Systems Staff Meeting Notes 03/10/03

Systems Staff Meeting Notes
March 10, 2003

Present: Rich Bennett, Cynthia Bowker, Will Chaney, Bill Covey, Bobbie Meng, Suzy Shaw, Ying Tang
Announcements
  1. Cynthia has a new kitten.
  2. Rich & Denise celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary.
Ongoing Systems Updates
Equipment Received/Installed/Repaired
  1. 30 headless computers are on order at Dell’s whim. There were no widespread screams at the announcement.
  2. Martha’s machine – Geoffrey repaired. Network & CDRW – cable select and IRQ was wrong.
  3. Bill: technological miracle - $25 – 5 port 10/100 Hub – 2 minute installation – autodetect works…amazing.
Support Issue and Liaisons
  1. Discussion on linking to outside Website.
  2. Cataloguing – full text to Journals – otherwise not a Library regulation to have written.
  3. ALEPH clients downloadable by staff – client software replacing NOTIS – increased role – made it easy – NT2R – Rich wrote instructions, but they’re not posted yet. He has the path – may put Web page in client folder and set it up for authority to access. Rich will send out an announcement this afternoon. May 12 date for switchover has been pushed back. Aim is now for July. If not then, it will really become problematic.
  4. Ex Libris training for staff trainers is almost finished.
  5. From the Systems standpoint, the client software is up.
  6. Support – Rich will send a message to Liaisons to try it first, before general distribution goes out to all staff.
  7. Bill does not foresee hardware problems. If there are support issues, people should talk to their supervisors. It will not be Systems – we do not have the tools to handle this. ALEPH is windowed – need to think in generic process rather than screen.
  8. FCLA scheduled Systems change – March 20 & 21 – Winston and Bill are going along with Rich, who is project coordinator. FCLA has always controlled permissions, now a log-in can actually be tweaked. Table-based on a database engine will definitely change the distribution of library work.
  9. Reorganization – ripple through – various moves – West addition. Anticipating getting out of LAD to old DOT on 39th Avenue. There are some problems. Government Docs will move to MSL. Network estimates are difficult. May need to remove compact shelving. Wireless access – Systems will get estimate, but usually the quality of service is lousy.
  10. The budget is being reset – no continuing funds – now all funds will be non-fixed, even if UF gets the same amount – departmental distribution.
  11. Wireless – multiple users – students & staff do like to use it in the stacks. We won’t be able to do it like that again – Net Services is in control – pretty sweeping changes. Maybe a unit security manager independent of the work area.
Networking
  1. Steam outage.
  2. Meeting today.
  3. Backups – last hurdle – would not allow remote install from Will’s workstation – OK from NT2R.
  4. NERDC cut its rates by a factor of 10 – backups to TAVOILI – offsite storage & backups would be a plus. Cost: $6-10,000 per year.
  5. Room 2 is complete.
Software Projects Status
  1. New version of PAULA is being worked on – quick drag/crash error corrected.
  2. Accounting Automation – Cynthia has been doing it every morning – it’s a 30 second process – hit 3-4 buttons – won’t be completely automated until Winston returns.
  3. Ringling – indexing problem – Bill noticed the strangeness while looking at the database. Vocabulary by Themes – apples & oranges – produces no records – controlled vocabulary – how it came to be – moved from DLC server to FCLA server.
  4. DLC Tracking database – data entry improvements requested. Copyright info – after 75 years it is public domain – would like it to be automated – very complicated. Bill tells Ying not to do this. It should be automated – generating a list is OK, but not having the software change it to the public domain.
  5. Cynthia is putting the finishing touches on Travel – then Facilities database changes. Only one change requested – has a provision to exclude special purchases from totals.

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Last updated March 24, 2003
by Debra Fetzer
debharr@mail.uflib.ufl.edu