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WYLD Office Report to the Governing Board - January 30, 2007

Unicorn GL 3.1upgrade

This went pretty smoothly. We had a short list of things like standalone processing issues, too many hold pickup lists, and duplicate reports (after mirroring TAZ) which were addressed and fixed in the week of the upgrade. In our internal efforts to use the Java WF client, we've noted there are problems with its installation depending on the version of Java running on staff computers. This has also had an impact on our getting familiar enough with this client to allow its voluntary use in WYLD libraries

Unicorn GL 3.2

This version will be available last quarter of 2007. So late spring, post WYLD Annual 2008 might be a good target time for moving WYLD members over to the Java WF Client.

SuperConference 2007

SirsiDynix SuperConference will be February 18 - 21, 2007 in Colorado Springs. It may be the last time one is in our area. 2008 and 2009 SuperConferences will probably be in Detroit. Marc and Des will be doing a Director's Station presentation on its use in multi-type consortia on Monday, Feb. 19. All the WYLD Office will be going. It's relatively near Wyoming which means there will be other WYLD members from Campbell and Uinta counties, and from Casper College, Laramie County Community College, Sheridan College and the State Library. Perhaps we can get together for lunch on Feb. 20. In addition there is Colorado/Wyoming Sirsi Users group comprised of Colorado Sirsi sites. They changed their name to include Wyoming as a Sirsi user. I've been to only one of their meetings. They plan to get together for dinner Monday night, Feb. 19. They are still deciding on where to meet and eat.

WYLD Annual 2007

We're excited about the enthusiasm of our Torrington hosts at the Eastern Wyoming Community College and Goshen Public libraries. The WYLD Training Committee did a survey of WYLD members about training interests for future web-based training. We're also looking at the results to determine training priority for WYLD Annual 2007. We'll be a lot clearer about our training focus after immersion in the SuperConference 2007 learning experience.

EPS (Enterprise Portal Solution)

SirsiDynix Enterprise Portal SolutionTM (EPS) is a single interface to all the relevant, high-quality information, resources, and services offered by a library or consortium, including books and other materials, databases, digital archive, RSS feeds, virtual reference, ILL using powerful federated search capabilities. This product includes what we've come to know as Rooms. For more info see: http://www.sirsidynix.com/Solutions/Products/portalsearch.php

We have received a quote for this package and are still studying it. The ongoing costs were surprisingly higher than expected. It will required a new dedicated server. In the meantime, we will be forming a content development team to look into the building of rooms of information such as genealogy, Wyoming history, and so.

Two library systems, Albany and Laramie Counties, have been long-time users of the of Unique Management Services in Jeffersonville, IN (http://www.unique-mgmt.com/) Their home page states the following: [UM] "partners with libraries to recover overdue materials and monies. Our gentle yet effective approach yields results without alienating patrons. We work exclusively with libraries and understand their special needs. Our partnerships with automation vendors make it easy for libraries to use our service with minimal commitment of staff time. Our emphasis on material recovery and patron goodwill sets us apart from traditional collection agencies."

We've agreed to do a 90 trial on the behalf of Albany, Laramie and Natrona County public libraries. It will use SirsiDynix's collection agency module, use of the Assumed Lost report and a small set of other reports to do the work according to the specifications of each library system. If the trial goes well, other libraries will be given the opportunity to go into trial use before making a final decision. The trial is free. It involves the coordination of a contact person at each library, and tech support from SirsiDynix, Unique Management Services and the WYLD Office.

MyLibraryDV

Some time ago we agreed to a trial of a service from RecordedBooks called "My Library TV" so long ago that it is changed names to "My Library DV." These are downloadable television programs, such as cooking and travel shows. This trial will start close to February 1 and go for six months. We are expecting some promotional material soon, and we have some PDF files from the vendor that we can send out. Libraries will soon hear about this offering. After that Des will put up a link with additional information for those who wish to use it. We will have the capability of uploading our own local content down the road. A player will need to be installed on computers and it will require authentication via library card number and PIN.

Authorities processing - ongoing

Authorities processing to be successful needs to be done in an ongoing fashion. Bobbi and I recommend it be done annually. We're overdue . Our original authorities processing work (late 2004 - early spring 2005) was done with LSSI. We will continue to work with them. We have submitted a "waiver of bid" and are finishing a new contract for services

VDX

VDX users are currently using version 2.7. Marc and Trish were evaluating the 3.0 version package on a test server. But similar to the SirsiDynix situation, it has been recommended that they skip the 3.0 version and upgrade to VDX 3.1. This version will be available in the near future and thus a date for the upgrade has NOT been set.

Director's Station

We're pleased to see the growing use of Director's Station. Marc and Des will provide training later in 2007 on more complex features of it.

Leader Alerts

Leader Alerts is a phone notification system which we plan to use when we don't have access to state email system nor the Will email server used by many WYLD members. We received Board approval for purchase of the services. We unfortunately are still awaiting Leader registration and implementation. Once that is done we will work with libraries for emergency contact phone numbers for the Alerts database. This product comes from the same company we use for WYLD/Leader conference calls. With the state email enterprise system still having its ups and downs we need a communications work-around in place sooner than later.