The Aleph development server (dev20) will be unavailable starting Saturday, November 19 through Thanksgiving weekend. We will be using the server to do our annual re-indexing of the Aleph database.

Three PALS training sessions have been scheduled for November:

Service Pack 3556 has been installed on production, and the system is back up and available now.

There are new pc executables and it is IMPORTANT to RUN VERSION CHECK on the Aleph Client to download those updates to your PCs to prevent client crashes! The notes for the fixes can be viewed at: http://tables.dev20.mnpals.net/u20_1/service_packs/sp_summary.3489-3556

Initially, there was a problem with authentication for proxy servers authenticating against Aleph from the install of the service back. That has been fixed.

Please let us know if you see any other problems with Aleph.

University Center Rochester has launched ALEPH Acquisitions.  Library staff at UCR received training at the beginning of August and have begun to set up their budget records.  They have also started to configure ordering with Baker & Taylor Title Source 3.  Welcome to Acq, UCR!

The Cataloging Authority Task Force has been working with the PALS office on the authority flipping functionality of an outstanding issue. The functionality has been tested on the development server and approved by the Authority Task Force. For identified authority records with the flipping functionality turned off (UPD=N), the functionality will be turned on (UPD=Y) and implemented on the production server the weekend of April 30. Bib record cleanup of double form subdivisions will occur during the following week.

Listed below is an explanation of what has happened and how it impacts what you see in the GUI, Classic PALS OPAC, and MnPALS Plus.

If you will recall, back in November 2009, libraries reported there were bib records appearing in the catalog with form subdivisions $v, $x repeated in a 6xx string; e.g.

Start making plans to attend this spring’s MnPALS Consortium Workdays!

Reference and Instruction: April 4, 2011
Systems: April 13, 2011
Circulation and Interlibrary Loan: April 15, 2011
Acquisitions/Serials/Cataloging: April 28, 2011

Watch the website and mailing lists for more information. We look forward to seeing you at these upcoming events.