UF ALEPH Implementation Report 4

UF Aleph Implementation
Report #5
March 10, 2003

Questions may be sent to UF's LMS Project Manager Rich Bennett (richben@ufl.edu).

ALEPH STP (Switch To Production) at UF is POSTPONED From May 12, 2003

On March 3rd, UF's LMS Steering Committee and Martha Hruska met with FCLA staff to discuss the planned ALEPH implementation schedule. After a review of what remains to be done it was decided that UF's STP date will be postponed from May 12, 2003. Currently, we are aiming for a revised STP in early July, 2003, but this could change.

The NOTIS cataloging "freeze", which was scheduled to begin late in March, will also be delayed so that it starts 4-6 weeks prior to the revised STP date (once that has been determined).

We are hopeful that we will soon be able to review the full load of UF Libraries' Catalog data that had been scheduled to be available at the end of December, 2002; a successful data and functional review at that time will be a key factor in determining the revised STP date. There are many other functions that must be in place before STP as well (e.g. the ability to access licensed databases using the ALEPH patron file, the ability to export bill and fine information from ALEPH to UF Accounts Receivable, the ability to routinely load new bibliographic and other data from various sources to ALEPH, etc.) Before "freezing" NOTIS cataloging in anticipation of STP, we must feel confident that the remaining critical tasks can be accomplished during the 4-6 weeks during which system data is being loaded in to ALEPH.

Update on Pre-STP Activities

CONTENTS OF THIS UPDATE

DATA MIGRATION ACTIVITIES

TRAINING

PRODUCTION SERVER SETUP

CLIENT SOFTWARE FOR TRAINING, EXPERIMENTATION, ETC.

PLANNING FOR THE NOTIS CATALOGING "FREEZE"

WEB OPAC DEVELOPMENT

DATA MIGRATION ACTIVITIES

As reported previously, the programs FCLA has written for migrating bibliographic, circulation, etc. data from NOTIS to ALEPH seem to be working quite well. Since the last update some acquisitions data has now become available for staff review in a Subset 3 load; this has also migrated well (with only one unanticipated problem reported).
Unfortunately it has thus far been impossible to review authorities in the subset load. Ex Libris has been working with FCLA on providing this key authorities linking program and we hope it will be applied to the subset load soon.
FCLA has done a "full load" of our data as well, but it has not yet been released for UF Libraries staff to review. It is also expected that applying the authorities linking program to this full load will take a good deal of time once it is available (and after it has been applied to Subset 3 data and checked out there). We may get access to review the full load data before the authorities linking has been done.
Some very good news is that FCLA has developed a way to migrate course reserve data from NOTIS to ALEPH -- something no other former NOTIS institution has previously done. So instead of staff needing to re-create all course reserve data following STP, much will be migrated instead. This data should be available for testing soon.
FCLA has also developed a way to migrate unlinked item records created by the Government Documents Department, and these are expected to be available for review soon as well.
A plan to place the new 4-4 UF ID numbers into existing NOTIS records before migration has been devised, and FCLA and Library Systems are working together to accomplish this as soon as possible.
Ex Libris has continued to provide FCLA with programs and scripts for loading and linking various record types and data elements in the ALEPH data structure. Each iterative load involves approximately 70 individual steps of various durations ranging from minutes to hours to days.

TRAINING

As a prerequisite for specific functional training (circulation, acquisitions, etc.), 40+ staff trainers have already attended the Ex Libris "Getting Around/Staff (GUI)/Web Searching" training provided by Ex Libris. Development of a very basic introduction to ALEPH based on this session is well underway and will be offered to other staff throughout the Libraries very soon.
Ex Libris has now completed it's "train the trainer" training for three functional modules; circulation, acquisitions, and cataloging. Serials training is scheduled March 25-26, and course reserve for April 8; that will complete the training provided by Ex Libris staff.
All training has been conducted in our excellent new computer classroom in the Marston Science Library!
UF staff who have attended the Ex Libris "train the trainer" functional sessions (2 full days each) are now developing plans for extending appropriate levels of training to all staff throughout the Libraries. In addition to developing a plan for providing the in-depth training needed by staff whose job focus is a specialized functional area, sessions to meet the needs of staff working in units that need to utilize several of the functional modules to some extent will be developed as well.
The training documentation provided by Ex Libris seems to be quite good and will be invaluable in developing local training plans, reviewing workflow options, etc.
FCLA will be providing training for systems staff (from Smathers, Health, and Law) on March 20-21 concerning issues relating to setup of printing, batch jobs, permissions, client software, etc.

PRODUCTION SERVER SETUP

The server to be used once we STP has now been set up at NERDC by Ex Libris and FCLA.
There will be three distinct UF "regions" on this Production Server; 1) UF Production Region (where UF staff will do most of their work), 2) UF Test Region (where various changes being considered will be tried out before implementation), and 3) UF Reports Region (where some reports jobs will be run so that they don't need to be run in the UF Production Region where they might diminish response time for normal activities).
With the setup of the Production Server, the original Test Server FCLA had set up for accessing the training/demonstration database (EXU - Ex Libris University) -- and the UF Subsets (for UF data review) -- has been retired.

CLIENT SOFTWARE FOR TRAINING, EXPERIMENTATION, ETC.

To perform staff work using ALEPH will require that client software be loaded on each staff member's workstation.
Once we STP, many/most? staff will need only a single client that points to the UF Production region. Other staff will need additional clients pointing to the UF Test and/or UF Reports regions.
Because the original Test Server is no longer available, staff who previously downloaded an ALEPH client for training and/or UF data review should now uninstall them.
A new client pointing to the Production Server version of the Ex Libris University (EXU) training/demonstration database is now available. This is where all Ex Libris "train-the-trainer" training is conducted (and where training documentation refers).
A UF Test Region client is now available as well. This provides access to UF Libraries data and many staff should find it more interesting to use as they try to become familiar with ALEPH. Very soon it will be possible to begin testing UF circulation policies in this UF Test Region environment as well.
When the "full load" becomes available for review, another client will be needed by data reviewers. This will be pointing to the UF Production Region.
Client Download Page -- Staff may download the software directly from the FCLA Web site (NOTIS userrid/password required), but because there have been reports of inconsistent downloading success the clients are also now available on the Smathers network (and this will be the easier and preferred approach for Smathers staff). Health Science Center Library and Legal Information Center staff should contact their systems staff about local downloading of clients.

PLANNING FOR THE NOTIS CATALOGING "FREEZE"

Cataloging in NOTIS will "freeze" 4-6 weeks before STP. However, staff are investigating possible ways to continue cataloging during this period.
Research is being done into whether or not it might be possible to catalog in ALEPH (ExLibris University and/or UF Test) using CLARR or some other method for uploading the record file to OCLC, then save the OCLC file for later loading in UF Production.
The possibiliy of continuing to catalog in the NOTIS Test Region (NERCICST) is also being looked at.
The feasibility of our using OCLC's CatME software (http://www.oclc.org/catme/) to catalog during the freeze is also being considered.

WEB OPAC DEVELOPMENT

FCLA staff are also working on providing a prototype of a Web OPAC and is expecting that this will be made available to the SUL PSPC OPAC Subcommittee later in March; UF Libraries staff should be involved in this review soon after that. As was the case with WebLUIS development, the new UF Libraries' Catalog interface can also be expected to evolve after it is introduced.
You may be interested in reading an update recently sent to the SUL PSPC OPAC Subcommittee.
Keep in mind that the WebLUIS Search System will NOT be going away at UF when we STP to ALEPH. Only the library catalogs and course reserve databases for the Phase 1 Libraries (UF, UNF, and UWF) will be switching from WebLUIS initially. All other SUL (State University Libraries) catalogs as well as article indexes like General Academic and ERIC will continue to be available via that platform until they migrate as well. The Database Locator (which is also provided using WebLUIS) will also continue until after the last SUL migrates to ALEPH in a couple of years.

March 10, 2003
Rich Bennett (richben@ufl.edu)
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