Minutes

SUNYConnect Advisory Council

December 14, 2005

 

 

Present:            Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, Janet Potter, Dave Ritchie, Stephen Roberts, Judy Sikora, Nancy Van Deusen, Rick Winant, Maureen Zajkowski, Connie Perrin (Staff)

 

Excused:           Don Boyce, Tim Flanagan, John Homburger, Walter Lukhaup

 

Guests:             Carla Hendrix, Connie Holberg, Katie Sacco, Karen Senglaup, Mark Sullivan

 

Approval of Minutes

The minutes for the meeting of November 16, 2005 were approved as distributed.

 

Aleph 500 LMS Update

Maureen provided the following LMS update:

 

Implementations

  • SUNYIT (INS) and Mohawk Valley Community College (MVC) are schedule to switch to production (STP) in December.
  • The STP for INS will be delayed hopefully by only one day due to problems with the Delaware server that need to be resolved.
  • Delaware server problems:
    • issues with prod and dev regions and ownership of processes (v16 handles this differently than v14 - ITEC had to come up with a workaround).
    • Ex Libris decision to install conversion utilities for North Country (NOR) and Empire (ESC) on Delaware - it was found that configuration path data needed to be updated for an AIX server.
    • pc server - inability to bring it back up for INS after it was shut down.
    • bottom line - it took ITEC sometime to work with Ex Libris to determine what was impacting these various problems and if they were interrelated; after the various issues were sorted out ITEC is now making necessary changes and will be doing testing to ensure that the issues are resolved.
  • Group9b - Empire and North Country schedules have been modified due to problems associated with the install of the conversion utilities.  However, OLIS is working closely with them to try and keep as closely as possible to the originally scheduled STP dates. 
  • Empire has received its first test data load for review.
  • Aleph training has been completed for Group9a.  Training for Group9b will be modified.  This will be the first time both campuses have implemented an integrated library system.  Consequently, their training needs are somewhat different from the other implementations.
  • University at Buffalo (BUF) - server hardware and Aleph version 17 have been installed at BUF.  A first test load has been delivered.  Staff are updating Aleph tables.  Work on a PLIF has been done.
  •  

Version 16 Upgrade

  • Functionality testing continues.  Work has been done on:
    • scrubbing patrons program - contains additional features from v14
    • creating template for the job_list
    • determining that upgrade express correctly handles updated circ codes
    • updating custom services to v16
    • working with SICAS regarding needs for an updated PLIF
    • working with Ex Libris to determine the best way to handle the upgrade of serials publication patterns
    • ensuring that the OCLC import functionality is configured correctly
    • working on templates for printed products which are not upgraded from v14
  • A schedule of the v16 upgrade has been shared with ITEC/OLIS for review.  It includes timeframes for preparing the server environments, Aleph training and dates for when each campus will "STP" to v16.  The goal is to get the schedule out to the campuses by early January after it has been reviewed internally.

 

Union Catalog

·        A feedback button was added to the Union Catalog.  The OLIS has received a few queries from a campus that highlighted problems with correctly accessing and displaying bibliographic records.  Working with Ex Libris, it was determined that a minor configuration change was needed to ensure that incremental batch loaded records were indexed properly.  It was also found that another trigger needed to be changed to ensure that searches in campus bases returned anticipated results.

·        A new books list was created.  It is not yet linked to the Union Catalog.

·        A few campuses have expressed interest in the possibility of using their campus base in the Union Catalog as their WebOPAC.  OLIS started a discussion on the considerations that would need to be addressed.  Examples include

                                                   i.            patron empowerment features - access to local information; ability to renew materials online, etc.

                                                 ii.            Course reserves - built in the xxx30 library and connected to the local campus 01 library

                                                iii.            campus level filtering - local use of document types, tab_type_config, etc.

                                               iv.            sticky searches across bases; sticky searches into other resources

                                                 v.            e-resources: way to address so that everyone does not need to load locally; issues with urls such as links in merged view not going to campus base

                                               vi.            deep links back to campus base in UC

                                              vii.            pricing info for Snydetics

·        Other Union Catalog considerations:

                                                   i.            collection analysis resource

                                                 ii.            use of UC as a source for cataloging

                                                iii.            UC and authority control

 

Universal Borrowing

·        The testing of the Ex Libris Universal Borrowing Center (UBC) software has been discontinued by OLIS.  SAC concluded that the testing of the UBC software was not production ready for implementation beyond the initial three test campus sites that had been configured by Ex Libris.  SAC stated that SUNY would no longer pursue the Ex Libris UBC product as a solution for SUNY wide universal borrowing.

 

Version 16 Aleph Demonstrations

  • All five regional Aleph demonstrations have been held.  Responses to the presentations given by Christopher Holly from Ex Libris were very positive.  He focused on the differences between v14 and v16 in each of the modules from the staff perspective.  The presentation was a mix of a PowerPoint slide highlighting the differences and a real time demo of how the new staff client accesses and manipulates Aleph data in each of the modules.

 

Ex Libris Universal Borrowing Component

Randy referred to a memo which he sent to the SUNY library community explaining that SUNY will not longer work with Ex Libris on the Universal Borrowing Center and rather will focus on other applications to facilitate the sharing of physical items in the SUNY library collection.  (See Maureen’s report above.)

 

After some discussion, Carey offered to contact SUNY legal counsel regarding next steps.

 

SAC Conference Calls on 12/1 and 12/8

Randy discussed the outcomes of the December SAC conference calls, which include the following:

 

o       OLIS was asked by SAC to continue exploring additional functionality for the Union Catalog. Examples include:

o       use of a campus base in the Union Catalog as the local campus WebOPAC

o       SFX as a way to transmit patron borrowing requests to a local campus via ILLiad, OCLC ILL, other campus ILL utilities or by e-mail to the ILL department

o       collection analysis

§         source for on-order information

§         source for collection information

 

o       Regarding the UC/UBC issue, the Fretwell-Downing VDX product was removed from the list as a possibility.

 

o       The June 2000 SAC policy on unmediated borrowing is to be revisited.  Mediated vs. unmediated requests will be discussed at the January SAC meeting.

 

o       There was discussion on the use of approximately $200,000 of capital funds over a two year trial to aid in the acquisition of materials requested by patrons through ILL that were not already owned in any SUNY collection.  This would enhance the development of the SUNY collections.

 

o       ILL performance standards shall be set at a SUNY ILL Standards meeting to be held in February in Syracuse.  Participants will include reps from the university centers, each of the four year colleges, a facilitator, one member from SAC (Rick Winant) and several observers from the community colleges.

 

Randy asked Mark Sullivan to send the IDS policies and Karen Senglaup to send the Empire Express  policies to him.  He also said he will be sending out materials for the February ILL meeting.

 

Change of SAC Meeting Dates

It was necessary to make some changes to the SAC schedule.  The January 11th date in Syracuse was changed to the 18th.  The June 14th meeting will be held in Geneseo, where the first day of SUNYLA will take place.

 

Members discussed the best possible day to schedule meetings.  The group decided unanimously on Wednesday.

 

            On motion made by Dave Ritchie, seconded by Nancy Van Deusen and carried, all       SAC meetings for the next two and a half years will be scheduled for Wednesdays.

 

SAC Ad Hoc Committee on Universal Borrowing/Union Catalog

Representatives from the Committee (listed above as Guests) participated in a discussion with SAC regarding the work of their committee.

 

The committee reviewed three models of patron initiated borrowing:

·        using SUNY view in WorldCat with ILLiad

·        using Ex Libris SUNY Union Catalog with Fretwell-Downing VDX product  -- SAC removed this from the list as a possibility

·        using Ex Libris SUNY Union Catalog with ILLiad

 

The committee's role was to provide information to SAC about the various models rather than make a recommendation to SAC.  Many of the issues discussed by SAC and the Committee revolved around local workflow considerations such as:

·        how do campuses currently do ILL

·        what resources do they instruct their patrons to use to find materials and how to make requests (go to WorldCat, use local catalog, other regional catalogs?, etc.)

·        do they have a mix of mediated and unmediated processes

·        what about campuses that have no automated ILL functionality

 

Comments raised in the discussion:

·        90% of all SUNY ILL transactions are done by the four University Centers and the four-year Colleges

·        University Centers and four year Colleges already use ILLiad/Direct Request

·        campuses with very small ILL transactions are already served well by the ILL tools they are now using

·        there are peer groups among borrowing and lending libraries based on the fact that their collections are able to fill a significant  percentage of patron requests to each other

·        performance standards are important; one policy across all SUNY's might not be feasible but standards within peer groups and standards/expectations across peer groups are reasonable

·        given that 90% of SUNY’s ILL transactions have already been covered by one product, would spending additional money to buy that ILL product for the remaining SUNY campuses be money well spent?

·        the Ex Libris SUNY Union Catalog is now in production and being updated regularly; it provides opportunities as noted above that could benefit SUNY campuses

·        SUNY View in WorldCat is $80,000 annually with another $430,000 annually for FirstSearch, which includes WorldCat.  A price quote for WorldCat as a stand alone option separate from FirstSearch would only reduce the $430,000 cost by $40,000.  It was noted that if WorldCat is required for SUNY wide borrowing, then the E-resources Committee being established by SAC to provide guidance on electronic resources made available through SUNYConnect must take off the table the amount of money that would be spent on First Search and a SUNY View in WorldCat.  This would be an impact given that SAC has in previous discussions stated that the SUNYConnect e-resource purchases should focus on full-text products.

 

University-wide Digital Library

Rick explained the definition of the university-wide digital library which he and Dave developed together.  Carey said he would begin creating an outline for a grant.

 

E-resources Committee Membership

Carey distributed a list of nominations for the E-resources Committee.  The group agreed with Janet that each member of SAC would choose a candidate from the sector he/she represents.  Decisions should be e-mailed to Randy.

 

New Business

Randy mentioned a library tutorial developed by Emily Hart of SUNY Fredonia.  The tutorial has been enthusiastically received by SUNY librarians.  Funding for the proposal will be sought.

 

Next Meeting

The next SAC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 18 at the Syracuse Training Center.  (Please note that the meeting was originally set for January 11.)

 

Adjournment.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Nancy Van Deusen, Secretary

Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)