CCS News
March 27, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Symphony and preparing for the upgrade: the system has been running Release 3.2.1 on the Test Server and Help Screens were recently fixed. Two new options were turned on (thus far) and these are the ability to not shorten the loan period when the patron card is expiring, and trapping the first available item at the pickup location to fill a hold (even if another copy is in transit to the location). Please tell us how these features are working, and if you need any additional features turned on or configured for your testing. In preparation for the final conversion, our program to purge inactive holds has been running successfully each weekday night on the Production Server.
MORE SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES AND MARCH MARCIVE STATISTICS: LC must be involved in a large project of changing lots of subject headings so that they are now in direct order. Previously we saw changes like “Body, Human” to “Human body” or “Catalogs, College” to “College catalogs”, this week we have more of the same type. In the field of religious architecture, some changes that occurred recently in our database include “Architecture, Islamic” to “Islamic architecture” and “Architecture, Jewish” to “Jewish architecture”. And in the field of design, what was “Design, Industrial” is now “Industrial design”.
Also, for those Thomas the Tank Engine fans, LC finally updated their children’s headings from “Railroads—Trains—Fiction” to “Railroad trains—Fiction”. Over 300 headings were changed recently for that heading alone.
In keeping with all the subject heading changes, Marcive sent over 11,800 authority records to be updated in our database this month. They also sent us 441 new matches of previously not found authority records that CCS needs. All these updated authority records insure that our headings and references are kept up to date as much as possible. -- Virginia R. Seward, CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that this will be the last Did You Know item I’ll post in CCS News? I’m leaving CCS at the end of this month (March 31, 2009) and will no longer be writing these columns for our esteemed newsletter. For more than five years I’ve had the agreeable and rewarding job of working, in one capacity or another, with nearly everyone in the CCS community. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know all of you on a personal basis and I’ll certainly miss the interactions I’ve had with the staff at the CCS libraries. Thank you all for being such a great collection of people to work with. – Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Mon., 3/30, 1:30, Algonquin: OPAC Review Task Force
Wed., 4/1, 9:30, NSLS: Catalogers
Thursday, March 19, 2009
CCS News
MARCH 20, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Upgrade of 3.2.1 on test server – the upgrade on the test Workflows server is complete. The upgrade of Test iBistro is complete with the caveat that some custom pages have not been moved in yet so that testing of ePay/Sirsi integration can continue.
Purge Inactive holds – we have begun the process and will continue to purge several hundred thousand inactive holds each night (about 7 million total) until the file contains only the last six months of inactive holds.
New Web Site – in the past week we have mentioned to the Technical Groups that our new web site is available for previewing. You can find it at www.ccslib.org. Tell us what you think!
STILL MORE SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES OF NOTE:
As promised, now all headings that were under “Electric engineering” and “Electric engineers” have been changed to “Electrical engineering” and “Electrical engineers”. These changes occurred last night in our database, along with some others.
The other subject heading changes include “Catalogs, College”, “Catalogs, Union”, and etc. so that they are now found in direct order. They can now be found in our database under “College catalogs” and “Union catalogs” for example.
And for those interested, all 700+ genre headings of “Adventure television programs” have been changed to “Action and adventure television programs” (or the same heading as the regular subject heading).
--Virginia
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that testing for Symphony 3.2.1 is currently underway but it’s being conducted differently than other new release tests we’ve done in the past? With 3.2.1 we are instructing libraries to NOT use their own personal workstations for testing. Instead, we recommend that the testing be done on a laptop, a little used “back room” machine, or a staffer’s machine that doesn’t normally handle daily WorkFlows activities. We’re doing this because we’ve found a backward compatibility problem with the Symphony release that makes it difficult to return to the normal production environment after testing. In the past, the testing procedure was to open WorkFlows at your individual workstation, change the IP Address on the configuration window to the one for the test server, select the Yes option when the “Want to upgrade client?” massage appeared, follow the client upgrade path, and then proceed with testing after the upgrade completed. When testing was done for the time being, the tester would simply change the IP Address on the configuration window back to the production server and say No when the “Want to upgrade client?” message appeared. But with the Symphony 3.2.1 release it’s not that easy. It appears that returning to the production environment after testing will require uninstalling and reinstalling the Java Runtime Environment software, which is not a trivial task. We’re working with Sirsi to resolve this issue, but for the time being we want to limit our Symphony testing to only machines that are NOT normally used for daily WorkFlows operations.-- Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 3/24, 9:30, CCS: Bylaws & Policy Committee
Wed., 3/25, 10:00, NSLS: Governing Board
Wed., 3/25, 2 PM, NSLS: Sirsi eLibrary and Enterprise demo (please register with Richard Shurman!)
MARCH 20, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Upgrade of 3.2.1 on test server – the upgrade on the test Workflows server is complete. The upgrade of Test iBistro is complete with the caveat that some custom pages have not been moved in yet so that testing of ePay/Sirsi integration can continue.
Purge Inactive holds – we have begun the process and will continue to purge several hundred thousand inactive holds each night (about 7 million total) until the file contains only the last six months of inactive holds.
New Web Site – in the past week we have mentioned to the Technical Groups that our new web site is available for previewing. You can find it at www.ccslib.org. Tell us what you think!
STILL MORE SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES OF NOTE:
As promised, now all headings that were under “Electric engineering” and “Electric engineers” have been changed to “Electrical engineering” and “Electrical engineers”. These changes occurred last night in our database, along with some others.
The other subject heading changes include “Catalogs, College”, “Catalogs, Union”, and etc. so that they are now found in direct order. They can now be found in our database under “College catalogs” and “Union catalogs” for example.
And for those interested, all 700+ genre headings of “Adventure television programs” have been changed to “Action and adventure television programs” (or the same heading as the regular subject heading).
--Virginia
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that testing for Symphony 3.2.1 is currently underway but it’s being conducted differently than other new release tests we’ve done in the past? With 3.2.1 we are instructing libraries to NOT use their own personal workstations for testing. Instead, we recommend that the testing be done on a laptop, a little used “back room” machine, or a staffer’s machine that doesn’t normally handle daily WorkFlows activities. We’re doing this because we’ve found a backward compatibility problem with the Symphony release that makes it difficult to return to the normal production environment after testing. In the past, the testing procedure was to open WorkFlows at your individual workstation, change the IP Address on the configuration window to the one for the test server, select the Yes option when the “Want to upgrade client?” massage appeared, follow the client upgrade path, and then proceed with testing after the upgrade completed. When testing was done for the time being, the tester would simply change the IP Address on the configuration window back to the production server and say No when the “Want to upgrade client?” message appeared. But with the Symphony 3.2.1 release it’s not that easy. It appears that returning to the production environment after testing will require uninstalling and reinstalling the Java Runtime Environment software, which is not a trivial task. We’re working with Sirsi to resolve this issue, but for the time being we want to limit our Symphony testing to only machines that are NOT normally used for daily WorkFlows operations.-- Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 3/24, 9:30, CCS: Bylaws & Policy Committee
Wed., 3/25, 10:00, NSLS: Governing Board
Wed., 3/25, 2 PM, NSLS: Sirsi eLibrary and Enterprise demo (please register with Richard Shurman!)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
CCS News
MARCH 13, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Status on Test Upgrade – we are pleased to report that the large number of inactive holds has been purged from the test system and the upgrade is proceeding. As of this writing we are back to performing the expected, normal steps of the upgrade in a reasonable time frame. Stay tuned to the list as we will be asking you to test Release 3.2.1 ASAP in the coming days.
New Web Site - coming soon – we are putting some polishing touches on the new CCS web site. It should be ready for previewing and your comments before the end of the March. Stay tuned for official announcements that will be coming out soon. The old web site will continue to be operational until AT LEAST May 15. The new Web site will be at www.ccslib.org
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES OF NOTE FOR THIS WEEK AND NEXT:
This week’s subject heading changes involve the human body. LC is still changing subject headings so that they will in more direct order. So what was the “Body, Human” has been changed to “Human body”. These changes (over 500 bibliographic records were involved) affected the primary subject heading, ones with it and subdivisions, and headings like “Body, Human, in literature” (which is now “Human body in literature”). References are in place to send the user to the correct heading and all affected bibliographic records have been changed.
Subject heading changes for next week involve “Electric” to “Electrical”. This involves headings such as “Electric engineering” changing to “Electrical engineering” and “Electric engineers” to “Electrical engineers”.
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that when you login to the iBistro test server with either Firefox or Internet Explorer the connection fails with the error message: 'Secure Connection Failed: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx uses an invalid security certificate'? (The message is worded slightly differently depending on the browser used.) This seems like a fatal error, but it’s not. You can validate the secure connection and get into test iBistro by following the links to “add an exception” for your workstation. The steps aren’t terribly intuitive and a little different in Firefox and IE, but the basic procedure is the same. Once you’ve gone through the process of creating a security certificate exception for your computer, you won’t need to do it again at future logins. I’ve created an illustrated document called iBistro Login Security Exception that provides step-by-step instructions for creating the exception and you can find it on the CCS web page through the Sirsi Resources link, under the Documented Procedures column. Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 3/17, 9:30, Niles: Maintenance Coordinators
Tues., 3/17, 1:30-4:30, Des Plaines: Director’s Station training (you must be registered!)
Wed., 3/18, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thur., 3/19, 9:30, NSLS: PAS
Thur., 3/19, 1:30-4:30, Northbrook: Director’s Station training (you must be registered!)
MARCH 13, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Status on Test Upgrade – we are pleased to report that the large number of inactive holds has been purged from the test system and the upgrade is proceeding. As of this writing we are back to performing the expected, normal steps of the upgrade in a reasonable time frame. Stay tuned to the list as we will be asking you to test Release 3.2.1 ASAP in the coming days.
New Web Site - coming soon – we are putting some polishing touches on the new CCS web site. It should be ready for previewing and your comments before the end of the March. Stay tuned for official announcements that will be coming out soon. The old web site will continue to be operational until AT LEAST May 15. The new Web site will be at www.ccslib.org
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES OF NOTE FOR THIS WEEK AND NEXT:
This week’s subject heading changes involve the human body. LC is still changing subject headings so that they will in more direct order. So what was the “Body, Human” has been changed to “Human body”. These changes (over 500 bibliographic records were involved) affected the primary subject heading, ones with it and subdivisions, and headings like “Body, Human, in literature” (which is now “Human body in literature”). References are in place to send the user to the correct heading and all affected bibliographic records have been changed.
Subject heading changes for next week involve “Electric” to “Electrical”. This involves headings such as “Electric engineering” changing to “Electrical engineering” and “Electric engineers” to “Electrical engineers”.
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that when you login to the iBistro test server with either Firefox or Internet Explorer the connection fails with the error message: 'Secure Connection Failed: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx uses an invalid security certificate'? (The message is worded slightly differently depending on the browser used.) This seems like a fatal error, but it’s not. You can validate the secure connection and get into test iBistro by following the links to “add an exception” for your workstation. The steps aren’t terribly intuitive and a little different in Firefox and IE, but the basic procedure is the same. Once you’ve gone through the process of creating a security certificate exception for your computer, you won’t need to do it again at future logins. I’ve created an illustrated document called iBistro Login Security Exception that provides step-by-step instructions for creating the exception and you can find it on the CCS web page through the Sirsi Resources link, under the Documented Procedures column. Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 3/17, 9:30, Niles: Maintenance Coordinators
Tues., 3/17, 1:30-4:30, Des Plaines: Director’s Station training (you must be registered!)
Wed., 3/18, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thur., 3/19, 9:30, NSLS: PAS
Thur., 3/19, 1:30-4:30, Northbrook: Director’s Station training (you must be registered!)
Friday, March 6, 2009
CCS News
MARCH 6, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
NSLS Workshop - If you have not seen this already we will make a plug for this NSLS workshop given by our good friend and IT ally Rob Zschernitz at NSLS. When Good Computers Go Bad, featuring NSLS's own Rob Zschernitz, offers tips for dealing with your library's technology by bringing you troubleshooting techniques and an insight into the IT mind:
When: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)
Where: NSLS Auditorium (In Person, Max: 50)
Cost: $60 Presenter: Rob Zschernitz
Link: www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=5495
3.2.1 upgrade on Test Server – This upgrade is still being prepared on our test server. We have had to purge over 7Million inactive holds and it has taken over 80 hours of machine time. This is longer than Sirsi or we estimated. Naturally we don’t do the whole thing at once – so we work on one year at a time and check the database, gather statistics, timings and analyze a little at each step. Sirsi and the CCS staff have learned a lot during the process as Sirsi has not worked on a file as big as ours. This process will have to be duplicated before we can run an upgrade in production so we are documenting each step along the way. On our revised schedule, we should complete the last of the purge Thursday March 5, perform a backup on Friday (Mar 6) and rerun the upgrade on the test server early the week of March 9.
AUTHORITIES UPDATE:
CCS sent 3271 bibliographic records to Marcive on Thursday, March 5th for Overnight Authorities Processing. The records have been processed and were reloaded into our system. Of the 3271 bibliographic records, Marcive returned 1273 updated bibliographic records. Marcive also sent us 1512 new authority records. Marcive’s speedy service insures that the CCS database is kept up to date as much as possible with current headings and references.
-- Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that we’re close to resolving the last of the technical issues that have been preventing us from testing Symphony 3.2.1 and we hope to begin initial testing next week? But regardless of when testing actually begins, we strongly suggest libraries use only one dedicated workstation to start with (one at each library that has participating testers) - instead of having multiple testers at each library using their own personal machines. The initial testing workstation should be a “back room” machine that’s not normally used for daily WorkFlows activities. We’re concerned that testers may not be able to easily reset a workstation to the current version of the Java client when they need to resume their normal work in production (the production server will remain at release 3.1 for the near term).
When testing a new release in the past, we were able to easily return test workstations to the older version of the Java client by saying NO to the “Want to upgrade client?” message that displays when logging in with the production server’s IP Address. But during our first trial of the Symphony upgrade it appears we can’t do this just now. We’re working with Sirsi to resolve the issue, but for the time being we want to limit our testing to only machines that are NOT normally used for daily WorkFlows operations. Even though this will slow down our testing, we don’t want anyone to upgrade their personal machines to Symphony 3.2.1 until we’re satisfied that we’ll be able to go back safely to using the 3.1 version of Java in the production environment. – Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Mon., 3/9, 1:30, CCS: OPAC Review Task Force
Tues., 3/10, 9:30, Northbrook</span>: Director’s Station Discussion Group
00,
Wed., 3/11, 10:CCS: Executive Comm.
Fri., 3/13, 9:30, NSLS: Circulation
MARCH 6, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
NSLS Workshop - If you have not seen this already we will make a plug for this NSLS workshop given by our good friend and IT ally Rob Zschernitz at NSLS. When Good Computers Go Bad, featuring NSLS's own Rob Zschernitz, offers tips for dealing with your library's technology by bringing you troubleshooting techniques and an insight into the IT mind:
When: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)
Where: NSLS Auditorium (In Person, Max: 50)
Cost: $60 Presenter: Rob Zschernitz
Link: www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=5495
3.2.1 upgrade on Test Server – This upgrade is still being prepared on our test server. We have had to purge over 7Million inactive holds and it has taken over 80 hours of machine time. This is longer than Sirsi or we estimated. Naturally we don’t do the whole thing at once – so we work on one year at a time and check the database, gather statistics, timings and analyze a little at each step. Sirsi and the CCS staff have learned a lot during the process as Sirsi has not worked on a file as big as ours. This process will have to be duplicated before we can run an upgrade in production so we are documenting each step along the way. On our revised schedule, we should complete the last of the purge Thursday March 5, perform a backup on Friday (Mar 6) and rerun the upgrade on the test server early the week of March 9.
AUTHORITIES UPDATE:
CCS sent 3271 bibliographic records to Marcive on Thursday, March 5th for Overnight Authorities Processing. The records have been processed and were reloaded into our system. Of the 3271 bibliographic records, Marcive returned 1273 updated bibliographic records. Marcive also sent us 1512 new authority records. Marcive’s speedy service insures that the CCS database is kept up to date as much as possible with current headings and references.
-- Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that we’re close to resolving the last of the technical issues that have been preventing us from testing Symphony 3.2.1 and we hope to begin initial testing next week? But regardless of when testing actually begins, we strongly suggest libraries use only one dedicated workstation to start with (one at each library that has participating testers) - instead of having multiple testers at each library using their own personal machines. The initial testing workstation should be a “back room” machine that’s not normally used for daily WorkFlows activities. We’re concerned that testers may not be able to easily reset a workstation to the current version of the Java client when they need to resume their normal work in production (the production server will remain at release 3.1 for the near term).
When testing a new release in the past, we were able to easily return test workstations to the older version of the Java client by saying NO to the “Want to upgrade client?” message that displays when logging in with the production server’s IP Address. But during our first trial of the Symphony upgrade it appears we can’t do this just now. We’re working with Sirsi to resolve the issue, but for the time being we want to limit our testing to only machines that are NOT normally used for daily WorkFlows operations. Even though this will slow down our testing, we don’t want anyone to upgrade their personal machines to Symphony 3.2.1 until we’re satisfied that we’ll be able to go back safely to using the 3.1 version of Java in the production environment. – Ken Victorson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Mon., 3/9, 1:30, CCS: OPAC Review Task Force
Tues., 3/10, 9:30, Northbrook</span>: Director’s Station Discussion Group
00,
Wed., 3/11, 10:CCS: Executive Comm.
Fri., 3/13, 9:30, NSLS: Circulation
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