More on the ILS from our Technical Trainer

In addition to the Go Live Reference Training Wiki discussed below, Kevin Dixon has started the Go Live Series, a special series regarding the new ILS, on the MPLIC Tech Train blog. This series will include frequent posts (sometimes daily) regarding one aspect of the new ILS. The first few posts in the series focus on the new Hold procedures.

(Remember, since blogs are in reverse-chronological order, the newest material will always be on top. Therefore, if you want to start from the beginning, just scroll down to the bottom and go up.)

Reference Training Wiki for new ILS now available

Although both our Go Live date and the scheduled training leading up to it have been postponed, staff can get a preview of the training to come by visiting the Go Live! Sirsi ILS Reference Training Wiki, developed by Kevin Dixon in Staff Development. Read this post (and this one as well) from Kevin's MPLIC Tech Train blog for more details.

Sirsi Unicorn "Go Live" date has been postponed

Text of e-mail sent to all staff, 01/24/07:

In conjunction with the Sirsi Project Manager and several key team members here, we have mutually agreed to postpone the "Go Live" date until later in the spring. This decision is a result of several factors, and will result in a smoother transition and improved product performance for staff and customers. Some of the key reasons for this decision are:

1. Sirsi is nearing completion of an upgrade that will provide greater functionality and system performance. We have an opportunity to participate in this upgrade. Rather than rush the process through, we feel that it is crucial to have time to test the enhancements and ensure that we have a robust, user-riendly product.

2. The postponement allows us a better opportunity to develop thorough training materials and a streamlined process so that everyone is trained in a timely manner.

3. We recognize that February is an extremely busy time for public service staff. This postponement will allow you the opportunity to schedule adequately to meet customer demands during this period.

A revised implementation timeline and specific new date for "Go Live" will be forthcoming. In the meantime, the training schedule previously announced for Circulation and Information staff is cancelled. As we move closer to completion, Cynthia will announce Circulation and Reference training dates and open the enrollment.

Should you have any questions or concerns about this change, feel free to contact met at 2723 or virgiliod or Alan Stewart at 2856 or stewarta. Also, you may track any updates to the project by visiting the ILS blog found here: http://memphislibrary.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your continued support for this essential service enhancement.

Damone Virgilio
Staff Development Manager
Memphis Public Library and Information Center
3030 Poplar Ave.
Memphis, TN 38111
901-415-2723

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #41

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: Since the weekly reports have developed to a point where the majority of items are new, italics are no longer being used to identify new information.

Status Report Date: 1/19/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: TBD - postponed
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: Laurie Chase/Bill Kessler[/Gena Wilhite]

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed

• Weekly Call

• Memphis has decided to postpone their go live. They want to push out the date to sometime between March 15 and June 14 which is the end of their fiscal year. ..

• An Oracle related Memory Leak was discovered at Memphis. Damon put a 10.1.0.5 instant client in place which is a temporary fix and which should resolve the memory/swap issues for the short term.

• Gena Wilhite sent Memphis a quote for billable systems configuration. It was accepted by Memphis and returned to SirsiDynix. Jeannie is investigating possible dates that this work can be done.

• A request has been sent to Jennifer Hendrickson for her to respond to Memphis’ question regarding migrating call numbers with mixed case. She is working on her responses to the most recent data log.

• Alan feels that there is a rooms training piece missing regarding EPS/Rooms configuration and populating the user database and configuring searches. These are things that have to work before they go live and which they have had little or no training for. Additionally, they want to do something similar to Bloomington and keep their own home page with a login and search box from EPS/Rooms on the regular web page. Alan sent emails in reference to these issues to Jeannie Peters and copied the Rooms team on it.

• Memphis is extremely disappointed that we had to ask them for the EPS/Rooms customization spreadsheet again. This was given to us last year on schedule and it appears that nothing has been done with the information. They do not currently have a functioning OPAC. When they do a keyword search they get no results and an error message. [Correction: The basic keyword search does work - use of Item Group limiters does not work in Basic Search. -- AS, 01/24/07] Advanced limits specifications cannot be set. They want to know what happened on our end and why this work was never done. Jeannie Peters will pursue this.

• Memphis requested that Steve McCafferty be approached regarding their contract to see if he is waiting on responses or information from Memphis.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week

• Weekly Call.
• Data review on the production server
• Continuing work on EPS/Rooms

Outstanding Issues

• Alex Feng is responding to Memphis on existing Client Care issues regarding 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		Production load 3/14/07
SirsiDynix Training	On Schedule
Go Live	On Schedule		Postponed by customer. New schedule is being created.

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #40

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 1/12/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
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: Laurie Chase/Bill Kessler

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
• Weekly Call
• Jeannie sent Alan and Paul information regarding the 260 as an alternate search in response to a searching issue experienced earlier in the project.
• Memphis has decided to delay installation of their LINCPlus until 3-6 months after their go live.
• Bill Kessler sent Memphis a quote for some billable custom server configuration.
• Pam Tejes was onsite January 9-11 for a consulting visit.
• Jeannie is researching LINCPlus questions from Memphis.
• The IBM system printer has arrived onsite and it will be installed this week.
• A request has been sent to Jennifer Hendrickson for her to respond to Memphis’ question regarding migrating call numbers with mixed case.
• Belinda Hamm has been requested to coordinate any needed HIR with Memphis if needed for the SIP2 installation.
• A request has been sent to Belinda Hamm to confirm whether or not she can do her SVA call with Memphis on February 5. Their SVA is to be installed in February and this needs to be put on her schedule with specific dates.
• Jeannie is working on updating the timeline/schedule and will return this to Memphis the week of January 15.
• Memphis has notified Margaret Pelfrey that they will delay Collection Exchange training and implementation until sometime after they go live. They will use the Recirculate functionality for their Large Print Rotating Collection.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
• Weekly Call on Thursday [1/18] at 10 MT, 11 CT.
• Data review on the production server
• Continuing work on EPS/Rooms

Outstanding Issues
• Kristiana Burk was on the weekly call with Memphis. For now, all EPS/Rooms [questions] will go to her and Alex Feng rather than Client Care in order to have them responded to more quickly. Kristiana also stated that we hope that 2.2 will be released on March 1 and that we will work with Memphis on the installation of it. We will do a WebEx session with them to go over the differences between 2.2 and 2.1. She stressed that Memphis’ EPS/Rooms issues are a priority for us and she offered to go there for a half day onsite visit to talk over their concerns and get their feedback.

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 #39

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 1/5/07
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Alan Stewart
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
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: Laurie Chase/Bill Kessler

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
• Weekly Call
• Steve Foster, who was Memphis’ main contact for this project, retired in December. Alan Stewart will step in as main contact.
• Jeannie is continuing to pursue information regarding the 260 as an alternate search.
• The SVA server was shipped to Memphis the last week in December and has arrived on site. Jeannie is getting instructions for installing the server.
• The extra Lexmark printer and cable which were delivered to Memphis have been picked up and returned to the manufacturer.
• Memphis will definitely have us load the Marc holdings as they are rather than request custom work on them.
• The SIP2 questionnaire has been returned and SIP2 has been put on Belinda Hamm’s schedule for configuration the week of January 30.
• Bill Kessler is working on a quote for some billable custom configuration on the server that Memphis requested.
• Jeannie will meet with Kristiana Burke the Friday, January 5 to discuss the status of Memphis EPS/Rooms issues.


Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
• Weekly Call.
• Data review on the production server
• Continuing work on EPS/Rooms
• Pam Tejes will be onsite January 9-11 for a consulting visit.

Outstanding Issues
• EPS/Rooms incident 215132
• Shawn Ewing contacted Alan in regards to incident 215132. He will send Alan information to correct the issue in the first part of the incident. The second part of the incident refers to a bug in the software and Shawn has escalated the incident to the Rooms team.
• There are continuing serious concerns about the nonresponsiveness of Client Care to the Rooms incidents that Memphis has been opening. This problem is being discussed with the Rooms team management.

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 acquired by Vista Equity Partners

SirsiDynix announced on December 27 that it will be acquired by Vista Equity Partners, a $1 billion private equity firm that focuses on investing in software and technology businesses. According to Lebron Miles, spokesman for SirsiDynix, there are no current plans to change the SirsiDynix name, and customers are not expected to see any difference in services.

For more details, and some expert analysis:

• SirsiDynix's official press release (PDF format)
• "SirsiDynix Acquired by Private Equity Firm; Service To Remain Same, but Will Costs Rise?" LibraryJournal.com, 12/27/06.
• "SirsiDynix Finds a New Investor," Andrew K. Pace (the "Hectic Pace" blog), 12/28/06.
• "SirsiDynix Acquisition: Another Step for Private Equity Firms," LibraryJournal.com, 1/2/07.

SirsiDynix Project Manager's Weekly Status Report #38

Unicorn Project Status Report

Note: New and/or revised information is italicized.

Status Report Date: 12/22/2006
Site Name: Memphis Public Library (24 libraries)
Client Contact: Steve Foster
Go-Live Date: 03/15/07
Software Release: GL 3.1

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

Major Activities/ Meetings Completed
• Weekly Call
• Jeannie is continuing to pursue information regarding the 260 as an alternate search.
• The SVA dialogic boards arrived and were installed on the server. The SVA server configuration is complete and the server will be shipped to Memphis the last week in December.
• Jeannie is working on getting the extra Lexmark printer and cable picked up from Memphis and returned to the manufacturer.
• Paul is working with Damon on the installation of Patch Cluster 4.
• Memphis will probably have us load the Marc holdings as they are rather than request custom work on them.
• Memphis is testing the recirculate function for Collection Exchange and will let Margaret Pelfrey know how the testing goes.

Activities/ Meetings Scheduled for Next Week
• Weekly Call – postponed until January 3 due to the holidays.
• Data review on the production server
• Continuing work on EPS/Rooms
• SVA server to be shipped to Memphis

Outstanding Issues
• EPS/Rooms incident 215132
• Shawn Ewing contacted Alan in regards to incident 215132. He will send Alan information to correct the issue in the first part of the incident. The second part of the incident refers to a bug in the software and Shawn has escalated the incident to the Rooms team.
• There are continuing serious concerns about the nonresponsiveness of Client Care to the Rooms incidents that Memphis has been opening. This problem is being discussed with the Rooms team management.

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