SUNYConnect Advisory Council
Minutes
Present: Walter
Asonevich, Mary Beth Bell, Carey Hatch, Lynne King, Cerise Oberman, Dave
Ritchie, Stephen Roberts, Nancy Van Deusen, Rick Winant, Don Boyce, Connie
Perrin (Staff)
Guests: Provost Risa Palm, Rick
Steiner
Excused: Walter Lukhaup, Maureen Zajkowski
Approval of Minutes
The minutes for the
Review of Agenda
Two items were added to the
agenda: Opposing Viewpoints and the SUNY
Press.
UUP Grant
Carey said the Provost has
seen the UUP grant. All it needs now is
an additional signature.
U-wide IT Planning
Carey said there have been
follow-up meetings regarding communication and integration. He said the SAC needs to look more at the
campuses, i.e. portals and web pages.
Mary Beth will discuss this with SCLD during a conference call on 2/23.
Aleph Update
Maureen’s
update is attached.
E-Resources
Rick
said the time for the annual evaluation of the vendors’ performance, user
satisfaction and usage statistics is approaching. The SAC discussed the possibility of having a
subcommittee of SCLD look at alternative methods of funding. Mary Beth agreed to mention this during
tomorrow’s call. In the meantime, Rick
offered to write a new charge for the E-resources group which he will forward
to Carey.
SUNY Press Titles
Carey
said he has a proposal from the SUNY Press for the acquisition of a number of titles. He said he plans to run some numbers so he
can develop an alternative to the proposal.
Opposing Viewpoints
Carey
displayed a spreadsheet from Gale showing what the campuses paid along with the
totals for sessions, retrievals and searches.
The group agreed that a new financial model is needed. A subgroup of the SAC consisting of Carey,
Steve, Lynne, Dave, and Cerise will hold a conference call to look at various alternatives
for funding electronic resources.
Proquest
Carey
briefly described an offer from Proquest which includes a 70 to 80% discount on
the archive and annual access fees.
Campus charges would be based on annual access fees.
NYSHEI
Rick
reported that he and Lynne met with Jason Kramer, Executive Director of NYSHEI,
on 3/21. A major concern arising during
the conversation was how Jason should approach the issue of lobbying. Other topics included statewide licensing for
e-resources and the process of securing an academic librarian on the Commission
on Higher Education. Rick will work on a
letter regarding this.
State Library Card for Faculty
Carey
said he would send out a message informing others that a state library card is
an option available to faculty and that the form can be accessed online.
Lunch with Provost Palm
Dr. Risa
Palm joined the group for lunch. Rick
presented on overview of the SUNYConnect II five year strategic directions and related
activities.
After
some discussion, the group agreed to identify for Dr. Palm some alternative financial
models for funding SUNY libraries. The
following people agreed to assist in the process: Rick Steiner, Walter Asonevich, Steve, Rick,
Carey, Lynne, Cerise and Dave. A
conference call will be scheduled to open the dialogue.
Last Copy
Steve reported
that the storage project is moving to a broader field and will include other
centers that have storage available. The
group is still looking at business models.
Steve said he will be presenting the project at SCLD.
Borrowing Task Force
Carey
discussed an e-mail from Ed Rivenburgh regarding Ed’s ideas related to the
recommendation that the IDS reporting system be modified. Carey will continue to address the issue of
whether or not everyone should be permitted to look at all the stats.
The
members of the SAC endorsed the Phase II Deliverables. (Phase I was previously endorsed.) Carey reported that a survey was released on
2/21 and a conference call has been scheduled for next week. An overview of borrowing activities will be
presented at SUNYLA.
Digital Collection
This
topic will be presented at SCLD as a draft.
In the interim, Dave will ask for input from the SUNYLA Executive Board
and Mary Beth will seek input from the SLCD Executive Board.
Serials Solutions
Carey
said that SAC had two proposals to consider, one for SFX and the other for
Serials Solutions. After discussing both
plans, the group passed the following resolution:
On motion made by
Rick Winant, seconded by Dave Ritchie and carried, SAC resolved to support the
replacement of SFX with Serials Solutions.
Rick
will present this plan at SCLD and Carey will put together a package reflecting
the savings to campuses.
SCLD Presentations
As
previously discussed, the presentations at SCLD will include the following:
Steve/the Last Copy
Rick/the Digital Collection
Carey/SUNY Borrowing
SCAC and ScienceDirect
Steve
said the group is looking at models for ScienceDirect.
Single Bibliographic Database
The SAC
approved the following motion:
On motion made by
Rick Winant, seconded by Steve Roberts and carried, SAC resolved to move to a
single bibliographic record database to improve efficiency, usability,
management and cost.
The next
meeting is scheduled for
Respectfully
submitted,
Nancy
Van Deusen, Secretary
Draft
prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)
SUNYConnect Advisory Council
Meeting
Aleph Update
March 22, 2007
Service Pack Upgrade to 1851
· updates are going as scheduled
· updates to DEV regions will be completed the week of March 26
· updates to PROD regions begin the week of April 2
· updates to be completed on May 23
Version 18 Upgrade
· draft timetable of activities has been created and submitted to OLIS and ITEC staff for review
·
v18 upgrade is a separate issue from discussions
on the Aleph server architecture
· there will be no money for new servers
·
will need significantly more space for the
upgrade - two step process: v16-v17 and v17- v18; also requires an Oracle
upgrade for v18
March 15,2007 Conference call
with Ex Libris
· requested Ex Libris assistance in streamlining service pack updates
o issue: a 17 week process to apply service packs to 56 campuses on three servers is not sustainable for applying frequent updates (Ex Libris produces a service pack each month)
o action items: Ex Libris will review the procedures created by OLIS/ITEC and get back to OLIS with suggestions for streamlining the process
· requested Ex Libris assistance in helping ITEC and OLIS determine the technical feasibility of moving to the Ex Libris preferred architecture
o issue: the document provided by Ex Libris on the preferred architecture does not address technical server issues
o action items:
§ OLIS to resubmit to Ex Libris technical questions raised by ITEC in Fall 2006
§ Ex Libris to request from OLIS additional information they might need
§ Ex Libris to confer internally and then propose a plan to OLIS/ITEC for evaluating the technical issues
o Update to Ex Libris and Endeavor merger - parallel development is underway to develop versions 7 and 8 for Voyager (Endeavor) and version 19 and 20 for Aleph. Ex Libris will then consider creating a new system (see Note below under Task Force on Aleph Shared Services)
· clarifying service level obligations and expectations for Aleph support
o issue: OLIS is maintaining an extremely high Aleph support load. It is detracting from other critical operations of the office. Since OLIS is under no contractual obligation to Ex Libris or SUNY campuses to provide this service, OLIS is in the process of evaluating the types of Aleph support provide and is working on guidelines for the SUNY community as to what campuses can eventually expect from OLIS. A consequence will be referring more and more of our campus support questions to Ex Libris.
o action items:
§ OLIS is reviewing SUNY use of the Ex Libris CRM and Footprints
§
OLIS and Ex Libris will plan a meeting to
evaluate support services and to help prepare Ex Libris to handle increased support
loads.
Task Force on Aleph
Shared Services
·
Managed
Services
o
Purchase,
Ulster, Niagara, Rockland and Westchester are now in Managed Services
o
arrangements
are still to be made for a site visit to Clinton
· Timeframes for Phase 2 deliverables need adjustments based on complexity of tasks and limited information available. Timeframes are based on good faith efforts.
o Action: Postpone a review of the Ex Libris preferred Aleph architecture
§ First focus on whether it is technically feasible - a meeting has been arranged at the end of March with a consultant regarding the technical feasibility of moving the 56 campuses to one shared bib file with separate ADMs on one server. The consultant had worked for Ex Libris in technical support and frequently worked with SUNY on technical matters related to Aleph
§ LaSSSI is to get more information from Ex Libris as to the status of their development of the preferred architecture and to find out if Ex Libris is expecting anything from LaSSSI.
§ If it does look to be technically possible, reconsider how a review of the functionality might be addressed
§ Timeframe - it is difficult at this point to determine when or if a this Task can be addressed
Note: A LaSSSI member who
had attended a recent meeting of the IGeLU
(International Group of Ex Libris Users) Steering Committee said that Matti Shem-Tov (ExL President & CEO) made a clear
statement that they see a terminus version for both Aleph and Voyager
(Endeavor's ILS) so that resources can be put into the development of the
"next generation ILS" which might be much more disintegrated in that
PRIMO would be the user interface and Acq/Ser might
be amalgamated with the newly-merged SFX/Verde (no mention of where the Metalib KB fits in this) and so forth. No firm description of the plans yet. They threw out "within 5 years"
we'd see the new system. Version 20, due
out in late 2008, was mentioned as the last version of Aleph. How this impacts Ex Libris development of the
preferred Aleph architecture is unknown.
o
Action:
This Task cannot be currently addressed within the context of the
preferred architecture. However, right
now there is no real difference between the level of Aleph support OLIS provides
to campuses in the Managed Services Pilot and those not in Managed
Services. The OLIS is considered the
first line support for all campuses, even as we pay maintenance fees to Ex
Libris for campus level support.
Significant OLIS staff time is now devoted to routine Aleph support
which prevents other initiatives from being addressed. Consequently,
§ An activity underway is a review by OLIS of the Aleph support services that are provided to the campuses. The intent is to develop guidelines and parameters as to the level of Aleph support campuses outside of Managed Services can expect from the OLIS. This could be a significant change for campuses that want the autonomy to manage their own Aleph system but routinely ask OLIS for support for a range of activities such as local customizations to staff and user interfaces, updating Aleph tables to customize functionality for local needs, ongoing customization/updates of forms and printed products, doing data loads (PLIF, e-resource bib records), global changes, troubleshooting problems, etc.
§
Timeframe - it will take a number of months to
work through various issues. This topic
will be raised at the April SCLD conference and at the June SUNYLA
conference. Expectations are that
guidelines will begin to be phased in over the summer months and other changes
will be phased in along with a version 18 upgrade.
o Action: This Task will be moved from Shared Services
to a group to be organized by John Schumacher that will look at MetaSearching and Enterprise Search Services (e.g., ExL's PRIMO, Oracle Enterprise Search, etc.) as ways to better
integrate searching/discovery of both electronic and more traditional library
resources.
o Action: This Task will now be the focus of the Shared Services Task Force
§
Aleph Reporting Center (ARC) - A request has
been made to Ex Libris to provide a webinar on ARC in
April or May for Task Force members. The
Ex Libris documentation for implementing ARC in a consortial environment refers
to an Aleph configuration that is different from the configuration implemented
by SUNY. Consequently, it will be
necessary to have Oracle DBAs and system
administrators from Ex Libris and ITEC participate in order to discuss the
technical components of ARC so that issues associated with the SUNY Aleph
architecture can be explored.
§
review what has been done already to help with
SUNY wide library statistic requests such as NCES to determine improvements
§
OLIS review of Footprint requests to determine
if there are patterns in the types of local reports/queries requested
§
Get information on specific reports that were
recommended from the ad hoc committee to review Aleph reports chaired by Dave
Ritchie (SUNYAUG President)
§
Timeframe - work on it starting now through
mid-summer
Notes: The OLIS/ITEC environment cannot support the development and maintenance of a data warehousing structure with graphical user interfaces to house campus data for local reporting needs. The OLIS and ITEC cannot provide SQL training or provide support for campuses to create, run, or troubleshoot their own SQL queries. Further, given that Aleph is a legacy system, a focus on creating reports that are not already available but would provide benefits to a wide number of campuses would make the best use of OLIS/ITEC staff.
In various attempts over the years
to identify campus reporting needs, it has become clear that the concept of a
'report' or what is delivered as a 'report' is very different among individuals
at the campuses. There are 'reports', 'queries'
and 'printed products'; all with different expectations or connotations among
campus staff. There is very often not a
distinction made between data elements delivered and the format of
delivery. Some campus staff are
comfortable with using software products such as Excel to manipulate output
(i.e., remove data elements not needed at that time, changing the order of data
elements, etc.) whereas others want every output to be presented in a specific
format with specific elements, in a specific order. Campus customizations, use of data codes, and
whether or not certain functions of Aleph have been implemented further
complicate the creation of 'reports' that could be more generically used by
campuses. Consequently, any recommendations made by the Task Force will not be
able to address all 'reporting' needs of all the campuses.
o Action: Need to determine what shared services would be identified for ongoing assessment and evaluation.