Printing Review Group Meeting 23/9/08

The Print Robots are insured for cash in the machine up to £1k but the machines themselves are not covered by insurance.  This is an increase of £500 which is excellent news as the machines will have the capacity to take more money.

EPayments – 2 new kiosks are arriving 6th October and will be deployed on the ground floor of the main library.  Epayments will be tested over the next 2 weeks and it is hoped that the interface to deal with library fines will be tested and ready in 2 weeks. Credit card transactions will be tested 26/9.

 

A recommendation on what printers to avoid purchasing for use with the central printing sytem was given based upon current known issues.  HP 2015, HP 2600 and HP 2605.  The buyit site will be updated with some guidance.

The next meeting will be held in 2 weeks.

Library systems report 16th September 2008

1. Talis hardware replacement program is on course – the hardware has arrived and is being set up by staff at Talis remotely this week. We have some testing to start eg user names and user configurations and also need the official test plan and drop out documents in place.

Installation of the Sybase and Talis software is being done remotely this week.

2. Upgrade of Alto to version 4.3 on Sunday 7^th Sept went well with no problems.

The workshop on reservations was very useful and we have sent in some additional feedback form circulation staff.

3. Prism OPAC – there is a webinar on Sept 30^th and some videos on the Talis web site – see http://www.talis.com/prism/

4. Decisions system (Management Information) The server has been delivered to ITS and has been set up there. The Business Objects system will be installed later this month. There will then be a time for John and I to do preliminary work on using the system followed by wider staff use, training etc

5. New self service machines – have been installed but still need some further set up work which is in hand and may be finished this week, including one for discharge and also taking one to Stopford. The latest version of the Talis software has been installed but we are still running the older version at this stage while the new machines are configured.

Need to automate the system of longer loan periods for people with disability. This will be achieved by creating extra borrower types with different loan rules, but it will take a while before this is done.

6. The e-payments system (GPAS) is installed and going live soon after some final testing and updating. It will allow payment by coins or credit cards into a fund from which library fines can be paid. Facilities for external users are have been investigated but will be dealt with after this phase is completed.

Demo at https://epayments.manchester.ac.uk/logon.php

7. Integrating reading lists with Blackboard is progressing well and is now, live on the production server. Manuella is writing documentation with input from library staff.

8. Automation of Store collections – the request, retrieval and notification processes are still heavily manual and I have been asked to get a ‘reservations’ like system going which will automate much of the manual work now being done by the store team. This will be quite easy to do, but will be set up later in the autumn, after the start of term rush, and then tested in Spring 2009.

Inputting of all store requests will be via a web form when we have the new OPAC PCs installed in the library.

Institutional Repository Project Update – 16th September

Hi all

Just a quick update of what’s been going on in the Institutional Repository Project during August and September 2008.

August was a fairly quiet month, holidays for everyone on the team.

Work has progressed on various fronts. Here’s the headlines

1. We have now released a functional specification for the institutional repository (available on the Project website). This summarises requirements gathered from our early adopter work and evaluation of alternative technologies. The specification currently lists 95 requirements so is fairly detailed but also somewhat abstract in particular places. We anticipate this to be a living document and will be refined over the coming months.

2. Now the scale-up budget is approved, Nilani has started work towards launching production level services. She has mapped the functional requirements to a set of deliverable modules between now and December. In December, we expect to have our first set of production quality repository functions available for demonstration and testing.

3. Technical discussions during August and September have focused mainly on ‘bolting-down’ various issues with dependent systems. These have been

• authentication mechanism which will be via CAS
• authorisation and user assignement to security groups using LDAP attributes
• interoperability with the library catalogue to support meta data describing electronic theses
• data migration and data integration with Faculty publication databases
• specification of production level hardware (which looks like it will be Redhat Linux and Oracle on virtual machines), IT Services have provided us with a set of virtual machines to test Fedora on before we procure the production hardware

4. We’ve continued our early adopter work and can now add Manchester Business School to our list. Scott is finishing writing-up he’s findings and we expect to publish a paper on the Project website shortly.

5. Scott has completed an extensive series of interviews with University staff on ‘how should we support the IR in the future?’. These views are being summarised in a discussion paper which has a number of recommedations. We expect to complete the first draft in the next day or so (we’re running a bit lat on this one!).

6. Scott and I have been looking a lot closer at metadata requirements, and yes this is pretty boring, but needs to be done. We now have 33 content types we believe the repository will support (in the first instance).

7. Mark Los (a Graduate Trainee) has joined the Project Team for one day a week. Mark will be help us capture metadata and fulltext for RAE2008 content and transfering this into Fedora. We hope the majority of this work will be complete by December.

8. We’ve advertised a new position ‘IR software developer 1 year fixed term’, deadline for applications is 18th September.

In summary, we are now into the real details, we are starting to tick off some of the technical issues but a lot still remains to be done between now and March 09 when we hope to launch repository services to the whole University.

Hope this helps, Phil

Computer Support Update

Start of Year Sessions

The following were attended by the team – Hornet, Introduction to the Problem and Knowledge Management Team and Service Request System, Blackboard, Portal

Many thanks to jenny for giving Jan and Alison an overview of Shibboleth

Virtual Service Desk

The emergency procedure was invoked once relating to a virus issue.

The service request form has been launched as a trial service used by MHS and JRUL.

Karen is starting the review of the VSD next date so if you have any comments please feel free to email me or talk to me….

I would like to thank Alison for being the emergency contact for the VSD whilst I was on leave.

Induction for Graduate Trainees

This was organised on behalf of Rachel Beckett for 5^th September. I would like to thank colleagues for their assistance. A special thanks to Alison who talked to Emma Ferguson and Mark Los (2 sessions) and assisted them with using IT signup. Alison used my induction template and I have a new starter’s checklist which I will send around the group for comment.

Telecoms

There have been some requests for new extensions (Emma Ferguson and Kathy Kirby) and sockets. A mobile was ordered for June but this has not been delivered yet so another Telecoms job to chase. The fax machine has arrived for Deansgate but it does not have all the part so is not working – Jan is chasing this up. I would like to thank Jan for coordinating all the Telecoms requests whilst I was on leave.

Desktop 08

There have been some problems with the New Optiplex 755 SFF machines. There is some progress and it is hoped by Wednesday 16^th these will have been solved. There will be a load test on Friday to test out application access times and also login times. A contingency arrangement of dual boot option is also being tested on all types of cluster PCs so that if Desktop 08 fails the PCs can be booted in clip 5 mode. This is being tested by FLS and IT Services and will be recommended to the EPB by the PAT if both sets of testers confirm this works on both 755 SFF and 755 DT formats.

In terms of JRUL student applications EndNote does not appear to be working yet although it was stated at the PAT yesterday that a fix would be in place by the end of the day. Without going into details this software is a more complicated build than other standard applications and additional work needs to be undertaken to allow it to function

Please can you test out applications on a desktop 08 PC and report any issues to Chris Mallon in IT Services by Friday or sooner. Also please can as many people as possible assist with testing the image for login times and application access times on friday morning. I don’t know time yet but will email when I do.

Printing Interfaces Project

Karen tested out the new epayments interface and provided feedback to the project via Sarah garland.

Blue Ground

The OPACs have been reduced in number due to the 6 walk in PCs having to be moved down from old location on Blue 1. Currently there are 2 but it is aimed to have 4 available.

Hardware

Laptops for Deansgate have been installed.

Digital camera for Ed Potten has arrived.

Printers for Facilities management and Art and Archaeology have been installed

PC for Chris Perkins will be installed for Monday but will need the 19” monitor installed at a later date.

We need to set up how we are going to use DELL premier service. At the moment we don’t have shopper access so we will need to raise an order and then fax it to DELL (once we obtain the fax number!)

Printer Consumables

All the cupboards and their contents have now been relocated to Computer Support.

Rooms 1.1, 1.16 and 1.17

We are still waiting for the quote to be sent to Colin O’Neil for the trunking and electrical work. The estates project manager and the contractor have been in to look at the job and are in the process of providing the quote. This project is being run by Cliff from Estates as project Manager with Tony Jones from IT Services.

Hospital PC Support

We need to be clear who provided the support for the PCs which we gave the hospitals. There was a problem with Stepping Hill Hospital which was reported to the VSD which was assigned to MHS who reassigned it to JRUL. IT Services support the network and the only PCs attached to it are those which used to be the property of JRUL. I believe Helen McEvoy is trying to pursue some elearning support form MHS for these PCs.

Food and Drink Task Force

Jan, Alison and Karen are all part of this.

Congratulations to …
Alison and Jan on passing the ITIL foundation exam

And to me on my engagement to Kenny at end of July (just in case I haven’t flashed my ring enough!!).

Report from Head of IS

Report from Head of IS

• IS Review/restructure
Thank you to those who sent comments and suggestions on structure. Two suggested structures are going forward to Jan for discussion. In common with other structures the proposed new Library structure will have to be approved by the Registrar. The restructure is expected to be complete by the end of January 2009. Please attend the staff meetings where each of the departmental reviews will be discussed.

• Change management sessions
Please book for one of these sessions, please check with your line manager.

• HERA
No further news except there has been a reported delay to the published timescale of at least 4 weeks.

• Laptop loan scheme
The company which has been appointed is Chase IT and we expect the new service to be launched on 29th September. The service will run from the Blue 1 desk and will be staffed 9-5 Monday to Friday. Loans will be per semester, monthly or daily, insurance is included in the pricing.

• Wireless progress
This has been going ahead as follows:
Blue 2 7 out of 7 Wireless Access Points installed & tested

Blue Ground 8 out of 8 Wireless Access Points installed & tested
(including 1 in the Lounge, 2 in Muriel Stott, & 1 in purple Ground)

Green 2 3 out of 3 Wireless Access Points installed

Blue 1 These 3 Wireless Access Points will be done tomorrow.

• E-payments
This project is nearing completion and will go live in a few weeks. Users will be able to make cash or credit card payments into their GPAS account and then will have to go to a web interface to pay their fines. Minimum credit card payment of £3. Public Services will be providing training for Library staff.

• Budget
Budget allocation is £298, 750 and £317 to the IR. I am discussing with John and Jan what the IS budget priorities will be for this year and will communicate these at the IS meetings .

Best wishes
Lorraine