Conference call

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

10a.m - 12p.m.

Present: Karen Becker, Jana Brubaker, Lisa Wallis, Paula Dempsey, Lisa Gonzalez, Edith List, Gregory Morrison, Amanda Pippitt (chair), Keith Eiten (IUG liaison), Paige Weston (CARLI User Services)

Absent: Peggy Steele

Minutes recorded by Lisa G.

Update from Paige

Paige gave an update on the status of WV7. The members of the CARLI staff are still hopeful that WV7 may be redeployed in the future. ExLibris sent several of their programmers to meet with CARLI staff, and have provided some patches. The WebLOAD program will help with testing for heavy loads by simulating our environment more accurately. The alternate training database is available, but libraries are advised that they proceed with customizations at their own risk, since WV7 will not be redeployed unless the performance issues are resolved. Libraries may proceed with customization work for WV6 as outlined on the “Local Customizations within the I-Share Local Default WebVoyage Configuration” page - http://www.carli.illinois.edu/mem-prod/I-Share/opac/wv-cust-within-dflt_wv6.html.

Considering the issues with WV7, CARLI staff have had discussions about further development work on VuFind. Some customization on VuFind has already been done, and further work has been on hold because it would have had to be redone for 1.0, but at this point we will probably not upgrade to 1.0 anyway. There is some development work that may be worthwhile to pursue, based on issues raised by users. Some of the issues Paige mentioned are:

1. The “Cite this” function has not been working properly, and more information is needed as to what the exact problem is before it can be fixed.
2. The bib displays would benefit from further customization, i.e., what should display in the default view versus the tabs.
3. Work is proceeding to suppress the request button in situations where the patron’s home library doesn’t allow call slip requests on local items.
4. The Syndetics ICE product, which provides indexing for TOCs, can be incorporated, since the data have already been licensed.
5. VuFind is not interoperating properly with Zotero.

Paige mentioned Syndetics ICE, “Cite this” and bib displays as issues about which the OPAC team could provide feedback to CARLI.

Review of OPAC team task list

Amada reviewed the list of tasks assigned to various team members before the downgrade to see what might still be relevant.

1. Amanda will continue to work on the library contact info, since this could still be worthwhile no matter what the environment.
2. Paula’s work on documentation of OPAC displays could be put on hold.
3. Peggy’s work on revising the OPAC customization guidelines could be put on hold.
4. Lisa could put the script update for WV7 on hold, and Paige mentioned that the WV6 script could still be relevant.
5. Jana could put work on the “results in rows vs. columns” issue on hold.
6. Keith had already done some work on adding the prolific author search to the WV7 author search tab, and will give an update on what he has done so far.
7. Greg could work on cosmetic differentiation of the UC in the alternate training environment. The exporting to Refworks issue could be put on hold for WV7, and another library might provide a fix for this in the meantime.
8. The WV7 customization webinars Paige conducted in July went well, but the August webinars were cancelled of course, and further webinars are on hold.

The idea of a usability testing forum was discussed, but concern was expressed that specific training might not be relevant at this time.

Review of the enhancements log

Of the 38 items on the enhancements log at http://www.carli.illinois.edu/comms/iug/iug-opac/iug-opac-reports/opac-tasklist.html, the team decided the majority would either retain their current status of “no action at this time” or would be put on hold, due to the downgrade. The items that were seen as still being viable at this time were:

1. Re-evaluate search types, item #2 – could move forward with usability with WV6 and VuFind, since the results could still be useful to another OPAC, as long as the appropriate questions were used, and some customization work with the present environment might be possible with the results of the usability testing.
2. Terminology changes, item #4 – it would not be as easy or advisable to make changes to our current environment based on usability testing as for #2, but usability testing could still provide useful information for future OPAC environment.
3. Items #12 and #25 were discussed earlier during the review of the task list, and were still assigned to Keith and Greg, respectively.
4. Export to Del.icio.us, item #30 – Paige is looking at another library’s work on this in WV6 to see if this is too much work to develop for WV6, given the fact we don’t know how long we will be with WV6.
5. AUTH redirect on 700, Item #31 – Paige noted that this is not possible in WV6 or WV7.
6. 090A to CLSS, item #38 – this item has been completed.

CARLI Annual Meeting

Amanda will attend the annual meeting on October 30th as the OPAC team chair.

Minor customization requests

Paige went over this list and noted that due to the downgrade, these requests are not moving forward at this time. The wording of the error message could be revised, since this could apply to any OPAC environment; however, Paige noted that a lot of work had been done on the message already, and the real difficulty is that one message displays in multiple situations, making it impossible to come up with a universally applicable message. Paige will keep the list in the event of a redeployment of WV7, or a decision to resume local development work in WV6.

Discussion with IUG

The IUG members joined the call for the latter part of the meeting. IUG members present were: Jason Rossi, Carlos Melian, Sarah McHone-Chase (IUG chair), Stephen Smith, Lorna Engels (CARLI Staff Liaison), Mary Burkee, Sandy Craig, Nancy Laverdiere. IUG submitted several questions in advance for discussion.

1. The near-future of usability testing: start testing with Webvoyage under version 6, or wait until Voyager 7 is up and ready to go? - Both IUG and the OPAC team want to maintain momentum for usability testing, since a number of libraries have agreed to participate. The OPAC team will start an email discussion to generate questions for the testing.
   The advisability of a forum on usability testing was discussed. There are documents on the CARLI website about usability testing that libraries could make use of. Amanda will email the usability listserv to see what kind of help libraries would like preparing for usability testing, and to see if there is interest in a webinar.
2. Is there something that you’ve thought about doing that you didn’t have the resources (time, people, $$, materials) to do (as a team)? - Greg mentioned that more staff for OPAC development would be needed, so that more local development for our catalog can take place, as has been done at other large libraries.
3. Is there another way of doing things besides a monthly meeting or a forum? – Amanda mentioned the OPAC team’s use of a wiki for communication.
4. What services would you like to provide to your patrons that the next ILS could enable? - IUG wants to continue momentum on the “next ILS” discussion, and would like the OPAC team to continue to reflect on issues surrounding the next OPAC and ILS, and to provide feedback. OPAC team members mentioned better relevancy ranking, full text, and faster response times as things patrons would like to see right now.
5. Any questions for or about IUG? - The OPAC team also asked IUG what else we could be doing in light of the downgrade; IUG will think more about this and get back to the team.
6. What mechanisms of communication would the team prefer with IUG? - Keith will continue to give regular updates to IUG, which is helpful.

The next OPAC team meeting is scheduled as a conference call on October 13th, from 10a.m. to 12p.m.

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