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TRELLIS Pilots Group

UW TRELLIS Pilots Meeting

Minutes

May 27, 2002 - 1:30-3:15 p.m.
Davis Library Conference Room

Present: Debbie Addesso (for Carolyn Dirks), Lois Clifford, Betty Graf, Alex McCulloch, Patti Metzger, Darlene Radicioni, Dan Sich, Gail Sperling, Linda Teather (facilitator & recorder), Charles Woods

Agenda review

    • Added VDX update as item 3
    • Re-ordered the agenda to move VUGM highlights to item 6

  2. TOMG update/Summer TRELLIS upgrade plans
    Charles acknowledged the excellent TOMG meeting summaries that Brooke Skelton sends to TUG staff and highlighted the following TOMG activities:

    • Work is proceeding on replacing the TRELLIS servers. Two vendors responded to the RFP, TOMG and IST have reviewed the responses and their preferred option has been accepted by the TRELLIS Steering Committee. This option would retain the five-server configuration while increasing processing power by five times and doubling the storage space. The group will be following up on some issues with the vendor in order to finalize the purchase arrangements. TOMG expects that the replacement will occur this summer, probably in August. The downtime required is not yet known but the database may have to be frozen for several days (i.e. read-only access).
    • The TRELLIS Prototyping Coordinator, Barb Bennett, will be retiring from the University of Guelph this Fall. With accumulated vacation, her last working day could be quite soon. Since the Prototyping Coordinator plays such a major role in a Voyager software upgrade, TOMG will be assessing how Barb's departure will affect TRELLIS upgrade planning.

    At a Sapphire meeting last week, Mark Haslett heard Endeavor's current software release plans (Sapphire is a group of directors or their delegates from ARL and a few other large libraries):

    • 2001.1 will be "gold" (i.e. in general release) very soon.
    • 2001.2 is expected to be in beta testing in Fall 2002.
    • The Oracle upgrade and Unicode releases will be combined in one release which is expected to be in beta in late 2002.

    With this revised schedule, the only potential upgrade for TUG in 2002 would be the 2001.1 release. The other two would occur in 2003.

  3. VDX update
    Alex provided a brief update from the recently formed TUG VDX Project Implementation Group. The OCUL libraries (Ontario Council of University Libraries) have jointly purchased VDX to replace the interlibrary loan systems at all Ontario university libraries. The implementation window for TUG ILL is August to October 2002. The incorporation of TUGBARS and enhancements such as integration with TRELLIS will be addressed in a later phase.

    Full information about the Group's work is available on the TUG Staff Web.

  4. TUG OPAC proposals
    Dan reviewed the WebVoyage changes under discussion by the TUG OPAC group (details were emailed in advance of the meeting) and invited input from Pilots:

    • Change failed request message
    • Dan confirmed that this is not intended to replace all failed request messages. It would apply when there is no item available for recall (e.g. item is on the hold shelf).
    • Change keyword weightings
    • TUG OPAC's testing has confirmed that this change will bring identical titles closer together on the hit list.
    • Indicate temporary status/location change for WLU items
    • Charles confirmed that the proposal to change the item status on lap2 (1st bullet) would apply to all items accessed via lap2 including all UW and UG items. Adding a message to display on TRELLIS screens (4th bullet) could be limited to OPAC sessions initiated via lap2.
    • Change wording displayed in the Internet location field
    • Betty noted that, since this information is recorded in the bibliographic record for monographs, the display change would only apply to serials. Dan confirmed that there are also Internet location codes for each combination of locations (e.g. UW & UG, UW & WLU) and these would also be covered by this change.
    • Implement MFHD sorting
    • Retaining the multi-server configuration in the upcoming TRELLIS server replacement will support this change. It was suggested that moving the affiliated library locations to precede the UW print locations would better serve users of the affiliated libraries with minimal impact on other UW users. However, it was also noted that, when some of the affiliated libraries were brought on to TRELLIS, it was considered important that their holdings display after other UW locations to direct users to the latest editions of titles for which superceded volumes were transferred to the affiliated library. It was suggested that the Annex location should follow the UW and UW affiliated print locations.
    • Implement New Books list
    • Dan demonstrated the new books list that TUG OPAC would like to implement. Since it was developed at the University of Texas at Arlington and offered to other Voyager sites, the local customization that can be done is minimal. Pilots agreed that it should be a useful feature for TRELLIS users. Dan pointed out that the "Search for" term is treated as a character string and will retrieve hits on any portion of a word including the call number. "New" items are identified from the item record creation date or MFHD update date if there is no item record. Pilots enquired about the inclusion of periodical added volumes.
      To do: Charles will check the SQL code and interpret it for Pilots to confirm the extent of periodical inclusion on the new books list.

    Pilots should send any additional input on these proposals to Dan before June 10th.

  5. Impromptu Web Reports demo
    Gail demonstrated the Cognos web reports test server. Pilots who would like to try the reports and PowerPlay cubes on the test server should ask Gail to set up a logon id and password for them.

    The url for the test server is http://reports.lib.uwaterloo.ca/cognos

    Since this is a test environment, there are no guarantees that the server will always be up, that files will always be available or that reports will work. Problems should be reported to Gail but addressing them will not be priority in the test environment.

    When reports are run, they are running live against the TRELLIS database and Pilots discussed the potential impact of this. Limits have been set on the reports server and only two reports will run at the same time; others go into a queue. In a production environment, guidelines will need to be established to ensure acceptable TRELLIS response time is maintained. Gail noted that security settings can control which staff members can run reports and which can only view them and that reports can be scheduled to run in off-hours. In the test environment, we should not try to run large reports in peak times. Checking the report documentation would indicate estimated run time. It was suggested that reports that would take more than 30 minutes to run might also be flagged in some way.

  6. Voyager User Group Meeting (VUGM) highlights
    Alex and Charles shared some VUGM highlights with the group. TOMG is coordinating a report from all VUGM attendees that should be available to TUG staff soon.

  7. Next meeting
    The next Pilots meeting may be scheduled in July, depending on TOMG's summer upgrade plans and/or the identification of other items for discussion. Proposed location: TRACE Library.

UW TRELLIS Pilots Group
LibPilots@uwaterloo.ca
July 26, 2005