PALNI Information Exchange - PALNI Library Staff News and Information

Great Lakes User Group Meeting (GLUGM) 2008 -- Merrillville, Indiana

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:35:07 -0400

News Article:

Great Lakes User Group Meeting (GLUGM) 2008 – Merrillville, Indiana

The Great Lakes User Group is a regional user group for Ex Libris software products. These software products now include Aleph and Voyager integrated library systems, SFX, MetaLib, Primo, Verde and Digitools. GLUGM is affiliated with ELUNA (Ex Libris Users of North America) and the Ex Libris company.

GLUGM seeks to foster an informal and interactive sharing environment for the user group. Volunteers share their knowledge through presentations and focus group discussion and introduce topics to help maintain active participation. Ex Libris provides staff to listen to concerns and offer helpful hints and tips as users discuss problems, solutions, accomplishments and innovations. Some past topics have included such lively presentations as one by Purdue University Libraries staff called “Gaming and Immersive Environments…” (using Second Life, a 3D virtual world on the web where users can socialize, connect and create using voice and text chat).

This is the first year that PALNI central staff have participated in this regional level user group and is also the first year that this has really been a joint Aleph/Voyager group meeting. PALNI IT staff Susan Fipps and Colleen Gocken attended. Sherri Parker from DePauw University also attended. Susan did a presentation on “OPAC Enhancements (Platform Independent)” and Sherri did a presentation on “Aleph Report Options On-The-Fly”. Pascal Calarco from University of Notre Dame also presented, “Digital Asset

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

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.

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.

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.

New Name for Tri-State University in 2009

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:18:59 -0400

News Article:
From Associated Press in the Indianapolis Star this morning:

"The Tri-State University board of trustees has voted to change the school's name to Trine University in honor of a major donor. The change will take place June 1, 2009. The name honors Ralph Trine and his wife, Sheri, owners of Angola-based Vestil Manufacturing. They made an eight-figure donation to the school last year, the largest single gift in the history of the university, founded in 1884."

Congratulations to Tri-State University!

LTI processing August 18 and August 19

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:29:41 -0400

News Article:

I will be extracting the bibliographic records to send to LTI for authority processing starting at 5am on Saturday morning. I hope to complete the project early on Sunday afternoon.

Please do not edit, overlay or delete any bibliographic records this weekend. You may continue with circulation, ordering and receiving items, arriving serials, adding holdings and items to current bibliographic records this weekend.

I will send a message to the lists when I have completed all of the processing.

I-Light Network Access Problems to PALNI Resolved

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:34:34 -0400

News Article:

PALNI libraries who are connected to the Internet via the I-Light state-wide backbone experienced problems this morning, April 4, with connecting to the PALNI systems. I-Light network staff updated router configurations last night that caused the access problems. Staff contacted INDNet and I-Light support staff early this morning when the problem was first reported, and the problem was fixed at about 10:15am. Access to the PALNI systems should now be working normally again.

Only libraries connected via the I-Light backbone were affected, and the PALNI systems were all online throughout these problems. Libraries and users who connect to PALNI through other service providers did not experience any problems.

Resource Sharing White Paper

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:09:31 -0500

News Article:

The INCOLSA Resource Sharing Task Force 'White Paper' and report,

Wagging the Long Tail: Sharing More of Less--Recommendations for Enhancing Resource Sharing in Indiana,
that Janet Brewer discussed at the 2/27/2007 PALNI Board meeting is attached to this posting. Please note that the White Paper is in Adobe Acrobat 'pdf' format.

Butler Digital Collection Joins IHC smartDESKTOP Project

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:21:08 -0500

News Article:
BUTLER DIGITAL COLLECTION JOINS IHC smartDESKTOP PROJECT

The Butler University Jeanette Siron Pelton Botanicals Print Collection has become the first PALNI digital imaging collection to join the Indiana Humanities Council smartDESKTOP project. The entire collection of 71 botanical-related images is now available within smartDESKTOP to be utilized by participating teachers and schools in Indiana.

Butler's collection was one of the first complete collections on the PALNI CONTENTdm server and also one of the first OAI enabled collections. The IHC is able to share information from Butler's collection via the OAI protocol and integrate the images into their learning platform.

Participants in the IHC smartDESKTOP project include the National Endowment for the Humanties, the Smithsonian Institution, the Eiteljorg Museum, IUPUI, and many others.

To learn more about how your collection can become part of the IHC smartDESKTOP project, contact PALNI today.

ABOUT IHC smartDESKTOP

Annual Copyright Conference at Ball State

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:42:18 -0500

News Article:
Susan Akers from Ball State asked that we share this with PALNI librarians:

On Wed., April 11, 2007, the Ball State University Libraries will sponsor a one-day seminar, “Digital Trek: To boldly explore copyright in teaching and learning"

Today’s library and information professionals must know how to properly use another person’s intellectual property. Learn more about the TEACH Act, Fair Use, library copying, and participate in a case study via small group. We'll have time for questions with a panel of experts and more. By attending this conference, you will hear from nationally-known experts in the field. Registration by Feb. 14 is $65 (a sweetheart of a deal!), then increases to $80 per person. After April 1, the cost is $125. IHETS members' fee is $65 before Feb. 14, then increases to $80.

For more information, visit http://www.bsu.edu/library/conference/copyright or contact Fritz Dolak at (765) 285-5330 or FDolak@bsu.edu

Featured speakers:

Kenneth Crews, J.D., Samuel R. Rosen II Professor in the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis and in the IU School of Library and Information Science and Associate Dean of the Faculties for Copyright Management

Donna L. Ferullo, J.D., Director of the University Copyright Office at Purdue University

Dwayne K. Buttler, J.D., Professor, Evelyn J. Schneider Endowed Chair for Scholarly Communication at the University of Louisville, University Libraries

Michelle L. Cooper, J.D., practices in the areas of employment and intellectual property law; prosecutes copyright and trademark applications, negotiates and drafts licensing agreements and handles infringement litigation.

Carl Johnson, Director of the University Copyright Licensing Office, Brigham Young University

James R. Williams, J.D., attorney at DeFur Voran LLP and is Ball State University's leagl counsel for education law

-----

Susan Akers

PALNI OPAC Reaches Record Level of Use

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:41:32 -0500

News Article:

Use of the PALNI Online Catalog hit record levels in October, 2006. Across all PALNI library OPACs, 9,882 unique visitors connected to the PALNI OPAC a total of 30,309 times during the month of October. Overall, these users retrieved 762,318 web pages and generated 1,325,619 hits against the OPAC web server during the month. Over the past 6 months, users have visited PALNI's OPAC web sites almost 120,000 times and displayed more than 2.8 million web pages

For the month of October, 2006, the PALNI OPAC was searched 154,116 times by keyword. The following chart shows the number of keyword searches for each library for the month of October.

PALNI Calendar

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 10:26:24 -0400

Latest Stats: OPAC Performance Issues Resolved

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:00:47 -0400

News Article:

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.