Project milestones in September

Members of the Sirsi ILS implementation teams reached the following milestones in September:

• The second week of onsite Sirsi training concluded on Sept. 1.
• The Central Search Connection List, providing information about MPLIC databases to be included in our federated search interface, was provided to Serials Solutions and SirsiDynix on Sept. 8.
• The Library's version of the Unicorn ILS was upgraded from GL 3.0 to the newest version, GL 3.1, on Sept. 11.
• The Library's production server was copied over to the test server on Sept. 13.
  This means that staff are now working with the library's own records when using Workflows and the Rooms/EPS site, rather than a generic training database. Although not all OPAC customizations are in place yet, you can begin to get an idea of the enhanced experience in store for MPLIC customers and staff.
• 9xx and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) training was conducted for Acquistions and Cataloging staff on Sept. 25 and 27.

Coming up in October:

• The new Pocket Circ handheld devices are scheduled to arrive by the beginning of the month.
• SirsiDynix will provide onsite training on Unicorn Reports and Pocket Circ.
• The Acquisitions Team will have a three-day summit with our SirsiDynix SureStart Consultant, Diane Cunningham.
• Phone lines for the SVA (SirsiDynix Voice Automation) customer telephone notification system will be installed.

Image courtesy of SirsiDynix.

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #28

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 09/29/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.1

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Amanda is looking into questions about training for materials booking and Hyperion.
Damon and Paul continue to work on upgrade and copy over issues.
Staff attended 9xx and EDI training.
Continue data review on the production system.
Paul sent in the first data issues log.
Amanda emailed Jenny asking how many items were assigned to a each title control key.
Amanda talked to Rick Cook about the Bluesocket installation and he will follow up with Jessica to define the scope of work.
Steve sent in contract addendum 3, and Vicki will begin work on the addendum for Hyperion training.
Paul and Jennifer worked out details for 3rd training session.
Alan has started calling Client Care for Rooms/EPS problem solving.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Data review on the production server.
Serial Solutions will be working on uploading connection information for Central Search.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		3rd training will start Oct. 17
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #27

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 09/21/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.1

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Amanda is looking into questions about training for materials booking and Hyperion.
Damon is continuing to help Paul with questions about the copy over and issues from the copy over.
Conference call with Diane to discuss indexing on Friday.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Data review on the production server.
Staff will attend 9XX and EDI training.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #26

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 09/14/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Steve is having issues with getting a backup completed of the production server; issue has been sent to Damon.
Production server was upgraded to GL 3.1 on Monday
Damon copied the production server to the test server on Wednesday, and is working to resolve any issues.
Amanda sent contract addendum for training.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Data review on the production server
Conference call to discuss indexing

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #25

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 09/08/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Alan working on Central Search Forms.
Amanda provided additional information about Hyperion project.
Library to continue data review and staff training.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly Call: Tuesday
Upgrade to GL3.1 on Monday.
Copy of production to test server on Wednesday.
Amanda to gather more information about Director’s Station project.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #24

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 08/25/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Introduction to Central Search Call on Friday at 1pm Central.
Amanda provided a Central Search demo site to the library.
Amanda has requested from the scheduling department time in November to work with Margaret on Collection Exchange.
Amanda has been providing answers for Rooms/EPS questions.
Library can begin using the production sever for data review.
Amanda is checking on the status of the contract mod for training.
Alan asked for details about the Rooms/EPS content.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Begin looking at the test data load on the production server.
Second week of on-site training.
Work on connection and customization spreadsheet for Central Search.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-Sept. 1.
Go Live	On Schedule

New links in sidebar for EPS and other Sirsi OPAC sites

Several new implementations of Rooms/EPS have gone live in the last couple of months, and more should be up and running soon. For this reason, the links in the blog's sidebar are being revised. The Rooms/EPS demo site link will be replaced by a list of links to Rooms/EPS sites (live and demonstration/training). The Sirsi OPAC examples link will be replaced by a list of links to iBistro sites. Although our library will not be implementing iBistro, these sites are still worth reviewing as some of their OPAC functionality has not yet made it into the EPS catalog, though "catalog parity" (to use SirsiDynix's phrasing) is expected with the next release of the software in December.

Rooms/EPS sites

Last updated 2/19/08.

Live implementations:

Boston Public Library School Rooms
Boston Public Library does not currently use EPS for its OPAC, but it has implemented School Rooms to support K-12 educational activities in the community.

Cerritos College Library

Chandler Public Library

Cherry Hill Public Library

Hattiesburg Public Library

Knox County Public Library
At present, KCPL links to EPS/Rooms from their "old" site.

Oxnard Public Library
This library also links to Rooms from a pre-existing web site.

Vigo County Public Library

Warren-Newport Public Library
This library currently links to a "sneak peek" of their new Rooms site from their old site.

Demonstration & training sites:

Rooms
SirsiDynix's public library-focused demonstration site.

SchoolRooms
A demonstration site for K-12 school libraries.

Other Sirsi OPAC examples

There are numerous implementations of Sirsi's earlier web catalog interface for the Unicorn ILS, iBistro, which include many of the enhanced OPAC features we expect to have with EPS. Here are a few examples:

Anne Arundel County Public Library
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Fairfax County Public Library
Kansas City Public Library
Knox County Public Library

If you have any difficulty accessing any of these sites, please let me know.

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #23

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 08/18/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly call: Tuesday.
Amanda and a trainer have completed quality control checks on the production server.
Amanda has requested from the scheduling department time in November to work with Margaret on Collection Exchange.
Amanda updated the schedule.
Upgrade to GL3.1 has been schedule for September 11th.
Pam was onsite for the Rooms workshop August 16-17.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
No weekly call.

Outstanding Issues
Get library logo put into Rooms.

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

Project milestones in July and August

Although there have not been many blog posts in the last few weeks (except for the regular weekly status reports from SirsiDynix), the summer has been a busy one for members of our Implementation Teams as well as SirsiDynix personnel. Important recent events and accomplishments include:

• Three productive summits were held with Diane Cunningham, our SirsiDynix Sure Start Consultant, who will be working closely with us through our Go Live date and beyond. As a result of these meetings, we are making adjustments to the onsite training schedule. These changes are still in development but will have an immediate impact on our second week of Sirsi training, coming up at the end of August, with our two days of Serials training moving to that week.
  
• Members of the EPS Team, along with other MPLIC web content providers, attended a day-long training session on the Rooms Builder, Sirsi's web site content management system and catalog customization tool.
• Data was extracted from our current DRA Classic ILS, and Jennifer Hendrickson, Senior Data Conversion Programmer, began working on a test load of this data onto our production server for the Unicorn ILS. This load is expected to be completed by August 10.

Upcoming milestones in August in addition to those already mentioned will include:

• A 2-day Rooms Planning Workshop, intended to provide our EPS Team with an understanding of the methodology, default layout and design, and recommended processes for EPS/Rooms, will be presented by a SirsiDynix consultant on August 16-17.
• SirsiDynix will copy the test data load from the production server to a test server by August 28, at which point Paul Gahn and the Data Migration Team will start on the critical taskof reviewing the test data, a process that will continue over the next five months.

Screenshot image used courtesy of SirsiDynix.

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #22

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 08/04/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly call: Tuesday.
Jenny is finishing the test load on the production server.
Paul is working with Diane on when to schedule a consulting call on how to review a test data load.
Alan returned the Rooms workshop questionnaire, and Amanda has passed this along to the consultant.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly call Tuesday at 2pm. Topic to discuss, intention for use of Collection Exchange.
Continue practicing using the test server.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #21

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 07/27/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly call: Tuesday.
Thomas Leimkuehler joined the weekly call to discuss Rooms Builder training.
Thursday -- Rooms Builder training.
Jenny is working on loading and indexing data on the production server.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly call Tuesday at 2pm.
Jenny will finish up the test load on the production server.
Continue practicing using the test server.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Unicorn Project Status Report #20

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 07/21/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
No weekly call.
Diane was on site for summits this week.
Jenny is working on loading and indexing data on the production server.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly call Tuesday at 2pm.
Jenny will begin loading and indexing data.
Continue practicing using the test server.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Unicorn Project Status Report #19

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 07/14/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
No weekly call.
Diane on site for the cataloging summit.
Jenny is working on loading data on the production sever.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
No weekly call.
Jenny will begin loading and indexing data.
Continue practicing using the test server.
Diane will be on site for the circulation and demand management summits.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Unicorn Project Status Report #18

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 07/07/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
No weekly call.
Training coupon issued and Paul has signed up for training.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
No weekly call.
Jenny will begin loading and indexing data.
Continue practicing using the test server.
Diane will be on site for the cataloging summit.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

Sirsi Implementation Teams: The Cataloging Team

On July 10 - 11, members of the Cataloging Implementation Team, along with several other Support Services staff members, will meet with SirsiDynix SureStart Consultant, Diane Cunningham, for a Cataloging Summit. This is the first of three summits scheduled for the month of July in which Diane will work with implementation team members to explore options and plan specifics for MPLIC's implementation of the different components and features of the Unicorn ILS.

Role of the Cataloging Team:

• To coordinate the implementation of the Cataloging function
• 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 – Deborah Powell (Cataloging)
Paul Gahn (Automated Services)
Betty Jones (Item Control)
Debby McElroy-Clark (Support Services)

As needed and depending on the nature of the matter at hand, select Cataloging staff may be invited to attend meetings depending on their areas of expertise.

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Unicorn Project Status Report #17

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 06/30/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly call: Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Essential Unicorn admin took place on Thursday via phone.
Training coupon was issued for Unicorn admin training.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
No weekly call next week.
Continue practicing using the test server.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Unicorn Project Status Report #16

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 06/23/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.0

Project Manager: Amanda Little
Implementation Team: Damon Hunter, Jenny Hendrickson, Patty Suessen, Diane Cunningham
Sales Representative: Laurie Chase

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
Weekly call: Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Diane joined the weekly call to discuss the cataloging and circulation summits that will take place in July.
Quality control checks completed on the production server.
Jenny has completed the data preparation.
Laurie is working with Steve on how best for the library to receive Unicorn admin training.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
Weekly call: Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Continue practicing using the test server.

Outstanding Issues

Project Status:

Event	Status	Completion Date	Notes:
Schedule	Completed	01/24/06
Hardware Install	Completed	04/18/06
Software	Completed	06/02/06
Policies/Profiling	Completed	05/25/06
Data	On Schedule		Test load to be completed 8/10/06. Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule		Second week of training is August 28-31.
Go Live	On Schedule

News from ALA in NOLA

SirsiDynix announced the 5 winners of its first annual "Building Better Communities" awards at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in New Orleans on Saturday, June 24. The winners include: Calgary Public Library, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Delaware County Community College, Media, PA; Hamilton Public Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Hancock County Library System, Bay St. Louis, MS; and INFOhio, Columbus, OH.

Another public library implementation of the Rooms/EPS public catalog and web site interface was also announced by SirsiDynix on Saturday. The Cherry Hill Public Library in Cherry Hill, NJ, will officially go live on their new system later this summer, but a preview is already available on the web.