Tag Archives: Feb 20 09

Update from Database Applications & Systems

This will be my last post as the workgroup leader for the DAS workgroup, as we move into the new organizational structure announced by Mike Roy at the last all-LIS staff meeting.  Here are some of the projects and tasks that DAS staff members have been working on during the past month…

Mike Schuster
– Several Revisions to Room Draw SSB forms and lots of testing
– Added new student search dropdown box and removed boxes used by students to enter group member IDs.
– Modified procedures so as each student is selected, several eligibility checks are made.
– Modified message text displayed when students are ineligible.
– Modified WebTailor Infotext for links.
– Added logic to allow the group representative to remove group members when they’ve accidentally selected one.
– Created a database view of instructors to be used by new online catalog web page.
– Modified web directory script to correctly select on leave graduate students during winter term.
– Created database tables that will be used by custom Monterey web admissions applications forms.
– Assisted the registrar’s office with running the Term Student Type Update program(SHRTYPE) and the Learner Curriculum Conversion Program(SOPLCCV).
– After the registrar’s office runs SHRTYPE for a particular term, I create a population selection in Banner and run SOPLCCV with that popsel.
– Reviewed Clearinghouse Self-Service Authentication documentation and sample code.

Liz Whitaker-Freitas
– Supporting Hyperion BI+ for functional & technical users

Ian McBride (Full list at: https://www.yammer.com/users/imcbride)
– Completed MiddMedia plugin for WordPress
– Assisted with completion of RFP for Web Makeover
– Created conference registration form for VCC
– Developed payment form for Print Management
– Modified Athletics Recruiting application to remove Primary Sport
– Designed database sync script for the Course Catalog
– Launched CSO and Judicial Boards sites
– Upgraded Key Survey to version 7.1

Travis Stafford
– Troubleshooting cForms issue
– Testing cForms 10.3
– Two cforms trainings (Chemistry Department, Institutional Planning and Diversity)
– Finished first wave of BLM implementation (is now live) as well as fixed various bugs
– List Manager Configuration for newsletters / MiddCMS Newsletter support
– General support and Heat tickets

Rob Pekor
– Re-aligned parent Donor codes for “Feb” students.
– Removed obsolete region codes related to “CA Mailing”.
– Enhanced existing “pledge installment” view.
– Investigate poor query execution between databases (production and non-production).
– Created table to hold local data for the Harris Online Community project.
– Sent sample dataset to Harris thus enabling them to begin on data mapping on their side of the implementation project.
– Continued to fine tune the web pages for Phonathon segment creation
– Created new indicator for “young Alumni” (alumni for only 1-10 years) for the Banner List Manager project.
– Create stewardship project codes for Athletics (ATHSTW) and the Axinn Center (AXNSTW)
– Rewrote of slow performing fiscal data view for CA

Chris Norris
Staffing
– Transition planning for organizational re-structuring with DAS staff, Area Directors, and workgroup leaders
Project Work
– Reviewed Phoenix BIA summary presentation
– Drafted spec for remote DR web presence
– Revised Banner-ListManager project requirements with DAS staff
– Revised Broadcast Email Newsletter request document
– Configured four new Broadcast Email Newsletter editions with DAS staff
– Completed work on 2008 Summary Web Statistics for Web Makeover project
– Completed work on Stakeholder Reports for Web Makeover project
– Completed work on GSA (Google Search) for MIIS sites
– Began configuration and setup of Google Apps for Education (alpha instance)
Meetings
– Participated in Web Makeover project team meetings
– Met with HR staff regarding OpenHire “internal job site” project
– Met with Brett Wilhelm regarding departure considerations
– Met with members of the web subcommittee of the Sexual Assault Oversight Committee regarding a new web presence
– Participated in College Advancement Operations team meetings
– Participated in Harris online community project team meetings
– Participated in Pay for Print project team meetings
– Participated in MIIS technology team meeting
– Participated in College Data Workshop with IR, Faculty, and other LIS staff
– Conducted final DAS staff check-in meetings
Systems Administration
– Ongoing monitoring and problem resolution of online services
– Configured new GO rewrite rules
– Ongoing tuning of GSA to improve search results
– Renewals of College-owned domain names
– Transferred UWAC domains to College-managed account
Help, Support, Training, Workshops
– Updated Middlebury’s United Way web presence (campaign stats)
– Provided support for Broadcast Email Newsletters, CMS editing, BLWC Submission Manager, HEAT tix, and various ad-hoc help calls
– Conducted a Broadcast Email Newsletter training with Young Alumni staff
– Conducted a Broadcast Email (advanced) workshop for CA staff
Vendor Related Activities
– Participated in Sun-Guard/SCT Banner DBA weekly status calls
– Participated in Velaris Hyperion SysAdmin weekly status calls
– Participated in Google Apps for Education project team call with Google
– Transitioned Hyperion SysAdmin vendor (Velaris) relationship managment to Jeff Rehbach
– Provided IMA (eCommerce) details for Harris online community project

LIS Art and Crafts Exhibit

Are you an artist or craftsperson?
Do you have any artistic and creative pursuits you would be interested in exhibiting?
I am trying to gauge interest in an LIS staff arts and crafts exhibit in the main Library at the end of March.
Please consider sharing your work with others in LIS and across campus.
Contact Elin Waagen if you are interested.

ALA Midwinter Meeting Report

Conference Report ALA Midwinter Meeting

January 23-26, 2009 Denver, CO

Joe Toth

A. Committee Work:

I’m a member of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), an ALA subdivision. In the Collection Management & Development Section (CMDS), I serve on the Collection Development and Electronic Resources (CDER) committee, which I will chair from July 2009 through June 2010. (Soon, I will be schooled in ALA protocols of note-taking, submitting program proposals, sponsoring e-forums, and the like, all of which will imbue in me the spirit of administration I thus far lack.) CDER had two scheduled activities:

1. CDER Committee Meeting Topics:

o preparations for CDER-sponsored program at 2009 Annual

o ALCTS E-Forum (we’ll host one in the Spring)

o brainstorming Program Topics for 2010 Annual

o CDER Committee Chair nominations and other member business

o professional matters on our minds (“It’s the economy, stupid”)

o CMDS Executive Board Discussion Topic: “Organizational Adaptability”

At ALA Annual in July, we’ll host a program entitled “Collecting for Digital Repositories: New Ways to Disseminate and Share Information,” in which speakers from institutional (Nebraska), disciplinary (NLM), and data (Johns Hopkins) repositories will present perspectives on the state of their endeavors. Our E-Forum probably will concern e-books, and the subject of our next program might be on “big deals”.

2. ALCTS Collection Development in Academic Libraries Discussion Group / CDER meeting:

CDER co-sponsored a meeting to discuss issues raised at the 2008 Charleston Conference; the topics were usage statistics and e-book issues. Eighty (80) people attended, a good turn-out for midwinter. Half the room gathered to speak on usage stats, the other on e-books. Topics included: policies on how usage statistics are used in collection development; methods of gathering usage stats; making sense of e-book packages; use of e-books by faculty & students; and models for academic libraries and consortia.

3. ALCTS CMDS Executive Board Meeting:

I sat in as CDER representative for our committee chair. The executive board has a secretary who takes exhaustive notes, so I was relieved of that burden. We spoke of the new web site, of past action items, and most importantly, of “organizational adaptability,” a topic proffered to all in ALCTS for discussion. Given the advancing age of ALA members, the relative dearth of new enrollees, and the structures of the current economy, ALA and all of its subgroups have to examine how they plan to do business in the future. We must reorganize to reflect the organization structures of contemporary libraries, and we must unbundle sections so librarians have the option of joining smaller groups.

B. Program Attendance:

I attended a few programs and discussion sessions before and after my committee chores.

1. ALCTS Continuing Resources Section College and Research Libraries Interest Group

(slides: http://wikis.ala.org/midwinter2009/index.php/ALCTS)

— Peter McCracken (Co-founder & Director of Research, Serials Solutions): A KBART Update – Improving Patrons’ Access to Electronic Resources. UKSG commissioned a research report (Link Resolvers and the Serials Supply Chain) ‘to identify the new relationships and information exchange requirements … [necessary] to maximise the benefit of OpenURL linking.’ See the KBART report at: http://www.niso.org/workrooms/kbart.

— Beth R. Bernhardt (Electronic Resources Librarian, Univ. of North Carolina Greensboro): Dealing with Free E-Journals: Are they worth the effort? Sources for free journals: HighWire; Open J-gate; Scielo; EMIS.

— Nicole E. Engard (Open Source Evangelist, LibLime): Serials Management in KOHA’s open source library software.

2. CMDS Discussion Group for Practitioners — Open Forum:

For ninety minutes, thirty to forty people sat around a large table and traded stories on how they’re coping with tough economic times. It’s clear that ARL members worry that budget cuts directly attack the definition of their mission, to collect the entire work product of academe, and that state schools are suffering through the bleak vicissitudes of state budgets. One piece of news leap out at me: UMass-Amherst will reduce its book budget over the next two years by 83%. Concomitantly, the Five Colleges will create a shared approval plan to address book buying jointly. This development displays a response/counter-response I hope is noted by NExpress members!

C. Roaming the Exhibits:

I don’t roam exhibits very well, as it smacks too much of shopping. Instead, I look for people I know to trade information with. All of this is done expeditiously–and free samples are avoided, for I hate to carry anything. However, I did have a chore to perform. I sought out the makers of BSCAN (http://www.dlsg.net/bscan.shtml), production capture software that permits staff to collapse steps in the article ILL lending process and thus improve workflow and efficiency. We’ve been in contact with DLGS, the parent company, so I met with them to follow up on our mail messages and to look at the WideTEK scanners firsthand. Interlibrary Loan has submitted an equipment request for a BSCAN/WideTEK set-up, which would cost between $17,000 and $23,000 one-time monies and $1500 to $2000 per year maintenance fees. (These prices are quotations–we haven’t pushed back on the numbers.) This request is a long-shot, to be sure, but it’s helpful to record unit aspirations so others may see in what direction we wish to grow.