SUNYConnect Advisory Council

Minutes – May 25, 2005

 

Present:            Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, John Homburger, Andy Perry, Judy Sikora, Nancy Van Deusen, Rick Winant, Maureen Zajkowski, Connie Perrin (Staff)

 

Excused:           Walter Lukhaup, Janet Potter, Barbara von Wahlde, Don Boyce (Student Assembly Rep)

 

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the meeting of March 10, 2005 were approved as distributed.

 

Monthly Reports

Andy asked the group if there were any questions regarding the monthly reports submitted earlier by Maureen and Carey.  Maureen’s LMS update is below.

 

LMS Update

 

Group5 - BUF

Group5 - University at Buffalo has proposed a July 2006 Switch to Production date.  They are developing a project schedule for the implementation to review with Ex Libris.

 

Group8

All Group8 campuses have switched to Ex Libris support.

 

Group9

  • Kickoff and data analysis meetings have been held with Brockport, Mohawk Valley, Niagara and SUNYIT.
  • Kickoff meetings for Empire and North Country are scheduled for September.
  • Ex Libris has received sample data from each campus.
  • Brockport, Mohawk Valley, Niagara and SUNYIT have been working on conversion questionnaires and data mapping spreadsheets.
  • Marie Erdman, Ex Libris project manager for the campus implementations and the Union Catalog/Universal Borrowing project, resigned and left the company in mid-May.  Marie also provided significant data analysis and conversion support for the campus implementations.  Laura Pierson, Ex Libris campus implementation librarian, will assume additional project management responsibilities.  Sarit Hassin from Israel will be joining Laura Pierson to provide implementation support.  Gail Muirhead, originally assigned to Group9, will be transitioning to other projects.

 

Version 16 Upgrade

·        ITEC, OLIS, and Ex Libris have been having multiple weekly phone calls to work through problems with the Upgrade Express software (ex., missing components in the scripts, problems with password libraries, fixing problem links, need to rerun indexing jobs).  Ex Libris is fixing the scripts and modifying the documentation to identify required jobs and enable running these jobs from the command line.

·        The initial work on Upgrade Express has been on the TOL test database.  ITEC/OLIS hopes to run the Upgrade Express process against a copy of the Oswego data during the week of May 23 to get a better understanding of how the process will work with an actual campus environment.

 

Union Catalog

·        Jerry Specht has been assigned to provide Ex Libris support for the Union Catalog and Universal Borrowing.

·        Ex Libris proposed that the Union Catalog data (loaded April 2004) be deleted and new extracts be taken for campuses in production.  SUNY provided new extracts (as of May 2005) for 41 campuses.  Before leaving, Marie Erdman converted the data for all campuses and loaded 38 of them into the Union Catalog (one of the 38 was loaded twice).

·        Jerry is now working with OLIS/ITEC to delete the second instance for the campus data that was loaded twice and for loading the data from the 3 sites that had been missed.  In addition, Jerry will convert, load and index data for Albany and Stony Brook (not part of the initial 41 extracts) that will be provided shortly.

·        The anticipated next step is to implement the weekly batch updates for all campuses loaded into the Union Catalog to keep it current within a weekly timeframe.

·        Plans for loading data from the Group8 campuses need to be made.

 

.Universal Borrowing

  • OLIS staff spent time testing the software and ran into numerous problems.  The Ex Libris provided documentation on the UBC software is not in-depth enough to address the problems that OLIS staff encountered.  Problems with X-Server functionality appear to be a main issue.
  • Conference calls have been held with Ex Libris regarding next steps.  Jerry was sent the UBC documentation and related correspondence that provides information about the testing environment.  Jerry will need to become familiar with the UBC environment.
  • Other considerations for the UBC relate to reports/statistics generation, patron code validations, and providing the option to limit pickup locations to the patron’s home library.

 

Communication

  • Weekly conference calls with Ex Libris and OLIS staff are ongoing for the Group9 implementations.
  • Weekly conference calls with Ex Libris, OLIS, ITEC staff will be scheduled weekly for the Union Catalog/UBC projects.  Participation in calls will be based on agenda topics.
  • Ex Libris is to establish a Union Catalog/UBC project email list.

 

SUNY Concerns

 

According to Maureen, the testing of v. 16 is not progressing as anticipated.  Discussions are being held between OLIS and Ex Libris to address issues related to this.

 

The following action items resulted from the SAC’s discussion:

 

*      SAC members will discuss with the Provost at the meeting set for June 15 that the Ex Libris staff needs to understand that it will require assistance in closing the gap between SUNY’s expectations of them (E.L.) and their performance level.

 

*      Susan Stearns, E.L.’s Vice President of Customer Services, will be contacted next when problems arise in order to ensure that E.L. realizes the gravity of SUNY’s concerns.

 

*      Carey will continue to work with members of the Large Scale Shared Systems Initiatives Group (LaSSSI) in dealing with issues plaguing both members of LaSSSI and SUNY.

 

Carey reported that the next LaSSSI meeting will consist of a small segment of the larger group who will meet with members of E.L. in July in either Montreal or Chicago.  A convening of the larger LaSSSI group will follow.

 

SUNYConnect Operations Fees

Concern over a reduction in the Operations fee on the part of the campuses not participating in the shared Aleph hardware environment has recently been expressed.  Following a lengthy discussion, the SAC passed the following resolution:

 

            On motion made by Nancy VanDeusen, seconded by Judy Sikora and carried, the         SUNYConnect Advisory Council continues to support the current fee structure.

 

Financial Plan

Carey agreed to send out the Financial Plan spreadsheet for 2005-06 to Randy for his review before forwarding it to the individual campuses.

 

Policy issues will be discussed with Empire.

 

Union Catalog/Universal Borrowing Center Update

SAC discussed potential alternatives to the Union Catalog/Universal Borrowing Center.  The group decided to look at OCLC’s ILLiad, which is presently used by 20 campuses.  A research team will be appointed and a final recommendation will be requested by October.

 

SUNYConnect II Plan

Before presenting the SUNYConnect II Plan to SUNYLA for review, Andy agreed to incorporate the SCLD changes into the document.  The strategic directions have not yet been prioritized.  Andy will be conducting a session on the plan at the 2005 SUNYLA Conference at New Paltz on June 10.

 

Agenda for meeting with Provost on June 15, 2005

The Provost will receive the SUNYConnect Plan II prior to the meeting in June.  Discussions will focus on the following topics:

 

                        Aleph Gap regarding SUNY’s expectations and E.L.’s performance level

                        Union Catalog/Universal Borrowing issues

                        SUNYConnect II draft

                        Collections

                        Funding

 

Andy agreed to prepare a brief PowerPoint presentation for the meeting.

 

The SAC Finance Committee will be meeting in early June.

 

Next SAC Meeting

The next SAC meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 15 in Albany.

 

Adjournment.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nancy Van Deusen, Secretary

Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)