Michele
Newberry's Message to FCLLIST and LIBOPAC-L on December 21, 2006 Aleph v.18 Status and
Endeca
NOTE:
The message below indicates that there was an attachment, but there was
not. However, the text at the bottom represents the content of the
document that was originally intended to be an attachment. (Verified
with Michele Newberry on 1/4/2007).
Date:
Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:45:04 -0500 Sender:
FCLA Communications <FCLLIST@LISTS.UFL.EDU> From:
Michele Newberry <fclmin@CNS.UFL.EDU> Subject:
Aleph v.18 Status and Endeca Comments: cc:
State University Libraries OPAC Interface Discussions
The attached
message was sent to the CSUL committee and subcommittee chairs. It
quotes from the draft minutes of the CSUL meeting in early December. To
further elaborate on the situation and provide more background, here is
the situation regarding Aleph V.18 and Endeca:
Aleph V.18 Status
1. In the summer
of 2007, FCLA will begin the process of upgrading each of the 11 SUL
Aleph instances from v.15.5 to v.18. This process involves taking every
database through 3 upgrade processes: 15.5 -16, 16-17 and 17-18. We
will do them in the order in which the universities migrated to Aleph,
i.e., STP order. The upgrades will proceed until they are completed
even if that requires continuing into the Fall term.
2. You will all
be involved in the process either through configuration tables testing,
reports and batch jobs testing, training (giving or getting) or some
combination of all three. There will be more to come on this subject.
3. The plan is
to get all of you onto v.18 with no loss of functionality and to not
put new Aleph functionality testing and decision-making in the critical
path. New functionality will be brought up over time once we have
everyone up on the new version.
4. FCLA turned
over to the LMS Project Coordinators access to v.18 documentation and
three recorded sessions to introduce you to the new GUI clients on Dec.
1. Go to http://www.fcla.edu/libraryservices/index.html
and click on the link to the Upgrade Express Blog to see that
information. You can also start looking at the recordings and reading
the documentation especially if you are at work next week with little
to do. ;-)
5. FCLA's
original plan had been to begin the upgrades in early May and complete
them before the Fall term. The CSUL decision described in the attached
message resulted in the need for a plan for Endeca.
ENDECA Status
The v.18 Aleph
OPAC will not be identical to v.15.5 largely because the customized
javascript FCLA did for 15.5 doesn't upgrade and FCLA is not going to
re-write it. This will mean that the Aleph OPAC will change once the
university is upgraded which, for some, could be near the beginning of
or in the middle of Fall term. For this reason, the CSUL decided to
make Endeca the primary user interface. As such, this requires an
implementation plan that gives library staff a relatively stable Endeca
interface early enough to develop training materials. The plan:
1. The Union
Catalog will be opened up to a users as a "prototype" early in the
Spring term to get feedback on functionality, the interface and system
performance.
2. Staff
feedback will be collected by and prioritized by the OPAC Subcommittee
which will work with FCLA to implement the needed changes.
Thought is being given to incorporating usability testing into this
feedback process.
3. Individual
institution catalogs will continue in development through the Spring
term with the goal of having them available to users in a "soft"
rollout about the beginning of Summer term.
4. By Fall 2007,
Endeca should be ready to go fully live as the primary user interface
with the Aleph OPAC utilized as an alternative.
Happy Holidays
everyone!
-- Michele
--------
Original Message -------- The
CSUL took the following action on PSPC issues --
/Report
accepted after discussion of specific issues:/
/1.
//ALEPH Upgrade schedule – there is a conflict between the needs of
acquisitions to have a stable system through the end of the fiscal year
and the desire of public services to have a stable OPAC during the Fall
term. After much discussion of the implications of the situation and
the unlikelihood that all 11 Aleph instances could be upgraded between
July 1
and mid-August 2007, it was decided that the upgrades would not begin
until after July 1 and would continue into the Fall term until they
were all completed. To minimize the impact on public services, the
individual Endeca OPACs would be made available to the staff by early
2007 and to the public by the start of Summer term so that staff can
develop their training materials. To facilitate this process, an open
website, swiki or blog should be utilized so that all information can
be made available to the OPAC Subcommittee and all other interested
parties. /
/
/
/Jim
reminded the Directors that the Aleph table configuration testing and
revisions were key to getting the upgrades started in July so library
staff need to be ready to get involved with well before July 1./
-- PLEASE NOTE
ADDRESS CHANGE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michele
Newberry Assistant Director
for Library Services Florida Center
for Library
Automation
352-392-9020 5830 NW 39th
Avenue
352-392-9185 (fax) Gainesville,
FL
32606
fclmin@cns.ufl.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~