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
Submitted by chadwick on Fri, 03/14/2008 - 3:41pm.
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.
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 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 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.
Submitted by colleen on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 10:32am.
New and corrected bibliographic records will be extracted and sent to LTI for authority processing and processed records will be reloaded into the Aleph system beginning on Saturday, September 15 and ending on Sunday, September 16, 2007.
The extract will begin at 5 am on Saturday. We will try very hard to get all of the processing completed on Saturday before the backup starts. If this is not possible, the work will be completed on Sunday afternoon. We will send a message to PALNI-M when the work is completed.
Please do not edit, delete or overlay any records in the Aleph database on those days until the completion message is sent. You may add holding records, items, serials issues, acquisitions activities and all circulation activities during these two days.
Here is a May 1 press release from Ex Libris announcing the production release of their new Primo "Discovery and Delivery System":
Ex Libris Launches the Primo Discovery and Delivery Solution
Jerusalem, Israel - May 1, 2007
Primo is the bridge that enables libraries to revolutionize user experience while continuing library infrastructure evolution
Ex Libris Group today announced that the Company's Primo unified solution for the discovery and delivery of library resources, regardless of format and location, is now in general release. Addressing the expectations of today's library users for quick, easy, and effective searching and retrieval, Primo is the first step toward a new architecture of library information systems.
We are extremely pleased with Primo, as it will enable our library to connect with users with an up-to-date user experience," explained Jody Combs, director of the digital library at Vanderbilt University, a Primo development partner. "As a preferred starting point for users in search of information, Primo will deliver trusted and reliable resources to users while assisting us in exposing the widest range of assets in our extensive collection through a common discovery interface, added Combs.
We need to provide our users with access to a wide variety of library resources in the course of their ordinary workflow, rather than expecting them to come to a library Web site, says Christina Meyer, interim co-associate university librarian for information technology at the University of Minnesota, a Primo development partner. We look forward to embedding Primo’s search capabilities in places like our heavily used institutional portal and course pages. Primo meets our users’ expectations for both ease of use and sophisticated discovery by exposing rich library metadata in new ways.
"Primo, like the other Ex Libris products, was developed in collaboration with our customers--an approach that ensures that these products meet current and future market expectations," noted Matti Shem Tov, president and CEO of Ex Libris Group. "Primo is the bridge that enables libraries to revolutionize the user experience while continuing the evolution of the library infrastructure."
Primo development partners were brought on board during the earliest stages of the system’s design. After endorsing the Primo product vision, members of the Primo charter program joined Ex Libris and the development partners to help fashion a next-generation solution that is unmatched in the library marketplace.
The Primo discovery and delivery system enables libraries to present their collections in an entirely new way, providing users with the ability to access a wealth of authoritative information from a single point. This information is an aggregation of locally held collections of various types--print, digital and electronic which may include the library catalog, digital repositories, course management systems, and remote resources such as abstracting and indexing databases and e‑journal collections. Out-of-the-box, Primo integrates with various library systems such as the Ex Libris ALEPH 500® and Voyager® systems and the SirsiDynix Unicorn system.
Primo provides various linguistic capabilities and, when relevant, suggests alternative search terms--helping users to focus on the most appropriate results. Delivery options complete the discovery process. The Primo system displays an availability statement for each result along with a get it button that links the user to the most appropriate service for the specific context, such as a method for obtaining the actual material if it is available online or for obtaining information about the location of a physical item.
Incorporated in the Primo user experience are multiple elements adhering to Web 2.0 concepts, such as social computing features, including tags, ratings, and reviews that members of an institution’s user community can share with each other or with communities in other institutions.
To learn more about Primo, see www.exlibrisgroup.com/primo.htm
In early March, Ex Libris invited the PALNI Project Team to assist with their early testing of the Version 19 release of Aleph. Aleph V.19 has reached the mid-point of its development cycle, and is currently slated by Ex Libris for initial release by the end of 2007. Ex Libris expressed particular interest in having a consortial customer like PALNI to help with their testing. It is also noteworthy that Ex Libris is planning to use the test database that PALNI provided them nine months ago for some of their Version 19 testing.
As Kathryn Harnish, Ex Libris's Director of ILS Product Management, explains,
One of the new things that we've done with several other products is to invite customers to the office in Jerusalem to participate in some pre-release testing. The development team and I feel that it would be beneficial to have one of our consortial customers join us for a few days of ALEPH testing. My colleagues had suggested PALNI as a potential partner for this activity -- they value your knowledge and expertise, plus I believe we have some of your data loaded that we could test with.
After discussing their request in detail with Ms. Harnish, we were happy to make Susan Fipps, PALNI Systems Analyst, available for one week this Spring to help with V. 19 testing. Susan's participation will help to insure the quality of Ex Libris' next Aleph release, will give us a better understanding of Ex Libris' development and testing process, and will give PALNI an advance look at the capabilities of Aleph V.19 using a copy of PALNI's own database. Susan is scheduled to fly to Jerusalem on April 26, and will be working with the Ex Libris development team on the V. 19 testing from April 29 through May 2.
In light of our participation in the Aleph V. 19 development process, staff have recommended to the PALNI EC and Board that we postpone our previously planned Aleph upgrade from Summer, 2007, and instead work towards a V. 19 upgrade during the Summer, 2008. Ideally, we will be able to install V. 19 on the PALNI test server in early 2008, and then work towards an installation and full roll-out of the new release on the PALNI production server during the Summer, 2008.
Ex Libris and Endeavor are about to merge, according to this announcement by Matti Shem Tov, Ex Libris CEO and President, that was distributed today on various Ex Libris listserv's:
2006 November 21
Dear Ex Libris Customers,
Only a few weeks ago I wrote to tell you that Francisco Partners had
completed the acquisition of Ex Libris.
In keeping with their plans to build and further invest in Ex Libris,
I'm delighted to be able to share with you the news that Francisco
Partners plan to make a further acquisition and today announced that a
definitive acquisition agreement for the purchase of Endeavor
Information Systems Inc. has been signed. We expect the deal to be
completed by the end 2006 at which time the Endeavor organisation will
merge with Ex Libris, operating as a single company with the Ex Libris name.
Both Ex Libris and Endeavor have a long tradition of providing leading
edge, best of breed solutions to the academic and research library
marketplace. With the combined strength of Ex Libris and Endeavor
management, staff, customer bases and product lines we will become the
largest supplier in this market segment and further strengthen our
global presence.
Over the coming weeks the management teams in Ex Libris and Endeavor
will be working together on a detailed integration plan for Endeavor
staff and product roadmaps for our combined product portfolio. Regular
updates will be provided and the attached FAQ document will serve to
answer some of your immediate questions.
This is an exciting time for us all and a great opportunity for us to
join two strong and visionary organisations. With our joint R&D we will
be better placed to bring leading edge solutions to market quicker while
continuing to build on our foundation of high quality service and
partnership with all our customers.
I'm sure you will all join me in welcoming the Endeavor customers to the
Ex Libris family. I look forward to meeting many of you at Mid Winter
ALA and the Ex Libris seminars in the coming months and sharing with you
our vision for our joint future building on the best of Ex Libris and
Endeavor.
Sincerely yours,
Matti Shem Tov
President and CEO, Ex Libris
An FAQ document from Ex Libris is attached that includes more information about what is happening. Also, see the July 26, 2006 posting to this web site,
Ex Libris to be Acquired by Francisco Partners, for more information on the company that has now acquired and is merging both Ex Libris and Endeavor.
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.
Here is the message I posted to PALNI-M on 9/21 about what is looking more and more like a major breakthrough on our long-standing OPAC response time problem. If we continue to see this kind of performance, and the changes we've made don't introduce any new surprises, we may soon be able to put our response time issues behind us.
We are collecting library-by-library statistics on OPAC response time, and should have some more detailed performance results to report by early next week.
Thu Sep 21 16:57:28 EDT 2006
Vincent Lucas vince at palni.edu
[PALNI-M] OPAC Response Time Improvements
I am very happy to report that most PALNI libraries have begun seeing
major improvements in OPAC response times within the past 24 hours. As
measured by the PALNI web server, average OPAC response times on keyword
searches have improved from over 3.5 seconds (for 9/9 through 9/16) to
under 1.6 seconds for the past 24 hours. And for some of you, keyword
search performance is even better than that!
These improvements are due to three changes that staff recently implemented:
On Sunday morning, 9/17, we upgraded memory on the PALNI production
server ('hickory') from 6 to 18 GBytes. This had an immediate impact on
overall system performance, especially during times of the day when use
of the PALNI system is heaviest.
Yesterday, 9/20, Susan Fipps discovered a way to significantly
improve OPAC performance, especially for those PALNI libraries that have
multiple sub-libraries. Susan has been working hard to implement those
configuration changes, and that work is now in place.
For some of you, these changes are producing some dramatic
improvements in keyword search performance. For example, average
keyword search times for Butler University have dropped from over 6.5
seconds to under 1.2 seconds as measured on the PALNI server, and for
Huntington University, average keyword search times have dropped from
almost 8 seconds to under 2 seconds.
Over the last few weeks, six PALNI libraries (Ancilla, Franklin,
Oakland City, St. Meinrad, Taylor, and Tri-State) began using a
new PALNI web OPAC that Susan designed and optimized for performance.
Just for those six libraries, average keyword search response times are
now in the sub-second range, at 0.83 seconds over the past 24 hours!!
We still have two additional performance-related changes that we
plan to implement. However, their impact will be relatively minor
compared to the changes that staff have already implemented. Of course,
we will continue to monitor system performance very closely. If any of
you are still seeing any extraordinary OPAC slowness, please let us know
right away.
Conservatively, over the last year, I estimate that Susan, Larry, Jason,
Colleen, and Tom have put at least 350 hours of combined work time into
our long-standing OPAC performance problems. It may be a bit too early
to "declare victory" over this problem, but if the preliminary response
time statistics hold up, we are close to putting this problem behind us.
We plan to let Ex Libris know about the Aleph configuration changes that
we've made, since they may be useful to other Ex Libris customers who
are experiencing similar problems. In addition, we will share what
we've learned directly with the South Dakota Library Network (SDLN),
with whom we've been regularly exchanging information about our mutual
system performance issues.
Early next week, I will post more complete response time statistics on
the PALNI web site. Please check next week if you would like the latest
OPAC response time data just for your library.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Vince
--
Vince Lucas
PALNI Project Manager
INCOLSA | Email: vince at palni.edu
6202 Morenci Trail | Phone: 1-317-298-6570 or 1-800-733-1899
Indianapolis, IN 46268 | FAX: 1-317-328-2380
Here are the latest keyword search response times for each PALNI library's OPAC between 8/25/06 and 8/31/06. As with the previous report, this data is extracted from the PALNI Web server log files. As such, these response times do not include any network delays, any additional time caused by a slow PC or web browser, time to execute any web page JavaScript, etc. As a practical matter, the response times on most campuses will typically be 1/2 to 1 second slower than this data indicates.
KW Search Performance for 8/25/06 through 8/31/06
As with the previous report, the red line at the 3 second level marks the average level of keyword search performance that our contract with Ex Libris specifies. Overall, this data is reasonably consistent with the data reported a week ago for the 8/18 to 8/24 time period.
Once again, we are seeing significant differences in measured response times from one campus to another. Average response times over the week ranged from around 1 second on two campuses to over 6 seconds on another, and the slowest OPACs were about 6 times slower on average than the fastest OPACs for the week.
Last week, staff implemented some minor changes to the PALNI OPAC web pages to improve our ability to collect keyword search response time data on a 'library-by-library' basis. In looking at our on-going OPAC performance problems, our perception has been that there are significant differences in keyword search performance between PALNI campuses. With the data we can now collect, we hope to confirm that our general perception has been accurate accurate, and, if so, to collect some statistics that will show the performance differences to the Ex Libris technical support team.
We have generated our first OPAC performance report from this data, for the seven day time period from August 15 through August 21. The following chart summarizes keyword search performance for the PALNI OPAC over this time period for each PALNI library.
KW Search Performance for 8/18/06 through 8/24/06
The red line at the 3 second level marks the average level of keyword search performance that our contract with Ex Libris specifies.
PALNI has the following training sessions available at INCOLSA in October, November and December 2006.
Aleph version 17:
October 10 & 11 – Cataloging
October 17 & 18 – Acquisitions
October 19 – Systems Librarian
October 24 – SFX
October 25 – Serials
November 6 – Circulation
November 7 & 8 – Cataloging
November 15 & 16 – Acquisitions
November 16 – MetaLib
November 30 - Serials
December 5 & 6 – Cataloging
December 12 – Systems Librarian
December 13 & 14 – Acquisitions
December 20 – Serials
If anyone is interested in Course Reserves training, please contact Susan Fipps at susan@palni.edu.
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.
Staff implemented a new enhancement to the PALNI New Titles List this week. With this version of the New Titles List, you may limit the list of new titles that are displayed to any of eight broad subject categories. The subject classification for each new title is based on the title's LC or Dewey call number.
To use this capability, the user can select the subject category from the "Subject Area" drop down list near the top of the New Titles List web page. All of the limiting, sorting, a search options from the previous version continue to be available in this version:
NOTE: Subject information has only been stored on new titles added since about July 20. Consequently, if you limit your display of new titles to a particular subject area, you will not retreive any new titles cataloged prior to then.
