CCS News
APRIL 29, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Director’s Station – As of this writing Director’s Station is still having trouble updating to the most current data. This has been escalated within SirsiDynix and we are hopeful that the situation will be repaired in a few days or less (we know the first of the month is approaching rapidly) so that we can run our daily reports.
Upgrade to 3.3.1 – we are still planning to commence the evening of May 23, so that you would be busy downloading the new Java Client on Tuesday May 24.
3.3.1 Testers – Thank you to the five libraries that are testing. Please let us know of any catastrophic problems immediately, but have all other results to us by May 9 at the latest. After that date the Test Server will be available – but may be up and down sporadically as we continue to prepare and practice the technical side to the upgrade.
Vacations – Frank is away through Wednesday May 4
BiblioCommons – all libraries are now online and live with BiblioCommons.
SURVIVAL SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES:
The old subject heading of “Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc.” has been broken apart into 4 different subject headings (Survival, Airplane crash survival, Shipwreck survival, and Survival at sea). Our computer system can do most types of subject heading changes overnight, but because of the 4 different possible headings, these had to be done manually. Last week, over 800 bibliographic records were changed that contained the subject heading of “Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc” into at least one of the subject headings that was just mentioned.
The new subject headings (and current examples in the CCS database) are :
1. Survival – This subject heading was previously “Survival skills” – so this covers general skills for survival and also items that do not fit in with the other new subject headings. “127 hours” (both as a book and as a motion picture) is a good example for this subject heading.
2. Airplane crash survival – This subject heading covers items discussing how to survive after an airplane crash. Tom Hank’s motion picture, “Castaway” and the television program of “Lost”, are both good examples for this subject heading.
3. Shipwreck survival – This subject heading covers items discussing how to survive after being shipwrecked.
“Robinson Crusoe” and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” are good examples for this subject heading.
4. Survival at sea – This subject heading covers items discussing how to survive at sea, including after a boating accident and you are adrift at sea waiting to be rescued. “Alone : orphaned on the ocean” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” are good examples for this subject heading.
OTHER AUTHORITIES NEWS: Two weeks ago, CCS sent a group of bibliographic records to Marcive for authorities processing – 8021 bibliographic records were sent, and Marcive returned 2592 updated ones, as well as 3898 new authority records. All of these records have been re-loaded. Earlier this week, CCS also loaded 2 more files that were obtained from Marcive. One file contained 2203 updated authority records and the other file contained 572 authority records that were needed, but not available until now.
--Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Mon., 5/2, noon, Jameson’s: Technical Group Secretaries Appreciation Lunch
Wed., 5/4, 9:30, Fremont: Catalogers (workshop)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
CCS News
APRIL 15, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Computer Room absences – Along with Richard and Roger, Bob and Linda from the computer room will be attending the SirsiDynix User Group (COSUGI) meeting April 18-22. Frank and Willie will be at the helm and it will be business as usual. Frank will be away on vacation the last week in April.
Testing of 3.3.1 - 3.3.1 is now on the test machine. Please take time to test during the week of April 18-22. We did not have many testers when we originally installed 3.3.1 to the test server so PLEASE step up and make sure our new release is up to our high standards. This release has a new Java client.
Planning dates – we are planning to have the new SVA server ready on May 17. Please stay tuned to bulletins for more information. We tentatively plan to install Release 3.3.1 the evening of Monday, May 23. That means on Tuesday morning (24th) you will be downloading clients and working with the new release. We will rebuild the indices over Memorial Day.
BiblioCommons – we are working on a few problems with high priority. As we write this (Thursday) we will be spending some extra time later today with BiblioCommons to jointly figure out the problems reported with multi-volume holds that seem to affect all libraries.
Closing date – CCS will be closed for Easter.
THERE WILL BE NO CCS NEWS NEXT WEEK DUE TO STAFF ABSENCES FOR COSUGI.
CCS MEETINGS THE NEXT TWO WEEKS:
Wed., 4/27, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
APRIL 15, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Computer Room absences – Along with Richard and Roger, Bob and Linda from the computer room will be attending the SirsiDynix User Group (COSUGI) meeting April 18-22. Frank and Willie will be at the helm and it will be business as usual. Frank will be away on vacation the last week in April.
Testing of 3.3.1 - 3.3.1 is now on the test machine. Please take time to test during the week of April 18-22. We did not have many testers when we originally installed 3.3.1 to the test server so PLEASE step up and make sure our new release is up to our high standards. This release has a new Java client.
Planning dates – we are planning to have the new SVA server ready on May 17. Please stay tuned to bulletins for more information. We tentatively plan to install Release 3.3.1 the evening of Monday, May 23. That means on Tuesday morning (24th) you will be downloading clients and working with the new release. We will rebuild the indices over Memorial Day.
BiblioCommons – we are working on a few problems with high priority. As we write this (Thursday) we will be spending some extra time later today with BiblioCommons to jointly figure out the problems reported with multi-volume holds that seem to affect all libraries.
Closing date – CCS will be closed for Easter.
THERE WILL BE NO CCS NEWS NEXT WEEK DUE TO STAFF ABSENCES FOR COSUGI.
CCS MEETINGS THE NEXT TWO WEEKS:
Wed., 4/27, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thursday, April 7, 2011
CCS News
APRIL 8, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons regarding review of input - Recently BC shared with us their policies on reviewing patron input, tagging, etc. Here is what we learned.
We have almost 800,000 registered users, so that [reviewing input] would require an army of people. But philosophically, it's not something we're inclined towards (and we've been advised that censoring comments is a First Amendment issue.) The flagging system is designed for the community to police itself, and this has worked pretty well so far. Some stats:
·Items with 1 flag = 587
·Items with 2 flags = 46
·Items with 3 flags (removed) = 53
Many of the single flags we see are frivolous. The most common complaint in flags is typos or bad grammar. Counting only content that is currently public, this flagging activity was recorded against about:
1. 100,000 tags
2. 80,000 comments
3. 7,000 other pieces of free text content (summaries, quotations, content advisories)
4. 23,000 lists
We do look at everything that is flagged. If we found something that clearly violates the terms of service (typically, profanity), we usually alert the library, or we just flag it ourselves.
Since it is not possible to flag a username… , we send emails to patrons with such usernames saying that the name violates the terms of service, and asking them to change the name within a few days. If they don't, we delete the account, and we mark the barcode as child, so it's not possible to create a username or add content (the email we send lays out these ramifications). We have also removed a few tags that fell into the same category.
Please note that this is USER COMMENTS, not use of the FEEDBACK tab!
And there you have it for this week; short and sweet!
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 4/13, 10:00, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 4/14. 9:30, Lake Villa: ILL
APRIL 8, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons regarding review of input - Recently BC shared with us their policies on reviewing patron input, tagging, etc. Here is what we learned.
We have almost 800,000 registered users, so that [reviewing input] would require an army of people. But philosophically, it's not something we're inclined towards (and we've been advised that censoring comments is a First Amendment issue.) The flagging system is designed for the community to police itself, and this has worked pretty well so far. Some stats:
·Items with 1 flag = 587
·Items with 2 flags = 46
·Items with 3 flags (removed) = 53
Many of the single flags we see are frivolous. The most common complaint in flags is typos or bad grammar. Counting only content that is currently public, this flagging activity was recorded against about:
1. 100,000 tags
2. 80,000 comments
3. 7,000 other pieces of free text content (summaries, quotations, content advisories)
4. 23,000 lists
We do look at everything that is flagged. If we found something that clearly violates the terms of service (typically, profanity), we usually alert the library, or we just flag it ourselves.
Since it is not possible to flag a username… , we send emails to patrons with such usernames saying that the name violates the terms of service, and asking them to change the name within a few days. If they don't, we delete the account, and we mark the barcode as child, so it's not possible to create a username or add content (the email we send lays out these ramifications). We have also removed a few tags that fell into the same category.
Please note that this is USER COMMENTS, not use of the FEEDBACK tab!
And there you have it for this week; short and sweet!
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 4/13, 10:00, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 4/14. 9:30, Lake Villa: ILL
Thursday, March 31, 2011
CCS News
APRIL 1, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons PRELIMINARY DATA RECORDS– there have been many questions about format issues so a recent reply from BC is worthy of note in this week’s news.
“All format mapping problems are because the title in question doesn't match the mapping rule we have….Sometimes, it's just a typo. …The mapping rules (all must be true) for a music CD are: Leader type "j", 007 physical designation "d" & physical category "s", 245 $h [[sound recording (CD)]], 300 "sound disc". …Mapping rules for DVDs are:Leader type "g", 245 $h [[videorecording (DVD)]], 300 "videodisc". Ten Commandments has "DVDs" in 300.”
More BC news and information can be found in the WonderDesk FAQ’ or through our ccslib.web site.
TIMELINE FOR NEW SVA SERVER:
Project timeline for the new server is:
Week of April 18, staging of new server will be done at Sirsi. There will be some files copied from current SVA server, should not impact libraries.
Server gets shipped to CCS by April 27, no impact to libraries.
Testing/scan of server the week of May 2 in background, 1 inbound and 1 outbound phone line will be used for testing. Little impact to SVA Production Server, since two of the eight lines will be needed for testing.
Week of May 9, scan results and fixes or recommendations implemented to make server ready for cutover.
SVA server cutover live the week of May 16, first target date will be May 17, alternate date May 19, old server decommissioned. We don’t expect any problems, server would go live at 8:00AM on day of cutover. Message will be sent out the day before the cut over, as a reminder to the libraries.
Frank Correa
IT Systems Engineer
LOCAL SUBJECT HEADINGS
Joel Hahn has spent much of the past week analyzing the content of our local subject headings—those tagged 69X in our database. I did further study and began correcting and changing many and have concluded thus far that considerable work needs to be done by us to retag and reformat most of the headings we term “local.” We want the indexing of these headings to provide the most use for the users of the catalog and believe that in their present state, simply having them indexed “as is” would not be beneficial to users of our catalog. We are going to have to spend most of the next few weeks making many of these changes and at some point thereafter, we will let BiblioCommons know how the remaining local subject headings should be indexed.
~Roger Anderson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 4/6, 9:30, Glenview: Catalogers
Fri., 4/8, 1:30, CCS: OPAC Review Task Force (noon lunch at Palm Court!)
APRIL 1, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons PRELIMINARY DATA RECORDS– there have been many questions about format issues so a recent reply from BC is worthy of note in this week’s news.
“All format mapping problems are because the title in question doesn't match the mapping rule we have….Sometimes, it's just a typo. …The mapping rules (all must be true) for a music CD are: Leader type "j", 007 physical designation "d" & physical category "s", 245 $h [[sound recording (CD)]], 300 "sound disc". …Mapping rules for DVDs are:Leader type "g", 245 $h [[videorecording (DVD)]], 300 "videodisc". Ten Commandments has "DVDs" in 300.”
More BC news and information can be found in the WonderDesk FAQ’ or through our ccslib.web site.
TIMELINE FOR NEW SVA SERVER:
Project timeline for the new server is:
Week of April 18, staging of new server will be done at Sirsi. There will be some files copied from current SVA server, should not impact libraries.
Server gets shipped to CCS by April 27, no impact to libraries.
Testing/scan of server the week of May 2 in background, 1 inbound and 1 outbound phone line will be used for testing. Little impact to SVA Production Server, since two of the eight lines will be needed for testing.
Week of May 9, scan results and fixes or recommendations implemented to make server ready for cutover.
SVA server cutover live the week of May 16, first target date will be May 17, alternate date May 19, old server decommissioned. We don’t expect any problems, server would go live at 8:00AM on day of cutover. Message will be sent out the day before the cut over, as a reminder to the libraries.
Frank Correa
IT Systems Engineer
LOCAL SUBJECT HEADINGS
Joel Hahn has spent much of the past week analyzing the content of our local subject headings—those tagged 69X in our database. I did further study and began correcting and changing many and have concluded thus far that considerable work needs to be done by us to retag and reformat most of the headings we term “local.” We want the indexing of these headings to provide the most use for the users of the catalog and believe that in their present state, simply having them indexed “as is” would not be beneficial to users of our catalog. We are going to have to spend most of the next few weeks making many of these changes and at some point thereafter, we will let BiblioCommons know how the remaining local subject headings should be indexed.
~Roger Anderson
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 4/6, 9:30, Glenview: Catalogers
Fri., 4/8, 1:30, CCS: OPAC Review Task Force (noon lunch at Palm Court!)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
CCS News
MARCH 25, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons News and FAQ on the web site – From our ccslib.org website, go to Members Only, type in your password, scroll down to FAQ and click the link labeled BiblioCommons. This is the same document that can be accessed from the WonderDesk. Check this frequently to be up to date with the latest discovered anomalies, workarounds, bug fixes or information of general interest. We will continue to update the WonderDesk with more specific information (urls, links, settings, instructions etc.) to be a resource to network and technical staff as well as librarians seeking more specifics.
SVA – Thanks for your patience with SVA over the last week. We are still working out the root cause of the original outage, but you will be interested to know that our SVA server had already been scheduled for an upgrade which will take place around the end of April. This problem occurred right after we ordered the new machine – a very strange coincidence. We will keep you posted on this upgrade.
AUTHORITY NEWS:
Earlier this week, CCS loaded 2 files that were obtained from Marcive. One file contained 1761 updated authority records and the other file contained 429 authority records that were needed, but not available until now.
In other authority news, watch for a major subject heading to be split apart into at least three ways beginning sometime in April. The subject heading of “Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc.” will be split into “Airplane crash survival”, “Shipwreck survival”, “Survival”, and “Survival at sea”. Because of the different variations of subject heading changes, bibliographic records with the original subject heading will have to be changed manually. So watch for the changes to occur gradually during the next month or so.
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
None!
MARCH 25, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons News and FAQ on the web site – From our ccslib.org website, go to Members Only, type in your password, scroll down to FAQ and click the link labeled BiblioCommons. This is the same document that can be accessed from the WonderDesk. Check this frequently to be up to date with the latest discovered anomalies, workarounds, bug fixes or information of general interest. We will continue to update the WonderDesk with more specific information (urls, links, settings, instructions etc.) to be a resource to network and technical staff as well as librarians seeking more specifics.
SVA – Thanks for your patience with SVA over the last week. We are still working out the root cause of the original outage, but you will be interested to know that our SVA server had already been scheduled for an upgrade which will take place around the end of April. This problem occurred right after we ordered the new machine – a very strange coincidence. We will keep you posted on this upgrade.
AUTHORITY NEWS:
Earlier this week, CCS loaded 2 files that were obtained from Marcive. One file contained 1761 updated authority records and the other file contained 429 authority records that were needed, but not available until now.
In other authority news, watch for a major subject heading to be split apart into at least three ways beginning sometime in April. The subject heading of “Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc.” will be split into “Airplane crash survival”, “Shipwreck survival”, “Survival”, and “Survival at sea”. Because of the different variations of subject heading changes, bibliographic records with the original subject heading will have to be changed manually. So watch for the changes to occur gradually during the next month or so.
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
None!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
CCS News
MARCH 18, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons FAQ- The following FAQs - including a list of Known Issues and News - have been added to the WonderDesk for BiblioCommons. Please watch for this resource on BiblioCommons to grow in the coming weeks.
widgets and developers tools link
Configuring Public Web Browser for Bibliocommons
What URL's does BiblioCommons use.
Call number seach by agency in advanced search
How do you create a pre-defined canned search
Developers link for adding quick search or form
How can I add quick search to my home page?
LATEST BUILD - March 15
Script for searching OCLC numbers
Email registration
Known Issues and News
What does the Available status actually mean?
Hold shelf clearance for items cancelled while on hold shelf
Lexile numbers
And that’s it for this week!
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 3/23, 10:00, Niles: Governing Board
MARCH 18, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons FAQ- The following FAQs - including a list of Known Issues and News - have been added to the WonderDesk for BiblioCommons. Please watch for this resource on BiblioCommons to grow in the coming weeks.
widgets and developers tools link
Configuring Public Web Browser for Bibliocommons
What URL's does BiblioCommons use.
Call number seach by agency in advanced search
How do you create a pre-defined canned search
Developers link for adding quick search or form
How can I add quick search to my home page?
LATEST BUILD - March 15
Script for searching OCLC numbers
Email registration
Known Issues and News
What does the Available status actually mean?
Hold shelf clearance for items cancelled while on hold shelf
Lexile numbers
And that’s it for this week!
CCS MEETING NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 3/23, 10:00, Niles: Governing Board
Thursday, March 10, 2011
CCS News
MARCH 11, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons News - Launches continue with great success. There are, however, a few problems that we have discovered and have brought to BiblioCommons’ attention. We will keep you posted on progress. (1) URLs that are in the MARC Holdings Records do not display in BiblioCommons. This is not a bug – but BC has not encountered MARC Holdings Records before our implementation. They are more important in a consortial setting. (2) There are problems placing holds on multivolume sets – in fact, if you do not own an item in the multi-volume set your patron cannot place a hold on it from your interface. We reported this as a bug. (3) We are trying to find a solution to Email Registration. In the meantime, use the email registration link from iBistro as you have always done. You can continue to report these problems – but since we know about them already you don’t have to report them.
Power work – we will have the electrician out on Friday, March 18 to CCS to install more power receptacles in preparation for our anticipated installation of a new SVA server. There should be no interruption to systems; however, be aware to report anything wrong to us immediately (just as you always do!)
Power interruption – on Thursday morning (March 10) a few libraries experienced a momentary interruption to Workflows. SVA went down as well and then we discovered that an internal device had experienced a momentary power failure. We isolated all of the outages to devices that are housed in one rack. Since no- one was in the computer room at the time we suspect a loose connection. Our electrician will check this over on Friday March 18 or before if we have more trouble.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 3/15, 9:30, Glenview: Maintenance Coordinators
Wed., 3/16, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thur., 3/17, 10:00, Glenview: PAS
MARCH 11, 2011
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
BiblioCommons News - Launches continue with great success. There are, however, a few problems that we have discovered and have brought to BiblioCommons’ attention. We will keep you posted on progress. (1) URLs that are in the MARC Holdings Records do not display in BiblioCommons. This is not a bug – but BC has not encountered MARC Holdings Records before our implementation. They are more important in a consortial setting. (2) There are problems placing holds on multivolume sets – in fact, if you do not own an item in the multi-volume set your patron cannot place a hold on it from your interface. We reported this as a bug. (3) We are trying to find a solution to Email Registration. In the meantime, use the email registration link from iBistro as you have always done. You can continue to report these problems – but since we know about them already you don’t have to report them.
Power work – we will have the electrician out on Friday, March 18 to CCS to install more power receptacles in preparation for our anticipated installation of a new SVA server. There should be no interruption to systems; however, be aware to report anything wrong to us immediately (just as you always do!)
Power interruption – on Thursday morning (March 10) a few libraries experienced a momentary interruption to Workflows. SVA went down as well and then we discovered that an internal device had experienced a momentary power failure. We isolated all of the outages to devices that are housed in one rack. Since no- one was in the computer room at the time we suspect a loose connection. Our electrician will check this over on Friday March 18 or before if we have more trouble.
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Tues., 3/15, 9:30, Glenview: Maintenance Coordinators
Wed., 3/16, 9:30, CCS: SCRAP
Thur., 3/17, 10:00, Glenview: PAS
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