Tuesday, May 29, 2007

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #57

SirsiDynix logo


Unicorn Project Status Report

Status Report Date: 5/18/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: 6/14/07
Software Release: GL 3.1
Go-Live: Yes
SureStart: 9 months

Project Manager: Jeannie Peters
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter (CS), Jenny Hendrickson (DC), Patty Suessen (TR), Pam Tejes (SC)
Sales Representative: Zuanarda Causey

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed

• Weekly Call.
• SirsiDynix expects to have EPS/Rooms 2.2 available for Memphis to upgrade to next week, should Memphis decide to do the upgrade prior to their go live.
• Damon will apply the Solaris daylight savings time patch to the production server on Friday.
• Jennifer began loading item records on Friday and this will run through the weekend.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week


• Weekly Call on Tuesday at 2:00 Central time. The conference number will be used for all future calls.
• Continuing internal training and preparation for go live.
• Jennifer will begin to load the bib and authority records on Monday May 21.
• May 25 – final extract of vendors

Outstanding Issues

• Alex Feng and Alan continue to discuss EPS/Rooms issues.
• Testing continues on the EPS/Rooms auto backup script with Wayne Coop.
• Paul is continuing work with Damon on getting the IBM Infoprint configured as the system printer.
• Steve Foster is continuing working with Pam LaPier on determining maintenance for years 2 – 5 for hardware maintenance, software maintenance, and subscription fees associated with the contract between SirsiDynix and the City of Memphis. Pam sent what she has completed up to now to Steve. Steve will review the document and will get back to Pam with questions.

Project Status:

No change.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Serials check-in procedures during transition to Unicorn

E-mail message from Wang-Ying Glasgow, Serials/Government Publications Manager, to all branch managers, Circulation Services User Group, Serials/Government Publications staff, Serials Liasion Committee, Regional Managers, etc.:

This Friday, May 25th will be the last day for serials check-in on the Classic system.

After Friday, please keep a manual record of issues received. This will continue for sometime after Go Live. Please use index cards for Serials Check-in. These are the green index cards we used to do manual check-in before Serials Online Check-in. Serials will distribute these cards to you in the interoffice mail today. At the top of each index card, please record the serial title, frequency, and whether it is Reference or Circulating. There are two types of these check-in cards – daily and monthly. Please check in daily and weekly on the daily cards, and monthly and quarterly on the monthly cards. File these cards in an alphabetical order.

Then for each issue received: find the correct index card, record the volume/ issue number, date of publication and date received. Please write legibly. You can use the attached for a list of current received titles, simply use the drop down arrow in cell A1 to limit to your agency.

Before Go Live you can continue to shelve and make available to customers any reference copies and newspapers. Please continue to hold circulating magazines until Go Live (June 14), when you can begin creating brief title records for circulation.

Serials data will be migrated to Unicorn, however each library’s serial control record for each title will have to be manually edited to set-up Unicorn parameters and create predictions. Central Serials staff will be using Central to refine procedures before getting branches setup and trained for serials check-in.

Your patience during this transition is appreciated. If you have questions, please contact me.

Thanks!

Wang-Ying Glasgow
Serials/Government Publications Manager
(901)-415-2709

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Upcoming cutoffs (May 12th) in preparation for Unicorn Go Live! Update-2

E-mail message from Paul Gahn to all reference and circulation staff and branch managers, May 14, 2007:

Using the RI command to change the Item ID (item barcode) on items where the barcode has or is falling off needs to be discontinued. This change won’t migrate to Unicorn.

If discovered during discharge, bill the customer per usual, then route out the item to your agency’s 6 digit code and hold in-house until Go Live. At Go Live you can change the item ID.

If the item is presented for checkout, please mark the item Withdrawn and do an on the fly record for the new barcode.

Security records for Classic logins will be edited to prevent this activity. Beginning tomorrow or earlier, if you try to RI in Bib Services you will see:

>>RI

Not authorized to perform this function ( to continue)

Paul Gahn

Large print rotating procedures continue per normal

E-mail message from Paul Gahn to all circulation and reference staff and branch managers, May 14, 2007:

You can continue to return and get large print rotating books from the collection at Cherokee. This includes using the LL (Library loan function in Circulation Services). Although the temporary hold location from Classic doesn’t migrate to Unicorn, as part of Go Live activities, agencies will checkout large print rotating items on display in their agency to their agency large print account (BARLPR, CORLPR etc.) to reflect current location. This will explained further at the June 6th CSUG meeting and another email closer to Go Live.

Only the following libraries are currently authorized to have large print rotating collections in Sirsi Unicorn.

BARTLETT
CORDOVA
EASTSHELBY
FRAYSER
HIGHALND
PKYVILLAGE
POPWHITE
RALEIGH
RANDOLPH
WHITEHAVEN

If an agency believes they should be authorized to receive and display large print rotating, please have the agency manager make a request to the regional manager who will consult with Collection Development.

Thanks,

Paul

Monday, May 14, 2007

Upcoming cutoffs (May 12th) in preparation for Unicorn Go Live! Update-1

E-mail message from Paul Gahn to all reference staff, circulation staff, branch managers, and Item Control staff, May 14, 2007:

One additional instruction:

Please do not send requests to Item Control to have items changed from 7-day popular to 21-day checkout. This requires changing the material code and would have to be redone later in Unicorn. So please keep 7-day popular as such until Go Live and then make your request at that time.

If you are withdrawing the item you can continue to mark the item Withdrawn in Circle and follow normal procedures.

Continue to contact Item Control to have them make things available for checkout as needed.

Thanks,

Paul

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #56

SirsiDynix logo


Unicorn Project Status Report

Status Report Date: 5/11/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: 6/14/07
Software Release: GL 3.1
Go-Live: Yes
SureStart: 9 months

Project Manager: Jeannie Peters
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter (CS), Jenny Hendrickson (DC), Patty Suessen (TR), Pam Tejes (SC)
Sales Representative: Zuanarda Causey

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed

• Weekly Call. Jennifer Hendrickson discussed the final data load on this call.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week


• Weekly Call on Tuesday at 2:00 Central time. The conference number will be used for all future calls.

• Continuing internal training and preparation for go live.

• Final extract of bib, item and authority data Sunday, May 13.

• Work on the final data load begins on Monday, May 14

Outstanding Issues

• Alex Feng and Alan continue to discuss EPS/Rooms issues.

• Testing continues on the EPS/Rooms auto backup script.

• Damon will apply the Solaris daylight savings time patch to the production server.

• Paul is continuing work with Damon on getting the IBM Infoprint configured as the system printer.

• Steve Foster is continuing working with Pam LaPier on determining maintenance for years 2 – 5 for hardware maintenance, software maintenance, and subscription fees associated with the contract between SirsiDynix and the City of Memphis. She has all fees completed except for the Sun Equipment and is waiting on the final work on the V890 Gold support. Jeannie requested that Pam send what she has completed to Steve now and send the completed document when she has the final details.

Project Status:

Note: As this section has not changed for several months, it will not be included in future blog postings of these reports unless it is updated. -- Alan Stewart

Friday, May 11, 2007

Sirsi Workflows performance issues

To all current and future Sirsi Workflows users:

Several staff members who have attended system training on Workflows have noticed a marked difference in how the software performs on the PCs in their agencies compared to those in the Computer Training Room. Specifically, the software can take a long time to fully load when first opened (as long as 10 minutes), and then performs slowly afterwards.

Why is Workflows so slow? The simple truth is that Workflows demands more memory than most of our staff PCs have available. SirsiDynix has been actively developing Unicorn and Workflows over the course of our 18-month ILS migration project, and the requirements for desktop PCs to run the software have become more stringent. Currently, SirsiDynix recommends a minimum of 512 megabytes of RAM (random access memory) for PCs running Workflows. The majority of our staff PCs have 128 MB (256 MB in some cases). This includes the "newer" PCs that some agencies have received in the last few months in conjunction with the Gates public PC replacement project and the Workflows rollout. (The new Gates PCs do have 512 MB of RAM, but by the terms of the Gates Foundation grant, those PCs are designated for public use.)

Upgrading the memory on staff PCs will be a priority for the Library in the coming fiscal year. In the meantime, here are steps you can take to make Workflows perform as well as possible in your agencies:
  • Allow adequate time for Workflows to load before you need to use it. (For public service agencies, this may require some adjustment of your opening procedures prior to Go Live.)
  • Do not have other programs (Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, etc.) running while you are opening and logging in to Workflows.
  • To the extent possible, try not to have other programs running during the day on PCs running Workflows. Every program has its own memory requirements, and memory being used by Word or Outlook means less memory available for Workflows, causing the program to run slower. (Information staff who need to use both Workflows and Internet Explorer to answer customers' questions may want to designate one PC on their public service desk for Workflows and another for IE, though this will not be possible in all agencies.)
Note: If you do need to run another program while Workflows is open, you may find that when you attempt to return to Workflows you will see the top window bar and a blank screen. The regular screen should return eventually.

I appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through these and other issues on our way to a better, more modern ILS, and enhanced services for our customers.

Thank you,

Alan Stewart
Electronic Services Manager

-----------------------------------

Update, May 15, 2007:

If you're interested in learning more about RAM and why it's important, Kevin Dixon has posted a great explanation over on his MPLIC Tech Train blog.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Go Live Training - Update for Reference Staff

E-mail message from Damone Virgilio to all reference staff, May 9, 2007:

The Sirsi Go Live training is well underway, and thus far the reactions have been very positive. Reference staff are discovering that we are being provided tools that are more powerful, and in most cases, easier to use than DRA. When oriented to the Rooms/EPS public website, staff are seeing that there are many enhancements and functions being made available to our customers. And, the breadth of content included in Rooms is astounding. All in all, this is an exciting time for us!

To make your training experience more fruitful, I would encourage you take a little time and review the Go Live training wiki Kevin developed before your scheduled training session. This will help orient you to some of the language and features available in Unicorn Workflows. Then, when you come to training, you will have some familiarity with the environment, allowing you to be able to focus more on the content of the training.

The training wiki can be found here:

http://tempo.memphislibrary.org/mediawiki/index.php/Go_Live_Training

We look forward to seeing all of you in Go Live training.

Damone Virgilio
Staff Development Manager

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #55

SirsiDynix logo


Unicorn Project Status Report

Status Report Date: 5/4/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: 6/14/07
Software Release: GL 3.1
Go-Live: Yes
SureStart: 9 months

Project Manager: Jeannie Peters
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter (CS), Jenny Hendrickson (DC), Patty Suessen (TR), Pam Tejes (SC)
Sales Representative: Zuanarda Causey

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed

• Weekly Call

• Zuanarda Causey has replaced Gina Wilhite as the new Sales Representative for Memphis.

• Memphis has been doing internal training in preparation for go live.

• The auto backup script for EPS/Rooms was to have been tested this week. Alan is working with Norm Curl to reschedule.

• Memphis will proceed as though they will be going live on EPS/Rooms 2.1.3. If 2.2 is released between now and the go live date, Memphis will look at how much time there is between the release date and the go live date and determine at that time what version they will actually go live on. They would prefer to go live on 2.2.

• Alex Feng and Alan continue to discuss various EPS/Rooms issues.

• Paul stated that SVA has been tested and it performed as it should have.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week


• Weekly Call on Tuesday at 2:00 Central time. The conference number will be used for all future calls. This will be our final data call prior to the final load and Jennifer Hendrickson will be on the call.

• Continuing internal training and preparation for go live.

Outstanding Issues

• Per Norm Curl, a rewrite of the auto backup script was to have been put into place the week of 4/23 and tested the week of 4/30. Testing will be postponed to the week of May 14.

• Waiting on a response from Damon regarding why the Solaris daylight savings time patch had been applied to the test server but not production.

• Paul is continuing work with Damon on getting the IBM Infoprint configured as the system printer. IBM has put the ball backing our court on this issue saying that they do not have Solaris support on their side and they are saying that the problem Paul is experiencing is a Solaris issue.

• Steve Foster is continuing working with Pam LaPier on determining maintenance for years 2 – 5 for hardware maintenance, software maintenance, and subscription fees associated with the contract between SirsiDynix and the City of Memphis. She has all fees completed except for the Sun Equipment and is waiting on the final work on the V890 Gold support.

Project Status:

Note: As this section has not changed for several months, it will not be included in future blog postings of these reports unless it is updated. -- Alan Stewart

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Upcoming cutoffs (May 12th) in preparation for Unicorn Go Live!

E-mail message from Paul Gahn to all staff, May 9, 2007:

With Unicorn Go Live quickly approaching please read carefully…


Saturday, May 12th, 2007 is the last day to perform the following functions in DRA Classic:


1.)
Adding on-the-fly/unlinked item records for circulating magazines.
a. Circulating magazine issues received after Saturday, May 12th should be held and not made available to customers until Unicorn Go Live on June 14th.

2.)
Editing, creating or deleting item notes:
a.
Any changes to item notes made after May 12th will not be migrated to SIRSI Unicorn.

After May 12th you can continue to:

1.) Create on-the-fly items that customers bring for checkout.
a.
Even though these won’t migrate, don’t deny a customer to check out a MPLIC circulating item they found on the shelf.
b.
For those items still checked-out as of 9pm on June 13th, they will be created and charged to the customer in Unicorn on Go Live (ILL items will be the first priority)

2.)
Mark items Missing, Withdrawn, Claims returned and Claims Lost.
a.
These statuses migrate because circulation extracts occur closer and immediately before Go Live

3.)
Route items in and out per normal activities.
a.
Even though Route status doesn’t migrate/translate to Unicorn, we need to continue to use that function in Classic to reflect the location as items are requested and put on the hold shelf or sent to another location.

4.)
Contact Item Control to make items available for Checkout.
a.
For items that are in Route status because it belongs to another location but was discharged at your location and a customer spots it and wants to check it out.

Note: Cataloging and Item Control will not be adding new items (including gifts, donations) after Saturday, May 12th.
You will not receive any new items for your agency until Go Live or after.

Other approaching cutoffs:


May 25th Last day for Serials check-in in Classic

June 6th Last day to add or edit customer accounts in Classic


Details about each of these cutoffs will be explained in separate emails closer to the dates.


If you have questions, let me know.


Thanks,

Paul

Friday, May 04, 2007

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #54

SirsiDynix logo


Unicorn Project Status Report

Status Report Date: 4/27/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: 6/14/07
Software Release: GL 3.1
Go-Live: Yes
SureStart: 9 months

Project Manager: Jeannie Peters
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter (CS), Jenny Hendrickson (DC), Patty Suessen (TR), Pam Tejes (SC)
Sales Representative: Gena Wilhite

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed

• Weekly Call

• The auto backup script for EPS/Rooms will be tested this week.

• Jennifer will discuss the question about Juvenile authority on the final data all next week. She has questions about what Memphis is asking for.

• Memphis is waiting on what the library’s decision makers decide regarding what version of EPS/Rooms to go live on…2.1 or 2.2.

• Memphis has begun installing the Workflows client.

• Damon was in Provo this week in training and has not worked on the IBM printer issue. Jeannie contacted him and asked him to look into it next week.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week


• Weekly Call on Tuesday at 2:00 Central time. The conference number will be used for all future calls.

• Continuing data review on the production server

• Continuing work on EPS/Rooms

Outstanding Issues

• Per Norm Curl, a rewrite of the auto backup script was to have been put into place the week of 4/23 and tested the week of 4/30.

• Waiting on a response from Damon regarding why the Solaris daylight savings time patch had been applied to the test server but not production.

• Paul is continuing work with Damon on getting the IBM Infoprint configured as the system printer. IBM has put the ball backing our court on this issue saying that they do not have Solaris support on their side and they are saying that the problem Paul is experiencing is a Solaris issue.

• Steve Foster is continuing working with Pam LaPier on determining maintenance for years 2 – 5 for hardware maintenance, software maintenance, and subscription fees associated with the contract between SirsiDynix and the City of Memphis. Pam is waiting to hear from someone else in the company before responding to Steve.

Project Status:

EventStatusCompletion DateNotes:
ScheduleCompleted01/24/06

Hardware Install

Completed04/18/06
SoftwareCompleted06/02/06
Policies/ProfilingCompleted05/25/06

DataOn Schedule


SirsiDynix TrainingOn Schedule

Go LiveOn Schedule
Postponed to 6/14/07.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

"Go Live" Training Kicks Off Today


With just over six weeks left until "Go Live," we've reached another milestone in our ILS migration project. Training for all MPLIC public service staff on the new SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS begins today, May 1, with the first three-hour reference staff session held this morning. The first circulation staff training session follows this Thursday, May 3.

I encourage you to engage with the new system and the new staff and public interfaces as you attend training and then return to your agencies to practice. Your trainers (Kevin Dixon, Becky Graham, and others) will be happy to answer your questions about the concepts and processes introduced in training. If you have questions that go beyond the training, however -- questions about why things were set up one way rather than another, or why a feature doesn't work quite the way you expected -- your Sirsi Implementation Team leaders would like to hear about those, too.

Questions about Workflows are best directed to Paul Gahn, while yours truly will be happy to take your questions about EPS/Rooms and Central Search. Feel free to post a question here as a blog comment, or e-mail us directly.