CARLI CONTENTdm Migration to OCLC Hosting

April 11, 2019 - The CARLI Digital Collections server migration to the OCLC-hosted environment has been successfully completed!

April 8, 2019 - If you need to retain use of existing projects in your Project Client, you will need to update them with the new Server URL and your new user name* and password. This change must be made prior to 5:00pm, Wednesday, April 10, 2019. After that time, old projects will no longer be accessible for updating or for use. Note that while it is possible to update existing projects to use the new OCLC-hosted server before 5:00pm on April 10, IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU INSTEAD CREATE NEW PROJECTS AFTER THE MIGRATION IS COMPLETE.  If you plan to create new projects in the Project Client, no action is needed from you at this time.  You will be able to create new projects at any time in the future as needed.

February 27, 2019 - CARLI CONTENTdm Migration to begin March 20, 2019

Previous Announcements

December 7, 2018 - CARLI's Move to OCLC-hosted CONTENTdm Delayed

CARLI’s migration to OCLC-hosted CONTENTdm has been delayed and will not take place in calendar year 2018 as previously announced.  

CARLI staff are working with CONTENTdm staff to resolve a few issues related to CARLI’s consortial environment before migration can proceed.  We are currently hoping to reschedule the migration for February or March of 2019.  We will send out another announcement about new migration plans along with a link to a webpage of further details as soon as we have them!  

In the meantime, you should continue to use CARLI’s CONTENTdm software as before; no changes are necessary at this time.

Thank you for your patience!  If you have any questions, please contact CARLI Support.

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July 9, 2018 - CARLI to move to OCLC-hosted CONTENTdm this year

OCLC announced that it will stop supporting locally-hosted CONTENTdm sites as of December 31, 2018.  In order to continue to provide CARLI member libraries with the best possible service, CARLI will be migrating to the vendor-hosted version of CONTENTdm later this year. CARLI staff are actively working with OCLC to develop a migration plan and timeline.  We anticipate it will occur sometime this Fall, and we will share more information with you as soon as we are able. Training, webinars, and documentation will be made available to participating libraries as part of the process.
 
The following outcomes can be expected as part of moving to the OCLC-hosted version of CONTENTdm:
* There will be a period of time—probably about 2-3 weeks—during which library staff will suspend all work in CONTENTdm as we transfer existing data from CARLI’s server to OCLC’s servers; however, a static version of the CARLI Digital Collections website will continue to be available to end-users during this time.
* Shared, institution-based logins will be retired and all users of CARLI’s CONTENTdm system will have individual usernames and passwords.
* Server URLs in Project Clients and for Web Administration will change, but the main CARLI Digital Collections website URL (http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/) will stay the same.
* Project Client installations should be the same, but if you want to continue to use existing projects after the migration, they will need to be updated with new server URLs.
* Overall workflows and procedures for using Web Administration and creating collections will remain largely the same.
 
More details on these and many other aspects of the migration will be forthcoming.  Please contact CARLI Support if you have any questions.

February 27: Migration dates announced!

March 5 from 1:00-2:00 pm: CARLI CONTENTdm Migration Open Conference Calls
March 14 from 9:00-10:00 am: CARLI CONTENTdm Migration Open Conference Calls

March 20 at noon: Library staff must have completed all Required Library Tasks Before the Migration. CARLI Digital Collections will enter "read-only" mode for the duration of the migration.

Migration will take 10-15 business days. See what to expect during the migration.

On or before April 10, CARLI staff will announce that the migration is complete!

• Library staff must perform all Required Library Tasks After the Migration before work can resume.
• Some things about CARLI Digital Collections will change due to the migration to a hosted instance. See details on what to expect After the Migration.

Required Tasks before noon on March 20, 2019:

1. Project Client: Upload ALL items from all projects to their respective collections.
2. Web Administration: Check that there are no "locked" items (items tab > lock administration).  If locked items are found, resolve them in local Project Clients by Uploading, Approving, and Indexing.  If the items cannot be located in a Project Client, click "unlock" in Web Administration.
3. Web Administration: Approve and Index all items that have been uploaded.

Optional Tasks - will be Required after migration is complete:

New User Names: Existing CARLI CONTENTdm user names (i.e. "xxxcdm") and passwords cannot be transferred to the hosted server. OCLC requires each CONTENTdm user to use their existing WorldCat.org user name and password or create a new user name and password.  Libraries should use the following steps to update staff user names and passwords:

1. Libraries should first create a list of all library staff that will need new, personalized user names in CONTENTdm. Communicate with those users and find out if they will use an existing WorldCat.org account or if they will need to create a new user name and password.
2. If any staff need new user names and passwords, they can be created by that staff on the OCLC website.
   • CONTENTdm user names must not contain the ampersand (&) or percent (%) characters.
   • If you already have an existing WorldCat.org username, you may use it with hosted CONTENTdm if you wish.
   • For students or temporary staff, a library may create a generic WorldCat.org account with a library-managed email address.
3. Record the list of all the new staff user names locally and decide which CONTENTdm collections each user should should be allowed to access. Each institution's CARLI Primary CONTENTdm Contact should then submit the CONTENTdm Migration New User Names Form with your institution's new USER NAMES (do not send us passwords) and the collections each user name should be allowed to access.

Email CARLI Support if you have any questions about creating new user names or about the New User Names Form.

Beginning at noon on March 20, 2019:

• No new digital items can be added to existing collections.
• No changes can be made to existing digital items.
• No new collections can be created in CARLI Digital Collections.
• Currently unpublished existing collections cannot change from unpublished to published, but unpublished collections will not be lost.  They will be available for publishing after the upgrade.
• No changes can be made to collection home pages.
• A read-only copy of CARLI Digital Collections will be available for searching and viewing items at http://collections.carli.illinois.edu.  It will contain all items and metadata as of noon on March 20, 2019.

The migration is expected to take 10-15 business days to complete. This period of time is necessary to allow CARLI staff to copy all CARLI Digital Collections data and ship it to OCLC Headquarters in Columbus, OH. OCLC CONTENTdm staff will transfer CARLI Digital Collections data to a hosted instance of CONTENTdm. Then CARLI staff will perform testing and work with CONTENTdm Support to resolve any issues before the migration will be approved and complete.

Optional Task - will be Required after migration is complete:

New User Names: Existing CARLI CONTENTdm user names (i.e. "xxxcdm") and passwords cannot be transferred to the hosted server. OCLC requires each CONTENTdm user to use their existing WorldCat.org user name and password or create a new user name and password.  Libraries should use the following steps to update staff user names and passwords:

1. Libraries should first create a list of all library staff that will need new, personalized user names in CONTENTdm. Communicate with those users and find out if they will use an existing WorldCat.org account or if they will need to create a new user name and password.
2. If any staff need new user names and passwords, they can be created by that staff on the OCLC website.
   • CONTENTdm user names must not contain the ampersand (&) or percent (%) characters.
   • If you already have an existing WorldCat.org username, you may use it with hosted CONTENTdm if you wish.
   • For students or temporary staff, a library may create a generic WorldCat.org account with a library-managed email address.
3. Record the list of all the new staff user names locally and decide which CONTENTdm collections each user should should be allowed to access. Each institution's CARLI Primary CONTENTdm Contact should then submit the CONTENTdm Migration New User Names Form with your institution's new USER NAMES (do not send us passwords) and the collections each user name should be allowed to access.

Email CARLI Support if you have any questions about creating new user names or about the New User Names Form.

Required Tasks after CARLI staff have announced that the migration is complete on April 11, 2019:

1. URL for accessing CONTENTdm Web Administration changes to: https://server17214.contentdm.oclc.org/cgi-bin/admin/start.exe
   • Update any Internet browser bookmarks to the new URL.
   • This change will need to be made before work can resume in CONTENTdm Web Administration, but need not necessarily occur immediately if staff are not actively working in it until a later date.
   • If you still create Custom Queries and Results (CQRs), the URL changes to: https://server17214.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm4/cqr/cqr1.php
2. If you have not already done so, new user names and passwords must be created for each staff member that will use CONTENTdm. The institution's Primary CONTENTdm contact needs to submit all new user names (user names ONLY; do not send us passwords) and the collections each user names should be allowed to access via the CONTENTdm Migration New User Names Form before work can resume.
   • Set up a personalized OCLC WorldCat user name and password on the OCLC website for each person at your institution that will be working in CONTENTdm.
   • CONTENTdm user names must not contain the ampersand (&) or percent (%) characters.
   • If you already have an existing WorldCat.org user name, you may use it with hosted CONTENTdm if you wish.
   • For students or temporary staff, a library may create a generic WorldCat.org account with a library-managed email address.
3. Check that your Project Client software is version 6.1.2.991; the auto-update function of the Project Client does not work. If your Project Client is not version 6.1.2.991, download the latest version from the OCLC website.
4. If you did not update connection information for existing projects, create new projects connected to your collection(s) on the hosted server before work can resume in the Project Client.
   • Instructions for creating a new project (including the new Server URL to connect to the OCLC-hosted server) can be be found on the Starting A New Project page.
   • Note: On a going-forward basis, OCLC recommends using the default image conversion settings in Administration and Project Client, including selecting the option for "Create Display Image" when importing images.
   • Updates to existing projects should have been completed no later than 5:00pm on Wednesday, April 10.  OCLC and CARLI cannot guarantee that existing projects will be able to be updated after 5pm on April 10 and cannot help you recover existing projects if they were not updated prior to 5pm on April 10. However, if you would still like to try to update an existing project, follow the instructions in Updating an Existing Project with the new OCLC-hosted CONTENTdm Server URL and your new user name and password document to update the necessary information in existing projects.  
5. Access to the Saskia Art Images or the Sanborn Maps of Illinois, 1867-1907 collections available to all CARLI governing member libraries will change.  If your library website or proxy server has links directly to these collections, you'll need to adjust the URLs to include the new CARLI proxy string so that your users will be recognized and authenticated.  More information can be found in: Access to Saskia Art Images and Sanborn Maps of Illinois, 1867-1970 from CARLI after April 10, 2019.
6. Access to the CONTENTdm API has changed. If your library uses the CONTENTdm API for any web sites or services, please contact CARLI Support to obtain the new URL to use.

The URL of CARLI Digital Collections does not change

The URL to the public CARLI Digital Collections site will continue to be http://collections.carli.illinois.edu

Issues or Problems

Continue to report questions or problems using CARLI Digital Collections or CARLI's CONTENTdm to CARLI Support as always.

User Names

• User Names in the hosted CONTENTdm environment are OCLC WorldCat.org accounts. 
• Each library staff user should establish his/her own WorldCat.org account associated with their email address, and that account User Name is provided to CARLI and given permissions to CARLI's CONTENTdm Server. 
  • For students or temporary staff, a library may create a generic WorldCat.org account with a library-managed email address.
• The passwords to these accounts are set and changed by each user via their email address, not by CARLI, OCLC, or CONTENTdm Support. 
• To create a new User Name, see the OCLC Website.
• Each CARLI library must keep track of the users that they have granted permission to access CONTENTdm and notify the CARLI Office immediately of any changes.  For example, if a staff member with access leaves your institution or will no longer be working on CONTENTdm any longer, contact CARLI Support to have their account's access removed.

Requesting New Collections

Please use the new New Collection Request Form to request new collections from now on. This form will provide the CARLI Office with the name of your new collection, any custom collection alias you may want to use, plus a list of all the user names that should have access to the collection.

Collection Statistics

The custom-built CARLI statistics based on Apache log files will no longer be provided because CARLI will no longer have access to those logs on the hosted server that are needed to generate these stats. Past statistics will be archived on this page for the foreseeable future.  CARLI's stats were created many years ago before CONTENTdm had any reporting functionality.

CONTENTdm provides built-in statistics in Web Administration > collections tab > reports > Item Pageviews. Data are available for all collections going back to when CARLI Digital Collections came up on CONTENTdm 6.10 in late June 2015 (or beginning when the collection was published). On the Item Pageviews page, choose the month you wish to see and scroll to the bottom of the list and choose the link "Export data as a tab-delimited text file" to download the complete list in a file because not all of the results appear in the view on this page.

CARLI's custom-built statistics were by no means perfect; they did not attempt to exclude bots, crawlers, indexers or other bulk applications, nor did they record any concept of session, which means that every time a user moved from page to page within a compound object it was counted again and again because each page is a new line in the Apache log and was counted as one hit.  In contrast, the Help files about CONTENTdm's built-in statistics say that "Moving around within a compound object, in order to see its different components, does not add to the Pageview count for that object. The Pageview count is incremented only when the URL in the browser's address bar changes." For those reasons, the counts in CARLI statistics will likely be higher than CONTENTdm's pageviews if you try to compare them directly.

Access to Saskia Art Images and Sanborn Maps of Illinois, 1867-1970 collections from CARLI

These two collections are only available to users of CARLI governing member libraries and the authentication mechanism for these two collections has changed. More information can be found in: Access to Saskia Art Images and Sanborn Maps of Illinois, 1867-1970 from CARLI after April 10, 2019.

All OCLC-provided release notes can be found from the CONTENTdm release notes and known issues website.

Please note that CARLI is not moving to the CONTENTdm Responsive Website as part of this migration. After the migration to the hosted service is complete, CARLI staff will begin work to move CARLI Digital Collections to the Responsive Website.  More information will be provided in future.