Prepared by the CARLI Office
for the ICAT Forum, November 1, 2006

Mr. Gary L. Strawn, whose self-penned job title is “Authorities Librarian, etc.” at Northwestern University, has written a series of computer programs for NWU cataloging department staff that work in conjunction with a Voyager database.  Mr. Strawn graciously makes these programs available to other Voyager customers around the world.  In March 2005, the CARLI Office began supporting the Strawn utilities listed below for I-Share participating libraries.

Cataloger’s Toolkit for Voyager (general purpose “client”)
Correction Review (used for reviewing batch changes to headings in bibs)
Correction Receiver (used to submit batch changes to headings in bibs)
Spine Label Printing (used for printing spine labels)

Many I-Share library staff are currently using some or all of these programs, to some extent.  Many cataloging staff members from I-Share libraries and beyond believe that these programs work better than Voyager to perform certain cataloging tasks.  The CARLI Office does not require the use of these programs, but they are an option available to I-Share libraries that wish to use them.

This handout is intended to be a supplementary “map” to the steps needed to install and begin using the Strawn utilities in the I-Share environment.  It is not intended to replace the more complete documentation for each program, described below.

Where to get the Strawn and I-Share documentation

All documentation for the Strawn programs supported by the CARLI Office is available from the CARLI website at the URL below:

http://www.carli.illinois.edu/mem-prod/I-Share/secure/execute.html

This is the same page used for downloading the Voyager clients.  If staff are accessing this page from within an I-Share library, no login/password should be required if the workstation’s IP address is properly registered for Reverse DNS lookup.

Scroll to the section of this page entitled “Strawn Programs and Documentation.”  On this webpage, near the top of the Strawn Programs and Documentation section, is a very important piece of documentation entitled “Installing and Configuring Gary Strawn’s Software in CARLI/I-Share Libraries.”

This is a large document that includes step-by-step instructions on how to install and configure each of the Strawn programs in I-Share participating libraries.  It is imperative that whoever is doing the installation and configuration of the Strawn programs in the local library follow these instructions carefully.  Library staff that are responsible for learning and training others in the use of these programs should also review this document, as it contains some valuable information about use of the programs in the I-Share environment.

The CARLI website also includes links to the documentation authored by Mr. Strawn for each of the programs listed above.  The documentation for each program is found beneath each ZIP file, although Correction Review and Correction Receiver share the same documentation (called “Making Changes to Headings,” found under Correction Receiver).

Where to get the Strawn programs

All four of the Strawn programs are also available for download from the CARLI website at the URL below.  Scroll to the section of this page entitled “Strawn Programs and Documentation.”  Downloading the programs from the CARLI website assures that the I-Share library uses the correct versions of the Strawn software for our technical and support environment.

http://www.carli.illinois.edu/mem-prod/I-Share/secure/execute/index.html

There is a section for each of the different Strawn programs listed above.  The programs are downloadable ZIP files.  Libraries do not have to use all of the programs available here.  Many libraries use only Spine Label Printing, or only Cataloger’s Toolkit.  However, Correction Receiver and Correction Review are used in conjunction with each other to make batch changes to headings.

NOTE: the Correction Review and Correction Receiver programs should only be installed on the workstation of the library staff member(s) who will be reviewing and approving batch heading changes in the local database.  The CARLI Office recommends that only a single staff member have access to these two programs at the beginning of a library’s implementation of the Strawn utilities.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Any errors made in correcting batches of records using any of Mr. Strawn’s programs are the responsibility of the library to correct locally.  The CARLI Office will not restore any database because of errors made to records by imprudent or incorrect use of Mr. Strawn’s utilities.

Technical requirements (pre-requisites) for using the Strawn utilities

NOTE:  All four of these Strawn programs require that an ODBC connection to the I-Share reports server be established on the workstation prior to configuration of the Strawn program(s).  This is the same ODBC connection that is needed when a workstation is used to run the prepackaged or customized Access reports against the Voyager database.  The I-Share upgrade to Voyager version 6.1 (completed in June 2006) means that staff must use an Oracle 9i ODBC connection.

In addition, the individual staff member running these Strawn programs must also have an Oracle account for this ODBC connection.  If the staff member already has an Oracle account for running Access reports, that account can be used for the Strawn programs.  If the staff member does not have an Oracle account already, the library’s I-Share Liaison or Security Contact must file a WRO to get this account established.

For the upgrade to Voyager 6.1, CARLI staff created a program called “CARLI Oracle9/ODBC Installer” that can be used to automatically perform the same steps detailed in the manual instructions (cited below) for uninstalling an earlier Oracle client and installing and configuring the Oracle 9 client for the I-Share environment.  The documentation for the CARLI Oracle9 Installer program is available from the URL below:

http://www.carli.illinois.edu/mem-prod/I-Share/secure/execute/O9iODBCinstallcfig.pdf

If, for whatever reason, libraries cannot use the ODBC installer program, the I-Share-specific instructions for manually installing the Oracle 9 client and ODBC driver connections is available from the URL below:

http://www.carli.illinois.edu/mem-prod/I-Share/secure/execute/Oracle9maninstall.pdf

The manual ODBC installation method takes much more time (perhaps an hour or more) than use of the CARLI installer program.  Staff can decide locally which Oracle 9 installation method is most appropriate, but no matter which method is used, Oracle 9 and the ODBC driver must be installed and functional before the configuration of any of Mr. Strawn’s programs can take place.

Unique Strawn program functionality in the I-Share environment

There are a few things that are unique about the I-Share environment that affect functionality and workflow when using the Strawn programs.  The information below is an overview of these unique “features.”

(1) Voyager record “read” is from the Reports server

All of the Strawn programs use an ODBC connection to “read” records from the Voyager database.  In the I-Share environment, for security and system performance concerns, all ODBC connections (other than to the training databases) point to the I-Share reports server rather than to the live, production server.  However, when records are changed/edited in any way by the Strawn programs, the “write” is to the production server.

The I-Share reports server contains a copy of each library’s Voyager database taken daily at 3 a.m.  This setup has implications that cataloging staff should be aware of in their use of the Strawn utilities.

A.    If cataloging staff make any changes to a record on Day A via the Voyager cataloging client or any of the Strawn utilities, and then make a subsequent change to the SAME record on the SAME day (Day A) via a Strawn program (e.g., the Cataloger’s Toolkit’s BAM function) the first change made to the record on Day A will be “lost.”  This is because the Strawn programs “read” the Voyager records from the static copy of the database instead of the live production database, and the “read” does not know about the previous changes made that same day.

B.    Related to point A above, staff who use Correction Receiver to make batch changes to records (i.e., to correct obsolete subject headings “globally”) may need to plan to correct similar headings on different days, so the first changes are not “lost" due to the read of the records from the reports server.

For example, a relatively recent LC subject heading change was from “Aged” to “Older persons.”  Correction Receiver can change all instances of $a Aged to $a Older persons in bibs, including any records that have subdivisions following the $a Aged.  However, some of these same bibs may have another subject heading (in addition to $a Aged) with similar text in the 6xx $a, such as $a Aged in art.  If, on Day A, the library first submits via Correction Receiver a change for $a Aged, and then (also on Day A) a second change for $a Aged in art, any bibs that contain both headings will only get the change applied in production for $a Aged in art.  This is because the second “read” from the static copy of the database from the reports server for the second change won’t know about the first change on Day A for $a Aged.

Using this same example, if a single bib contains a heading for $a Aged $z Illinois and another heading for $a Aged $z United States, both headings would get changed by Correction Receiver on Day A, because the “read” from the reports server in this example only needs to happen once, for the $a Aged heading.

Another workflow option for batch changes is to go ahead and submit all headings changes on Day A, and then check the Voyager database on Day B to see if any changes were not completed due to multiple “reads” from the reports server on Day A.  Staff can then manually edit any remaining bibs with obsolete headings, or re-submit any necessary changes via Correction Receiver on Day B.

C.    When new bib records are added to the local database on Day A, they will not be available for use with Cataloger Toolkit’s BAM functions (or any other Strawn program for that matter) until Day B, because the newly added bibs won’t be included in the reports server copy of the database until the 3 a.m. database refresh has taken place.

D.    Similarly, for staff using the Strawn Spine Label Printing program, new MFHDs/items added to the Voyager database on Day A won’t be able to be used for spine label printing until Day B, because the newly added records won’t be included in the reports server copy of the database until the 3 a.m. database refresh has taken place.

E.    On occasion, the daily refresh of the reports server doesn’t happen due to technical problems.  CARLI Office policy is to post an announcement about this situation as soon as we know about it.  Staff using the Strawn programs need to be aware that when the reports server isn’t refreshed on any particular day, this means the “read” of records via the Strawn utilities is retrieving records that are more than one day old.  Staff using Correction Receiver for batch changes, in particular, may wish to wait until the reports server is refreshed again to run the batch changes in production mode, so that the amount of potential data loss is minimized.

(2) Voyager batch changes scheduled for non-prime hours

In the CARLI I-Share environment, batch jobs are scheduled to run after normal business hours, to minimize the impact these jobs can have on response time/performance on the production server.  This policy applies to batch jobs run by CARLI staff, such as circulation notices, bib record loads, etc., as well as batch jobs run by local library staff using Strawn’s Correction Receiver program that can edit many bib records per headings change.

To accommodate this CARLI policy, Mr. Strawn added code to his Correction Receiver program so that when I-Share libraries run the program in “production” mode (as opposed to test mode) to change headings, the program won’t actually start submitting changes to the production server until the batch change time has been reached.

Test vs. production runs are controlled within the Correction Receiver program, on the Options/Output handling tab.  There are no start time limitations on test runs, since the test runs do not send any records to the production server.  Test runs can be performed during normal business hours.

After the test has been run, reviewed, and approved by appropriate library staff, then the Output handling option can be changed to “Write changed records to Vger.”  In the I-Share environment, when this option is selected, the Correction Receiver program will not actually begin submitting the changes until the appropriate batch job time on the production server (currently, that window is 10 PM to 2 AM, seven days a week).  This means the PC must be left on and the Correction Receiver program must be running after normal business hours.

The staff member running Correction Receiver in production (i.e., non-test) mode must also select Start (from the main menu) to initiate the batch changes.  The program will display “Active” and will wait until 10 p.m. to submit the first (and subsequent) change request to the production database.

The next working day, there will probably be a message displaying on the workstation stating:  “Run-time error ‘65099’; Connection lost.  Application will be aborted.”  This is a result of the connection being dropped when the routine 3 a.m. bounce of the production server occurs.  The changes submitted via Correction Receiver should have completed properly, despite this error message.  The user can simply close the error message windows and proceed with work as normal.

It is not necessary to have the Voyager cataloging client also running in conjunction with Correction Receiver’s production runs of batch changes.  Correction Receiver does its work without the use of the cat client.  However, if the Voyager cataloging client is left running overnight, in addition to the “Run-time error 65099”message, the cat client will display a “Run-time error ‘440’: Automation error.”  This message, too, is a result of all clients being disconnected from the server at 3 a.m.  The user can simply close the error message windows and log on to the cat client again.

Where to go for help with the Strawn programs

Although Mr. Strawn is very generous with his time in writing, supporting, and sharing his programs with libraries other than his own (Northwestern University), he prefers that users of his programs try to find answers to questions about his programs from local sources before they contact him directly for help.  In this way, he can spend his valuable time enhancing his programs rather than dealing with questions that others may be able to answer.  In addition, Mr. Strawn is not familiar with the unique aspects of the I-Share environment, so he would not be the appropriate person to answer all questions from I-Share library staff.

In the I-Share environment, the CARLI Office has been designated by Mr. Strawn as the first line of contact for questions/problem reports with any of the Strawn programs we support.  If you have questions, please send an email to:

support@carli.illinois.edu

Please describe the question/problem report in as much detail as you can provide, including any error messages that you might receive from the software and specific records on which you encountered the problem.  CARLI staff will do their best to answer your questions or provide solutions to the problems.  However, if the question is one that we can’t answer, we may need to forward it on your behalf to Mr. Strawn for assistance.

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