MnPALS Support and Training Services: February 2009Aleph
Acq/Serials
- Testing and writing documentation for Aleph ver. 19 Acquisitions/Serials Informational Sessions.
- An enhancement request has been made with ExLibris regarding being able to control the display order of Summary Holdings. If a library has more than one holding with a BIB title, perhaps one holding has old issues and one holding has new issues, when the holdings are expanded in the Summary Holdings sometimes the newer issue holdings display before the older issue holdings and sometimes they display older issues first and then newer issues. We sent an incident to ExLibris and they responded that the order is based on a series of routines used to generate the Summary Holdings, and that the order is essentially random. They confirmed that there is no table or other mechanism that can be used to order these in any specific way. They said that an enhancement request could be created if we wish. SI-16384-85268 has been created.
- Bemidji State University has begun electronic ordering with Midwest and Baker & Taylor.
- Gustavus Adolphus has begun electronic ordering with Blackwell Book Services and Midwest.
- The PALS staff will be making global changes to the To Date in the Subscription Records and the Subscription End Date in the Order Records. The criteria used for these changes is dates of 12/31/2010 or greater will be changed to 12/31/2025. The PALS staff plans to do these changes on a Sunday morning the end of February or early March. Doing these changes at that time should not affect your day to day activity. When we know the exact date, we will let you know. If you have questions, please contact http://pals.custhelp.com
- Held a conference call with Baker & Taylor to discuss simplifying ordering with them and Aleph. Baker & Taylor said they do have the capability to interface with major library systems like Aleph, in a way similar to existing workflows between YBP and PALS libraries. Many Minnesota libraries use Baker & Taylor, and although currently none is set up to use an interface between Aleph and Baker & Taylor, several options are available. Baker & Taylor will be in touch with you to find out what your current workflow is and how they might help in making your Baker & Taylor ordering more efficient.
Cataloging
- Testing and writing documentation for Aleph ver. 19 Cataloging/Holding/Items/Indexing Informational Sessions.
- (2) Cataloging Q&A sessions were held the last week of January. The documentation for the session and recording of the session are located on the PALS Homepage Documentation Center. Go to the PALS homepage http://www.mnpals.org > MnPALS Support Center > Documentation > Cataloging > PALS Created Documentation > Cataloging Q&A: January 28 & 29, 2009.
- The Cataloging Steering Committee has filled the vacancies for the Private Colleges and Special Libraries. The committee is now comprised of: Bobby Bothmann, MSU/Mankato (state universities); Lori Pesik, St. Mary's University/Winona (private colleges); Adam Marsnik, Normandale Comm. College (community colleges); Jane Young, Century College (consolidated colleges); Sarah Quimby, MN Historical Society (special libraries); Robin Horowitz, MN State Law Library (state government libraries). To find their contact information go to the PALS homepage http://www.mnpals.org > MnPALS Consortium > User Groups > Cataloging User Group > Steering Committee.
- Cataloging Steering Committee minutes can be found on the Cataloging Forum at http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?board=54.0
- Global changes to be done by the PALS Office. At no cost, PALS will do global changes to all of the 6.5+ million bib records in the SYS01 shared bib database. Notify your Cataloging Steering Committee representative of changes that need to be made across the entire bib catalog. These could be MARC standard changes, such as 440 change to 490 1st indicator 0 with the data in an 830 field.
- Libraries will be allowed to do global changes to their OWN Bib or Holding records. This will be introduced to the User Council and Executive Committee at their February 12, 2009 meeting with these caveats: 1. Library director understands the risks, authorizes the librarian to make global changes, agrees to pay fees if reversal is requested, and permission is limited to authorized operators by the systems librarian. 2. System librarian is responsible to block this service from all operators not authorized by the director. ** Watch for further instructions and training sessions on how to do your own global changes.
- PALS statement on Batch Load of Bib Records. MnPALS libraries will not be able to load their own bib records via the Aleph service bib loaders. Please read the statement located on the PALS homepage http:///www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/cat.html. If you choose not to load your own batch file of bib records, PALS will continue load files of bib records for libraries at a fee. Check the Participating Charges document on the PALS homepage for these fees.
- Automatic creation of Holding and Item records. At the Cataloging Q&A session, we discussed how libraries can accomplish this via the tab_z30 table. This is on HOLD in the PALS office since there is a change where this is set up in ver. 19. There no longer is a tab_z30 table in ver. 19. It is being replaced by 2 other tables that we need to test.
- New or Updated Knowledge Base Answers:
- 3287 - tab_type_config. Why you see the bracketed format following a title in the WebOPAC Results list; i.e. The long road <Videorecording>
- 2968 - Print-08, Report Format Choices.
- 3285 - Acq Status from Holding Record.
- 3221 and 3286 - Adding new Material Types for the Item Record dropdown choices. NOTE: This is done differently for Acquisitions Order records. For new material type dropdown choices, this is set up in the pc_tab_expand.eng table under 'Acq-Order Material Type'.
- 3208 & 3270 - Bowker Book Analysis.
- Cataloger's Workday, April 23 & 24, 2009, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN. Be sure to watch for the Registration Form.
Circulation
- Testing and writing documentation for v.19 Circulation Information Sessions.
Course Reserves
- Testing and writing documentation for Aleph ver. 19 functional training in the GUI environment.
ILL
- Completed interlibrary loan interoperability testing between MnPALS ALEPH ILL and MnLINK VDX ILL.
- We have recruited two MnPALS libraries, St Cloud State University and Minnesota State University, Mankato, to exchange interlibrary loan requests with two MnLINK VDX libraries, Great River Regional Library System and Traverse des Sioux Library System.
Systems
- Built the ALEPH Version 19 Clients. Ready to distribute the clients when the server is done re-indexing.
- Working on "Systems Informational Session" Topics - Task Manager and Staff Privileges.
Question and Answer Sessions Version 18
- There were two Cataloging Q & A sessions. One was held on January 28th and the other January 29th.
- If you are interested in listening to the content, you can link to it at this website: https://breeze5.metnet.edu/p12161544/ The length of the session was 1 hour and 56 minutes. The Agenda and content notes for each item discussed can be found in the Cataloging Q&A, January 28 - 29, 2009 document. This document can be found on the PALS homepage under the PALS created documentation for Cataloging at this link http://www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/18docs/cat_qa_200901.pdf
Version 19 Information Sessions
- Remember to sign-up for Version 19 information session. To sign-up for a session go to http://www.abcsignup.com/view/view_month.aspx?as=16&aid=PALS&wp=112
- Acquisitions and Serials- This web session is designed as a one-hour information session on the new features in Aleph version 19 for Acquisitions/Serials.
- Thursday February 19 2:00 pm
- Wednesday February 25 10:30 am
- Monday March 2 2:00 pm
- Tuesday March 3 10:30 am
- Cataloging, Holdings and Items- This web session is designed as a one-hour information session on the new features in Aleph version 19 for Cataloging, Holding and Items.
- Wednesday February 25 9:00 am
- Wednesday February 25 2:00 pm
- Thursday February 26 10:30 am
- Friday February 27 10:30 am
- Monday March 2 12:30 pm
- Circulation- This web session is designed as a one-hour information session on the new features in Aleph version 19 for Circulation.
- Friday February 20 2:00 pm
- Tuesday February 24 9:00 am
- Thursday February 26 12:30 pm
- Monday March 2 10:30 am
- Tuesday March 3 3:30 pm
- Course Reserves-This web session is designed as a two-hour training session of the Course Reserves functionality in Aleph version 19, which is now in the GUI Client environment. Any MnPALS Library who has been using Course Reserves would have used it in the web-based module. All libraries using Course Reserves should receive this training as the look and some functionality is different. The session will be recorded if anyone needs to refer to it at a later date.
- Thursday March 5 1:30 pm
- Thursday March 12 1:30 pm
- Wednesday March 18 10:00 am
- Interlibrary Loan- This web session is designed as a one-hour information session on the new features in Aleph version 19 for Interlibrary Loan.
- Wednesday February 18 3:30 pm
- Tuesday February 24 12:30 pm
- Thursday February 26 9:00 am
- Wednesday March 4 10:30 am
- Friday March 6 10:30 am
- Systems- This web session is designed as a one-hour information session on the new features in Aleph version 19 for Systems. Among the topics we will cover are "Task Manager" and "Staff Privileges". Both of these items have changed in appearance and some functionality for version 19.
- Tuesday February 24 10:30 am
- Thursday February 26 2:00 pm
- Friday February 27 12:30 pm
- Thursday March 5 2:00 pm
- WebOPAC- This web session is designed as a one-hour information session, which will highlight the new and updated Web OPAC functionality in Aleph version 19. Participants should plan to bring Web OPAC questions of their own to this web session.
- Wednesday March 4 2:00 pm
- Thursday March 5 10:30 am
- Friday March 6 2:00 pm
Not Aleph
EZproxy
- MnPALS Forum Board: http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?board=47.0
- 32 sites "Live" on EZproxy, we have 3 sites that are building their web pages and should be up by the end of February - UCR, CLC, PTC. Working with 1 remaining "New" site - ATC - This site requested EZproxy training sometime during the spring.
- Sites that went live in the last month - HCC, VCC, ICC, RRC.
- The "EZproxy Q&A Session" on January 27th was well attended. This was a FULL hour of proxy information exchange. The consensus was to hold the EZproxy Q&A Sessions every 2 to 3 months.
OCLC Link Manager
MnPALS Plus (Discovery Tool)
Task Forces
Authorities Task Force
Discovery Tool Task Force
Indexing Task Force
Reports Task Force
Work Days
In place of Spring User Group meetings, User Council and the PALS staff are encouraging the User Group Steering Committees to plan Work Days. A tentative schedule follows:
- Reference: Friday, April 3 (Metropolitan State University, St. Paul)
- Acquisitions, Serials and Cataloging Workdays: April 23 & 24, 2009, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN
- Circulation and Interlibrary Loan are collaborating on a Spring Workday! At this time, they have secured space at St. Cloud State University on Thursday, April 30, and Friday, May 1. What we need now are presenters! This day can only work if people are willing to share their knowledge and lead presentations, discussions, etc. Please respond on the Forum or directly to your groups’ convener (ILL-Sharon Evensen; CIRC-Pam Sukalski) with your interest in presenting. March 6 is the “deadline” to get feedback from those interested in presenting. If there aren’t volunteers, they won’t be having a spring workday.
Office Teams
Communications Team
- We had received a request to add a link to the Quick Links on the PALS web site for the Aleph OPACS, web view tables and services on the development server. We have a Quick Link for the production server. We have made the decision to NOT add a Quick Link for the development server at this time, mostly because we felt the Quick Links should be reserved for frequently used links and we didn’t feel the development server link was used that often. However, in looking into this, we discovered that it wasn’t easy to navigate to the development server, so we have added other links to it on the web site. From any page, you can click on the blue Quick Links icon, which will take you to the Quick Links page, which will have a link in the left-hand navigation pane for “Links to MnPALS Servers". Clicking on “Links to MnPALS Servers” will take you to a page that has links for the following:
Marketing Team
- MnPALS Plus has been sold to ODIN. PALS will provide the software intact with the changes, updates that have been made for the MnPALS consortium. ODIN will host the implementation.
- A "Prospect" List has been built and is growing for the sale of future products.
- A press release about the development of MnPALS Plus was sent around the nation to various library entities.
MnLink Gateway Update
- MnLink Gateway Operations Committee (February 5, Conference Call): Perry, Sonja attended on behalf of MnPALS.
Meetings Attended
- Discovery Tool Task Force (February 2, St. Cloud): Perry, Al
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