SUNYConnect Advisory Council

Draft Minutes

April 12, 2006

 

Present:            Carey Hatch, Janet Potter, Dave Ritchie, Judy Sikora, Nancy VanDeusen, Rick Winant, Maureen Zajkowski, Connie Perrin (Staff)

 

Excused:           Randy Gadikian, Walter Asonevich, Don Boyce, John Homburger, Walter                                Lukhaup, Stephen Roberts

 

Rick served as Chair in Randy’s absence.

 

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the meeting of March 15, 2006 were approved as distributed.

 

Aleph 500 LMS Update

Maureen provided the following LMS update:

 

Implementations

  • University at Buffalo (BUF) - implementation activities over the past four weeks:
    • evaluating data loads
    • configuring WebOPAC
    • System Administration training
    • Module configuration and testing
    • STP continues to be scheduled for Summer 2006

 

Version 16 Upgrade Activities

  • Version 16 Aleph regions - Valerie Lehman, Natalie Sturr and ITEC staff are working on the multiple steps involved in creating  the v16 environments:
    • v16 DEV regions
      • 28 campuses have been notified that their v16 DEV region is now available
      • 22 campuses - work is underway to develop their v16 DEV regions
    • v16 PROD regions
      • 50 campuses - work is starting to create v16 PROD regions
      • April 24 - from that time forward 3-4 campuses are scheduled almost weekly to switch to production; this activity will continue through mid-August
  • WebOPAC customization:
    • The upgrade process essentially removes all OPAC customizations that campuses have invested in.  Laura Murray is updating each campus v16 WebOPAC to reflect the customizations that had been done in v14. 
      • 14 campus WebOPACs have been completed
  • Aleph v14 to v16 training:
    • Karen Gardner-Athey and Maggie Horn began training to highlight the differences between the v14 and v16 Aleph modules; this addresses cataloging, circulation, serials/acquisitions and library systems functions
    • training began the week of March 20 and will continue almost every two weeks through early August
  • Version 16 Upgrade support
    • Access to a GUI, to documentation, to web-based overview sessions, and more http://www.sunyconnect.suny.edu/aleph/v16upgrade.htm (login: aleph500/ aleph500)
    • Footprints Service Request http://www.sunyconnect.suny.edu/service/
  • "How to Prepare for the Version 16 Upgrade?"
    • find this document at http://www.sunyconnect.suny.edu/aleph/v16upgrade.htm (login: aleph500/ aleph500)
  • Request to campuses:
    • campuses have been implored in various postings to keep track of all Aleph table changes that have been made in their v14 PROD regions as of February 2006

 

The SAC discussed in detail issues surrounding the Web OPAC.  As a consequence, members reached the following decision, which will be pursued during the SCLD Conference:

 

            The SAC seeks guidance from SCLD regarding the standardization of the Web OPAC as         opposed to individual campus’ customization.  Standardization will allow the OLIS more      time to develop shared capabilities rather than supporting campus customization.  If          campuses choose customization, the costs will be borne by them.

 

In relation to this, Maureen reported that she will be releasing the following announcement along with an explanation:

 

            The OLIS, with an endorsement from the SAC, has made the decision to postpone the v16 Web OPAC training until sometime after the completion of the v14 to v16 upgrades.             This means that there will be no v14 to v16 Web OPAC training scheduled from April     through August.

 

Campus customization that has occurred in v14 will be migrated to v16 by OLIS as previously announced.

 

OLIS Update

The following points and/or decisions were made during Carey’s update:

 

  1. Because we need a new name for the Union Catalog, students and faculty will be consulted for suggestions.
  2. The E-Resources Project Evaluation Team is meeting today.  Members have been receiving a fair amount of feedback from the campus contacts.  Carey said the team may decide on a proposal by the end of the day.  He also reported that Nylink has provided quotes for FirstSearch and the OCLC databases, which will soon be released.
  3. The SAC Finance Committee will hold another conference call with the NYSHEI Executive Board to discuss NYSHEI’s future, finances and membership.
  4. On April 7, Carey, Maureen and Rick met with Ed Rivenburgh, Mary Beth Bell, Mark Sullivan, Mary Alice Lynch and Jon Penn regarding IDS and Universal Borrowing.  Carey stated that recommendations from the ILL meeting held in Syracuse on February 8 and 9 will be explored at the SCLD Conference in April.  For this purpose, Maureen has created a document providing background on the development of SUNY-wide borrowing for the SCLD annual meeting discussion on this topic.  Carey said a Universal Borrowing conference call is scheduled for tomorrow, April 13.

 

SCLD Annual Conference – April 24-26

Carey enumerated the topics which he will be including in his report for the SCLD conference:

 

·        The status of Aleph, the Union Catalog, Electronic Resources, SFX, the Digital Repository and Universal Borrowing (now referred to as SUNY Borrowing)

 

·        Finances

 

·        Looking ahead:  Shared Systems, Collections (strategic direction), Digital Library/Repository, Committees/Task Forces

 

·        Data Infrastructure:  Union Catalog/Collection Analysis and Borrowing

 

Rick will be presenting on the ILL goals from the February meeting in Syracuse.  Input from SCLD will be added to that already received from SUNYLA.  Rick stated that the document is still considered a recommendation.

 

Carey stated that the SCLD Executive Board has requested to meet with SAC regarding governance going forward.

 

E-Resources Meeting

At the request of John Schumacher, SAC met briefly with the E-Resources Project Evaluation Team so that SAC could be apprised of their progress.

 

Upcoming SAC Elections

Elections for the fiscal year 2006-07 will be held on May 17.  Rick, who is currently Vice Chair, will become Chair.  The Chair Elect and the Secretary need to be designated.

 

Mary Beth Bell will be replacing Janet as the SCLD representative.  Replacements will also be needed for Randy as the Four Year College rep and Judy as the Community College rep.

 

Digital Collection

The SAC discussed ways in which to obtain more centralized funding for the digital collection.  Members agreed that the Faculty Senate can play an integral part in this process because they have access to the Academic Vice Presidents, who in turn have access to the campus Presidents.  Carey said he will gather some information for the Faculty Senate Operations Committee.  The SAC also discussed the importance of content and research.

 

New Business

Carey has e-mailed the SUNYLA and SUNYConnect LMS lists a message which states that OLIS is offering to buy lunch for any multi-campus group that decides to organize a regional get-together.  This is to help address concerns expressed to OLIS that there are not any regional opportunities for librarians and their staffs to get together to talk about SUNYConnect applications such as Aleph and SFX.

 

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for May 17 at the Training Center in Syracuse.

 

The June 14 SAC meeting will be held at Geneseo during the SUNYLA 2006 Conference.

 

Adjournment.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nancy Van Deusen, Secretary

Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)