CCS News
AUGUST 8, 2008
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
How’s Bob? We are happy to report Bob is out of the hospital. He is home and recovering slowly. He is walking around and we at CCS were surprised to hear he was on his way out of the hospital when we called. They have not scheduled him to start any therapy program yet, but he still has some pain and unresolved issues. He is targeting next week, but we are not pushing him to come back before it is in his best interests, although we miss him in the Computer Room.
New iBistro Server: Things are quiet in the Computer Room. We are just preparing for the installation of the new iBistro server. Staff is working around their schedules and vacations to make the transition as smooth as possible. Right now the week of the 18th is when the physical work will be done offline in the computer room. We still are not sure of a live date, and will wait to see how Bob does when he tries to return from his leave. There needs to be some tweaking and testing before a live date can be agreed on. Stay tuned.
Network Changes: Some of the libraries have asked the computer room to do changes in regards to their network(s). Please communicate about this in advance with the computer room so enough time can be planned and staff can be aware of anything that may need to be looked at before the change. We would like to have changes take place on Tuesdays thru Thursdays; this allows for CCS staff to be present, and also your staff or third party network people to be on hand, with minimal chance of problems spilling over into the weekend or affecting the Monday Dig-Out And Catch-Up Drill. This makes for a smoother transition with all important parties available at the same time.
Help Desk Calls: The CCS staff is working together to try and close as many Help Desk tickets as we can. There are a couple of tickets where Bob’s expertise is required, leaving us in a “Temporary Halt position”. We apologize for this but will try our best to get a solution. If you have an urgent matter, please use Wonder Desk and we will try to answer or assign it as soon as possible. If it is something that you know only Bob can handle, please bear with us, and let us know if it can wait. Although the Computer Room staff is not at 100% (thanks to vacations and time away), we have brought our call volume down, and continue to work on them as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding. Linda will be back from vacation early next week, we will be glad to see Bob back when he is ready, and Frank will start his vacation end of the week, with Willie “in the clean up spot” taking his vacation at the end of the month.
Frank Correa
IT Systems Engineer
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that the Sirsi-instructed Java training classes will begin in a few weeks? I haven’t received as many registration requests for those sessions as I was expecting and I want to remind libraries that have not yet implemented the Java client that they need to enroll their Sirsi training candidates as soon as possible. Remember, this will be the last opportunity to take advantage of this in-depth Sirsi-provided training. It won’t be possible to bring the Sirsi instructor back again before we complete the migration to Java at all CCS libraries. (Target completion date: December 2009.) Registration for the Sirsi sessions is the first link in the chain of events that will occur as the final implementation date approaches. I need to identify the initial trainees from each library soon, so I can determine if there’ll be room for extra people in the Sirsi classes (many libraries would like to send more than one person, if possible). And until candidates for Sirsi training at each library know they’ve been selected for the training, they won’t sign up for one of the five prerequisite Essential Skills sessions now on the calendar.
Once again, here’s the schedule for the Sirsi Java training classes: The first group of four sessions will be held during the week of Tuesday, September 9 through Friday, September 12, 2008. The classes will be conducted in the Des Plaines Public Library’s fourth floor Computer Lab.
ACQUISITIONS: Part. I - Tuesday, September 9 (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
ACQUISITIONS: Part. II - Wednesday, September 10 (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
CIRCULATION - Thursday, September 11, (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
CATALOGING - Friday, September 12 (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
The second group of three sessions will be held during the week of Monday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 17. These classes will also be conducted in the Des Plaines Public Library’s fourth floor Computer Lab.
CIRCULATION - Monday, September 15 (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
CATALOGING - Tuesday, September 16 (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
SERIALS - Wednesday, September 17 (9:30 AM to 4:30 PM)
Each library that wants to send someone to the Sirsi training sessions should contact me directly with the names & email addresses of their trainees and the specific session(s) they’ll be attending. I’ll be out of the office from August 8 to 15, so if you send a registration request during that period I won’t be able to respond until August 18. – Ken Victorson
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Thur., 8/14, 9:30, NSLS: ILL (followed by SILLRAP)
(Reminder: the August 13 Executive Committee meeting is canceled!)
