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Technical Services Report: November 2007

System news and work completed

  • Loaded NetLibrary records for Minnesota State Community & Technical College Libraries (CTC): Detroit Lakes (DLC), Fergus Falls (FFC), Moorhead (MTC), Wadena (WCT), Minneapolis Community & Technical College (MCT), Minnesota School of Business (MSB), and Vermillion Community College (VCC).
  • Loaded Marcive records for: Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC), Bemidji State University (BSU), St. Cloud State University (SCS), and St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict’s (SBJ) through October 2007.
  • Ex Libris has advised that the upgrade kit for Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from the Web to the GUI is now available for download. We will be working on a schedule and plan for ILL in conjunction with the version 18 upgrade.
  • Created a staff wiki.
  • Completed the hardware upgrade and switch over to the production server on 9/23/07. There were a few problems, but overall, it went well.
  • Tested the backups on Lute that were performed on the new production server.
  • Installed NetBackup documentation on the on-call laptop.
  • Installed NetBackup software on the development server.
  • Since moving to the new hardware on production, the weekly backups have been hanging. One of the problems was fixed last week, and the other problem was fixed with a workaround. We will be working on a permanent fix for the remaining problem.
  • Populated the z106 Catalogers table for the bib and holdings records.
  • Version 18 and Oracle 10 were installed by Ex Libris on October 15. There were some problems with the install, and it was not released to us until October 29.
  • Completed upgrading the old production hardware to the new development server.
  • The version 18 installation was moved to the development server (Tenor) in the version 18 zone (Jazz).
  • Upgraded Oracle 9i to Oracle 10G on Jazz.
  • A drive on the SAN went bad November 13, and we were running for a short time with a "hot spare". A replacement drive was installed that afternoon.
  • Removed all but the last five catalogers from the bib and holdings records.
  • Attended a Discovery Tool Task Force meeting in St. Cloud. We stated that we will have the Discovery Tool up and running in January 2008.
  • The two new Linux servers are here. The Discovery Tool will be installed and run on one of them once the system prep work is completed.
  • Attended Oracle Data Warehouse, Linux, and Cognos ReportNet Authoring training.
  • Re-indexed the keywords on Lute. It will take approximately 15 hours to re-index. We plan to start the re-indexing on Harp on Wednesday night, 11/21/07, and the OPAC will be redirected to Lute during the time the re-indexing is occurring.

Work in progress

  • Ongoing system maintenance and upgrades.
  • Installed the August version 17 service pack on Harp at the same time the hardware was upgraded (9/23/07). Version 17 and ILL service packs are being released quarterly now.
  • Attending Indexing Task Force meetings.
  • Continuing to work on PALS Support Center tickets.
  • Continuing to work with the UNIX system monitoring software.
  • Continuing to work on LibProxy.
  • Continuing to perform weekly updates to the Authorities database on Harp.
  • Continuing to report ILL and Aleph version 17 software problems to Ex Libris.
  • Working on packaging up the old development server hardware and some components from the old production server to send back to SUN.
  • Working on a new disaster and file recovery plan for backups.
  • Working on SQL reports and services recommended by the Reports Group.
  • Attended a Reports Group conference call meeting.
  • Working on the file transfer from the business office and reformatting it for input to Aleph.
  • We have received a permanent license for EZProxy and will be installing it once the hardware upgrades are completed.
  • Working on the version 18 project plan.
  • Working with Ex Libris to schedule installation of ARC2 on Harp with a tentative installation in November. Provided the type of licenses wanted for each ADM.
  • Discussing outstanding Support Incidents with Greg Gosselin, Manager of Support Services for Ex Libris.
  • Working on tweaking the Discovery Tool and learning more about the underlying open source search engine toolkit, Lucene.
  • Working with Yankee Book Peddler to set up St. John’s/St. Ben’s (SBJ) for EDI and using their Gobi product which is similar to Blackwell’s Collection Manager. Tested loading a file on Lute.
  • Ex Libris thinks the problem with the Marcive loader matching routine is not working because it does not filter by OWN code, and it will not be a quick fix. They suggested a workaround, and we will be testing it on Lute as time permits. Meanwhile, the four libraries that subscribe to the service were contacted and updated about the Marcive loader and asked whether they wanted their records loaded as is or wait until the test has been performed. All stated they wanted their records loaded, and they will deal with the duplicate records.
  • Waiting for p_manage_18_p (record loader using parallel processes), and “golem” fixes from Ex Libris.
  • Waiting to hear from Ex Libris about problems with discounts and funds when using Blackwell’s Book Services Collection Manager to create order records in Aleph.
  • ISRS is ready to test the cash file process, but we need an enhancement to the Aleph processes that handle this function. An enhancement request was submitted to Ex Libris.
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