PALNI Information Exchange - Private Academic Library Network of Indiana

Tri-State Becomes Trine University

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:49:55 -0400

News Article:

Tri-State University officially changed its name to "Trine University" last week, on August 1. For details about their name change, see

Tri-State University to become Trine University, August 1

Aleph V. 19 Upgrade & Congrats from Ex Libris

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:23:09 -0400

News Article:

2008 July 25

To: PALNI Library Directors and Staff
From: Vince Lucas, PALNI Project Manager
Subj: PALNI Aleph Upgrade & Congrats from Ex Libris

As all of you know, PALNI completed its migration from Aleph Version 17 to 19 two weeks ago, and I'm happy to report that staff have made very good progress since then in resolving the outstanding "clean-up" issues in the aftermath of the upgrade. Of the 62 new Version 19 issues recorded on the PALNI help desk since July 1, more than half have now been successfully closed. Because of the inherent complexity of Aleph, a two-version Ex Libris system upgrade like this one is a major project, and successfully completing our V. 19 implementation is a milestone for PALNI.

I also wanted to share with all of you a couple of congratulatory emails that we received from Ex Libris staff. First, here is an email from Alan Manifold who leads the Ex Libris Aleph Support Team in North America, and with whom we worked closely, especially on the latter stages of our upgrade project: >p/>

> > 
>> >> ------- Original Message --------
>> >> Subject: Congratulations!
>> >> Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 12:56:49 -0500
>> >> From: Alan Manifold 
>> >> To: Vince Lucas 
>> >> 
>> >> Vince and all the PALNI staff,
>> >> We want to congratulate you on your successful migration to Aleph v.19.
>> >> You are the first North American site to do this, and we are grateful
>> >> for your efforts to keep this project on track and to bring it to a
>> >> successful conclusion.  Please share our warm thanks with all your
>> >> staff!
>> >> 
>> >> Alan Manifold
>> >> Aleph Support Team Lead
>> >> Ex Libris Group
>> >> alan.manifold@exlibrisgroup.com
>> >> ---------------------------------

Also, here is an email that Susan Fipps received last week from Jo Richardson, Aleph Product Manager for the UK Division of Ex Libris:

> > 
>>> >>>------- Original Message --------
>>> >>> Dear Susan,
>>> >>> 
>>> >>> I was really delighted to hear that PALNI is the first library to go
>>> >>> into production on Aleph version 19 following the successful completion of
>>> >>> your upgrade.
>>> >>> 
>>> >>> I hope that you and your colleagues and users enjoy the new features
>>> >>> and improvements in this latest version, and that many other libraries
>>> >>> will soon follow your excellent example.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Many congratulations to you!
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Kind regards
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Jo
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> **Jo Richardson**
>>> >>> *Aleph Product Manager, Ex Libris (UK) Ltd*
>>> >>> *Direct Line:  01895 823865     Mobile:  07710 479008*
>>> >>>
>>> >>> *1, The Long Room, Coppermill Lock, Park Lane, Harefield, Middlesex,
>>> >>>     UB9 6JA*
>>> >>>
>>> >>> ---------------------------------

These emails confirm what we've suspected at times, but were never quite certain about, that indeed PALNI is the first Ex Libris customer to implement the newest release of the Aleph system!

At this point, I think we can conclude that our Aleph upgrade has been a success, thanks to the Systems Librarians and staff in all of your libraries who worked hard over the past four months to prepare for the upgrade, to PALNI central staff who have worked many extra weekend and evening hours over the past several months configuring, testing, implementing, and fixing problems with Version 19, and especially to Susan Fipps who managed our upgrade project and who successfully coordinated the many complex details of the overall upgrade process.

Please note that several members of the staff, Susan, Larry Baerveldt, and Chadwick Seagraves, will all be attending the annual Ex Libris ELUNA User Group meeting beginning next Tuesday, July 29, and will be out of the office most of the week. We appreciate your continued help and patience as we work on resolving the problems that remain from our system upgrade.

Thanks.

Vince

--

Vince Lucas 
PALNI Project Manager 
INCOLSA                          | Email: vince@palni.edu
6202 Morenci Trail               | Phone: 1-317-298-6570 or 1-800-733-1899
Indianapolis, IN 46268           | FAX: 1-317-328-2382

Anyone using Twitter?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:47:46 -0400

Howdy PALNI people,

I've recently learned a bit about the "microblogging" application called Twitter and I thought I'd ask to see what your thoughts on the application are. My understanding is that the central idea is to keep your posts limited to 140 characters or so, ensuring brief posts about what "one is doing". Such updates can be made not only from the Web, but from one's IM application and phone as well. At a recent conference I met a fellow librarian who has found an interesting use for Twitter.

Is anyone using Twitter, and if so, for what purpose? What are the implications for collaboration among professional peers as opposed to serving your patrons?

Thanks,
Edward from Marian

All-Staff Meeting: Susan Akers Presentation

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:15:05 -0400

News Article:

Copies of the PowerPoint slides from Susan Akers' May 30, 2008 All-Staff meeting presentation are attached. Both PowerPoint 'ppt' and Acrobat 'pdf' versions are included.

repacked GUI - version 17.01

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:41:35 -0400

03/14/2008

This is the final repackaged version of version 17.01 before we move to version 19. This repackaging provides fixes for several minor issues and may be used to repackage at a local institutional level. This is a generic repacked GUI client that must be locally configured before use.

Services Implementation Task Force Report

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:30:04 -0500

PALNI and Open Source

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:29:55 -0500

PALNI and Open Source

Since its inception in 1992, PALNI has been committed to implementing and utilizing Open Source Software (OSS) and supports the principles and practices of the open source community.

OSS is software that is free to use, but more importantly, the source code of the application is made available for further local development and redistribution. The genesis of the Internet began as a “call for comments” from ARPANET in the 1960’s. Later landmarks would include the code release of the now iconic Linux operating system in 1987 and Netscape’s Navigator internet browser in 1998. The OSS movement has received a lot of attention in the library community in recent years as individual libraries have begun to develop their own Content Management Systems and Integrated Library Systems.

Vince Lucas, the PALNI Project Director, states “Open Source is about choice; not just the access to the source code and software, but the choice of which tools work best for your needs.” Vince also points out that libraries and the open source movement share similar goals and philosophies – free and open access to information and content, sharing, collaboration, and community.

Aleph v.19.01 Software Is Now In General Release

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:13:22 -0500

News Article:

Ex Libris has announced the general release of Aleph 500 version 19.01 software. Initial documentation is being generated for the release, starting with the "Aleph v19 Feature List", which was posted recently on this PALNI web site. PALNI staff have had an initial conference call with Ex Libris staff in Israel and the U.S. concerning the upgrade.

Please watch for an upcoming article describing the 2008 (v.19) hardware and software requirements for staff and public PCs. It will be posted this week. "Release Notes" for the various modules, which always precedes actual user documentation, will be posted as soon as possible. As other relevant documentation becomes available, we'll let you know.

PALNI System Uptime Statistics for 2007

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:25:47 -0500

News Article:

PALNI staff use system monitoring software to monitor and automatically log whether our Ex Libris Aleph system is online and operational at 15-minute intervals throughout the day. If the PALNI system is down for any reason, an "on-call" member of the PALNI staff is automatically paged so that any problem can be resolved quickly.

We have completed a review of our system monitor system log file for the 2007 calendar year. It shows that we experienced a total of 8.5 hours of unplanned Aleph system downtime during 2007. In addition, we scheduled a total of 9.25 hours of planned downtime over the 12 months for Aleph Service Pack installations and for other routine planned system maintenance activities.

PALNI Aleph Downtime January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007
Date/Time	Unplanned Hrs	Planned Hrs	NOTES
Jan 3, 02:00 - 07:00		04:45	DB Maint.
Jan 3, 07:00 - 09:30	02:30
Jan 7, 10:00 - 10:15	00:15
Jan 14, 09:30 - 10:45	01:45
Feb 4, 12:00 - 13:00	01:00
Feb 24, 08:30 - 09:00		00:30	Oracle Maintenance
Feb 25, 10:15 - 10:30	00:15
Mar 9, 23:00 - 23:30	00:30
Mar 11, 03:00 - 03:15		00:15
Apr 1, 09:45 - 11:15		01:30	Aleph Service Pack Install
Jun 3, 10:00 - 10:15	00:15
Jun 16, 14:30 - 14:45	00:15	00:15
Jun 24, 10:00 - 10:15	00:15
Jul 15, 10:00 - 10:15	00:15
Jul 22, 08:45 - 09:45		01:00	Aleph Service Pack Install
Aug 8, 09:15 - 09:30	00:15		Unplanned System Reboot
Oct 18, 10:00 - 10:15	00:15
Oct 28, 09:15 - 09:30	00:15
Nov 4, 01:00 - 02:00		01:00
Nov 22, 10:00 - 10:15	00:15
Dec 16, 09:15 - 09:30	00:15
TOTALS	08:30	09:15

As the Aleph downtime table shows, staff kept the PALNI system online and operational for over 99.9% of the approximately 8600 scheduled hours of PALNI system operation during the 2007 calendar! That is a significant achievement for a complex system like PALNI's that is routinely kept online on virtually a 24 hrs x 7 days per week basis.

Articles of Incorporation - PALNI, Inc.

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:41:55 -0500

Summary:

PALNI Articles of Incorporation are attached.

Aleph Training Sessions

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:42:20 -0500

News Article:

PALNI has the following training sessions available at INCOLSA in January, February and March 2008.

Training Schedule:

January 3, Cataloging
January 9, Acquisitions
January 10, Circulation (Advanced)
January 23, Systems Librarian - Day 1
January 29, Serials
January 30, Course Reserves

February 5, Cataloging
February 6, Systems Librarian - Day 2
February 12, Acquisitions
February 13, Course Reserves
February 20, Systems Librarian – Day 1
February 21, Serials

March 4, Cataloging
March 5, Systems Librarian – Day 2
March 12, Course Reserves
March 13, Acquisitions
March 19, Serials

These classes are presented with new hires or new job responsibilities in mind. However, the classes are usually small enough that they can be tailored to those in attendance. If only one person registers for a class, it can be treated as a lab day with staff and a room already scheduled. If there is need for a lab day for Cataloging, Acquisitions or Serials and the scheduled classes are not convenient, please contact Colleen Gocken at colleen@palni.edu to schedule a different session.

The link below will take you to the INCOLSA Calendar where you can register for any of the training sessions. Just click on the training session to register. Please keep in mind that registration will close one week prior to session.

http://www.incolsa.net/WebCal/MonCal.html?UserID=1&switch=public

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Chelsa Rowley
PALNI/Administrative Assistant
Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority
6202 Morenci Trail
Indianapolis, IN 46268
Phone: (317) 298-6570 ext. 130, Fax: (317) 328-2382
E-mail: chelsa@incolsa.net

Web Strategy

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:38:48 -0500

This is a very popular blog post from Jeremiah Owyang, a web strategist and analyst in SF CA. He spends most of his time traveling from tech conference to tech summit and hobnobs with the industry leaders.

I have been following his posts through a variety of platforms and get lots of great info from him. Anyway, this link is about the various software apps and platforms that are termed "white label", or easily integrated into, or used as the basis of, an existing brand and website. They include lots of social networking platforms as well as the CMS standards like Drupal, Joomla, Movable Type, Sharepoint, etc. The current PALNI website runs on a pre-packaged version of Drupal called CivicSpace.

Anyway, this is mainly just a "best of" list and a nice introduction to Jeremiah's blog. I know several librarians who follow his work and see more and more systems and web services librarians using web strategies like he describes to improve library integration and "market penetration".

PALNI Librarians - A Facebook group

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:03:07 -0500

News Article:

If you are a member of the popular social networking site Facebook, then you are most likely familiar with "Groups". Groups allow members to collaborate and discuss common interests and issues. Librarians are doing all kinds of cool things on Facebook and there are tons of groups about most aspects of our profession.

There is now a group for PALNI supported institutions titled "PALNI Librarians". It can be a place to find other librarians who work at member institutions, and even a place for Faculty, staff, or students to contribute to discussions about libraries within PALNI. It is an open group, so invite whomever you think might be interested. Most of all, just have some fun there.

Facebook requires an account to view and participate. If you are logged in you can join the group here.

Participation, Sharing, & Collaboration : Please Join the Discussion

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:41:07 -0500

Over the course of 2007 we have received lots of feedback though the Task Force surveys and reports, as well as the comments received at the PALNI "All Staff" meeting. Much of that feedback has suggested that there is a desire for increased collaboration and communication among the staff of the PALNI supported institutions.

The PALNI website, which runs on a prepackaged version of Drupal called "CivicSpace", is specifically designed to facilitate community discussion and collaboration. CivicSpace originated as a solution for political campaigns to organize grassroots information sharing. We are beginning the process to determine what is needed to upgrade to the most recent version which should provide added functionality and ease of use. While we recognize that the current version leaves some things to be desired, there is still a wide variety of functionality in our Content Management System (CMS).

Are we ready for Library 2.0?

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:57:11 -0500

Library 2.0 is still considered a 'buzzword' by some, but is fast becoming a standard concept at conferences and user groups, in journals and the 'biblioblogosphere', as well as part of the curriculum in many SLIS programs. The debate has been heated, and while there are still some nuances as to what is meant when we use the term, it is most commonly thought of as this:

Library 2.0 is a loosely defined model for a modernized form of library service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users. With Library 2.0 library services are constantly updated and reevaluated to best serve library users. Library 2.0 also attempts to harness the library user in the design and implementation of library services by encouraging feedback and participation. Proponents of this concept expect that ultimately the Library 2.0 model for service will replace traditional, one-directional service offerings that have characterized libraries for centuries. The key principles of Library 2.0 are not just about access to books and information. It is about innovation, about people, and about community building, enabled through the participation that social computing brings. Source: Library 2.0. Wikipedia 11/05/2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_2.0

While there are individual efforts that fall within the aegis of Library 2.0 in specific PALNI institutions, the collaboration and participation that so fundamentally characterizes Library 2.0 has thus far been missing within the consortium as a whole. I think there are numerous valid reasons for this.