News from 2005

October 17, 2005: *NEW* PALS Customer Support eDesk is Available

Please begin using the new PALS customer Support eDesk today (Monday, October 17), for sending questions and problem reports to PALS. There is also an improved version of our old Answerbook that will be available very soon for searching from the new interface. Previous requests sent to PALS will also be available to you to view and update when the Answers are added to the interface.

There is a link from the PALS homepage, from the PALS eDesk to this service at:

http://www.pals.msus.edu/pals/palshelp. You will also find online tutorials for learning how to use the new interface at this link. It is a web interface and we think fairly intuitive to use. Once connected to the PALS eDesk please bookmark the link.

Any library staff who have had a user name and password for Clientele (old interface) will have one for the new PALS eDesk. Your initial user name and password will be your email address and your last name (all lower case please). Once you begin using the interface you can change your personal preferences including your password if you like. You must logon to access all areas of the PALS eDesk including the Answers section.

If you have never requested a username and password for use with the PALS eDesk, there also is a link here for you to do this.

The email address of palshelp@mnsu.edu will return an email providing a link to the new interface. The Clientelenet Web interface is no longer available.

Please contact us if you have difficulty accessing the new PALS eDesk.

September 26, 2005: Hello MnSCU Librarians

From: Todd Digby
System Director of Libraries
Office of the Chancellor
Minnesota State Colleges & Universities

Dear Colleagues,

I hope all is well and everyone is having a good Fall semester. For those of you that were away during the summer. I am very pleased to introduce myself as the new System Director of Libraries for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. I have met many of you during the past few months and look forward to meeting more of you in the future.

I am in the process of creating a webpage that will focus on MnSCU Libraries and Librarians. It can be found at http://libraries.project.mnscu.edu On this page I have a list of MnSCU librarians. This list is a year or so out of date, so please review this list and send me any staff changes or address changes that need to be made. I would also like to update the MnSCU Librarians mailing list at mnsculibrarians@lists.mnscu.edu, so if any of your colleagues to not receive this message, please let me know and I will have them added to the list.

Please feel free to contact me whenever you have issues, concerns, or ideas.

August 5, 2005: netLibrary Set IV and Shared Reference Collections

From: Mary Ann Greenwald, PALS User Support & Training Specialist:

MINITEX has notified us there are (2) netlibrary collections to load for libraries. For libraries still on PALS, we have been able to load the netLibrary records. But, for libraries on ALEPH, we have not been able to load the netLibrary records because the ALEPH loader for these records needs a fix.

You may remember the 7/22/05 message sent by Al Rykhus, PALS Tech Staffer, which explained the reason you could not save a newly created bib record to the server. We were trying to load the netLibrary collection set IV when it couldn't process 4 of the records that were right at the 2000 characters per tag limit. The process was splitting out fields with 2000 or more characters into 2 or more fields. When these 4 records wouldn't process, it created a duplicate record for the 4 records with large note fields plus an additional record that had spaces and control characters for a record number. (NOTE: If you would like to re-read the full explanation of the problem, go here. This problem has been sent to ExLibris. We are awaiting a fix or workaround.

netLibrary Shared Collection IV - 1581 records have been loaded for the following PALS libraries:

Alexandria Technical College

Anoka-Ramsy CC - Cambridge Campus

Bemidji State University

Inver Hills Community College

Minneapolis Community & Technical College

Minnesota School of Business

Minnesota State CC & TC - Detroit Lakes

Minnesota State CC & TC - Fergus Falls

Minnesota State CC & TC - Moorhead

Minnesota State CC & TC - Wadena

Northland CC & TC - East Grand Forks

Rasmussen College System

St. Cloud Technical College

Vermillion Community College

NOTE: MnPALS ALEPH libraries to have these records loaded when the loader is fixed are: (I will notify these libraries when the records are loaded)

Crown College

Fire/EMS Safety Library

Minnesota West CC & TC - Worthington

Ridgewater College Library - Willmar campus

Rochester Community & Technical College

South Central College - Mankato

Southwest Minnesota State University

St. Cloud State University

St. John's University

Winona State University

netLibrary Shared Reference Collection - 163 records have been loaded for the following PALS libraries:

Alexandria Technical College

Minneapolis Community & Technical College

Minnesota School of Business

Minnesota State CC & TC - Detroit Lakes

Minnesota State CC & TC - Fergus Falls

Minnesota State CC & TC - Moorhead

Minnesota State CC & TC - Wadena

Rasmussen College System

St. Cloud Technical College

NOTE: MnPALS ALEPH libraries to have these records loaded when the loader is fixed are: (I will notify these libraries when the records are loaded)

Minnesota State University, Mankato

Rochester CC & TC

South Central College - Mankato

Winona State University

The records will be available for viewing on PALS after today's (Friday, 8/5/05) BIB process.

July 25, 2005: Web Usage Statistics available for MnPALS

Web Usage statistics are now available for MnPALS for either the entire site or individual Web OPACs. The usage statistics are generated using the "Webalizer" tool running against the apache logs early Saturday mornings when the backups are done.

For details on accessing these statistics, see the document: Web Usage Statistics available for MnPALS

Still have questions? Please send them to palshelp@mnsu.edu. The subject should be Aleph OPAC and Web Usage Statistics in the subject.

July 12, 2005: ALEPH Libraries Using EBSCO for Invoicing and Claiming

Recently a library had some questions regarding EBSCO and subscription id's. I decided it would be a good idea to share this with everyone as well as update you on where we are at in the testing of electronic serial claiming with EBSCO.

QUESTION: What field or fields does the subscription id need to be in for invoicing and claiming with EBSCO?

ANSWER: The subscription id needs to be in TAB2 of the order record in the Vendor Reference Field for invoice purposes and it needs to be in TAB1 of the subscription record in the Vendor Order Number field. This subscription id number is different for each library, but it looks something like CG9181900AA465308740.

If the number needs to be changed, libraries need to change it in both the order record and the subscription record.

CLAIMING UPDATE
We are in the process of testing the electronic claiming process with EBSCO. We have successfully sent them a small test file from CSB. EBSCO is checking to make sure it is in the correct readable format for them to process. We are waiting to hear back from them on that piece.

We also will need to write a program similar to the p-mnpals-10 that is used for serial invoicing so that libraries can individually send EBSCO electronic claims and EBSCO will be able to identify easily which library the claim file is coming from. This is needed because we have one global vendor file for all the libraries with individual tiers for each ADM. The address data in the vendor record is global and not part of the tier vendor record. Key information needed by EBSCO lies in the address record thus making it impossible to individualize it for each library ADM.

Once we write the program needed and EBSCO is able to read the format of the electronic claim, we will do another large test file. I will write up a document describing the steps needed to process claims. It will be similar to the process that you use for serial invoicing.

INVOICING
There is one other change that will be happening for EBSCO serial invoicing. In the past EBSCO sent me an email message regarding an invoice that was ready to be picked up. I always forwarded the email to the correct library and you processed the invoices using the services menu. Soon the email notices will be sent directly to each library and only a cc sent to me. The email address that EBSCO will be sending your invoice to is the same email address you had given me earlier. EBSCO will also be using that same email address to communicate claiming information in the future.

If you have any questions, please let Dee Nolan know. Thanks.

June 23, 2005: Announcement of SSN and PLIF loader changes

Social Security Number changes as of June 22, 2005:

For Aleph - All SSN's have been deleted. For libraries who indicated they wished to retain SSN's for community patrons, a report was sent that can be used for manual reentry of SSN's.

For PALS - All SSN's have been deleted from the SSN field in PALS Patron Records except for libraries who notified us to retain SSN's for community patrons.

Changes to the Patron Record loaders:

For both PALS and Aleph, SSN information will no longer be added by the loader.

For Aleph, the default password has been changed to accommodate up to the first 20 characters of the patron's last name including dashes (-) and apostrophes ('). NOTE: This applies only to new patrons loaded after June 22. No passwords will be changed for patrons loaded previously.

For PALS, there have been no changes to the default password. It is still the first 8 characters of the patron's last name. There is no accommodation for special characters. NOTE: When these patrons are migrated from PALS to ALEPH, the passwords will not change.

May 31, 2005: SSN Removal Clarification PALS/ALEPH

From Deb Domek, PALS Technical Services Coordinator:

As was previously posted, SSNs will be removed from PALS and ALEPH during the week of June 20th. There have been questions in relation to the removal that needs clarification.

If a Social Security Number is in the Registration ID or Tech ID field in PALS or ALEPH, it will not be removed. If you currently have SSNs in either of these fields, it is up to you to make an ID change if you do not want the SSN in the patron ID field.

Again to clarify: SSNs will be removed from the SSN field in PALS (P1900) except for community patrons as stated in the previous posting about Social Security Number removal.

May 27, 2005: Change to length of Aleph Patron Password:

In conjunction with the removal of Social Security Number from patron records the week of June 20th PALS will also increase the length of the patron password in Aleph. Both the Circulation and Reference User Groups recommended this change at their April meetings.

The length of the default patron password created by the plif loader will be changed from 8 characters to the Aleph limit of 20 characters. In addition, the bug in the plif loader related to handling last names containing a - or ' in it has been repaired. The - and ' will now be included in the default password.

For Current Aleph libraries:
For new patrons added through the plif loader, the default password will be the last name of the patron, up to 20 characters.

Existing patrons on Aleph will retain their current password. Passwords are never changed for an existing patron when updating them with the plif loader.

For libraries yet to migrate:
The patron conversion scripts have been adjusted to create 20 character passwords. This is a change from the past conversions. All patrons migrated from PALS will have their last name, up to 20 characters, as their patron password on Aleph.

WebOPAC alteration:
As part of the motion in the Circulation group, a concern was raised about the difficulty patrons have in knowing their password. For consistency, the Circulation group decided to request an explanation on the webpage clarifying for the borrower how the password is determined.

This request was to be passed along to Perry Madden and the MnPALS Access Task, but no decision has been made at this time.

Dave Wuolu (SBJ) requested the following language for his library:

User ID/ Barcode (on the back of your ID card): Password (last name or first 8 characters of it):

Initially we will put the language provided by SBJ up on the WebOPAC for everyone. We are looking for additional suggestions for these hints for both fields. Please send your thoughts to Perry Madden at perry.madden@mnsu.edu by June 15th. Perry will then synthesize all suggestions and put those hints onto the "Your Borrowing Record" page.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

May 24, 2005: Removing Social Security Numbers

To: Consortium member libraries
From: Linda Richter
Re: Social security numbers to be removed from patron records

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
During the week of June 20, the PALS staff will stop loading social security numbers into patron records and delete existing social security numbers in both the PALS and Aleph systems. IF YOU NEED TO HAVE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS RETAINED FOR YOUR COMMUNITY PATRONS, YOU MUST TAKE ACTION, AS DESCRIBED BELOW.

BACKGROUND
The various groups that make up our governance structure have recently been discussing concerns about storing social security numbers in the patron records on both PALS and Aleph. These discussions resulted in the following motions: From the Systems User Group
All patron records coming through the PLIF loader should no longer include Social Security Numbers, and Social Security Numbers should be removed from all existing records.

From the User Council
Accept the recommendation of the Systems User Group for both PALS and Aleph. Announce to the membership, give instructions on how to get a report if needed before removal, and then remove the SSNs.

From the Executive Committee Agreed with the User Council that notification should be given and then the loading of SSNs should stop and SSNs should be removed.

PLAN FOR REMOVAL

We are in the process of changing the scripts from which patron records are loaded so that the social security number is no longer loaded into the patron record from the registration data. This will be for all libraries that we receive registration data from, MnSCU and non-MnSCU.

The next step will be to remove the social security numbers from all patron records in both PALS and Aleph. We will do the deletion during the week of June 20.

IF YOU NEED SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS FOR COMMUNITY PATRONS
IF YOU WANT TO RETAIN THE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS FOR YOUR COMMUNITY PATRONS, YOU MUST SEND A REQUEST TO palshelp@mnsu.edu BY JUNE 17.

Here is how it will work:

In PALS
During the first round of deletions of social security numbers, all will be deleted except those for community patrons (P100 = L). During the second round of deletions, social security numbers will be removed from all community patron records except those libraries that have notified us that they want theirs retained.

In Aleph
Before the deletion of any social security numbers, the PALS staff will run a report for those libraries that have notified us that they want their community patron social security numbers retained. The report will list your community patrons and their social security numbers. All social security numbers will then be deleted. After the social security numbers are deleted, you can use this report to re-enter the numbers for your community patrons.

Please let me (linda.richter@mnsu.edu) know if you have questions or concerns about this plan.

May 24, 2005: NCES reports and Aleph counts

The Aleph Reporting Center (ARC) installation is progressing, although it has not yet been released for testing. We are aware that the annual statistics will be due soon, so we're again offering to do the sql report which will count how many items your library owns at no charge. Please see the instructions in B. below for information about requesting the sql report.

In addition to the information in B, please indicate when you'd like the report run. For example, if you want the count to reflect the number of items held on the last day of the fiscal year, you may ask us to run the report on July 1. If a day or two before or after the end of the fiscal year works for you, it would be useful to tell us in the request so we can schedule resources accordingly.

Please send your request to palshelp@mnsu.edu. We will assume that the completed sql results will be sent to the person initiating the request.
Aleph Libraries:

We're aware that the NCES report forms have been received by libraries. In the past, you may have used statistics from PALS to determine your counts for the report. In Aleph, the reporting capabilities are limited. Here are our suggestions for determining title and volume counts.

To get bib counts in Aleph, do a CCL search in the GUI that uses one of the following (or you can determine your own CCL searches):

WOW=XXX and WCL=XXXXX (where WOW is the OWN code and WCL is the Collection Code--do one search per collection code)

WSB=XXX and WCL=XXXXX (where WSB is the sublibrary and WCL is the Collection Code)

You'll have to view the list of sets to see how many bib records are found since the search result display limit is 1000.

To get volume counts in Aleph, request an sql report for an item count via PALSHELP@MNSU.EDU. The sql search will count all your items. If you want to exclude items from the count that are assigned specific item process statuses (such as Lost, Missing, etc.), you will need to identify which ones to exclude. The report will be grouped by sublibrary, collection and material type followed by the number of items that meet these criteria. As you analyze your counts, keep in mind that:

These counts include any acq-created, circ-created, ser-created items from conversion

Every order record has an item. The status for these records should be acq-ordered.

Each barcoded periodical issue is counted

Every Internet Resource bib record has an item and is counted. If the title is connected to two holdings records (for example, if two PALS libraries merged to form one Aleph ADM), the counts will be inflated. Remember that the default material type for these items is set to BOOK.

Collections in PALS that had no items attached will have items created in Aleph

You may need to refer back to your collection map as you analyze the counts to help understand the various combinations you see on the report.

Since the Aleph Reporting Center is not yet available, we will do one volume count for your ADM and will supply the resulting output counts to you via email. There will not be a charge to produce the item count this year. We anticipate better reporting capabilities once ARC is installed and in use.

If you have questions or if you wish to request your library's volume counts, send an email to PALSHELP@MNSU.EDU.

January 14, 2005: IMPORTANT!! ZPORTAL "go-live" date 1/20/05

From: Susan Dueis, User Support and Training:

ZPORTAL will be "going live" on January 20, 2005. This means some changes for PALS/Aleph libraries. The "Search New MnLINK Gateway" button on the www.mnlink.org website will point to ZPORTAL on that date. The links to SiteSearch will be removed. If you have links to SiteSearch on your web pages, these will automatically be repointed to ZPORTAL on that date, as will the links from WebPALS into SiteSearch.

If your institution now allows ILL requests to come in to PALS ILL from SiteSearch, ZPORTAL will be configured to transfer requests into PALS ILL. Those PALS institutions that are configured this way will see an ILL ("Get-It") button in ZPORTAL. MnPALS Consortium institutions that are not set up to transfer requests into PALS ILL will not see the ILL ("Get-It") button in ZPORTAL. Soon, we will also have a link from the "My Requests" button in ZPORTAL that will redirect PALS patrons into the WebPALS Patron Information and Requests page, to view their ZPORTAL-entered requests from within WebPALS. When Aleph ILL is up and running, ZPORTAL will be configured to transfer requests into Aleph ILL.

We are working on setting up IP authentication so patrons should soon have access to the ELM databases through ZPORTAL from terminals within your library without having to sign in first.

Follow this link: http://www.pals.msus.edu/pals/info_bulletins/ill0501zportal.pdf to access a pdf document that gives a brief overview (with screen shots) of using the ZPORTAL software from a MnPALS Consortium perspective. If you have any questions, contact PALSHelp at (507) 389-2000 or palshelp@mnsu.edu