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
