Support & Training Services Report: August 2007

Aleph Version 17

• Summary Holdings and exporting local holding records to OCLC – Four test libraries are being used: 2 libraries (Alexandria Technical College and Northland Community & Technical College/East Grand Forks campus) not using the Serials Module, but manually maintaining the seriality on the item record and 2 libraries (Inver Hills Community College and Minnesota State University/Mankato) using the Serials module. The holdings to be sent to OCLC for serial titles from Alexandria Technical College and Northland Community & Technical College/East Grand Forks campus have been identified by the respective librarians. We are waiting to hear from OCLC which tag fields are necessary on the holding record. Then, those fields will be added and a test file of one of the libraries’ serial holdings will be sent to OCLC. From that test file, we will be able to determine what is missing or that it is correct.
• Importing bib records into Aleph and then exporting the library holding/ownership to OCLC – PALS is looking for a library to work on this project. If you are interested in working on this project please contact Mary Ann Greenwald, PALS office at 507/389-2000 or via the PALS Support Center http://pals.custhelp.com/.
• Inventory Services – Testing is being done on the development server Lute with St. John’s/St. Ben’s University. This testing is in regard to Aleph’s ver. 17 inventory marking feature and 4 new services; e.g. item-01 is to determine a range upon which to perform the inventory. The item-01, which marked the inventory, has now been run. They now will be testing the following: item-08 is used for a batch process, item-09 is used to set a process status on “missing” items, and item-10 produces a summary report upon completion. Once testing has been completed, the services will be moved onto the production server Harp. At that point, documentation will be written, based upon our testing, for MnPALS libraries to use.

MnPALS Task Forces and Working Groups:

• Authorities Task Force – Reported at the April ’07 Cataloging UG meeting that they will not meet until ver. 18 is loaded. They will then examine the new Authority features.
• Marketing Task Force – Calendars have been requested from members of the group. When Cathy has received them back from all of the members they will resume meeting.
• MnPALS Access Task Force – Perry sent out a report on the following topics to the Access Task Force Members on July 26th:
  • Availability Status
  • Forum/Wiki
  • Top 6 list progress
  • Browsing using cell phones/handheld devices
  • Discovery Tool
  • Help screens
  • Year Range limiting on Advanced Search page
• MnPALS Indexing Task Force –The next meeting is scheduled for September 19, 2007.

Aleph Training

• Acquisitions Module Aleph Ver.17 In-Person Training, September 26-27.
• Serials Module Aleph Ver.17 In-Person Training, September 19-20.
• Check out the following link from the PALS homepage for a full listing of training offerings and links to registration forms http://www.abcsignup.com/view/view_month.asp?as=16&wp=112&aid=PALS.
• Individual invitations will be sent out each time we add a new session to our offerings.
• Customized Training or Training for adding a new module of Aleph to your library is available upon request. Please contact the PALS Support Center http://pals.custhelp.com.

Wikis and Forums

Depcon Unplugged

Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Groups

• Mark your calendars MnPALS Fall User Groups will be held October 11 & 12, 2007 at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
• MnPALS User Group Conveners held their first planning conference call on August 7th.
• Watch for the call for agenda items and get topics to your User Group Convener soon.

MnPALS Cataloger’s Workday

PALS Support Center

• RightNow Feedback – Cathy is working with Frank to turn on, setup and learn the Feedback/Survey feature of RightNow. This will allow PALS to launch brief closed incidents surveys and more robust customer satisfaction surveys from RightNow.
• New Answers added to the PALS Support Center Knowledge Base:
  • Circulation Logger Clean Up Service cir-78 #3170
  • Locating Report in Scratch Directory #3171
  • OCLC Port Number #3172
  • Filtering Profiles on Global Patron Information Window #3173
  • URL Checking Service (print-11) #3175
  • Subscription Number in Manually Created Item Record #3176
  • Arriving Serials in the Cataloging Module #3177

MnLINK Gateway – Susan Dueis

• The MnLINK brochure is being revised. There will be a list of individual server site catalog web pages in the brochure, but MnPALS will be listed with http://www.mnpals.net (the Union catalog).
• OCLC PICA is working on an enhancement for filtering requests by publication date/cost. MnLINK/MINITEX expects implementation of this functionality in October or November. This is a VDX thing and doesn’t impact MnPALS libraries.
• There was discussion on cataloging changes at server sites to get better search results on Target Audience, Language and Item Format filters.
• At the OCLC PICA User Group meeting at ALA, there was an update on ZPORTAL/VDX products and their role within the OCLC software environment. The VDX ILL component’s future is “secure”, but ZPORTAL’s future is “questionable” after v.2008 (early 2009 release). There will likely be some other discovery tool to take its place—something more “customizable and universal”.
• Martin Luther College in New Ulm has loaded their records on the Traverse des Sioux server and will be given a Gateway license as a separate location, but not a separate server site.
• MnLINK/MINITEX is looking at dates in November for a MnLINK User Group meeting. They have confirmed a keynote speaker: Joshua Ferraro, who co-founded LibLime in 2005 with the aim of providing support for open-source library solutions (KOHA and Evergreen).
• The first annual renewal of the OCLC PICA Gateway contract is being finalized. It includes an increase of 2.5%.
• MINITEX is working on a position description and a search will commence this fall for someone with a good technology background to head the MnLINK project. They may merge this position with their OCLC Manager position.

Support Staff Participation

• Synchronous Learning Expert - ‘Learn how to Learn Online’ – Synchronous Facilitation Certificate, Completed – Becky, Cathy, Dee, Dan, Frank, Mary Ann, Perry, Sonja, Susan
• Synchronous Learning Expert - ‘Learn how to Learn Online’ – Synchronous Design Certificate, In process – Cathy, Dee, Dan, Frank, Mike, Mary Ann, Perry, Sonja, Susan

Questions?