I-Share Systems Committee Minutes 11-18-2013

Conference Call

Members attending:

Colin Koteles (COD), April Levy (COL), TJ Lusher (NIU), Rong Li (ISU) , Heather Parisi (DOM), Karl Pettitt (NIU), Edith List (PRC)

Members Absent:

Kirk Hess (UIU), James LeFager (DPU)

Staff attending:

Cathy Salika, Paige Weston

Announcements:

CARLI Report (Cathy/Paige)

  • Cathy – The CARLI board is meeting today. They are having their retreat to discuss big picture issues.  The project to install 4 new libraries is right on target with the approval of their production bib loads. 

  • Another project is the field test of Voyager 9; however, the test server has not been upgraded yet.  There were issues with test installation kit.

    • TJ asked if CARLI is going to do an upgrade to version 9 this summer.  Cathy responded that it would take 3 years to install a new system, so we need to continue to install upgrades. 

  • A CARLI staff member is at the Koha conference this week to be alert to issues with other library systems out there and see if there is consortium functionality.

  • Paige- VuFind activities.  One library reported they were seeing FAST headings that look like LCSH headings.  CARLI is working to suppress FAST headings. 

  • Paige is continuing to work on improving the accessibility of VuFind since it should be as accessible as possible.

  • Pat Zurek working on a mobile friendly interface to I-Share Union Catalog, not an app, but a version of the web interface that is mobile-friendly.

  • Paige - Pivotal accounts moving to SalesForce has been plagued by account management issues. CARLI, in consultation with ExLibris, will establish institutional accounts instead of having individual accounts for different staff members.  ExLibris has the accounts and then CARLI will maintain the email addresses for the institutional accounts. This reduces the headaches for ExLibris and CARLI and also the libraries.  This is currently in the works and is starting with libraries that are SFX and Voyager libraries. SFX administrators are more likely to submit reports to ExLibris directly than other users.  Anybody who has an account is welcome to open a case with ExLibris, but helpful if reports come through CARLI first. 

    Committee Liaison (Heather Parisi)

  • Continued planning for this year with the Tech Services Committee – Heather Parisi will join a conference call on December 11th.  Heather had contacted the chair of the committee, but the committee hadn’t yet held its November meeting, which was going to be in person.  Heather will be ready to report back in December.

  • Collection Management Committee – Heather hasn’t contacted them yet.  

Discussion:

  • Environmental Scan Survey – There is a bit of tweaking to do. 
    • There needs to be more information about the purpose to motivate those to complete the survey.  Need to add systems to multiple choice answers? 
    • serials solutions – summon not summons
    • section on proxy services – text of 2nd open ended question needs to be changed
    • staff hours to implement or weekly – do we even want to capture numbers that specific? Should it be just for maintenance?  Would ranges be more helpful?  Discussion on the issue.  Is there a need to add the size of the organization with Carnegie classifications?  Implementation – levels of difficulty?  Can this capture the complexity of the implementation with a question?  Connectivity with Voyager and how? What needs to persist? What doesn’t integrate yet and wish it did?  Where do you do double keying of information?  What are we curious about?  What actionable information can we come out with?  Formulate a functions list for the future ILS?  Identify trends?  Paragraph – inform CARLI and inform membership of who is implementing what.  Get information from vendors about who has.  What about what is needed for XC?  What about the date implemented per item?  Some institutions use more than one type – need to make sure they can check more than one. 
  • It was agreed that the purpose of the survey was for future enhancements (new capabilities, etc.) and to answer who is doing what.

  • Discovery layers – discussion on first two questions.  What else does it integrate with and how?  Check off boxes for which systems Voyager works with? Example patron data export?  Connectivity questions and overlap questions.  Manage e-resources where?  Voyager, ILMS? Could we give examples after title ERMS – Verde, etc.  Dynamic look ups, nightly syncing, reports and rekeying on an annual basis, etc. as a Link Resolver.

  • Discovery layer (What does it discover? What other systems do they connect to?) What part of your collection can be discovered here?  Catalog (local and consortium listed separately), IR, Article Databases, Digital Collections, authentication system connected? Do we need to ask how does it connect?  When ask does it connect to your catalog – different vendors interpret it differently (central index built, OCLC holdings, etc.) Linking a user to my account in Voyager?  Not available in WorldCat Local.  Is it real time information or is it just a link to another system? It would be great to have a single sign on for library account.  Should it ask for what people would like to see in the next system?
  • Focus on this being an environmental scan?  Need to find a balance to feed into purposes.   How current systems work and aspirational functions?  Would an in-person session be better for collecting aspirations? 
  • Where do the data come from and where does the patron connect from? 
  • How feature-specific should we get?
  • What does it discover – essential question? 
  • What campus systems flow into your catalog?  What library or campus systems receive data that flow out or user connections flow out? 
  • Special systems for archives?  List?  Archon, Catalog tool for rare books that aren’t in Voyager or Institutional Repositories as well? 
  • What does it discover and what does it connect?  How do the data flow in an out?
    • Data are exported from system A and reindexed for system B (Z39.50 connection, look up)
    • Screen scraping
    • Composing the search and then sending them off to another system.   
    • Is this a limited number of options and we won’t think of them all. 
  • Work in smaller groups for build questions? Paige and Cathy will come up with a first draft of these two questions. 
  • What about reserves systems?  Ares, etc.  Will add it to the system. 
  • Combine proxy servers and authentication on same page or single question?
  • Need to add CORAL to list?
  • Does ExLibris have an ERMS?  Verde? There is an open source one called ERMS.  
  • Institutional Management Software?  Both Blackboard & Datatel? Will clarify the distinction.
  • Need to think about how pages are arranged.  Need to have a “rhyme and reason.” Save that for after when the content is decided on. 
  • Will add Institutional repositories and Archives software and course reserves to the survey. 
  • Open ended questions on the last page at end with new capabilities?  An opportunity to fill in whatever they are interested in.