CCS News
MARCH 12, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle/Unicode and Symphny Bridge – You should all have the week of April 19 on your calendar as the week we will be converting the database and using the bridge. For those interested we have run the test dataload and then restored the database (twice) and ran the load again. Practice makes perfect. During the course of our test we found some steps that had to be added to the process or corrected, but now our tests are looking good. We will still need to rerun a test bibliographic conversion and another index rebuild, and test key reports.
Email Server – We are in the process of replacing our email server. The hardware has been installed and work will soon commence to transfer the system to the new hardware. We will keep you posted as we cut over to the new server, but we do not anticipate any significant interruption to emails and email notices.
DIRECTOR’S STATION STATUS:
It has now been two weeks since we had accurate data to support Director’s Station. Sirsi tells us that we have a unique problem whereby the data only updates a month at a time, and has assigned this to Engineering. We have seen assurances of activity but no apparent progress, and have requested both daily updates and a pro-rated refund of our annual subscription. We share your frustration about an unacceptable situation and apologize for the disruption of service.
REMINDER ABOUT MAINTENANCE COORDINATORS’ MEETING NEXT TUESDAY: YOU CAN GO VIRTUAL!
The Maintenance Coordinators meeting on Tuesday, March 16 will be both in person at NSLS and virtual via GoToMeeting. If you need the link, please contact Frank Correa at CCS.
LEXILE NUMBER STATUS:
We have our Lexile Number and related data back from Marcive (approximately an 8% hit rate). The next step is to test the script that Roger Anderson and Joel Hahn have developed, then load the data into our existing bib records during a window in the testing and preparation for the Oracle/Unicode transition the week of April 19. When the data is loaded, it will be viewable but not yet searchable; that will come when we re-index the database as part of the Oracle/Unicode project. Joel Hahn has developed a nice Lexile Number search tool as part of the iBistro PowerSearch screen.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Mon., 3/15, 1:30, CCS: SILLRAP
Tues., 9:30, NSLS (and virtual; see above): Maintenance Coordinators
Wed., 3/17, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CCS News
FEBRUARY 26, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle Unicorn conversion and Symphony Bridge – the first sets of results are in and we are diagnosing several problems that were uncovered as a result of the tests. Thanks to all of you who worked hard to create test data.
Email/Web Server – we received our new email/web server this week and will be setting it up over the course of the next several weeks.
COSUGI – Bob and Linda will be away Tuesday through Friday for the COSUGI (SirsiDynix User Group) conference (along with Richard and Roger).
Update your WonderDesk incidents – Remember to create WonderDesk incidents for all your needs, even telecommunications changes, and keep the information up to date.
News on ICN – Robin Woodsome (ICN Regional Manager/Network Engineer) will be joining the Maintenance Coordinators Technical Group for their March 16 meeting via a virtual link to discuss what happens when you drop your ICN lines, viability of ICN in the future and their plan for fiber. Since we are all interested in cost effective bandwidth (and lots of it) you will want to be sure your library does not miss this meeting.
AUTHORITIES NEWS:
Last week, 1428 authority records were updated from a file that Marcive sent. Marcive also sent 462 new authority records that were not available before.
There will also be a CCS Cataloger’s workshop next Wednesday, March 3rd at NSLS at 9:30 a.m. Kellie Green & Virginia Seward will be discussing the often complex subject of series.
CCS BUDGET STATUS:
By this time every year, we get queries about when CCS budget figures will be available. You should see the complete budget packet on March 4 when the Executive Committee packet is distributed; final approval will come at the March 31 Governing Board meeting. This time the midyear adjustment is downward (as usual) and the FY 2010-11 budget is down an average of around $3,000 per library from the original FY 2009-10 budget. More specifics including the usual charts and worksheet are in the packet.
There will be NO CCS NEWS NEXT WEEK because of the staff absences for COSUGI.
CCS MEETINGS THE NEXT TWO WEEKS:
Wed., 3/3, 9:30, NSLS: Catalogers (workshop) (see Authorities News above)
Wed., 3/10, 10, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 3/11, 9:30, Niles: PAS
Fri., 3/12, 9:30, Fremont: Circulation
FEBRUARY 26, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle Unicorn conversion and Symphony Bridge – the first sets of results are in and we are diagnosing several problems that were uncovered as a result of the tests. Thanks to all of you who worked hard to create test data.
Email/Web Server – we received our new email/web server this week and will be setting it up over the course of the next several weeks.
COSUGI – Bob and Linda will be away Tuesday through Friday for the COSUGI (SirsiDynix User Group) conference (along with Richard and Roger).
Update your WonderDesk incidents – Remember to create WonderDesk incidents for all your needs, even telecommunications changes, and keep the information up to date.
News on ICN – Robin Woodsome (ICN Regional Manager/Network Engineer) will be joining the Maintenance Coordinators Technical Group for their March 16 meeting via a virtual link to discuss what happens when you drop your ICN lines, viability of ICN in the future and their plan for fiber. Since we are all interested in cost effective bandwidth (and lots of it) you will want to be sure your library does not miss this meeting.
AUTHORITIES NEWS:
Last week, 1428 authority records were updated from a file that Marcive sent. Marcive also sent 462 new authority records that were not available before.
There will also be a CCS Cataloger’s workshop next Wednesday, March 3rd at NSLS at 9:30 a.m. Kellie Green & Virginia Seward will be discussing the often complex subject of series.
CCS BUDGET STATUS:
By this time every year, we get queries about when CCS budget figures will be available. You should see the complete budget packet on March 4 when the Executive Committee packet is distributed; final approval will come at the March 31 Governing Board meeting. This time the midyear adjustment is downward (as usual) and the FY 2010-11 budget is down an average of around $3,000 per library from the original FY 2009-10 budget. More specifics including the usual charts and worksheet are in the packet.
There will be NO CCS NEWS NEXT WEEK because of the staff absences for COSUGI.
CCS MEETINGS THE NEXT TWO WEEKS:
Wed., 3/3, 9:30, NSLS: Catalogers (workshop) (see Authorities News above)
Wed., 3/10, 10, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 3/11, 9:30, Niles: PAS
Fri., 3/12, 9:30, Fremont: Circulation
Thursday, February 18, 2010
CCS News
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Unicode Oracle Conversion – the computer room has been quite focused on testing and planning for the Unicode Oracle conversion.
1. Date for Conversion is the week of April 19 - – Have you heard? We plan to do the Unicode conversion during the week of April 19. We will tell you more about the exact schedule based on the results of timing tests that we are conducting on the test servers.
2. Testing – many libraries have been participating in the task to create test data. Thank you for your diligence in this task.
3. Reporting – when reporting problems or questions, it is good to copy others in the computer room or post your question through the Wonderdesk.
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES AND OTHER AUTHORITIES NEWS:
on Feb. 17, over 500 bib. records were changed to reflect the subject heading change of “Lions” to “Lion”. This change occurred because LC finally decided to conform with their own rule, that headings for animals that are only one species should be established in singular form, whereas headings for animals covering more than one species are established in plural form. [Editor’s note: we thought there were multiple species of lions.]
Last week, over 100 bib. records were changed to reflect another change from “Enemies (Persons)” to just “Enemies”.
Last week, CCS also sent 4936 bibliographic records to Marcive for authorities processing. We received back 1738 updated bibliographic records, and 2782 new authority records. All records were reloaded into our database. Marcive also started enriching some records with reading notes (Lexile, Accelerated Reader, or Reading Counts).
LEXILE NUMBER/READING NOTES PROJECT:
Last week, when CCS sent the approx. 4900 bibliographical records to Marcive for Overnight Authorities Processing, they also began enriching some bib. records with Reading notes. Marcive enriched some of our records with Lexile, Accelerated Reader, and Reading Counts notes.
Lexile numbers appear in a 521 note
For example : 490|bLexile or AD 560|bLexile.
Accelerated Reader appears in the 526 field
For example: Accelerated Reader/Renaissance Learning|bMG|c5.7|d2 )
Reading Counts also appears in the 526 field
For example: Reading Counts RC|bHigh School|c8.1|d25|zQuiz: 14149|zGuided reading level: NR.
This week, CCS sent Marcive a copy of our database. Over the next week or so, Marcive will retrospectively add these 3 notes to any of our affected bibliographic records.
THERE WILL BE NO CATALOGING DOWN TIME. When Marcive sends back to us changed records, Roger will use Cataloging Merge to add those new fields to our bibliographic records that are already residing in our database.
Now and when this is finished, searching for these notes can be done using a keyword search or a field specific search. For example, to bring up Reading Counts records, do a keyword general search on “Reading Counts {526}”. During the Oracle move in April, all headings will be re-indexed, and searches indexes will be added so that a patron or staff can search for Lexile or other reading notes.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 2/23, 9:30, CCS: Budget & Finance Committee
Wed., 2/24, 9:30, CCS: Acquisitions Discussion Group
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Unicode Oracle Conversion – the computer room has been quite focused on testing and planning for the Unicode Oracle conversion.
1. Date for Conversion is the week of April 19 - – Have you heard? We plan to do the Unicode conversion during the week of April 19. We will tell you more about the exact schedule based on the results of timing tests that we are conducting on the test servers.
2. Testing – many libraries have been participating in the task to create test data. Thank you for your diligence in this task.
3. Reporting – when reporting problems or questions, it is good to copy others in the computer room or post your question through the Wonderdesk.
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES AND OTHER AUTHORITIES NEWS:
on Feb. 17, over 500 bib. records were changed to reflect the subject heading change of “Lions” to “Lion”. This change occurred because LC finally decided to conform with their own rule, that headings for animals that are only one species should be established in singular form, whereas headings for animals covering more than one species are established in plural form. [Editor’s note: we thought there were multiple species of lions.]
Last week, over 100 bib. records were changed to reflect another change from “Enemies (Persons)” to just “Enemies”.
Last week, CCS also sent 4936 bibliographic records to Marcive for authorities processing. We received back 1738 updated bibliographic records, and 2782 new authority records. All records were reloaded into our database. Marcive also started enriching some records with reading notes (Lexile, Accelerated Reader, or Reading Counts).
LEXILE NUMBER/READING NOTES PROJECT:
Last week, when CCS sent the approx. 4900 bibliographical records to Marcive for Overnight Authorities Processing, they also began enriching some bib. records with Reading notes. Marcive enriched some of our records with Lexile, Accelerated Reader, and Reading Counts notes.
Lexile numbers appear in a 521 note
For example : 490|bLexile or AD 560|bLexile.
Accelerated Reader appears in the 526 field
For example: Accelerated Reader/Renaissance Learning|bMG|c5.7|d2 )
Reading Counts also appears in the 526 field
For example: Reading Counts RC|bHigh School|c8.1|d25|zQuiz: 14149|zGuided reading level: NR.
This week, CCS sent Marcive a copy of our database. Over the next week or so, Marcive will retrospectively add these 3 notes to any of our affected bibliographic records.
THERE WILL BE NO CATALOGING DOWN TIME. When Marcive sends back to us changed records, Roger will use Cataloging Merge to add those new fields to our bibliographic records that are already residing in our database.
Now and when this is finished, searching for these notes can be done using a keyword search or a field specific search. For example, to bring up Reading Counts records, do a keyword general search on “Reading Counts {526}”. During the Oracle move in April, all headings will be re-indexed, and searches indexes will be added so that a patron or staff can search for Lexile or other reading notes.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 2/23, 9:30, CCS: Budget & Finance Committee
Wed., 2/24, 9:30, CCS: Acquisitions Discussion Group
Thursday, February 11, 2010
CCS News
FEBRUARY 12, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
PROJECTS - The Computer Room continues to focus on a number of upcoming conversion projects in addition to the normal incidents that we receive from you. This week we have been looking at data converted in test to the Unicode format. Next week we will commence Phase 2 testing of the Symphony Bridge (Oracle/Unicode Conversion). We also expect delivery of our email server on Feb 19 and during the week of February 15 we will be shipping off data in preparation for the enhancement of the database with Lexile numbers.
This bulletin is short and sweet this week, but the Editor wishes to add commendations for the high attendance at our meetings despite the weather; thanks to all, and we send our understanding to those who couldn’t make it to Prospect Heights or Crystal Lake.
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 2/17, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
FEBRUARY 12, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
PROJECTS - The Computer Room continues to focus on a number of upcoming conversion projects in addition to the normal incidents that we receive from you. This week we have been looking at data converted in test to the Unicode format. Next week we will commence Phase 2 testing of the Symphony Bridge (Oracle/Unicode Conversion). We also expect delivery of our email server on Feb 19 and during the week of February 15 we will be shipping off data in preparation for the enhancement of the database with Lexile numbers.
This bulletin is short and sweet this week, but the Editor wishes to add commendations for the high attendance at our meetings despite the weather; thanks to all, and we send our understanding to those who couldn’t make it to Prospect Heights or Crystal Lake.
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 2/17, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thursday, February 4, 2010
CCS News
FEBRUARY 5, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Response Time For Workflows – in the past week a few libraries have complained about response time during peak hours on the weekend. In every case we examined, the response time problems were not in the Workflows server or in our pipeline to ICN, but appeared to be at the libraries. When we look at the graphs provided by ICN (if you are on ICN) we can see saturation at the library networks.
Libraries should discuss this with their network engineers/ providers and if you are not already using packet-shaping on your network, this is an option that you might want to explore to help with response time difficulties. We use a Packeteer device; Cymphonix also offers a solution.
Why We Test — Oracle/Unicode Upgrade – As of this writing, Sirsi has restarted our index rebuilds two times on the Oracle platform due to difficulties encountered with individual records when processing the database. This means that we are at the same stage as we were at this time last week and it also points out why testing is important to try to prevent problems from occurring when we run this procedure “for real”.
LEXILE NUMBERS:
We are now planning for the retrospective addition of Lexile Numbers to the database, looking for the most efficient and least disruptive approach. Stay tuned for more details.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 2/9, 9:30-11:30 and 1-3, Prospect Heights: BiblioCommons presentations (you must be registered!)
Wed., 2/10, 10:00, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 2/11, 9:30, Crystal Lake: ILL
FEBRUARY 5, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Response Time For Workflows – in the past week a few libraries have complained about response time during peak hours on the weekend. In every case we examined, the response time problems were not in the Workflows server or in our pipeline to ICN, but appeared to be at the libraries. When we look at the graphs provided by ICN (if you are on ICN) we can see saturation at the library networks.
Libraries should discuss this with their network engineers/ providers and if you are not already using packet-shaping on your network, this is an option that you might want to explore to help with response time difficulties. We use a Packeteer device; Cymphonix also offers a solution.
Why We Test — Oracle/Unicode Upgrade – As of this writing, Sirsi has restarted our index rebuilds two times on the Oracle platform due to difficulties encountered with individual records when processing the database. This means that we are at the same stage as we were at this time last week and it also points out why testing is important to try to prevent problems from occurring when we run this procedure “for real”.
LEXILE NUMBERS:
We are now planning for the retrospective addition of Lexile Numbers to the database, looking for the most efficient and least disruptive approach. Stay tuned for more details.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 2/9, 9:30-11:30 and 1-3, Prospect Heights: BiblioCommons presentations (you must be registered!)
Wed., 2/10, 10:00, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 2/11, 9:30, Crystal Lake: ILL
Thursday, January 28, 2010
CCS News
JANUARY 29, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle/Unicode conversion – a primary focus of the computer room continues to be the Oracle/Unicode test conversion. This week all text records (patron, bibliographic and acquisitions) from our test server were extracted and are being sent through a trial conversion as this is being written. We have a weekly call with SirsiDynix to communicate progress on our test conversion. In the coming weeks we will ask libraries to help us create test data for step 2 of our test conversion, which will simulate the loading of circulation data while the actual text conversion is going on.
Closed dates – If you have any changes in your closed dates table, please be sure to communicate them through Wonderdesk.
ePay libraries – we have worked with 11 libraries to date on ePay integration and we have three more libraries in progress who will be using the ePay capabilities on iBistro.
iPHONE APP FOR CATALOG ACCESS:
The good news is that there is a free iPhone app to provide access to library catalogs called Bookmyne, which is supported by Sirsi Web Services. The bad news is that support for Sirsi Web Services will not be available to CCS until we load Release 3.3.1, probably in a few months, as soon as we’ve settled back down after the Oracle/Unicode transition. At that time we will set that up. Libraries will need to be registered into a global directory. Meanwhile, it is premature to publicize this to users.
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES AND OTHER AUTHORITY NEWS:
In keeping with current jargon, LC has just changed all the subject headings that began with “Cellular telephone” to “Cell phone”. So subject headings such as “Cellular telephone calls”, “Cellular telephones, and “Cellular telephone systems” have been changed to “Cell phone calls”, “Cell phones”, and “Cell phone systems”. In keeping with this, the subject heading of “Ring tones (Cellular telephones)” has been changed to just “Ring tones”. All affected bibliographical records have been changed.
I also loaded a file sent from Marcive of 1354 updated authority records and added 538 authority records that were needed, but were not available before.
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
ADDITION OF LEXILE NUMBERS TO THE DATABASE: Lexile Numbers are an indicator of reading level, and are being increased with increasing frequently by library patrons, often in conjunction with school assignments. The Governing Board has approved the retrospective addition of these numbers to our database. We will work with Marcive soon to send out the database for matching and updating, and expect about a 10% hit rate. There will be restrictions on cataloging while this is done; Catalogers know the drill. Some libraries are starting to add this information already, as a keyword search of “lexile” will show. We will re-index the database and make searching by these numbers more obvious to the user. Stay tuned for updates as we proceed.
LIBRARY CLOSING:
Prospect Heights will be closed Friday, Jan. 29 for an In-Service Day.
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., Feb. 3, 9:30, NSLS: Catalogers
JANUARY 29, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle/Unicode conversion – a primary focus of the computer room continues to be the Oracle/Unicode test conversion. This week all text records (patron, bibliographic and acquisitions) from our test server were extracted and are being sent through a trial conversion as this is being written. We have a weekly call with SirsiDynix to communicate progress on our test conversion. In the coming weeks we will ask libraries to help us create test data for step 2 of our test conversion, which will simulate the loading of circulation data while the actual text conversion is going on.
Closed dates – If you have any changes in your closed dates table, please be sure to communicate them through Wonderdesk.
ePay libraries – we have worked with 11 libraries to date on ePay integration and we have three more libraries in progress who will be using the ePay capabilities on iBistro.
iPHONE APP FOR CATALOG ACCESS:
The good news is that there is a free iPhone app to provide access to library catalogs called Bookmyne, which is supported by Sirsi Web Services. The bad news is that support for Sirsi Web Services will not be available to CCS until we load Release 3.3.1, probably in a few months, as soon as we’ve settled back down after the Oracle/Unicode transition. At that time we will set that up. Libraries will need to be registered into a global directory. Meanwhile, it is premature to publicize this to users.
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES AND OTHER AUTHORITY NEWS:
In keeping with current jargon, LC has just changed all the subject headings that began with “Cellular telephone” to “Cell phone”. So subject headings such as “Cellular telephone calls”, “Cellular telephones, and “Cellular telephone systems” have been changed to “Cell phone calls”, “Cell phones”, and “Cell phone systems”. In keeping with this, the subject heading of “Ring tones (Cellular telephones)” has been changed to just “Ring tones”. All affected bibliographical records have been changed.
I also loaded a file sent from Marcive of 1354 updated authority records and added 538 authority records that were needed, but were not available before.
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
ADDITION OF LEXILE NUMBERS TO THE DATABASE: Lexile Numbers are an indicator of reading level, and are being increased with increasing frequently by library patrons, often in conjunction with school assignments. The Governing Board has approved the retrospective addition of these numbers to our database. We will work with Marcive soon to send out the database for matching and updating, and expect about a 10% hit rate. There will be restrictions on cataloging while this is done; Catalogers know the drill. Some libraries are starting to add this information already, as a keyword search of “lexile” will show. We will re-index the database and make searching by these numbers more obvious to the user. Stay tuned for updates as we proceed.
LIBRARY CLOSING:
Prospect Heights will be closed Friday, Jan. 29 for an In-Service Day.
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., Feb. 3, 9:30, NSLS: Catalogers
Thursday, January 21, 2010
CCS News
JANUARY 22, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle/Unicode conversion in Test Environment status – during the past week the computer room staff has been working with Sirsi to begin QA of our Oracle/Unicode conversion. This week the Test Server was taken offline for special backups and Sirsi has been configuring our machines for the test. We will be running a test conversion of all bibliographic and other text-based files during the week of Jan 25. This test will not affect the Production Server and since the conversion is being done to an in-house machine, you should still be able to use the TEST server as you are accustomed to doing. A later step will test offline operation (and we will need your help for this part to generate Test Server data). We will let you know closer to the time of the second test. Providing our testing goes well, the actual conversion will occur sometime in April on the Production Server.
DATE CHANGE FOR MARCH PAS MEETING:
The March PAS meeting has been moved from the 18th to the 11th, still at NSLS.
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 1/27, 10:00, NSLS: Annual And Regular Governing Board Meeting
JANUARY 22, 2010
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Oracle/Unicode conversion in Test Environment status – during the past week the computer room staff has been working with Sirsi to begin QA of our Oracle/Unicode conversion. This week the Test Server was taken offline for special backups and Sirsi has been configuring our machines for the test. We will be running a test conversion of all bibliographic and other text-based files during the week of Jan 25. This test will not affect the Production Server and since the conversion is being done to an in-house machine, you should still be able to use the TEST server as you are accustomed to doing. A later step will test offline operation (and we will need your help for this part to generate Test Server data). We will let you know closer to the time of the second test. Providing our testing goes well, the actual conversion will occur sometime in April on the Production Server.
DATE CHANGE FOR MARCH PAS MEETING:
The March PAS meeting has been moved from the 18th to the 11th, still at NSLS.
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 1/27, 10:00, NSLS: Annual And Regular Governing Board Meeting
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