E-Resources in the Catalog (ERIC):

• NetLibrary Loader specifications were approved, ITD began reviewing the specs. and working on the loader.
• 5 members of the ERIC Task Group continued to work on their presentation for ELUNA.

Inter Library Loan:

• The CP Windows experts in ITD (Uche Enwesi, Will Walker and Mike Kokiyelov) continue to work on the VPN solution for ILLiad. They have put a great deal of time into this work and so far it is paying off.
• A site visit to St. Mary's College was completed by Jamie Bush, Robin Moskal and Carol Vaeth on May 25th. This was the first visit that will be conducted to each of the remote ILLiad sites in order to conduct training and configuration. The proposed "go live" date for St. Mary's is June 15th. The next site to begin implementation will be Frostburg State University.

Authentication:

• Uche and Dave Kennedy worked to bring the CP Illiad instance into the new patron authentication framework, i.e. they "shibbolized" this instance of ILLiad. The consortial instances will be shibbolized as they go live.
• Created specialized access to CP ILLiad Lending Interface that bypasses Shibboleth for patrons not in Aleph.
• Implemented a backup to the Aleph patron file, so that when Aleph is unavailable patrons can still have remote access to databases. Used this backup when Aleph was brought down for maintenance.
• HSL EZproxy - Conference call with HSL staff to discuss special requirements of HSL EZproxy instance.
• HSL EZproxy instance configured and in test. The unique feature about the HSL EZproxy instance is that we are controlling access to specific databases based on Shibboleth attributes.
• UMUC EZproxy now has Single Sign On with Researchport.
• Chat Service Librarian - created chat service librarian account which has access to Researchport, but not to EZproxy.

User Interface Improvements:

• Revised the wording on the login screen to match what's in Research Port. Now being reviewed by COIuserinterface.
• Continuing UITG work on addressing usability issues with catalog and Find It. This Task group is doing an excellent job of tracking changes on their wiki pages. Go to their wiki , choose the "Latest changes in the catalog" page.
• Nearly finalized work on catalog Find It menus in test for review by campuses. Plan to move to live in summer. These changes include control over whether ILL or Request (PPH) displays in Find It, by format, and other interface and wording revisions.

Infrastructure:

• Set up new server for live implementation of Verde.
• Worked on off-site storage component of Tape Library Server software. Solved a problem created when we moved the Tape Library server to its own server.
• Reviewed Unix hardware maintenance agreements. Switched all maintenance to SUN, believe it or not they were cheaper than the local service we had been using for some equipment.
• Almost completed the switchover of the backups done through OIT to the new Tivoli system. (Some files are backed up locally through the Tape Library in ITD and some are backed up via OIT).

ResearchPort/Find It:

• Implemented changes to overnight programs to help prevent SFX and RP downtime.
• Registered at least five campuses for Find It links in Windows Academic Live, a competitor to Google Scholar.
• Set up better linking to dissertations from Dissertation Abstracts records in databases such as MLA. Find It links to ProQuest Dissertations and Theses for UB, UM, UC, BC, CP, and other subscribers.

Electronic Resource Subscriptions:

• Continued work on renegotiating subscriptions for FY07.

Patron Loader/Email notices:

• The final steps in moving CP notice production to the Copy Center have been completed. Both email and print notices are now produced outside of ITD
• The CP faculty/staff/student patron loader is now in production. For the past few years ITD and CP have been working to complete this work. Beginning this June faculty and staff will now be included in the regular patron loads.

Aleph:

• The Aleph 2006 Year End Closeout Process schedule has been posted to the COISERACQ web site.
• Aleph Security - creation of all the requested cross-functional proxies has been completed and testing has begun in the test database and will continue through June. Updated information on the Aleph Security website.

Authorities in Aleph:

• Continued to analyze set up of Authorities, including Aleph parameter tables, OPAC screens, indexing/linking routines, etc.
• Brought the Authorities test bib. database down so we can run the indexing/linking routines. When we get the files back from LTI we will set this up in the full test database.
• We will need to "refresh" the full MAI test database before this work.
• Analyzed disk space requirements in live and test, worked on preparation.
• Changes to bibliographic records are still frozen, see the email sent out by the CPC for specifics.

EDI Invoice Loading:

• Analyzed Hein data file structure, modified test file and tested load. Reported to Hein with sample file structures.
• Met with EBSCO and CP Tech Services for CP Switch planning.

EDI Ordering:

• The Ordering of materials via Collection Manager is fully functional in test for CP.

College Park Project to Limit Use of SSN.

• New IDs were activated on May 28th. ITD ran a program to switch Aleph to the new IDs. Due to a lot of preplanning, the ID switch went smoothly.
• Work had been done in ResearchPort and CP's ILLiad ahead of time so that when a barcode is changed in Aleph there is no need to change it in these services.

Personnel:

• A search committee has been formed to begin the work of filling the vacant position of systems librarian. Yalan Qi has been named the Chairperson of the seacrh committee. The committee also includes Marlene Vikor, Uche Enwesi and Jamie Bush.
• E-Content Team hired two graduate assistants to begin in July. Aleph team hired a graduate assistant to assist ITD part-time with usability testing.

Meetings:

• Trip reports for the ELUNA and Systems Seminar meetings should be up on the web site soon.
• As mentioned above, 5 members of the ERIC Task Group presented at ELUNA (Marlene Vikor, Laura Wrubel, Linda Sequin, Betty Day and Jean Phillips). This presentation should be up on the web site soon.
• Dave Kennedy presented on our new patron authentication framework (using Shibboleth) at an ITCC meeting and at ELUNA, these presentations are available on the authentication web site (at the end of the page).

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.