A week has now gone by since our recent Aleph configuration changes and system upgrades, and PALNI OPAC performance continues to be very good. Over the past 7 days, between September 21 and September 27, keyword search response time has averaged 1.07 seconds for 40,431 keyword search across all PALNI libraries. That is a big improvement from an average of 3.54 seconds for the week of September 9 through September 15.

Individually, all libraries experienced immediate and significant improvements in response time when the system changes were implemented. For example, the following chart shows detailed, library-by-library response time data for 9/21 to 9/27, immediately after the recent system changes:

To show just how much things have improved, the next chart shows library-by-library response time data from before the system changes:

The PALNI libraries that were experiencing the most serious OPAC performance problems are seeing dramatic improvements in response time. For example, average keyword search times for Huntington University improved from almost 8 seconds before the changes to just over 1 second following the system changes. Similarly, Marian College improved from over 7 seconds to under 1 second, Butler University improved from about 6.7 seconds to under 1 second, and DePauw University improved from over 4.5 seconds to just over 1 second on average. Also note that all PALNI libraries are now well under the 3 second average keyword search response time that our contract with Ex Libris calls for.

Based on these results, and given that the system changes do not seem to have caused any new problems, it seems safe to conclude that PALNI's OPAC response time issues have been resolved at last! Staff will let Ex Libris know about the changes that we have made, since that information may be useful to other Aleph system users who are experiencing similar OPAC response time problems.

If you are interested in the raw response time data on which the above charts are based, please see the attached 'pdf' document.