Coordinating Committees

Library Technology Coordinating Committee (LTCC)
Final Report to CUWL – July 15, 2009

Committee Goals and Progress: July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009

CUWL Strategic Direction #1.4.2
Assist campuses with D2L/Library Integration Taskforce recommendations (putting more library resources into D2L/Learn@UW).
Although there was widespread interest from campuses to get assistance to develop the Colleges model, there were no resources available to make this happen.  Some campuses developed other ways of achieving some level of integration, ranging from programming with LAMP tools (Oshkosh) to purchasing the LibGuides product.  This goal was retired in February.

SD #1.5.1
Review options for a new OPAC; keep apprised of new products like WorldCat Local, Primo, and Evergreen.
In November CUWL approved a proposal to split this into two separate tracks.  Subsequently, the OPAC track was assigned to the USCC and the library management system (LMS) was assigned to the LTCC.  Given the scope of this project, all LTCC members were assigned to the Library Management System Task Force (LMSTF). Work began in February after formal charges were approved by CUWL.  The LMSTF charge was to develop a vision for a new LMS; provide an environmental scan of options currently available and on the horizon; review the initiatives of other libraries and library systems; and consider options that can connect to other computer applications.  The committee created a literature review and attended related sessions at WAAL, ELUNA and other various other conferences in order to learn more about the future of library automation systems and the various products currently available.  A product/question grid was developed for the CUWL wiki.  A preliminary report to CUWL was presented at the May meeting and is available on the CUWL web site. Future directions for this task force are to continue to explore options in order to prepare ourselves for the time when we need to move off of Voyager.  Projects and products of particular interest at this time are the Ex Libris URM, WorldCat Local/OCLC, open source products Koha and Evergreen, and the Open Library Environment (OLE) project.  The LMSTF also recommends decoupling the OPAC from the Voyager staff modules and exploring options locally to analyze department workflows, possibly with the assistance of WiLS, to achieve greater staff efficiencies.

SD #3.1.5
Review and analyze the effectiveness of Universal Borrowing and further develop resource-sharing policies with the advice of appropriate constituencies.
This objective was overseen by the CRSCC, but the Library Automation Managers (LAMs) were asked to discuss the possibility of standardizing the UB search types.  In consultation with their staffs, the majority felt that the UB search screens did not need to be the same for every campus because users typically do not use any catalog other than their home campus catalog.  Standardizing the search types also would make the UB search types different from the local search types, which was deemed undesirable.  The LAMs did agree that the duplication of search types on the Advanced Search screen should be eliminated or at least greatly reduced.  The LAMs chair will continue working to coordinate this.

SD #3.2.1
Review Voyager invoicing and licenses to determine if there would be significant savings by renegotiating the contract.  
Brian Wilson submitted usage data to Ex Libris for OPAC and staff client connections for hub libraries, La Crosse and Milwaukee. Ex Libris reviewed the data and revised the annual maintenance.  LAMs members reported seeing lower invoices of approximately 10% in June.

SD #3.2.2
Discuss a needs assessment for an electronic resources management (ERM) system, such as Verde
This objective was transferred to the direction of the CRSCC. Several LTCC members served on the subcommittee.

SD #3.3.1
Assist smaller campuses with automation needs - investigate centralization of more functions; work to offer more training.
A major push this year was to provide formal training from Ex Libris for newer staff and those who need refresher training.  Ex Libris provides a variety of options for training, all at a price beyond the reach of individual campuses. With the help of Lisa Jewell, UW System funding was committed for Voyager 7 web customizations, Cataloging and Acquisitions/serials modules, as well as SFX and MetaLib.  As of July 10, the Voyager 7 web customization training was completed.  Training for Acquisitions/Serials is scheduled for July 14 and Cataloging for July 17.  Dates still need to be set for SFX and MetaLib. For Webvoyage customizations we had 5 two-hour webinar sessions with a live trainer, where each campus could phone in and connect via the web. This worked well because it was interactive, no one had to travel and the training was split up over the course of 2 weeks. SFX and MetaLib training will be similar, but those sessions will be recorded so that staff have even more flexibility to watch them at their convenience.  Since these will not be interactive, a one-hour Q&A session with a trainer will also be scheduled for both SFX and MetaLib.

Three webinars on various topics were also scheduled this year:

  • Google Analytics, led by Jim Lowrey (UWM), December 2
  • Dealing with SFX monthly updates, led by Sue Dentinger (Madison), March 10
  • Ex Libris URM, led by Ex Libris staff, scheduled for July 22

Based on interest from UW staff, WiLS announced a new proposal to offer a variety of training options for ILLiad from basic to advanced, one-on-one consultations, recorded web sessions, and more.  They also participated in the UWS summer conference roundtable session for ILL/ILLiad.

OTHER ISSUES/ITEMS:

Upgrades:

Voyager
Preparation for this year’s upgrade has been much more involved than typical years.  In addition to scheduling upgrade dates and coordinating UB downtime, a preview server needed to be setup, staff from all the campuses needed to attend multiple training sessions and make extensive changes to the new public catalog interface, and Brian Wilson needed to prepare for an Oracle upgrade. Work is proceeding along these lines.

ILLiad
Jon Mark Bolthouse coordinated this year’s ILLiad upgrade to version 7.4 which occurred on June 23.

MetaLib X-server
The LAMs inquired about the possibility of a System purchase of the X-server.  Given that our need for federated searching is not going away in the near future, as harvesting of all our resources is not possible at this time, the LTCC felt it would be beneficial to pursue this.  The cost has come down significantly to where there is only an annual licensing fee of $4,625.  Templates from David Walker at California State University will also make this much easier to implement.  Lisa Jewell volunteered System money to purchase this and it is available for setup as of July 7.  The X-server will allow campuses to greatly customize the MetaLib user interface and integrate MetaLib into other applications such as D2L and LibGuides.

General Records Schedule – Retention of Server Files – a major slowdown in response time on ILLiad in February was caused by running queries against our very large database (9 GB). This drop in performance prompted the campuses to deal with the records retention issue.  Old transactions and log files needed to be deleted.  Atlas offered to do the file cleanup for us during off-peak hours. Campuses submitted their retention periods for the various types of files, Atlas did the cleanup and performance immediately improved.  A file retention schedule for files on the Voyager server still needs to be completed.  The first campus to deal with this is asked to share their retention schedule with the other campuses in order to facilitate meeting this goal.

Submitted by Marlys Brunsting

Committee Members and Terms:
Marlys Brunsting, Chair, Green Bay – 2007-09
Jon Mark Bolthouse, Colleges – 2007-10
Bill Doering, La Crosse – 2007-10
Sharon Knight, Whitewater – 2007-09
Jim Lowrey, Milwaukee – 2007-09
Mitch Lundquist, Madison – 2007-10
Terri Muraski, Stevens Point – 2007-09
Jon Musselman, Platteville – 2007-10
Maureen Olle-LaJoie, River Falls – 2007-09
Lisa Jewell, (UW System representative) - ongoing
Deb Nordgren, Superior (CUWL representative) – 2009-10