SUNYConnect Advisory Council

Minutes – February 15, 2005

 

Present:            Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, John Homburger, Andy Perry, Janet Potter, Judy Sikora, Barbara von Wahlde, Rick Winant, Maureen Zajkowski, Connie Perrin (Staff)

 Excused:           Mike Pisa, Nancy Van Deusen

 Guest:               Donald Boyce, Student Assembly Representative

 Welcome to Student Assembly Representative

Andy introduced Donald Boyce, who will be participating in SAC as the student assembly representative.  Donald is a finance major at SUNY Albany.  He said he will be reporting on SAC activities at the Student Assembly Conference in April.

 

Review of Agenda Items

Review of the minutes was postponed until noon, when Nancy Van Deusen planned on joining the group for lunch.  One agenda item was added:  a proposed change to the by-laws which members of SAC had discussed previously.

 

Ex Libris Demo Scheduled for March 10 SAC Meeting

For the Ex Libris demo scheduled for March 10, the SAC members agreed that E.L. will perform basic straightforward scenarios using SUNY servers and SUNY data.  It was decided that the presentation should last about one hour and will be held during the morning session.

 

Ex Libris Contract Renewal

During the demo discussion, members raised several issues surrounding the Ex Libris contract renewal.  The group agreed that the most viable option at this point would be the five year renewal plan.

 

Two action items resulted from the dialogue:  (1) A more complete description of possible options needs to be developed and discussed with others, including Ex Libris, i.e., the possibility of retaining OCLC.  Further talks will take place with the directors at the SCLD meeting in April.  (2)  A potential partnership with Ex Libris will be an agenda item at the meeting of the newly formed Large Scale Shared Systems Initiatives Group on March 3 and 4 in Tallahassee.

 

SAC Finance Committee Conference Call

Randy reported that two Finance Committee conference calls were held on February 10 and 11, primarily to discuss ways in which to address SUNYConnect’s decrease in reserve.  After Randy reviewed three possible scenarios based on fee adjustments, SAC reached the following resolution.  It will be presented as a recommendation to the Provost and subsequently presented to SCLD by Randy during his finance report:

 

            On motion made by Rick Winant, seconded by Janet Potter and carried, the       SUNYConnect Advisory Council recommends the following:  To combine all            SUNYConnect fees and initiate a 2% increase to be reviewed on an annual basis with the understanding that the maintenance of existing services is sustained.

 

Carey announced that Sharon Gallagher of the Office of Finance and Business will be invited to participate in the SAC Finance Committee conference calls.

 

Approval of Minutes for January 19, 2005

The minutes of the meeting of January 19, 2005 were approved as distributed.

 

Changes in SAC By-laws

SAC members approved two changes in the By-laws.

 

            In Section 1 under Representation in the SUNYConnect Advisory Council By-laws,       the members agreed to replace the COA representative with a CCIO.  In addition,       SUNYNet will be removed as a representative.

 

LMS Update

Maureen submitted the following update to SAC members:

 

Group5 - BUF

Ex Libris provided a draft schedule for three BUF test data extracts/loads for conversion tests.  Ex Libris and BUF have been working on data specifications.  The Util Conv programs were loaded on the BUF test server.  BUF received the first test load from Ex Libris which included items and holdings data.  Load and indexing times for the sample extract were tracked. 

 

Group8

·        Plattsburgh, Adirondack, Clinton, and Columbia-Greene have switched to production. 

·        Remaining switch to production dates:

                                                   i.      Dutchess - 2/16

                                                 ii.      Fulton Montgomery - 3/2

                                                iii.      Cobleskill - 3/9

                                               iv.      Schenectady - 3/16

                                                 v.      Hudson Valley - 3/23

                                               vi.      New Paltz - 3/30

·        Plattsburgh is scheduled to switch to Ex Libris support on February 23.

·        Campuses continue to review test data loads, attend Aleph training sessions, and work on configuration setup and testing.

·        Conference calls continue with Ex Libris, OLIS and individual campuses to review test data load reports and progress of the implementations.

 

Group9

• Aleph500 implementation overview meetings have now been held with Brockport, Empire, Mohawk Valley, Niagara, North Country and SUNYIT.
• Ex Libris and OLIS have worked out the migration calendar that includes initial implementation meetings, data extracts and data load due dates, and switch to production dates. 
• Group9 will implement on v16.  OLIS is gathering training materials from Ex Libris on v16 in order to revise the Aleph training that OLIS will provide to the Group9 campuses.
• Proposed timeframe: begin migration activities in April with conference call on data extract considerations.  Switch to production dates will be from December 2005 through February 2006.   

 

Version 16 Upgrade

• A test server for the v16 upgrades is now in place. It contains a copy of v14.2, v16.2 and the Upgrade Express programs.
• The OLIS TOL training database will be used initially to test the upgrade programs.
• Planning for the testing and subsequent activities is underway.  A global plan incorporating activities and timeframes for both the v16 upgrade process and the Group9 implementations has been drafted.  A detailed plan associated with the activities specific to testing the TOL upgrade is being developed.  The experiences of the TOL upgrade will provide guidance for the next phase of the process which will be testing with selected campus databases.  The timing of the v16 upgrade process is closely tied with the Group9 implementation schedule. 
• Projected timeframe: begin testing in February on TOL; move to selected campus testing in April/May.  Begin opening Group9 campus environments on SUNY server in August.  Begin creating library environments and applying upgrades for campuses moving from v14 to v16 in 4th quarter 2005.  Complete campus upgrades to v.16 by mid-2006.   

 

Union Catalog

Ex Libris was asked to investigate the concerns noted in the following bullets:

• Further work was done on the DEV region to maximize performance for loading and indexing data.  Additional data loads were tested.  While the data loaded successfully the process was still slow and cumbersome.  This is a major concern given the number and size of campuses that need to be initially loaded into the Union Catalog and the number of campus databases that must be updated weekly.
• Review was done on the impact of various web services batch jobs on changing the 005 field in the bib records.  A change in the 005 triggers the record for selection to be exported to the union catalog.  This raises concerns, particularly for re-indexing programs that could cause every record to be marked for a re-export to the union catalog.

 

Universal Borrowing

• Ex Libris provided functional specifications document for the Universal Borrowing Center (UBC) reports to OLIS for review.
• A meeting has been arranged in March for Ex Libris to demonstrate universal borrowing using SUNY data to the SUNYConnect Advisory Council.  Marie Erdman has been assigned the technical advisor and Sara Johnson was assigned to create a plan that outlined the requirements for the demo.  Ex Libris contacted OLIS for information about the union catalog server environment.  A significant amount of work needs to be done to make the demo happen.  It is unclear at this point as to who (Ex Libris, ITEC, OLIS) will be primarily involved in configuring the demo environment.   

 

Continuing Strategic Directions – 2005-2010

Andy identified each template and the people who had worked on them.

 

Carey proposed that the Provost’s Assistant, Cyndi Proctor, rework and consolidate the information; he will be contacting her.  It was decided that Lynne King, Ellen McCabe, Pam Peters and Cristina Pope, all representatives at the retreat, would be asked to read the document and provide their feedback.  Then it will go to the Executive Committee of SCLD and finally to SCLD itself.

 

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for March 10, 2005 in Albany.

 

Adjournment.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nancy Van Deusen, Secretary

Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)