Aleph Version 16 Upgrade:

• Completed the upgrade to Aleph V. 16. Done with minimal downtime during open hours.
• Reindexed the database with minimal downtime (using parallel indexing software).
• Worked with HSL, UM Law and St. Mary's to get the emailing of notices working in V. 16.
• Worked with staff on many campuses to help them perform their daily work in V.16.
• Created a "workaround" for serial claim letters, which in V. 16 could only have one template, i.e. have one return address listed.
• Implemented revisions to Aleph V. 16 software using the ExLibris service pack #760. Fixes included budget filtering and Patron Placed Holds (PPH) fixes. We continue to test the new version of PPH and report issues to Ex Libris. This Service pack included new staff clients which we tested and distributed to staff. These clients should address the issue that many staff reported with the clients crashing (i.e. closing unexpectedly).
• Identified cash transaction bug (lost book charges not credited) in V.16 that was quickly fixed by Ex Libris, Hans Breitenlohner was thanked by Ex Libris on the NAAUG list for his detailed analysis of the problem.

Research Port and SFX:

• Installed, tested, and distributed information on v 3.12 fix/update to MetaLib.
• Proposal to USMERC re: sorting results in Quick Search and Cross Search approved.
• Laura Wrubel and Kari Schmidt have been awarded a faculty research grant to do usability testing on metasearching. Work has started on this project and research will be conducted at multiple USMAI campuses.
• January subscription changes updated (Springer, Project Muse, ACS, etc)
• Routine update and maintenance for SFX and RP; addition of full Tier 2 NetLibrary collection into all USMAI SFX knowledge bases

E-Resources in the Catalog (2): Set up first meeting of the new ERIC2 Task Group. Began investigations in ITD: extracted XML SFX records for e–journals and began drafting specifications for the loading of these records into the catalog database.

Database Licensing:

• Major work for FY 06 database renewals for USMAI and MDL started; individual campus renewal worksheets distributed; trials set up and information added to USMAI/MDL websites
• ALA Midwinter-meetings with most major consortial vendors to negotiate renewals
• Continued development of USMAI website for usage statistics
• Trained new graduate assistant to help with statistics
• Set up new email address for requests for assistance with usage statistics.
• Scheduled CSA training for new Illumina interface

ILLIAD: Assisted UM staff in their implementation of Illiad: in terms of the link to sfx and setting up authentication against the Aleph directory using a LDAP server. Working with the RSTG to communicate this information to other USMAI Illiad implementers.

Prange Education project: Began work with UM's East Asia staff to create a seperate logical base (i.e. view of the catalog) for records in the Prange collection about Education. In this catalog users will be able to use the Japanese vernacular fields for searching. The screens will also have Japanese vernacular labels. It turns out that the vernacular fields have already been indexed.

Bibliographic loaders: Started to load UC Heidelberg PromptCat records; revised the Marcive-change records loader to create online HOLings and ITeMs; sent backlog of Marcive serial records to Marcive for seperation of e–serial records.

Patron Loader: Please see the Patron Loader status page for up-to-date information. In January we did a lot of work in the area of patron loader. We needed to coordinate the load of Spring Semester files with the "flipping" of addresses from home to campus. We also had to adjust and fix some problems related to using the Version 16 loader. UMBC, Salisbury and UMES all tested patron loads. We worked with UMBC to adjust the program to accomodate the Honors students and they were able to complete another live load. We have begun the conversation at UM with appropriate staff on upgrading their loads and sending email notices.

EDI Loader: See the EDI Loader status page. Worked on the Harrassowitz invoice loader for UM Law; Swets for HSL (their first live load was done in December); testing Ebsco and Swets loads for TU; etc.

3M Self-check UM Law is now live on their 3M self-check machine. We worked with Ex Libris to get a fix for a bug in V. 16 that caused the 3M machines to crash. This has been resolved. UMCP has added two more machines in the McKeldin Circulation area, for a total of 3.

Authentication: Began investigating the use of Shibboleth to improve authentication and provide a single sign-on solution between our services.

Emergency evening and Weekends support: Changed the on-call system for handling emergencies in the evenings and weekings. Currently 3 ITD managers and Tom Wilson, the Director, are on-call to test the system and created documentation. A "services" page was added to the USMAI web site.

Technical Infrastructure: Worked on slow response time issues with Aleph V.16. Reorganized temporary space and rebooted the applications. Response time seems to have improved.

Information Technology Division College Park, MD 20742-7011
Please send comments and suggestions to ITD's Webmaster.
Content questions should be directed to <Jamie Bush.