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Support and Training Services: July 2008

Aleph

Acq/Serials

  • A new report, Current Standing Orders mnpals-51, has been added to Acquisitions. (See Knowledge Base #3254)
  • A web meeting demonstrating the Acquisitions Module in ALEPH was held with UCR on Thursday, July 24th.

Cataloging

  • Many MnPALS libraries are beginning to use the inventory marking functionality that has been available since ALEPH ver. 17. Inventory may be done by 2 methods: Online Manual (Knowledge Base #3199) or Batch (Knowledge Base #3225). There is some updated information to KB #3225, please check it out. Additionally, Peg Lawrence, MSU/Mankato; Bruce Willms, Metropolitan State University; and Mary Ann Greenwald, PALS will make an inventory management presentation on August 1st at the ELUNA conference. The features that we will be talking about are: batch inventory using an RFID media reader, online manual inventory, and central server issues. The presentation will be posted on the ELUNA site. I will send that location to mnpals-discuss once it is posted.
  • ELUNA User Group will be held July 30 - August 1 in Long Beach, CA. We will also be represented at the ELUNA Poster session with a poster entitled "Yikes! How Many Databases Do I Need to Learn? Training the New Cataloger in a Multiple Database, Multiple Software Interface Environment". Dianne (DeeDee) Narum, Bemidji State University Cataloger, and Mary Ann Greenwald, PALS, are creating this. We are considering displaying it at these Fall '08 conferences: MLA and PALS User Group.
  • The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) has put out a message on their listserv that "robots (bots) have been crippling the performance of the PURL application and hindering the ability of GPO's cataloging staff to create or modify PURLs ... we recently completed a successful test of new protocols that are designed to restore performance and access to the application. This change has implications for link checkers and other bots that are utilized by our users and the library community." (http://www.fdlp.gov/purls/bots.html) QUESTION from MnPALS library: Is it safe to run print-11 (URL checker)? PALS doesn't believe that running print-11 would be considered a 'bot' that harvests data. Technically, it is only validating a finite set of cataloged URLs. Whereas, a robot looks at a page, harvests the information in the page (probably indexing it), then finds all links in the page and processes them.
  • 2 upcoming Question & Answer, one-hour sessions for ver. 18 Cataloging/Holdings/Items will be held. Those dates and times are: August 20, 9:30-10:30 and September 4, 1:30-2:30. Watch for registration information.

Circulation

  • We have had reports of problems with placing holds in v.18. In the GUI, an error message is being generated ("Item cannot be requested [Tab 37]. Patron does not have permission to place a hold request"). In the web OPAC, the Place Holds link is not appearing.
We have a solution. In tab 37, you need to change column 6 and beyond to actual location codes as defined in the tab_sub_library table. The PALS office maintains the tab_sub_library table, but you can view it at http://aleph.mnpals.net/tables/u18_1/alephe/tab/tab_sub_library.eng. We think tab 37 should have always been set up this way, but for some reason, having it set up "wrong" didn't cause a problem until now in v.18.

You will then need to follow the usual procedures for tables changes and restarting your servers (running sys-01 for both the PC and WWW servers).
  • The p-cir-77 process is being run by PALS for all libraries in v.18, currently. The deletion of expired patron records part of the p-cir-77 process is working correctly, we think, but patron records are NOT being deleted because we are not doing the entire process. The process looks for patron records with "DELETE" in the patron record global note 2 field (in tab 2.Global Blocks and Notes of [G] Global Patron Information window). If it finds that "DELETE", it will replace it with the phrase "TO-DEL 20080731" (with the date being one week from today). Then after that date has passed, the next running of the p-cir-77 process (which is run nightly, by the way), will look for any "liabilities" (cash, loans, ILL's) and finding none, will delete that patron record.
However, patron records are NOT being deleted now with the p-cir-77 process because we are not running an SQL program to identify patron records that have been expired for at least a year and put the "DELETE" statement in them. We think it would be better to start deleting patrons when more people are back in their libraries (late August?). We will then be automatically removing expired patron records for all libraries. A report is generated in each library that shows the output of the p-cir-77 process.
  • We have implemented a new service in Circulation: the p-mnpals-09. This service was needed to force changes to current patron records. You may recall that changes in tab 31 parameters, such as cash limits, won't affect current patron records, only new ones as they come into the system. The p-mnpals-09 service can be used when you update your default privileges for a borrowing status in tab 31 and want to update the Z305 patron status records in currently existing patron records.

Booking

  • A web training session was provided on June 24th with eleven libraries participating. They are all in various stages now of setting up Item Booking. There are some outstanding issues related to the services for Item Booking, otherwise all seems to be going well.
  • Testing the use of "office hours" for post training follow-up.
  • Another training session for Item Booking will be scheduled for late Aug./Early September using the same format as the first session.

ILL

Systems

  • Working on a number of calls related to the version 18 release. Main topics have been in regards to Saxon, Print Daemon, ILL Privileges, E-mailing ILL Notices and Download/install the software.

Web OPAC

  • See the note above (under Circulation) regarding problems placing holds.

Question and Answer Sessions Version 18

  • Question and Answer sessions for Version 18 will be announced. These sessions will be web meetings. Look for an email announcing the sessions on the MnPALS Discuss list.

EZproxy

  • Two more libraries have expressed interest in converting from LibProxy to EZproxy - SCT and WSU. The count is now 5-New EZproxy libraries and 19 converted libraries.
  • EZproxy Training - Current Schedule - 7/14-CEN, 7/15-RCLH & RCLW, 7/21-HTC, 7/28-RVL

OCLC Link Manager

  • Libraries that have had their applications for OCLC Link Manager processed:
    • Minneapolis Community and Technical College,
    • Southwest Minnesota State University,
    • College of St. Scholastica,
    • St. Cloud Technical College,
    • Bethany Lutheran College,
    • Inver Hills Community College
  • Libraries from the first group that we still need to get their applications processed:
    • Hibbing Community College,
    • Riverland Community College,
    • South Central College
  • IHC participated in a training session July 15th. Group training sessions will be held during the week of July 21st and August 4th.

Task Forces

Authorities

PALS will be purchasing a new Library of Congress Authority File which will most likely be loaded during the December semester break. The MnPALS Authority Task Force will help test the new authority functionality in version 18 on the development server once the current Authority database is reindexed. You can read about this activity on the task force's Forum (http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?board=5.0)

Indexing Task Force

This MnPALS task force has not met over the summer months. Their next meeting is scheduled for September. Read about their activity on their Forum (http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?board=6.0)

Discovery Tool Task Force

MnPALS Plus will be rolled out on August 15th! Watch for a historical document explaining what this is and a Rollout Document with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about MnPALS Plus. One of the outcomes of the Consortium of MnPALS Libraries Strategic Plan (Dec 2006) was the recognition that a better end-user interface to the data in the Aleph system was needed. Often called a "Discovery Tool" this is a presentation layer on top of the ILS that has the modern features that users expect. Features such as a simple Google-like user interface, faceted searching; and social networking features such as tagging. A typical “discovery tool” extracts the bibliographic data from the ILS, reformats it to optimize performance, and stores it in its own database. To read about the work of the MnPALS Discovery Tool Task Force to their Forum (http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?board=61.0)

PALS Support Center

Updated & New Answers
  • 3254 Current Standing Orders mnpals-51
  • 3225 Batch Inventory Management
  • 3252 Availability Button Returning Error Message
  • 2298 Authority information associated with a Heading
  • 3253 Tables Related to Item Booking
  • 3251 Booking Request Form To/From Dates
  • 3250 Logical bases not working on Browse Search in GUI Client
  • 3230 Hold Request Reports
  • 3249 Page Numbers etc. Missing From Reports
  • 2984 Changing port number address through library.ini
  • 3246 Setting up Bases for Search
  • 3244 Too Many Item Records on a Title
  • 3243 Collections Using Local Call Numbers for Inventory
  • 3245 New Mail Attachment Field in v.18 Patron/Vendor Records
  • 3247 Prediction Pattern Description
  • 3242 Inventory Marking Print Report at End of Session
  • 3174 Include BIB/HOL data

Meetings Attended

  • MINITEX Open Source ILS Workshops - Evergreen, 6/16/2008 (Dee, Cathy, Dan)
  • ALA - Anaheim, CA 6/26/2008 - 7/3/2008 (Dee)

Questions?

If you have questions, please contact the PALS Support Center at http://pals.custhelp.com
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