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Support and Training Services: November 2009

Aleph

Acq/Serials

  • We believe that the upgrading of our Solaris patches has fixed the execution errors (aborts) problem that caused some services to not complete properly. In Acquisitions this was happening occasionally when the acq-14 and edi-11 were run.
  • A new service pack was loaded on Aleph November 14th. Here are a few acquisition/serial changes.
    • RC#701 When an order is deleted and a subscription is linked to this order and the subscription is not going to be deleted, the order number link remained in the subscription record. This has been corrected. The order number is deleted from the subscription record when the order is deleted.
    • RC#708 When running the edi-10 for your EBSCO EDI invoices, if the input file contained 1000 or more line items for one invoice the loading either aborted or did not end properly. This has been corrected.
    • RC#731 When a vendor record's "EDI For Order Only" was checked (set to Yes) claims and cancellation letters were also produced in EDI format. The system was not interpretting the EDI for Order Only. This has been corrected. If you are sending orders through EDI to any of our EDI vendors, such as Baker & Taylor, Midwest, etc.; you are now able to produce a claim or cancellation letter that you can print and send to the vendor. We do not have EDI claiming set up in Aleph so sending a print letter is the only way to handle a claim or cancellation.
    • RC#744 When running the Print Claim Letters/Reports (serial-44) service the no. of claims field in the view history always indicated Any Claim even when a different value had been chosen. This has been corrected.
  • Many of the libraries are begining to receive their annual EDI invoice(s) from EBSCO. There is a version 19 document on the PALS homepage to assist you with processing that invoice. You can find it under the Acq/Serial documentation and then under the PALS Created Documentation. It is called "EDI Invoicing with EBSCO and Aleph".

Cataloging

  • Re-indexing will be done on the development server the weekend of November 20th. When the indexing is done on the development server, it will be copied to production over Thanksgiving weekend. During this time, the MnPALS OPAC will be redirected to the development server. The MnPALS Indexing Task Force has requested a variety of new indexes which will become useable after the reindexing has completed. Watch for the New Indexing document to be available the first part of December.
  • Authorities work that has been done is the following:
    1. Removed the 2nd indicator from the 100, 110, and 111 tags on 2.6 million authority records in the SYS10 authority database. This will prevent Bib records from getting the second indicator incorrectly updated.
    2. Set the UPD=N on over 98,000 subject Authority Records with subdivisions $$v, $$x, and $$z in the 150 tags. PALS is identifying the bib records that had flipped to a subject heading with duplicate information; e.g. 650 $$a Art, American $$v Periodicals $$x Periodicals. This incorrect update occurred during the brief time that ue-08 was turned on in August 2009. (NOTE: ue-08 is the process whereby the bibliographic 650 second indicator '0' heading is checked against the authority database. If the bib 650_0 subject heading matches an authority 450 see from (unauthorized form of heading), then the bib heading is flipped to the 150 established heading in the authority record.) If it is discovered that there were only a few records incorrectly updated, PALS will fix them. If we identify a lot of records, a list will be provided to the libraries so they can fix them.
    3. The Tech Staff will begin loading the weekly Authority updates from the first week of August to the present on the production server. When we start loading these, the ue-08 will be turned on so that the bib headings will flip to the correct, authorized headings.
    4. By turning on the UPD authority functionality, it only updated new bib records or those being updated and saved to the server. There are approximately 3 million records in SYS01 that need updating. PALS will work on updating the existing Bib record fields that need flipping over a series of weekends to keep the indexing of all these records from impacting system resources.
  • Cataloging User Group on October 28th elected new representation from each library type. Please contact your Cataloging Steering Committee with concerns, thoughts, ideas about the quality of the database or other things related to cataloging. Or, you can continue to send your concerns to Mary Ann at the PALS office and I will forward your comments to the steering committee. The Cataloging Steering Committee is comprised of:
    • State Universities - Bruce Willms, Metropolitan State University
    • Private Colleges - Lori Pesik, St. Mary's University
    • Community Colleges - Adam Marsnik, Normandale Community College
    • Consolidated Colleges - Ginny Heinrich, Minneapolis Community and Technical College
    • State Government Libraries - Robin Horowitz, Minnesota State Law Library
    • Special Libraries - Sarah Quimby, Minnesota Historical Society
      • Co-convenors of the Cataloging User Group will be: Ginny Heinrich, MCTC, and Adam Marsnik, NDC.
  • A new service pack was loaded on Aleph November 14th. Here are a few Cataloging/Item changes.
    • RC #702 - Three corrections were made for the move_record functionality.
      1. When moving ADM-records in the Overview Tree in the Cataloging module, the information that was stored in Z30 field of the ADM-record was lost. This was problematic as the Z30-field is used for two functionalities in circulation:
        • Change/Restore Item information
        • Reading room loan.
      2. When moving an HOL-record in the Overview Tree in the Cataloging module, a warning is displayed when an HOL record with the same owner is already linked to the target BIB record. This check is performed only if an OWN-field with the owner exists in the HOL records.
      3. When moving a BIB-record in the Overview Tree in the Cataloging module, the system tries to move the Item records of the BIB record twice when they are also linked via Z30-HOL-DOC-NUMBER to an HOL record of the source BIB record. This has been corrected. Another aspect of this problem is that in some cases, when the system tried to move items that have already been moved, moving HOL records is blocked because these items can not be moved for some reason (for example, they are on loan). This has been corrected.
    • RC #711 - When manually using CTRL + F3 in the BIB library on tags 130, 630, or 730 in order to update the heading from AUT tag 130, the second indicator from tag 130 (AUT-library) should be taken to the first indicator of the BIB tag. This feature did not work when the first and second indicators of tag 130 (AUT library) are blank. This has been corrected.
    • RC #715 - A new service, Clean HOL number from Item (item-12), has been introduced. This service deletes the HOL document number from the item record if the HOL record is deleted. NOTE: We have tested this in the PALS office and receive a Remote Service Error message ""Unable to find correct permission for proc-name: p_item_12". We have sent the problem to ExLibris Support. They have sent it to Development with a Priority Leval of "High".
    • RC #732 - The Shelf List (item-05) service does not abort when the item limit (5000) is reached.
  • Are you seeing this? We have had several libraries report that the cataloging module won't open or that it takes 10-20 minutes to open. It comes up with a "transferring files" window and the blue bar slowly loads, but often never opens. PALS Tech Staff can see that the file it is trying to transfer is the pc_cat.pck file. The pc_server starts out pushing the file to the pc_client without any problems for the first half of the download. Then it seems like the client cannot keep up and starts requesting the resending of packets. It does get some of the packets, but after about 30 seconds, all traffic stops. We are working on this with ExLibris and IT staff at the affected libraries. Libraries that have reported this to the PALS office are: Concordia College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota School of Business, Perpich Center of the Arts. These libraries are outside the MnSCU and State internet clouds. Since we have not had any reports from MnSCU or State Agency libraries, we assume this is only happening outside these 2 clouds. Nevertheless, if you are experiencing this type of behavior with your cataloging module not opening; please report it to the PALS Support Center.

Circulation

  • At this time, it is our belief that the upgrading of our Solaris patches has fixed the execution errors (aborts) problem that caused some services to not complete properly.
  • Service Pack Fix
    • With input from the Circ Steering Committee, it was agreed that we should set all libraries setenv fix_addresss_name parameter (in alephe pc_server_defaults) to "Y". This will turn on the functionality of converting the name that is entered in the Fast Patron Registration form name field, from Last, First to First_Last in the name field in the address, when we install the service pack that includes rep change 698. To summarize the functionality: if name is entered as Last, First in the Fast Patron Registration form name field, it will convert it to First_Last in the address; if name is entered as First_Last in the Fast Patron Registration form name field, it will leave it at First_Last in the address.

ILL

  • The service pack contains a fix so the patron name will be printed on lending slips. The patron name will be printed on lending slips printed by MnPALS and ODIN ILL units. Because of patron data privacy policy a patron's name will not be printed on lending slips printed by ILL units on the University of Minnesota server.
  • The service pack has a fix for field name in Patron Request Report (ill-74). The text "Requests Created After" has been changed to "Requests Created On or After" this date.
  • The ILL User group asked all MnPALS libraries that use the Minitex Overnight Courier service to decide if they want to participate in direct lending/borrowing among MnPALS libraries. Interlibrary loan staff can still complete the direct borrowing survey at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB2296CP962XC

Systems

  • After the service pack install on November 15, 2009, library staff are reminded to do a Version Check to bring in the updated software.

Not Aleph

EZproxy

OCLC Link Manager

MnPALS Plus

PALSconnect Linker

  • PALSconnect Linker is based on the reSearcher from Simon Frasier University. PALSconnect Linker is based on two of the main modules of reSearcher:
    • CUFTS: Open Source Serials Management
    • GODOT: Open Source Link Resolving
  • Two libraries are beta testing the PALSconnect Linker product, Crown College and Globe University/Minnesota Schools of Business.
  • Perry is building a set of wiki pages to support the product at http://wiki.mnpals.org/index.php/PALSconnect_Linker

Task Forces

Authorities

Indexing

MnPALS Plus Working Group

Reports Task Force

PALS Support Center

Updated & New Answers

  • A new recording "Getting Around the Aleph Desktop Presentation" has been created.  This recording will especially be helpful for training new library staff as it covers the basics of getting around the Aleph GUI.  You can find this on the PALS homepage under Documentation and also under Recorded Sessions.  It is also available by searching the answer book.  For your reference the answer book number is 3346.
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