Library Systems report to IS group meeting Oct 2008

Library systems report 27^th October 2008

1. Talis hardware replacement set for Wednesday of this week. Will be a few hours downtime while data files etc are transferred to the new machine.

A JRUL group of Talis users has been established – first meeting today

Mon Nov 27^th – regional user meeting in Birmingham.

2. Decisions system (Management Information) The system was installed on our hardware last week. So far there has only been time for a quick check but it appears to have installed OK. Will do further investigation after the Talis upgrade completed. Training course for staff who will use it is being planned.

3. New self service machines – mostly running well but one or two problems still to be resolved. The machine for Stopford was slightly damaged in transit from Precinct and has not been set up yet. Discharge machine in main library has been well received

4. The e-payments system still being worked on – its proved quite difficult to match login user names

to borrower barcodes. Payment machines ordered by the library not here yet.

5. Sentry software used at the Turnstiles is due to be replaced this year and I have a meeting planned with the manager of SB to discuss how we can implement it – we will be able to beta test some enhancements such as to the statistics gathering. Also SB will be making a presentation to the Leadership Team later this week.

Steve Campbell

24.10.2008

One turnstile in ML currently faulty – reported to SB. Also some faults with EDL

IT Research & Development Report 26/10/08

SciFinder

There have been important developments in the provision of the Web version of SciFinder. A Chemical Abstracts Service Trainer who came to talk to the Postgraduate Chemists about SciFinder observed that CAS are to relaunch the Web version in the Autumn, and it should then compete more effectively with the client version. We have been asked to nominate about a dozen volunteers to trial the new version.

Wireless Network

The expanded wireless network, which added a further 21 wireless access points to the previous 1 access point on Blue 1, has now been live for about a month, and access is available in a much larger area of the library. There are now access points on Blue Ground, the Library Lounge, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 2, Purple Ground, and Muriel Stott, and a reasonable wireless signal is alsoavailable in adjacent areas, for example Blue 3, Green 3 and Purple 2.

Some wireless signal penetrates to almost all areas of the library (and outside the library!), and there may be places in other areas where a wireless connection can be maintained (even in unlikely places such as the basement).

During the Vacation, additional electric sockets were installed around the outer walls of Blue 1, which should add about further 50 laptop plug in points, and hopefully prevent the large numbers of trailing cables that we saw on Blue 1 last year.

Precinct Library Wireless Network

Wireless access points have been installed throughout the Precinct Library and provide good coverage everywhere in the Library.

Eddie Davies Library Screen installation

A 46″ LCD Screen (similar to those already in the Precinct Library) was installed on 8th October, and is available for use of their students.

Re-imaging of computers in 4th Floor Teaching Suite, Parkinson Room, User Education Room, and Green 2 Study Rooms

Normally, we would have re-imaged the computers in these rooms with the current year’s image – D08, but this is on hold until the problems with D08 have been resolved. Alison has put D08 on some of the new PCs for the Green 2 Study Rooms, and we have installed one in Room 1 for testing, but are waiting for the problems to be resolved before going further. (Added note – since it now seems likely to be some time before the problems with D08 are resolved, the Teaching Suite, User Ed & Parkinson will probably remain with the old image until after Christmas. The Study Room PCs will be converted back to the old image (or dual-booted with old image + D08), and installed in the rooms).

VPN

We have a lot of queries about VPN recently, mainly as a consequence of the recent “retirement” of the former “UMIST” proxy server, which served as an alternative to VPN for off-campus access to library resources. Mostly, we’ve got VPN working for people, but have one or two unresolved cases when VPN is being blocked by Internet Service Suppliers.

Electronic Resources Delivery

Replacement of Athens accounts by the use of central usernames and passwords

Since August we have received an e-mail whenever someone requests a new Athens account through the IT Account Manager.  We have now received about 280 such e-mails and the person making the request is asked to specify the service they believe requires authentication using an Athens account.  Everyone who requests a new Athens account is sent an e-mail about the change from the use of Athens accounts to the use of central usernames and passwords with links to further sources of information. We will be adding further information, including screen shots, to the electronic resources pages to help users to log in with their central usernames and passwords. 

New services 

Since August the availability of over 25 new services has been announced through Electronic Resources News. 

E-Resources Review Group 

The first meeting of this Group, which has been established to review the electronic resources to which the Library currently subscribes, was held on 14th October. The following staff are members of the group Sue Bate, Sandra Bracegirdle, Siobhan Burke, Helen Charles, Jenny Curtis and Nigel Kimber.

Digitisation/Systems Development

1.  Digitisation.  Plans are in hand to replace the four year old Luna server with a new Sun machine capable of supporting Luna version 6 and much larger collections than at present.  Image files will be stored on the SAN rather than internally as now.   Machine is being funded by the JISC English MSS project, “In the Begynning”.

Genizah collection continues to grow and now has over 10.6k images of fragments in the public collection.

Copibook scanner is to be moved to the old bindery office.

2.  RAE 2008.  The final phase is about to start.  We have been notified that the printed outputs taken to Bristol last January will be returned to us between mid November and the end of January.  They will be unpacked and checked in JRUL before being returned to Faculties/Schools.

3. SFX (FindIt).  Knowledgebase still not up to date but help in clearing the backlog is being organised.

4.  Webfeat (SearchIT).  We have seen a test version of a simple search box on the portal, searching Web of Science, Expanded Academic index,  Business Source Premier, Talis Prism, Custom Newspapers, Oxford Reference Online and KnowUK.  Members of the advisory group were enthusiastic so when further testing is complete it will appear on the live system.

5. E-resource traffic monitoring.  We are starting to work with ITS to monitor unusual traffic to our e-journal sites.  This should provide early warning of abuse such as has previously led to complaints and threats of disconnection from suppliers.

Report from Head of IS 24/10/08

• IS Review/restructure
Following consultation with the team the proposed IS structure has been agreed . We are now writing the job descriptions for new and changed roles. Following this there will be a period of consultation with the trade unions and staff before aspirational interviews where matchings, ring fencing and new roles will be discussed with each member of the team. We hope to complete the process by April 2009. LB is happy to answer any questions on the process and there is also information on the Intranet.

• HERA
The initial IS HERA outcomes have been received by the Library and we have some follow up meetings with the HERA role analyst to review the outcomes. Reviewing and consistency checking of outcomes across the University is leading to some delays to the completion of the project.

Change Management workshops

These are going ahead and the Leadership Team would be happy to receive any feedback from these workshops.

• Laptop loan scheme
Unfortunately the company providing the service has had to withdraw the service due to funding problems. The Library is exploring the possibility of a replacement in house solution with STARS.

• Wireless progress
The Wireless networking project is complete at the Main Library and Precinct Library Phase 2 of the project (Red and Purple) will take place next summer as part of a larger IT Services wireless project.

• E-payments
There is an outstanding issue as Finance are waiting for Oracle to provide a fix for an issue they experienced after the recent Barclays upgrade. We are still waiting for the delivery of the additional kiosks but we hope to have completed the project by the end of the year.

Computer support update – 23/10/08

Well here is a highlight of the activities –

 

Virtual Service Desk

The emergency procedure was invoked relating to aTalis issue.

It has been very busy for all on the VSD with the high volume of calls relating to the Outlook issue.  There now seems to be another issue with Excel requesting an installation CD this appears to be linked to some of those who had issues with Outlook.  It has been quite busy with calls relating to Talis either running slowly or OPACs not working.  This resulted in the server being rebooted to resume normal service – I am sure Steve will include more on this in his blog…..

 

Outlook

The Outlook issues can be resolved by applying a fix.  Alison put some information onto the intranet and sent out a staff email alert staff.  For those staff who don’t feel confident to aply the fix the team will come and sort these out.  It is recommended that all staff update their Oracle connector.

 

IT Service Desk

There were a few calls relating to a staffing issue as no one was there to sort out the print robot error or to refill paper for printers. Lorraine has discussed a procedure with IT Services.

 

Telecoms

The mobile policy is available on the Intranet. In this it states that the University librarian needs to approve each request.  This was not known so Sandra Bracegirdle is making the case for the mobile requested for her department.  The fax machine for Deansgate is now working as the part arrived so Jan could install it.

 

Desktop 08

As reported last month there are still issues and the decision was made by the EPB to roll PCs back to clip5.  Some PCs on Blue 1 cluster are still running D08 as a test environment for further improvements.

 

Printing Interfaces Project

We are waiting the new print robots to arrive ready for It Services to install them.

 

Rooms 1.1, 1.16 and 1.17

Work has finally started on these rooms.  A plan was drawn up of the work in each room and attached to the door as the electricians did not seem to know what work was expected of them and the project manager despite being shown areas of work did not have a written plan.  A completion date of 31^st October has been given.

 

Office Moves

Karen and Ged have used a new procedure for these.  For all moves we will both visit the rooms and obtain the requirements from the staff before planning the actual move.  A big thanks to Phil Butler for emailing us with the requirements.

 

Sam Bradburn has moved to Red 1.6 and her phone has been sorted out quickly by telecoms. The next moves in the chain are Paul Holder and his team from red 1.1 to red basement.  Week beginning 27^th October Scott and Nilani will be moved to their new office Red 1.1 ready for their return form leave the following week.

 

New Starters

2 new starters in November will require PCs which will be set up in advance.

 

Training and Development Activities

Karen and Alison have both attended the coping with change course. Karen attended a mobile learning workshop which set out the basics and actually used the word book as a mobile device!  (a report will appear on intranet soon…)