WML Tech Updates

1) The NEW Java Client version of Sirsi – There have been many concerns and questions about implementation, training, and wondering when all this is going to take place with our impending renovation here in WML. Earlier this week, Rachel talked with Julie Loder in LITS, and rest assured, everything will be okay. Take a deep breath. There is no need to panic. But please do read through the following information.

Installing the new client

LITS will be “installing” the new version of Sirsi through the Novell network for Heard Library networked libraries. As you know, this does not include us. LITS will be sending a disk with the prorgam on it to the Law, Management, and Eskind Libraries, and they can install it however way they choose. Since we have so few computers (at least compared to some of the other libraries), it would take longer to create new images, reimage every computer, and reinstall other additional software – than it would to simply install it on each person’s computer. I may enlist Danny to help with the process.

Also, I will not be uninstalling the current version of Sirsi that we are using. Everyone will have both the old version as well as the new version on his or her computer. There will be at least a several month period where you are encouraged to try using the new version for your everyday tasks, but you’ll still have to opportunity to use the old version if you can’t figure out how to do it in the new session.

When is it going to be installed?

I also talked with Julie about not entirely knowing where we physically will be this summer (since we may have to vacate our offices and set up shop elsewhere due to the renovation), and that getting the installation done in advance would be one less thing for us to worry about. So she will be sending me a disk within the week, and I’ll start installing it. My goal will be to have it installed on every computer by the end of April. You will be able to play with it as much as you like, but keep in mind that no one here in WML, including myself, have used it before. So if you have a questions about how to do something, please just be patient and wait to ask your questions at the training sessions in May, June, or July 2006.

Training on the new client

There have been a number of people throughout the library system who have been beta testing the new client for months now. More than likely, many of them will become the trainers on various parts of the new client. For example, if an individual only worked with the circulation-related part of the new Sirsi client, then that person might volunteer to become a trainer for just that part of the client. The same goes for those who deal with serials, collection development, cataloging, and other modules within Sirsi. So in short, there will be multiple training sessions, taught by multiple people throughout the library system, at multiple times throughout the summer.

Who is coordinating the training, and when is going to happen?

Currently, LITS is aware of the individuals who have been doing beta testing, so they might be able to come up with a list of possible trainers. But there are no set dates, times, or even confirmed trainers at this time. Julie said that as it gets closer to the summer (that is, when April is over), all this information will get communicated.

It is also unclear as to whether LITS, the Staff Development Committee, or a new project team will be coordinating the overall training. I trust that Celia Walker and Jody Combs and whomever else is involved in the procress will figure something out, and that whatever is decided will get communicated to us at the appropriate time. I am also confident that someone (or a group of people) are compiling documentation on how to do various tasks within the new Sirsi client.

Questions?

If you have questions, I would be more than happy to talk to you about what I know. I will also keep you updated (either through more Friday Tech Updates, email, or at staff meetings) as I learn more. Also, bookmark this page. It’s still under development, but they will be adding more to it as time goes by. Thank you for your patience throughout this process!

2) Kilimanjaro – Kilimanjaro is behaving more than usual. Rachel assumes the fix she made on the public workstations helped, and that the network port being fixed by VU ITS is the main reason for the improvement. Still, there are occasional weird things that happen with it, as Rachel is sure Circulation staff can attest to. But for the most part, it seems OK.

3) Printer Server being Maintenanced – Rachel talked with Owen IT about performing maintenance on the print server (or any server) when the library is open, even if it seems like a slow Friday afternoon elsewhere in the school. This incident happened last time without warning, and patrons as well as staff were caught unaware. She was told that next time, they will try to communicate more in advance when services will be down for maintenance. As you noticed recently, Jason Reusch announced several days in advance that they would be doing server maintenance Thursday night through Friday morning. Rachel is glad the communication lines are open.

4) SFX Project Team Report – On February 27th, Rachel and the rest of the SFX Project Team met with some members from Order Services (Mary Ellen Wilson, Chris Waldrop, and Roberta Winjum) who wanted a clearer idea of what the project team does, how much time is spent fixing things, and how often updates are run. The team will meet again soon to discuss:

* Status of the OpenURL generator
* Status of local holdings enhancement
* Additional databases to be SFX-ized (including a discussion about other WML databases that might work with SFX)

5) Primo Demonstration – On Thursday, March 30th, 2 representatives from Ex Libris came here to talk about the library possibility of being a beta test partner with them for their new end-user information discovery and delivery tool called Primo. Rachel went to the demo and was thoroughly impressed with the product despite it still being in early development. It was very reminiscent of Amazon’s interface and Google’s search engine and features. The system utilizes FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) which, in short, takes full full advantage of all the fields in the records, and therefore primo won’t require recataloging. All information also comes from local collections (catalog, journals, repositories, etc.).

There is another tab could could work with MetaLib, the metasearch engine that searches multiple databases. We currently do not have a metasearch tool such as this, and from the trail we had last year with MetaLib, there would have to be a lot of improvement with that particular product before the VU libraries would purchase it, I believe.

Other cool features of Primo include: Reviews of books can be imported in from Amazon, and users could have the option to write their own review, as well as rate items. Users can search on similar resources, subject, other languages, editions. Tagging, as in the kind used in del.icio.us or Flickr, can also be used within Primo. There is the “People who viewed this item also viewed X, Y, and Z” feature.

Primo also utilizes faceted browsing where you can narrow your search by clicking on other related and extracted information to narrow your search. Examples are narrow your search by subject (a variety of subjects are listed), author, type of item (books, journals, audio, etc), language, publication date, etc. Basically, faceted browsing allows users to choose predefined options rather than guess. It gives the user the opportunity to refine their search and they won’t be able to hit a dead end.

Primo ranks its search results based on a relevancy ranking. This relevancy ranking algorith can be fine-tuned. You can assign more weight to some resources to make them more relevant, or appear higher in the result list. You can also analyze user statistics and make adjustments accordingly. It will also work within a Course Management System such as Blackboard

There are many, many more features, and I could say a lot more, but overall, I personally think it would be foolish for us not to partner with Ex Libris in beta testing. This seems to be the type of product our users want.

Here is a breif mention of Primo in Library Journal.

6) Public Workstations & Upstairs Computer – Rachel talked with Danny and he’ll be reimaging the public workstations, including the one upstairs, within the next week or so.

7) Update on the NEW WML Website – Rachel has made great strides on the website, and it’s at a point where some usability testing can be done again before many of the deeper pages are created. Sometime within the next few weeks, she will be showing the website to WML staff for feedback, and doing some usability testing with a few Owen students. She’s also been working on capturing every single page of the site on paper, and seeing what is done, and what yet needs to be done, and by whom. It will serve as a task list and hopefully help people know exactly what needs to be done yet. Many of the pages need much discussion on the content before deeper pages can be made. David is helping her organize this so it will be clearer as to what is done, what isn’t, and hopefully won’t be so overwhelming to people.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Thanks for your attention and time!