Barton Advisory Group
X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.2
X-Sender: lisapisa@hesiod
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 11:56:49 -0400
To: all-lib@mit.edu
From: Lisa Harrington <lisapisa@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Minutes - Barton Advisory Group - September 14, 2005
X-Spam-Score: -3.783
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.42
Barton Advisory Group Minutes September 14, 2005
Present: Darcy Duke, Lisa Harrington (minutes), Georgiana McReynolds, Christine Moulen (chair), Beth Siers, Rich Wenger
Aleph 16 upgrade issues. Siers mentioned she was working on a list of records and fixing them as she had been receiving them. These were problems from the loader downtime for the upgrade. In addition two catalogers were also working on these problems. Wenger spoke about the IP addresses being stored strangely and that the zeros were not coming through after patch 5. After posting to the NAUUG list it seems there was not a fix yet but this also may not be seen as a defect to Ex Libris. For now he has been adjusting this problem using scripts to add the zeros back in. Siers and Moulen are continuing work on the authorities loader and using a new script to do additional matching. There are still things not matching correctly mis-matches occurring and each record has to be checked. McReynolds brought up proxy patron problems when items had multiple holds; privileges for proxy and sponsor had to be changed in order to check out the item and then changed back to restore the defaults. There are some issues with EDI invoicing for Serials that Moulen, Maxwell and Harrington are working on. These have been sent to Ex Libris and currently there are two vendors involved with the testing and set up.
Aleph Service Packs. Moulen explained how the service packs would work and will be in place of patches. The patches were problematic because of long waits between each patch. The service packs are easier to install with about 20-50 fixes every two weeks. They are released Sunday mornings. They are not necessary but if one piece is needed the entire pack has to be installed and they are cumulative. Moulen suggested we perhaps install these once a month and more often as needed. Christine will send the spreadsheet of the list of the fixes coded to each module and some details each time. We are able to try them on the test server before applying them to the live version as well. Aleph needs to be restarted with each installation but the downtime is only about 20 minutes or so. In the last service pack the loader fixes did not work as part of the service pack so Moulen and Siers are following up on it to be sure that they will in the future.
Barton Priority List Reviewed. Duke brought up a few issues about the Web OPAC that were deemed too small to be added to the list, but some discussion ensued about solutions, including methods for eliminating the annoying "pop-to-front" feature of Barton.
The piggybacking group recommended using the MARCit service from SFX, which will allow us to load full Conser records for all our holdings in SFX (including the aggregators). We're hoping to load only holdings for things we already hold in print, and this will require some matching and overlay setup in addition to loading the new records.
There's also the project of adding SFX OpenURLs to Barton for things covered by the SFX KnowledgeBase, so the SFX button will appear on those records in Barton once we turn on Barton as an SFX Source. This require comparing a list of ISBNs and ISSNs with Barton, and adding URLs to those records via the loader.
Version 18. Ex Libris is releasing version 18 in January. Harvard had upgraded to version 17 in the summer. The upgrade from v.16 to v.17 is much easier than any other so far. Siers pointed out that the authority upgrades will likely be time consuming. The indexing with version 18 may require more server space depending on how it works. Wenger also mentioned the hardware needed for v.18. We need to upgrade the sever-this is being worked out. There was discussion of presenting the upgrade to v.18 and getting approval for it. It is ideal to do every other upgrade every other year. Moulen proposes we look at v.18 when it comes out. Moulen then went through a list of benefits and new features v.17 and v.18 has, this includes the authority fixes we have been waiting for.
Next meeting: September 28, 2005 1:30pm, Cubespace E25-131
Minutes: McReynolds