WWPALS USER'S GROUP MEETING

July 7, 2000 -- ALA Annual -- Chicago, IL

Attendees: Shelby E. Harken, University of North Dakota (ODIN); Lynn Karen, Westchester Community College (Waldo); John Stromquist, Waldo; Dorothy M. Liegl, South Dakota State Library (SDLN); Buddhwaute S. Mash, Robert Woodruf Library (Atlanta); Suteera Apichatabutra, Woodruff Library (Atlanta); Robert Fallon, Atlanta University Center; David Barton, MnSCU/PALS; Tony Webster, SDLN; Gary Johnson, SDLN; Tony Stukel, ODIN/NDUS; Becky Bell, MnSCU/PALS; John Christianson, TDS; MaryAnn Greenwood, MnSCU/PALS; Ginny Millette, ODIN; Teresa Edwards, St. John's University (NY); Cecelia Boone, MINITEX; Kathleen Ashe, Southwest State University (MnSCU)

The meeting was called to order by the President, John Christianson.

Minutes were posted on the Web and passed around. Joe Edelen moved to accept; Tony Stukel, seconded; passed.

Shelby Harken gave the Treasurer's report. As of May 31, there was $2441.68 in the checking account. The bill for this meeting will be $1821.97 leaving $619.71. Since not much remains, Dave Barton said PALS will pay for food at the next meeting.

Joe Edelen moved, its was seconded and passed to accept the agenda.

Those present introduced themselves.

STATUS REPORTS

Atlanta University Center by Robert Fallon. They are working out their maintenance agreement with Unisys. They have 2 years left on their license. Endeavor has a presence in Georgia, but they haven't decided what to do. They have used the inventory module and found it provides better and cheaper report than outsourcing. They are looking at implement EDI but it costs $5000 so they are still considering it.

ODIN by Tony Stukel. ODIN deferred ver. 15 installation due to staffing; will install July/Aug. They are trying to get the Name Authority tape loaded and tested; hopefully soon. ODIN is also considering EDI and intend to EDI Edge software. They would like to get ISO ILL going but are waiting for information from Becky. In Dec. 2000, the license runs out so they are asking to renew it at a "reasonable" price for a few years. It has been a year since they quit loading IAC tapes.

TDS by John Christianson. Last year the TDS group broke up into separate groups and had to pay for PALS to help separate and pull out records; the project is still ongoing. The state of Minnesota is paying for telecommunication lines which saves them $200,000. The breakup had nothing to do with PALS; it was political. The bibs are done but re-barcoding needs to be done and it takes time.

South Dakota by Gary Johnson. SDLN is using the Unisys Clearpath and still have 4 years on their contract. They are aiming at a new system in 2 years. They are on ver. 15 and did a lot to expand parameters once it was loaded. You can now have 120 libraries and they have over 80 loaded. They participated in the contract for IAC and Bell & Howell for A & I databases. They plan to load Names Authority records but they can't read them due to unforseen circumstances and they are not getting good vendor response. They have run the subject headings flip. Gary has been allotted 120 hours to spend on an effort to develop a K-12-type interface. They are able to create item records from 949 for schools and print labels to assist in processing for small libraries. They are working on authentication for database access.

Waldo, by John Stromquist. There are 15 libraries using PALS through Mankato. There are 100,000 FTE among the institutions. They are redesigning their telecommunications network. They are working to set up access to ten of the major databases. They have found it is necessary to have dedicated bandwidth because otherwise the library fights for acccess with other student usage and things like Napster. They are working to set up a consortial off-site storage facility and address concerns about how to retrieve materials appropriately (digitalisland.com)

Fredonia by Randy Gadikan. Randy is the new director. Their contract is expiring soon and they are part of SUNY which has sighed with Ex Libris. They hope to be the first library up on it, hopefully by Sept. PALS has been good, but Unisys has been killing them. Ex Library did a PALS migration in South Africa. They are ready as soon as the contract work is done. They use SUN hardware. In the meantime, they are on ver. 15 of PALS and plan to use it to help with extraction. Once they are using the same platform, they will have something wonderful. In answer to questions about how they made their choice. He was part of one of the groups evaluating systems. Oracle was a big part because they are heavily invested in it already. Ex Libris is growing exponentially in functionality. Ex Libris was very up front in saying they don't have a mature product but could show their track record of progress in development and investment of dollars in development. They listen. CUNY is also joining by piggy-backing on the SUNY contract. They foresee a lot of consortial opportunities. Last year they spent $125,000 on Unisys; next year they will spend $30,000 on Ex Libris. The main site will be in Buffalo with probably 7 sites to serve the network. Ex Libris did a good job with 64 institutions. He believes they have found the best solution.

Chicago by Becky Bell. She doesn't have much information on their plans, but they have asked about conversin.

Creighton by Becky. Creighton selected SIRSI. They have had trouble navigating, it doesn't suppress on suppression; nothing was sorted with option to resort; etc.

Ferris by Becky. Ferrisnet has chosen III and is working on the contract. They hope to be up next May or June. They are on ver. 15.

WISPALS by Becky. After severing ties with DRA, they went back to their previous 2 finalists, SIRSI and Endeavor and chose Endeavor. They hope to be operational by the end of the year. They have hired a consortial coordinator and will be adding more libraries.

MnSCU/PALS REPORT

Dave Barton reported that PALS has developed a new logo, new mailing and email addresses. They are anxiously looking forward to a remodeling plan at Mankato that will put them closer to computer services. Patti Flaherty is coordinator of user support services, Linda Richter is coordinator of technical support services and Becky is the assistant director. They are continuing development of PALS. They have members on the MnLINK committees. They are looking at electronic reserves as a fee-based service. Dave said support will continue until June 2004; perhaps longer.

TECHNICAL REPORT

Becky elaborated on features and changes with ver. 15. The enhancements are listed on the web site and she passed out copies.

Since label-defs is limited, we can now use the same label-def for all 18X. The 520 field will handle 1^st indicator 8. Blank ILL forms are available for books and journal articles. With ZPALS you can see MULS holdings. RPAS code is available to check for authorized use of reference databases.

Acquisitions. Can control over-encumbrances at the fund level. The prefix for ISBN space was removed and added to the state vendor ID field; if libraries used it, it will go away with the loading of ver. 15. They tried to address discount price problems: can ask the systems office to adjust and ACQ-30 will run it right. PALS will allow duplicates in suggestions for orders from branches.

Cataloging. Alt-M function keys - can download from the web - to display function keys while in MARC Editor. URL checker will get errors when the IP range is specific. They added option of putting in subfield #x - NLC - to prevent errors from being reported next time, if the URL really works.

Circulation. The Self-check SIP2 - 3M protocol requires script on the UNIX side. There are also new fields for self-check. Can use Kingsley or 3M. CPI can be used to move patron record information from institution to another. PC must have speakers to hear the bell for error flags. Software is available for inventory using a laptop. There are lots of booking enhancements.

Interlibrary Loan. DIU - can now see the profile. One can repeat library codes or do library plus branch. You can set up 3 separate lists for unmediated ILL. A library can set up a branch for just ILL; if you say distance patron "Y", in the patron record, they could place ILL requests as though they are in your library. IL-38 has added stats for patron-initiated ILL requests.

Report writer. [last page handout] Can schedule a report to be so many days or months before a date. Can sort by branch.

Serials. .X12 - fiscal year has been added to payment information. DSP - can now limit to fiscal year.

System. To load ver. 15, go to web for latest updates; ILL is largest part of the update. They increased table size to allow for more library profiling. Can report in ASCII in CIRC, ACQ-46, ACQ-58, IL-34, SER-28. TRANS can be controlled by library at the system level.

PALS ISO ILL.

It costs $125/library/year. Requests can be transferred to OCLC or other libraries that use ISO ILL. INS code, have to indicate library is licensed. If, in unmediated ILL library string, you list MTX, it will go there as one message. Libraries have to set up profiles for ISO libraries. There are two ways to communicate, TCP/IP or email; email is a requirement. Both libraries on each end have to have profiles set up. You can by-pass OCLC. You can also use it for OCLC and PALS and track everything in one place. Each library needs a unique identifier for the institution which shows up on your page header and reports; e.g. ODIN:UND. Epixtech's DRSS software works for ISO ILL and has been in use in a number of libraries.

UCOB

Unisys cobal (UCOB). With ver. 14 they got around it. With ver. 15, you need to buy it. Some files and tables are just getting too big.

MnLINK UPDATE.

Gateway. 18 of 20 automation systems are up and searching using the gateway. They had contracted with OCLC for ILL software. They found it had shortcomings and tried to testing and training and finally decided it doesn't work. They met with OCLC and ended up terminating the ILL part of the OCLC contract. They will probably go out with another RFP for ILL software for the gateway; of course, PALS ILL still works.

MnLINK operating system. DRA wasn't going to work. They revised the RFP and sent out a new one. Charlene Mason is chair and Becky Bell is Vice-chair. Two vendors have been invited, but no vendor is officially eliminated. Eight ILS systems and 9 RFP responses were received. They had 2 weeks to review them. After a retreat they decided to invite 2 vendors for 3-day demo sessions; day 2 is a public day. When the demos are done, they will visit vendor sites and customer sites, therefore it is a requirement that it be installed where they can visit. They plan a retreat at the end of Aug. to make a recommendation. They hope to sign a contract by the end of the year. If signed, they could start in 2001 but probably actual migration might be in 2002 because a lot of background work needs to be done. It is assumed MnSCU will still be the manager. Ex Libris - McGill and University of Iowa; Endeavor - Georgia State and University of Wisconsin.

Next meeting will be Jan. 12, Friday, in Washington, DC with lunch paid for by PALS.

Respectfully submitted, Shelby E. Harken, Secretary/Treasurer