CCS News June 12, 2015

CCS News
 
JUNE 12, 2015
CHRIS’S CORNER:
Prior to my last set of 15 hour flights, a friend recommended picking an addictive TV series to pass the time.  I downloaded several seasons of “Downton Abbey.” Needless to say, I quickly got pulled into English manor life.   I think what enthralled me the most about the series was watching the economic shift of England, the rising power of the U.S., and the effects on everyone from the servants to the Lords.

One hundred years later, how does that situation parallel China surpassing the U.S. in purchasing power? If we look at libraries (and even our ILS) as Downton Abbeys, how is the world changing around us and how do we need to adapt to stay relevant? 

I know relevance isn’t a new concept for libraries, but I find the Downton analogy a fun one to play with.  As we start to think about an ILS investigation process, it is an interesting analogy to consider as you think about what is important in a system. What are we holding onto that might be keeping us from progressing? What can we embrace that might help us maintain relevance?

If you have any thoughts on these questions or another good series to recommend for my upcoming 15 hour flight, please feel free to send me a note.   cholly@ccs.nsls.lib.il.us

FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
WonderDesk:
Just a friendly reminder -  please use the CCS HELP DESK whenever you want to:
1. Be added or have someone added to one of the many CCS group lists, including CCSNEWS.
2. Come across a problem with any of our services we may support.
3. Open up a new SIP port for new products out there that need authentication to our Symphony Server. (SIP process takes about 6 weeks from start to finish – please plan accordingly)
4. Need a Global Change Request for your library.
5. Forgot to add a close date for an upcoming in-service or holiday that may have slipped our busy lives.

There are many more reasons to open up a Help Desk ticket, but these are the top 5 reasons to do so.  Sometimes the library staff forgets and sends an email directly to someone at CCS. That’s not a problem; we like getting emails from out libraries,  but as one of our staff members found in his 15K emails received while on leave, there were a few issues/requests that were sent directly to him:  he could not check emails while away, so no replies were sent until he returned to work. A Help Desk ticket is sent to all CCS staff members which make your ticket more likely to be seen by someone in the office, instead of sending a problem to a specific staff member that may be out. Also, there is only one login per library, which avoids getting multiple tickets from one library reporting the same problem. This way we know who to contact, and can work with you on your Help Desk request.

When responding to a WonderDesk ticket update, received by email, please be sure to click the link at the bottom of the email to post your response.  Clicking the link will take you to the WonderDesk web interface where you can post your response into the ticket. Do not reply to the email itself. Replying to the email  will not post your response into the ticket. 

Web Services Upgrade:
The SirsiDynix Web Services will be upgraded on Tuesday morning 6/16/2015  at 7:00AM. This will require 10 minutes of downtime.   During this downtime, enterprise will be online but patron login and account information will not be available.  

CCS Network Security Test:
This last Tuesday, Jeff Groman came in for the regularly scheduled security testing of the CCS network. Results of this examination will be available in the annual Network Security Report.

ENTERPRISE FICTION/NONFICTION BUTTONS ARE HERE!
We have added custom fiction & nonfiction limit buttons to the Enterprise facets column. The results are not perfect, but they are approximately as accurate as the fiction/nonfiction checkboxes were in BiblioCommons. The buttons operate primarily based on a mapping table of the relevant Item Category 4 codes, with some additional tweaks based on other fields to eliminate the most common "problem" situations.  As a result, if any one library has assigned an Item Category 4 code to their item that maps to "fiction" or "nonfiction", then that title will show up that way for all libraries when a searcher clicks that button--so some records will show up for both buttons.  Music, videogames, telescopes, etc. are neither "fiction"
nor "nonfiction", so they generally do not come up.  The buttons currently cannot include eResource Central titles in their results, though we are experimenting with ways to include them, too, when possible. (Though because the average cataloging quality is not great, not all of the eRC records for fiction clearly indicate that they are fiction and very few of the nonfiction records clearly indicate that they are nonfiction.

CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:

Tues., 6/16, 9:30, Lake Villa: Maintenance Coordinators

Wed., 6/17, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP