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Support and Training Services Report: September 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. OCLC has just (9/7/07) sent us the content needed in Holding Record tag fields. Now the test library holding records can be edited. Once that work has been completed, PALS plans to send a test file to OCLC. From that test file, we will be able to determine what is missing or that it is correct.
  • Inventory Services – Testing has been done on the Lute, development, server with St. John’s/St. Ben’s University. This testing was in regard to Aleph’s ver. 17 inventory marking feature and 4 new services; e.g. item-01 to determine a range upon which to perform the inventory, 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. Results of the testing will be included in the Cataloging Report to User Group. Additionally, a procedural document will be written and shared with MnPALS libraries before User Group meetings in October.
  • Emailing and Printing Notices – New instructions have been developed to assist you in configuring the ALEPH program to email certain notices with email addresses and print notices that do not have an email address in the record in version 17. Please see answer number 2991 from the PALS Support Center http://pals.custhelp.com for the detail.
  • PLIF update - We have heard from ISRS that there was a problem on their end with the scripts to send the faculty/staff PLIF files to us. They have corrected that and have sent a full refresh of faculty/staff data (which included the barcodes, if they had them).

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 – Met September 6th, formulated a report for the Executive Committee meeting on September 10th outlining recommendations and asking for further input before proceeding.
  • 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.custhep.com.

Wikis and Forums

PALS has put in place both a wiki and forum software. The forum is being piloted with the MnPALS Access Task Force and the wiki used for User Group Planning. The Indexing Task Force has also started to use the forum software. Conversion of documents from the Fusetalk boards to SMF forum boards is being done manually.

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.
• A general agenda and registration information is available from the PALS homepage http://www.mnpals.org/sections/ug2007fall_main.html. Registration deadline is October 1.
• MnPALS User Group Conveners held their first planning conference call on August 7. Next call is September 17.
• Agendas are due to subsystem conveners on September 12.

MnPALS Cataloger’s Workday

The Steering Committee of the Cataloging User Group has set a Cataloger’s Workday. It will be held all day on September 28th at Metropolitan State University. Registration is now open, deadline is September 21. http://www.abcsignup.com/view/view_month.asp?as=16&wp=112&aid=PALS

PALS Support Center

  • New Answers added to the PALS Support Center Knowledge Base:
    • Batch Load limit 25 for OCLC Export #3178
    • Total number of bibliographic records #3179
    • Prediction Pattern Information #3181
  • Site Visits Again!
The PALS Support Specialists are beginning to do site visits again. We have been waiting a long time to get back to this practice and are really pleased to do so. Dan Honetschlager made our first site visit to Pine Technical College September 18 & 19.

Support Staff Participation

Training participation:
  • Synchronous Learning Expert - ‘Learn how to Learn Online’ – Synchronous Design Certificate, In process – Cathy, Dan, Dee, Frank, Mary Ann, Perry, Sonja, Susan

Questions?

Please send any questions regarding the Support & Training Report to http://pals.custhelp.com.
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