, we all can be better prepared by waiting till late spring 2006 before WYLD Annual meeting or in the month after that WYLD meeting. A place and date(s) have not been established for that meeting.
I am also working with a beta customer of Sirsi to receive and develop checklists that we can use for the various function areas of the Unicorn software. With these you and the WYLD Office can test more completely the upgrade on TAZ before moving it on the WYLD production server.
GL 3.0 does NOT require a change in WorkFlows client software. Most of us are very familiar with the C Client. The Java WorkFlows client has been reported to be more functional and reliable with this upgrade. On the side of caution, we might focus on an upgrade to GL 3.0 with a focus on use of the C client and with optional use of the Java Client. But because there are too many unknowns at this time there is no "final decision." Interestingly enough both clients will be able to be used with GL 3.0 AND both can reside on the same workstation. How's them taters.
At a meeting of Sirsi Consortia customers meeting in September (see next report item), Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS> www.bccls.org) reported on their upgrade to GL 3.0 which went very smoothly. They were a beta test site which meant they tested the software before it was ready for general release. Their system consists of 73 libraries in four counties of New Jersey with the major difference between BCCLS and WYLD is that all their members are public libraries. They found some bugs and reported these to Sirsi. So we benefit by their willingness to beta test the software first in a real library system environment.
I have CD-Roms with all their training materials. I received copies for all of the WYLD Office staff. Shortly, we'll be going through these to augment our preparation for the upgrade. Their upgrade took about 8 hours including the pre-upgrade backup; software install; rebuilds; and post-upgrade backup. After the upgrade, we will have to rebuild the Authority Index and Thesaurus BUT the Authority Thesaurus rebuild takes much less time because Correct Authority Thesauri no longer exists.
Some key enhancements in GL 3.0
Barcode validation
Unicorn now supports all 100+ formats supported by DRA Classic. The Barcode Verify wizard identifies which validation schemes match your barcodes. For example, with barcode validation the system will be able to make a distinction between item and patron barcodes and will not let the user enter a patron barcode for an item or vice versa. When barcode validation is configured formal validation will be done any time a barcode (patron or item) is typed by hand or via scanning throughout the WorkFlows client.
Ability to Set Expiration and Suspension Dates When Initially Placing Holds
When library users initially place their own holds in the OPAC, they may now specify a date on which the hold expires. They may also enter a range of dates for which to suspend the hold, so that if the item becomes available during the suspension dates, the user will be skipped without losing his place in the hold queue
Full User Birth Date Field
The birth year field has been expanded to include a user's entire birth date. The full birth date is being added to Unicorn to provide libraries with the ability to retain accurate and updated patron records that comply with today's privacy standards. The birth date field will be available for display in the Display User wizard and as a selection option in various user reports. Sirsi will also provide the ability for sites to convert their existing birth date information to the new field
Circulation Notices in Batch Report
A new report has been added to the Unicorn GL3.0 release that will allow libraries to create one notice for holds, bills, and overdues that can be sent by email. This report is very similar to the Circulation Mailer report except that this report allows you to send the notice by email. The report also has some additional output options that are not available in the Circulation Mailer report. For example, you can configure headers for each notice type (bills, holds, overdues) and create a footer.
Call Number, Item, and MARC Holding Maintenance Library Attribute
Three new Library policy attributes will allow restriction of maintenance access to the Unicorn call number, item, and MARC holding records. Currently, the Unicorn Library policy provides display and maintenance attributes for acquisitions, bill, circulation, serials and user records. These attributes allow system administrators to restrict the various display and maintenance activities for these record types to the appropriate staff. Three new attributes - Call Number Maintenance Libraries, Item Maintenance Libraries, and MARC Holdings Maintenance Libraries - will allow Unicorn administrators to restrict add, edit and remove access to these record types. For example, a staff member may be allowed to add and edit an item record for Library A, but not be allowed to add or edit a call number record for Library B.
Spine and Pocket Labels
An improved ability to create spine and pocket labels using Item IDs - a far more practical approach to label making.
The future GL3.1 upgrade
The second upgrade we face for GL 3.1 won't happen soon. It is still being tested and is not in general release. It should be available in several months.
Meeting of Sirsi Consortia Customers
Dale Collum and I represented the WYLD Network at the second annual meeting of Sirsi (not Dynix) consortia customers late September 2005 in Des Plaines, IL. Over 20 consortia were represented including the huge InfoOhio school network , the Montana Share Catalog, and consortia from Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
We revised issues and concerns from a document submitted to Sirsi last year. The second day we shared them directly with Sirsi representatives that included their Chief Sales Officer, the National Accounts manager, the VP of Implementation Services, the VP of Technical Product Management, Senior Client Care Account Manager and so on. The consortia group has developed another issues document to be delivered to Sirsi by the beginning of November. Sirsi pledged a detailed response by mid-December of this year. In my opinion it is one of the most important opportunities we have for keeping consortia issues in front of Sirsi senior management.
Sirsi Consortia Enhancements and Voting
I will be busy the next week turning consortia enhancement suggestions on the Consortia Enhancement Forum into voting opportunities for Sirsi customers. These are available via the Client Care portion of the SirsiDynix website.
Crystal Reports training
Marc recently completed Crystal Reports training. We bought it with the Fretwell-Downing's VDX/ZPORTAL products. We will now be able to have fuller data sets with more granular scoping for our resource sharing efforts and subsequently better planning and preparation for improved services.
Minimum System Requirements for WYLD/Unicorn using staff workstations
This WYLD web page was updated at the request of your Network President, Dale Collum. See http://will.state.wy.us/wyld/docs/requirements.html
Shaping the Future of the WYLD Network
Lesley and Brian will be visiting with Network President (Dale) and Vice-President (Paul) on November 3.
WYLD Training
Linking and preparation for next upgrades
There's a lot of talk about cataloging training. I've come to believe that emphasis should be on linking and the necessary editing that must come with such. Cataloging in and off itself is quite broad and a special discipline in library and information science. I think we cause ourselves confusion when we talk about cataloging and linking as the same thing. There are far too many linking and editing errors with WYLD records. This is also evident in the 9xx ordering process in Acquisitions. The problem is not with the 9xx ordering or the cataloging functions of Unicorn. The Online Quality Committee has done much to improve the quality of our records. Significant work was done to improve and update the Database Guidelines with a lot of work by our WYLD Database Manager, Bobbi Thorpe in conjunction the Online Quality Committee.
So, I believe a discussions needs to continue with Council, the Board if necessary, the Training Committee, the Online Quality Committee and the WYLD Office. We have some restrictions because of the increasing costs of travel but we also have online tools that we can use to approach these issues. With future upgrades there will be a way to control more easily access to bib. records and holdings statements. Perhaps with these controls, a continued use of database guidelines AND the constant use of the Training Committee's Skills Checklists we might agree on ways to improving our linking and editing quality.
Training dollars might be effectively used to support regional or multi-regional contracts with and the like for broader cataloging training whereas the WYLD Office and other WYLD entities can work on improving the linking/editing skills of member libraries using the ILS we know as Unicorn. Once again, we're struggling with what is a shared burden. Let's focus on the SHARED part.
Director's Station training strategy
We plan to introduce Director's Station (DS) to Directors and their key staff through the use of email and our online interactive web software. Emails will go to the Directors' public email list. If you want key staff involved, make sure they are subscribed to this elist.
With the WebDemo online interactive web software, we can walk trainees through various screens and procedures. This will give an introduction to training in this environment while allowing the trainees to remain at their desk. All you need is a popular browser and a phone with a speaker. Trainees could even have a room where with use of a projector on a single computer and a speaker phone would allow a small group to participate.
We believe that a group of 3 - 5 sites at one time should be the target for these sessions. I would like to have our next session with at least Network President (Dale), Network VP (Paul), Debbie Iverson and Carol Deering. All have had a long-time interest in this product. After that we're open to suggestions on when others would like to try the WebDemo training. Both Karen Lange and Susan Simpson said a mixed group of library types is good (academic and/or public and/or special and/or K12).
We, in this case, means Marc, Desiree and/or I. All WYLD Office staff has been introduced to DS but Marc and Des have the greatest proficiency in its use.
One other thing I would like to suggest or develop is peer support. This is a different kind of application when compared to all the Sirsi applications we use. Directors are a subset of the WYLD user community. I think there is a way we can support each other via the directors' elist? A director might like an example shared by another and may wish to work directly with that person in how they did it. In other cases, others will be able to share gems of info that are useful to your Boards, your grant efforts, and other endeavors.
Commendations to Teton County for their efforts in webcasting MPLA/WLA 2005
I congratulate Teton County's efforts to bring the WLA/MPLA conference to folks in their homes, schools, offices and libraries. It took many months of preparation and effort. A generous anonymous donor and the commitment of TCL leadership went a long way. Volunteers kept the cameras going in proper fashion. There were a couple of sessions lost but most are available over the next 30 days. Take a look: http://tclib.org/mpla/
Roy Tennant's key note on Thursday and Stephen Abram's Millenial Users sessions on Friday afternoon are among the highlights. Due to technical difficulties the Ocober 14 presentations of Abram's Google, Inc. and Wilson's Understanding Portals are not available. I know a lot of folks were disappointed with the missing Google, Inc. presentation. Good news: Mr. Abram made an impact. His PowerPoint of that should be available soon.
Check out the webcasts and give feedback at: http://tclib.org/mpla/contact.html Don't forget to check out the conference blog at: http://mplawla2005.blogspot.com
Stephen Abram is the SirsiDynix, Vice President of Innovation. Two key sites for following his work are at: http://www.sirsi.com/Resources/abram_articles.html and http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com
We were very fortunate to have heard such library bellwether folks as Roy and Stephen.