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Technical Services Report
2007 MnPALS Annual Meeting

System Operations

  • There were three major accomplishments during the past year:
    1. Completing the migration for all 63 ADMs to Aleph version 15.5 in April, 2006.
    2. Using the Ex Libris ILL product in production.
    3. Upgrading to Aleph version 17 in January, 2007.
  • Additional storage was installed on Harp and Lute for the version 17 upgrade.
  • ORACLE was upgraded to 9i, resized, and tuned for version 17.
  • Implemented fixed field indexing recommended by the Indexing Task Force.
  • Adjacency searching was turned off, which produced unexpected results because the documentation was incorrect.
  • Set up a server and software to run the new PALS website.
  • Ongoing system maintenance, security patches, and upgrades.

Aleph

Task Forces, Presentations, Committees, Conferences

  • Attended ILL conference calls with U of M and Ex Libris.
  • Attended Authorities Task Force web meetings.
  • Attended Validation Task Force web meetings.
  • Attended the ELUNA conference and technical seminar in Knoxville, Tennessee.
  • Attended LASSSI and ILL meeting with Ex Libris at ELUNA.
  • Served as the technical representative on the Acquisitions/Serials version 20 enhancement group at ELUNA.
  • Attending the Indexing Task Force web meetings.
  • Attending Reports Group meetings.
  • Co-presented a session on fixed field indexing at the ELUNA conference.
  • Presented several different sessions at the second Annual Ex Libris Regional Conference in Minneapolis.
  • Al volunteered to serve as the technical liaison for the Discovery Tool Task Force.

Record Loads

  • Loaded the Marcive records through November, 2006 for all of the libraries that subscribe to the service.
  • Suspended loading the Marcive records for all of the libraries that subscribe to the service in November, 2006 when it was discovered that the matching algorithm was still not working. A problem report was submitted to Ex Libris.
  • Loaded a special set of Early American Imprint records for WSU.
  • Loaded a special set of Serial Solutions records for MSU.
  • Loaded records for two new sublibraries of Rasmussen College.
  • Loaded Netlibrary 2006 Community College collection for the libraries that purchased the set.
  • Loaded Netlibrary 2006 Academic collection for the libraries that purchased the set.
  • Loaded Netlibrary 2006 Reference collection for the libraries that purchased the set.
  • Loaded Netlibrary 2005 Shared Reference collection for the libraries that purchased the set.

Reports

  • Created SQL queries for libraries that are using Acquisitions so the p-acq-25 statistical report can be run from their services menu.
  • Created a service for libraries to run their own item statistics reports.
  • Enhanced the cir-30 report and placed it in production. An additional retrieval option by collection and two fields were added to the report.
  • Created an Empty ILL report, pals-20, and placed it in the Circulation Services Menu.
  • Currently working on reports to count circulation events by call number and patron records that have ILL loans without ILL items.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

  • Completed EDI book order testing with Midwest Library Services and Blackwell's Book Services in version 15.5.
  • Completed testing and setup to use Blackwell's Book Services Collection Manager with Aleph version 15.5 and version 17.
  • Fixed the EDI functionality in version 17 for all vendors that were previously set up in version 15.5.

Version 17 and ORACLE

  • Refreshed the Authorities database from the PALS Authorities database in version 17.
  • Added an index for local notes (599 a,m,n) called wln.
  • Fixed the PLIF loader to work correctly in version 17.
  • Modified and reinstated background processing jobs that perform system cleanup for
  • version 17.
  • Completed setup for summary holdings functionality in version 17.
  • Selected approximately 174,000 patron records to delete, but p-cir-77 is not working. A problem report was submitted to Ex Libris.
  • Preparing to upgrade ORACLE to the latest 9i version and install the latest security patches.

Version 18 and ORACLE

  • Gathering system specifications for version 18.
  • Preparing to upgrade to Solaris 10 and ORACLE 10G for version 18.

Enhancements, Fixes, Miscellaneous

  • Enhanced the PLIF loader to allow fall semester dates through June 30.
  • Fixed the problem with remote access to Netlibrary records in Aleph from LibProxy.
  • Fixed the problem with Java applets and LibProxy.
  • Completed global changes as requested by libraries.
  • Preparing to install Wiki software.
  • Ongoing installation of service packs on Lute and Harp for version 17 and ILL.
  • Continuing to report ILL and Aleph version 17 software problems to Ex Libris.

PALS

  • WebPALS was shut down on August 24, 2006.
  • Luda Lindahl joined the PALS technical staff in September.
  • Access to the mainframe was turned off in October, 2006.
  • The mainframe is still running for the registration data. It will get permanently shut down once the UNIX server is set up to receive the registration data and the libraries have been notified of the change.

Copyright © 2007-2009 PALS