MnPALS Update: February 2007

1. LaSSSI Update
   1. The LaSSSI group has been working with Ex Libris on a preferred architecture for consortia. Ex Libris’ preference is the architecture MnPALS uses.
   2. LaSSSI members provided comments and suggestions to an Ex Libris document that described current functionality, and identified areas that may need enhancement.
   3. On October 30, early arrivals held an impromptu meeting to share information about their respective shared system. During the day, we had a quick preview of the FCLA Endeca catalog.
   4. The group met in Boston, MA on October 31, 2006 to further discuss the preferred architecture. All in attendance agreed that the meeting was productive.
   5. A response from Ex Libris has been delayed due to the recent acquisitions and mergers.
   6. The next LaSSSI meeting is yet to be scheduled.
2. ELUNA information
   1. The 2007 ELUNA conference will be held in Spearfish, SD the week of June 4. The first two days of the week are scheduled for the Ex Libris Technical Seminar, with the ELUNA meeting beginning on Wednesday, June 6.
   2. Every library in the consortium may choose to purchase a membership for $150. The membership form can be found on the Web at http://www.elu-na.org/. If you do not join as a member, you can still attend the conference using the MnPALSmembership.
   3. A preliminary conference program will be announced in late March, with registration opening approximately the same time. Costs for the conference have not yet been announced.
3.  Version 17 Update
   1. On January 3, 2007, version 17 was placed into production.
   2. This upgrade has been quite challenging for the PALS staff and the MnPALS libraries. There were 74 incoming requests to the PALS Support Center on January 3, and the total incoming request count for January was 611.
   3. Some problems that have been reported multiple times include:
      1. General invoices and line items
      2. Searching acquisitions order records
      3. Adding money to budgets
      4. EDI ordering  and EDI invoices
      5. Prediction pattern problems
      6. Expected schedule for open items
      7. Subscription links
      8. Port number for OCLC connection
      9. Services in cataloging
      10. ISBN, ISSN searches not working
      11. Holds not working correctly; wording is confusing
      12. Restarting the servers
      13. PLIF
      14. Item return for multi-sub-library ADM incorrect
      15. Cataloged faculty items not appearing for Course Reserves
      16. Indexing problems in Course Reserves
      17. Cannot Receive ILL requests
      18. Cannot check out an ILL item to a patron
      19. Problems submitting ILL requests from MnPALS Union Catalog
      20. Web OPAC customization
      21. Limit by date range times out
      22. No See references when browsing the Web OPAC
      23. Can’t logon to Aleph
      24. Job list setup
      25. Editing xsl forms
      26. AlephADM settings for mail and browser
   4. There were 43 Support Incidents filed with Ex Libris during January. In contrast, there were 10 Support Incidents filed in December, 2006. The attached spreadsheet (tab that says Sent to Vendor) lists the SI’s that have been submitted and their current status.
   5. You can now access the Ex Libris Pivotal database in read only mode. The logon information can be found in the PALS Support Center’s knowledge base in answer 3062.
   6. The January Service Pack has been installed on both lute and harp; the February Service Pack has been installed on lute only. A time has not yet been scheduled for installation on harp.
   7. Implementation of new version 17 features will progress as time allows. The attached Excel document (tab that says Version 17) identifies the version 17 related items from the work plan, and, where possible, an indication of the month when the feature is likely to be implemented.
4.  Version 18 planning
   1. The PALS staff will begin to plan for the version 18 upgrade once version 17 is relatively stable.
   2. Upgrading to version 18 requires an upgrade to the Solaris operating system software and an upgrade of the Oracle software, which need to be done prior to the Aleph version upgrade.
   3. The PALS technical staff will evaluate the hardware requirements with Ex Libris prior to installation of version 18. Memory utilization is currently running very high, using 40GB or more of the 48GB available on harp.
   4. Current speculation is that the upgrade to version 18 will probably occur prior to the fall academic semester. A specific date has not been identified.
5.  MnPALS Reports
   1. The Reports group formed last fall has been busy. The current membership includes: Rosie Mock (MSU), Linda Swanson (TRC), Jean Kramer (TRM), Kathleen Ashe (SSU), Carrie Currie (CTC), Dave Wuolu (SBJ), Adam Marsnick (NDC),  and Sonja Timmerman (GAC). The PALS staff currently working with this group is Luda Lindahl, Mary Ann Greenwald, Deb Domek, and Becky Bell (as time allows).  Other PALS staff are also consulted for specific reports in modules.
   2. The group meets monthly and provides input regarding which information (lists, statistics, etc.) is meaningful for libraries and a preferred format for the reports.
   3. The group plans to inform the consortium about which reports are ready for use. Some that are now available are:
      1. Item Counts (mnpals-16) can be started from either the Cataloging or Circulation clients’ services menu under Items menu.
      2. Check for Empty ILL (pals-20) can be started from the Circulation services under the Patrons menu.
      3. The General Circulation Statistics (cir-30) had an option in the Group Results By section added for Collection.
   4. Reports in progress include:
      1. Custom reports from version 15.5 were upgraded to work with version 17.
      2. Budget reports
      3. Invoice reports
      4. Least popular items circulated vs. most popular items circulated
      5. Statistics by call number range (shared with MnPALS by CCLA)
   5. If you have a report need, please contact one of the group with details on what you would like to have available.
6.  Other work in progress
   1. One of the action plans coming from the User Council and Executive Committee’s strategic planning is called “Centralize technical issues to central office”. The major steps for this action plan are:
      1. Identify which issues/tasks could be done centrally
      2. Determine staffing needs by evaluating current workload and staff level
      3. Estimate the number of central site staff required to do the work.
      4. Identify cost issues.
   2. Currently, the PALS staff is reviewing a list of technical issues that could be used to prepare a survey of the libraries to help determine what additional staffing needs may be.
   3. A review is currently under way to assess staff assignments and workload. Part of this assessment will include identifying areas that currently are inadequately supported, and the areas that currently are not yet assigned to staff.