What to expect on Thursday morning

To all MPLIC staff:

Tonight, many of us will hit control-z, choose "Exit Circulation," type QUIT, and say goodbye to DRA Classic for the last time. (Not all of us, as Acquisitions will continue to use the DRA system alongside Unicorn until all orders placed for the current fiscal year have been received and paid for.) What should staff expect when they arrive at work on June 14?

New logins specific to their agencies have been communicated to the managers, circulation, and reference staff in each public service agency. Staff will verify that they are logged into Workflows on the production (i.e., the "real," as opposed to training) system when they see the familiar MPLIC logo in the upper right hand corner of the screen, where they've been seeing a red TEST SYSTEM badge.

DRA Classic Bridge circulation information collected for the last week will have been loaded into the Unicorn system overnight. Each agency should log in as staff arrives, and can immediately begin updating TEMP accounts with customer information for accounts signed up during Classic Bridge. However, staff should not begin begin discharging, checking out or receiving items In Transit until Paul Gahn sends the "all clear" e-mail message, expected between 8:00 and 9:00 AM on Thursday. (At that point, staff can begin processing materials that were held in Route status during the week of Classic Bridge. New materials will not be sent prior to Monday, June 18, to allow staff time to work through this backlog.)

All circulation PCs and some reference desk, manager, and workroom PCs have received memory upgrades; those who haven't received upgrades yet may experience slower than optimal performance, and should bear in mind the advice shared earlier about maximizing performance by closing other programs before starting Workflows, and so on. (Memory upgrades for the remaining staff PCs will resume next week.)

The public web site will still be at http://www.memphislibrary.org, though the familiar "stack o' books" will have been replaced by a new design. Virtually all of the current library web pages will continue to exist and reside at the same URLs, just with a different look. Catalog links will take customers to the new OPAC at http://eps.memphislibrary.org; in addition, a search box at the top of every web page will give access to the catalog as well. Every web page will also feature a login dialog box to give customers quick access to their library accounts, with familiar services like online renewals -- and new services like Holds. The new Holds service will be available from the time we go live, but it's expected that it will take most customers a few days to discover it and start using it (though no one can know for sure, of course). The first hold pick list report will be generated and emailed at approximately 2pm on the day of Go Live.

On public machines, the PCs that have been designated as Catalog or Catalog/Express PCs will open on the Rooms/EPS home page. Printing of catalog pages (which may also include Rooms web pages or listings of database or web citations) will remain free. However, until we become more familiar with the new OPAC configurations, these PCs will not be technically blocked from accessing other sites on the Internet. Managers at each location will have the discretion to decide whether or not to enforce the "catalog use only" policy for these PCs until the technical solution can be put in place.

PCs designated for other special uses besides the catalog will continue to be designated for that use, and should come up to the appropriate "start" page. On general-use public PCs, Internet Explorer will open to the new home page at the same old URL. On staff PCs, the browser will continue to open to the Intranet home page, which is not changing at all. Links to catalog records in blog postings and BookLetters are being changed today or tonight; some remaining web catalog links, such as those for the Teen Book Lists, will not be available for a few days.

Throughout Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, lead circulation trainer Becky Graham will be available at OPX 2747 to assist circulation staff who aren't sure how to perform a function in Workflows. Also on Thursday and Friday, Damone Virgilio and Kevin Dixon will be on the road visiting locations around the system to offer in-person Workflows assistance to reference staff, and will also be available by phone via their cell numbers (e-mailed previously). Paul Gahn, joined onsite by our SirsiDynix SureStart Consultant Pam Tejes, will be available at OPX 2805 to troubleshoot problems when staff are confident they are performing a task just how they were trained, but it’s still not working (password doesn’t work, receipts aren’t printing, etc.).
For questions about the public catalog or web site, please contact yours truly at OPX 2801.

At this time, all our staff have received the essential training they need to do their jobs. We have the knowledge and the skills we need. Mistakes will almost certainly be made -- but they won't be fatal ones. We will all learn from each others' mistakes and improve our understanding, and our service to customers, as we proceed on this journey together. On behalf of the entire Sirsi Implementation Management Team, I would like to thank all of you for your positive attitude and team spirit throughout this 18-month implementation process.

Have a great Go Live!

-- Alan

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

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

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 12^th, 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 14^th.

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

After May 12^th 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 13^th, 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 25^th Last day for Serials check-in in Classic
June 6^th 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

Sirsi Implementation Teams: The Data Migration Team

The Data Migration Team is responsible for making certain that all of the borrower records, circulation information, cataloging data, and all other information in our DRA Classic system is transferred properly to our new Unicorn ILS.

This week, this team met jointly with the Unicorn Policy File Team to discuss issues in Unicorn policy creation and to review an initial draft of the Unicorn policy file developed by Paul Gahn.

Role of the Data Migration Team:

• To coordinate data migration from the DRA Classic ILS to the Sirsi Unicorn ILS
• To identify the requirements for data conversion and transfer
• To identify the requirements for reports and management information
• To identify the requirements for and to coordinate the delivery of staff training
• To identify and make recommendations on potential workflow changes

Reporting:

Reports to the Sirsi Implementation Management Team

Membership:

Chair – Paul Gahn (Automated Services)
Ann Delphin (Central Circulation)
Wang-Ying Glasgow (Serials/Gov. Docs.)
Deborah Powell (Cataloging)
Cindy Soenksen (Acquisitions)