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It is times like these when we realize how big New York and SUNY are. The task was to get information to all SUNY campuses migrating from ALEPH v.14 to v.16. From Suffolk County to Buffalo; Alfred to Plattsburgh. The need to cover the the state is a reality here at SUNY System Administration. Whatever approach is chosen, there are compromises to be made, longer travel days for some and many travel arrangements to coordinate. Or, the compromise is to give up the chance to meet together face to face.

The choice this time was to offer presentations at five sites around the state. Thanks to Genesee, Hudson Valley, Old Westbury, Onondaga and Purchase for hosting the v.16 demos. One hundred and eighty five people representing 51 SUNYConnect institutions participated in these presentations.

Ex Libris' Christopher Holly did yeoman's duty presenting the v.16 demos. Go to the OLIS Version 16 Upgrade Support page to find the PowerPoint presentaton from the demonstration. Chris indicated that "the Ex Libris sales team are on hand to be another channel of communication to Ex Libris and to keep customers abreast of new features and products."

Most of the changes with the new version are found in the client software used by ALEPH library staff members (aka, "the GUI"). The re-designed software allows the user to access ALEPH functions without have to open so many "windows." (As a sidelight, however, this author notes that it is unfortunate that, instead, the word "pane" is associated with ALEPH. Or, as another OLIS staffer said, "yes, now we can have the 'upper pane', the 'lower pane' and the 'royal pane'.")

Chris did a good job of presenting new aspects of the software and then showing some of the features via an online demonstration. He also handled a myriad of diverse questions with aplomb. "Having worked with SUNY from the beginning as a trainer and then as an implementer prior to moving into my current role of account manager, I found that these visits were a great chance to see familiar faces, match faces to voices or e-mails, and to see how things are going."

The upgrade will increase the ALEPH software's level of support for a variety of standards and formats (for instance, the International Standard for Inter-Library Loan - ISO-ILL, the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol - LDAP, Z39.50, Extensible Markup Language - XML, and Unicode).

The cataloging module, for one, has new capabilities integrating the web, hot links and your work on library records. Access to running reports and checking on reports, etc. ("services" and "tasks") will be found in the modules themselves rather than having to go to another module or to a web site.

Chris also gave an example of the SUNY-Ex Libris partnership branching out: "Given the scope and size of SUNY, it is important to ensure that there continue to be opportunities for Ex Libris to meet with people from the individual campuses. We are talking with members of the SUNYLA planning committee about how a troubleshooting and workflow discussion session could be setup for the 2006 conference."