UW TRELLIS Pilots Meeting
Minutes
October 28, 2002 - 1:30-3:00 p.m.
TRACE Library
Present: Lois Clifford, Alex McCulloch, Patti Metzger, Darlene Radicioni,
Dan Sich, Gail Sperling, Linda Teather (facilitator & recorder), Mary Jac
Tell (for Carolyn Dirks), Charles Woods
- Agenda review
There were no changes to the agenda.
- Voyager 2001.1 upgrade plan
Charles summarized the process leading to the decision to upgrade TRELLIS
to Voyager 2001.1 in December. The Prototyping Team identified the fix for
the backdating bug in Circulation as the most significant functional reason
for upgrading. The TUG Circulation group tested and confirmed that the bug
has been fixed.
Charles distributed a draft timeline for the upgrade. Some of the dates
highlighted were:
- Nov. 18 - Dec. 13: Prototyping Team functional testing (reduced level of
testing)
- Dec. 19, 6:00 p.m. - Dec. 23: TRELLIS down for upgrade (use backup catalogue,
offline or manual circulation)
At 6:00 p.m. on Dec. 19th, any workstation running offline charge will
need the 2001.1 Voyager clients. Other staff workstations can be upgraded
any time between then and Dec. 23rd (or Jan. 2nd for
libraries closed on the 23rd). Public workstations do not need
upgraded software for WebVoyage 2001.1. Carl Nagel will arrange access to
the new software with each affiliated library's computer support person.
Library managers should notify their support people about the upgrade plans
and ensure they will be available to install the new software.
Debbie noted that information about problems in Acquisitions 2001.1 has been
sent to Acquisitions Task Group members. Since there were no changes to
Acquisitions, this was a surprise but Debbie did not think any would be
showstoppers although they will be inefficient for workflow.
To do: Debbie will forward information about the 2001.1 Acquisitions
problems to Pilots.
The major changes are in WebVoyage with new features such as MyOPAC and Bookbag.
The TUG OPAC group will review these and do some usability testing with
staff. They will then decide whether to implement the new features at the
time of the upgrade or later.
Linda offered Voyager 2001.1 release notes and bug fixes to Pilots who lack
this documentation.
Releases following 2001.1 are 2001.2 (in beta release now), Unicode (beta in
early 2003?).
- Server replacement post-mortem
Charles distributed a server replacement summary and reviewed the steps required
during the past year, from the replacement proposal and approval through to
the hardware installation in August and the later decommissioning of the old
servers. He noted especially the excellent project management by Martin Timmerman
and work done by IST support technicians and consultants in completing the
complex processes with minimal inconvenience to TUG Library users and staff.
Processes are now running up to 60% faster than on the old servers. The keyword
index rebuild that used to take about 6 hours was recently completed in
under 2 hours.
- Acquisitions Task Force
update
Debbie distributed an update on the work of the
Acquisitions Task Force that began working with Endeavor in Spring 2002
to advise on development priorities for the Acquisitions client. She summarized
the meetings and process. Recommendations have been presented to Endeavor
and the group may meet again in Spring 2003. The earliest we will see the
changes will be the release following the Unicode release. The Task Group
requested that they see the changes before they are released in beta. There
was pressure on Task Group members to become beta sites for this release.
- VDX update
Alex reported on VDX (interlibrary loan) implementation progress, stressing
that we're still in "early days". ILL and TUG intra-site staff
received training last week and are testing with other 1st phase sites
(TUG, Windsor, Western, Trent). For the intra-site component, TUG will
not use VDX for books but will focus on implementing it for TUGdocs.
The target date for implementing VDX ILL for the public is January but
this could get pushed back to mid-term or May. TUGdocs would go live
some time after ILL.
The complexity for the user in moving between VDX and TRELLIS was queried.
There will be a form for the user similar to the current ILL form and
the user will be asked to first search the OCUL union catalogue. There
will be no form in TRELLIS to facilitate this unless one is provided
in Endeavor's VDX add-on product.
The VDX union catalogue queries individual catalogues via Z39.50. There are
problems with the TUG catalogue: distinguishing between TUG libraries and
displaying Guelph data. Adding the OCUL catalogue to the TRELLIS simultaneous
search options was suggested.
To do: Charles, Alex and Dan will investigate adding OCUL to the simultaneous
search options. Charles will contact Ralph Daehn for information on VDX
Z39.50 issues. Alex will demo VDX at the next Pilots meeting.
- Patron/Registrar interface
Alex noted that, when the Registrar's system was upgraded last year, the
interface for passing patron information to the Library was not upgraded.
A freeze on development on the student information system will soon begin
but IST has made the Library interface a priority.
- Around-the-table
- St. Jerome's: Mary Jac enquired about a problem when
adding a patron record. The statistical categories icon doesn't appear.
Alex will follow up on this.
Mary Jac also enquired about a hold problem that occurs
when a barcode has been replaced (there are then two barcodes on the system:
one active, one inactive). When a user places a hold, it goes on both
copies. Mary Jac has deleted the inactive barcode to prevent this. She
will review with Betty Graf St. Jerome's workflow for replacing barcodes.
- Renison: Renison will be officially closed
on Dec. 23rd. Dec. 20th will be the last "open" day in 2002.
Construction is progressing and should be completed by the end of December.
- TRACE: The journal collection has been weeded and TRACE staff
are looking at alternatives for cataloguing the remaining journals. ILL
use has increased since TRACE came onto TRELLIS, especially use by undergraduate
students.
- Optometry: Jackie
Stapleton is the Librarian in Optometry, replacing Jim Winterbottom.
- Reports: Gail reported that the test Cognos web reports server
has been restored but any saved reports and custom views have been lost
and must be recreated. The Newsbox structure was revised and should be
more intuitive. Pilots should contact Gail if they want a logon account
to the test environment.
The UW Statistics and Reports group is reorganizing the statistics area on
the R: drive. Many statistics are being built into PowerPoint cubes and
mounted on the web.
Linda reported that the TUG Statistics and Reports Group is working with the
recommendations of the TUG Cognos Project Group and Pilots will see action
in a number of areas soon. A short presentation was given to UW and Guelph
Library Managers recently and Linda will repeat it for Pilots.
- Circulation: Alex reported that there will
soon be a web form for faculty and staff to register online. The process
will be that the faculty/staff member obtains a Watcard, then fills out
the self-registration form. A User Services staff member confirms the
faculty/staff member's status and creates a new patron record on TRELLIS.
Alex will provide details to Pilots when the form is ready to go live.
[Note: the faculty/staff self-registration form has gone live and can
be found under "Forms" on
the Library home page.]
- Next meeting
The next meeting was tentatively scheduled for December 2. Linda will confirm
the date after the middle of November.
Agenda to include: TUG OPAC demo (Dan), VDX ILL demo (Alex), Reports (Linda
& Gail), TRELLIS upgrade
