There were a few interesting items in my RSS feed today that I wanted to share:
Holdings Maintenance is up and running. If you notice anything out of the ordinary or you experience any difficulties with Holdings Maintenance in the NHU-PAC, please contact the NHAIS Services Help Desk at 271-2141 or nhu-pac@dcr.nh.gov
Thursday, Dec. 30, 8:35 a.m.: NHU-PAC Holdings Maintenance is out of service this morning. We'll post a message when it's back online.
Wednesday, Dec. 29, 11:45 a.m.: Today SirsiDynix engineers are doing some followup work on last week's server software upgrade. It may be necessary to restart a server at some point and this would cause a brief interruption of NHU-PAC service.
There's still no change in NHU-PAC's searching situation. Materials added to the database in the last two months are not searchable through keyword indexes. Use browse indexes like Titles or ISBNs or Numbers Appearing on Materials to find newer materials. Browse indexes like Authors or Standard Subject Headings, which display consolidated results, may not show recent additions.
The Lakes Region (Jarod's) and North Country (Heather's) ILL van delivery routes have been cancelled for today, Monday, December 27, 2010, due to hazardous driving conditions.
The Southeastern (Stan's) and Southwestern (Jim's) ILL van delivery drivers are presently out making their pickups/deliveries. If either driver decides to return to the State Library, a follow-up message will be sent.
Thursday, Dec. 23, 11:00 a.m.: As followup work on yesterday's upgrades continues, it may be necessary to restart the NHU-PAC in the next hour. Any outage should last no more than 5 minutes.
Thursday, Dec. 23, 9:20 a.m.: While the NHU-PAC appears to be functioning normally after yesterday's server software upgrades, we still have a problem with keyword search indexes not being up to date. Currently, keyword searches cannot find materials added to the NHU-PAC in the last two months. There are a few more tricks we can try to straighten this out now that we're running newer software but for the meantime please continue to use browse indexes (unfortunately, this is not an option in the ILL program) to find recently added materials.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 7:00 p.m.: All set. It's OK to use the NHU-PAC for all functions now. Just remember that it will be a few hours before titles from recent years are searchable through keyword indexes because those indexes are still being rebuilt. The browse indexes should be up to date.
If you find something not working as it should, please call the NHAIS Help Desk at 271-2141. You'll probably get voicemail tonight (leave a message if you like) but I expect to be in between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 6:40 p.m.: The correct page is now displayed when you try to connect to the NHU-PAC but please wait for the all-set message before doing ILL or cataloging work. It may be necessary to bring the server offline again this evening and we don't want you to lose you work. If you're just searching the NHU-PAC, keep in mind that the keyword indexes are still being rebuilt. At this writing, only materials added through 2005 are findable through the keyword indexes.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 5:30 p.m.: Upgrade work continues on the NHU-PAC--we'll let you know when it's ready to use. Users connecting to NHU-PAC's address in the past hour or so have found the State Library catalog instead. We've had compliments on the picture and a question about where the Holdings Maintenance tab went. Once this all gets straightened out, the NHU-PAC will look just as it did before.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 3:35 p.m.: The NHU-PAC remains offline as server software upgrades are implemented. The work is moving along nicely but it just takes a long time with a system of this size.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 1:30 p.m.: Testing on the initial part of today's server software update was positive and work now continues to finish the installation. During this time the NHU-PAC will be up and down. Please wait for the all-set message to do any serious work in the NHU-PAC.
NHU-PAC keyword indexes are being rebuilt now. Because of the way it's being done, you'll only be able to find older materials through keyword searches when the NHU-PAC comes back online later this afternoon. The indexes should be up-to-date by tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 12:50 p.m.: Sometime between 1 and 2 o'clock the NHU-PAC will be online for testing. It's likely that the system will go offline again after that. As mentioned earlier, you should avoid doing tasks like ILL or cataloging on the NHU-PAC until the all-set message is posted.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 10:30 a.m.: The NHU-PAC is now offline for server software upgrades. The most popular question at the NHAIS Help Desk this morning: How long will this take? Answer: We don't know but it should be completed today. A message will be posted here when it's OK to start using the NHU-PAC again.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 8:55 a.m.: The NHU-PAC will go offline at 10 o'clock this morning. Work on today's server software upgrades is underway in the background now. This should cut down on how long we'll have the system offline.
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 8:10 a.m.: Today's the day we'll be upgrading NHU-PAC server software. Plan for the system to be unavailable for several hours starting sometime after 10 a.m. If we get a better idea of the exact start time, you'll see a message here on the NHAIS Notes blog.
A message will be posted when all is set. Before that time, the system may go up and down so you may notice that you're able to connect to the NHU-PAC at times. You're welcome to do casual searches while you're connected but we strongly advise against doing operations like cataloging or ILL until you see the all-set message.
One reason for doing this upgrade now is our recent problems with updating NHU-PAC's keyword indexes. New, up-to-date indexes won't be available immediately after the upgrade. It'll take at least one overnight period to rebuild the indexes.
Ann Hoey recently sent this message out to the NH library community:
Do you know someone who has provided outstanding library service to youth in New Hampshire? Please consider nominating her/him for CHILIS Librarian of the Year. Each year, CHILIS recognizes an exceptional youth librarian who helps to contribue to enriching library service for children and/or teens. The CHILIS Librarian of the Year award is announced at the CHILIS Spring Conference, which will be held on March 17, 2011 at Southern NH University in Manchester.
If you would like to nominate an individual for this award, please visit the CHILIS
website at http://nhlibrarians.org/chilis/loty.html. The information about the award including the criteria as well as the nomination form can be found on this site.
Nominations should be postmarked no later than January 28th and should be sent to my attention at the state library. (New Hampshire State Library, 20 Park Street Concord, NH 03301) If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me (ann.hoey@dcr.nh.gov or 271-2865) or anyone on the CHILIS Board. --Ann
The NHU-PAC will be offline for several hours next Wednesday, December 22. This is to allow installation of software upgrades to address our indexing problem. The work will start sometime after 10 a.m. We hope to post more specific information before then.
Thursday, Dec. 16: Between 7:40 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. there will be some disruption to NHU-PAC searching as indexes are tested. Until you see a message to the contrary, you may assume we will continue using keyword indexes which were last updated last Tuesday.
The New Hampshire State Library will be closed on Friday, December 24 and Friday, December 31, 2010 for the Christmas and New Year's Holidays.
There will be NO Van Delivery on those dates.
For a complete list of all of the holidays the State Library is closed, please visit http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/instructions.html (the van delivery instructions) and scroll down to "NO Van Service".
If for any other reason (e.g. bad weather) van service on a particular route(s) does not operate, libraries will be notified via an e-mail message. If your library does not receive van service on a particular day, please check your e-mail before calling the State Library.
Please remember to properly label each item which you are sending via the Van Delivery Service. This will help ensure these items make it to the correct destination in a timely manner. If you need a refresher on how items should be marked for the van, please refer to the Van Delivery Service - Instructions, http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/instructions.html, and scroll down to number 3 of the guidelines, "Addressing material to be sent on the van".
To print a current van directory list arranged in alphabetical order by library, please use the PDF version which is available at http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/documents/vandirectory.pdf
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print this pdf file. If you do not have it installed on your machine, you may down load it for free from http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Due to the ever increasing load of materials transported by the New Hampshire State Library van delivery system, our vans can reach maximum capacity before the end of a van route, especially following long weekends and holidays. Our drivers can decline to accept materials if they feel they cannot fit them safely on their van. We are also asking libraries to please be aware of volume during times when there is likely to be a problem. You should prioritize your materials to be picked up, in case some items must be left until the next van pick up. That will allow us to immediately transport the most important items as quickly as possible.
If you have any questions you may contact Donna Gilbreth at 271-2060 or Diana DeCota at 271-2206.Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 12:05 p.m.: NHU-PAC is back online. We've checked major functions but if you notice something not working quite as it should please don't hesitate to call the NHAIS Help Desk at 271-2141.
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 10:48 a.m.: The NHU-PAC will be going offline starting sometime in the next 5 minutes. You may be able to connect to the NHU-PAC but will not get any useful search results. A message will be posted when NHU-PAC functionality is restored.
Wednesday, Dec. 15: Heads-up: expect some interruptions of NHU-PAC service this morning, probably starting around 10 o'clock. These outages will affect all areas of the NHU-PAC. A message will be posted when everything is back to normal (or something close to normal).
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 7:55 a.m.: NHU-PAC is still using keyword indexes that were last updated on December 7. The hundreds of records added since then cannot be found through keyword searches. Browse indexes are updated as changes are made to the database so you might want to use those, if available, for newer materials. We continue to work with SirsiDynix on bringing our keyword indexes up to date.
Wednesday, Dec. 15: Between 7:40 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. there will be some disruption to NHU-PAC searching as indexes are tested.
Tuesday, Dec. 14, 11:40 a.m.: Complications with NHU-PAC's keyword indexing keep turning up. It turns out the last two attempts to rebuild the indexes came up short--in spite of what the log indicated--and didn't reflect records added to the database since October 13. Backup indexes have now been installed which reflect additions through December 7 and we continue to work with SirsiDynix to get our keyword indexing up to date.
Remember that browse indexes are not affected by this problem. They're updated in real time. Unfortunately, browse searching is not an option in NHU-PAC's ILL program.
NHU-PAC searching will be interrupted for about 10 minutes starting at 11:25 this morning. The keyword indexes installed this morning don't reflect records added in the past 2 months and we need to try some alternatives to see if we can bring the indexes up to date.
Tuesday, Dec. 14: NHU-PAC searching will be disabled for a few minutes starting at 7:40 a.m. to allow installation of an updated index. Searching service should be restored in about 5 minutes.
Indexing of records newly added or edited in the NHU-PAC is currently running behind as we work with SirsiDynix to resolve an ongoing keyword indexing issue. This doesn't affect what's in the database but does make a difference in how quickly you can find new materials in the NHU-PAC.
A little background on indexes: if you need information from a book, of course, you could scan every page for the information you seek or you could save time by looking in the book's index to see which page(s) you should check. Similarly, when you search the NHU-PAC, your search isn't looking through every single bibliographic record in the database to see if matching information is present. It's checking indexes--the ISBN index, the author/performer index, the title index, or any of scores of other indexes singly or in combination--to find which records it will display for your search results.
Normally, new or changed records are indexed in real time but occasionally the program that handles the dynamic indexing gets out of sync with the database and we have to build a new keyword index from the ground up. Because of the size of the NHU-PAC, this rebuild takes at least 12 hours to complete. In the past week we've been rebuilding the keyword indexes nearly every day, installing the new indexes in the morning with a resulting brief interruption of NHU-PAC searching before 8 a.m. SirsiDynix has told us to expect this pattern to continue until software upgrades can be installed.
We're working with SirsiDynix to get those upgrades accomplished. In the meantime, we'll continue to add and upgrade records in the NHU-PAC but the new material probably won't be findable through keyword searches until the following day. Browse searches, where available, should continue to be updated in real time.
Here are the items recently added to the “lost in transit” list:
Remember, list can be viewed and edited any time at http://nhaislostbooks.pbworks.com. Register for your own account to edit. Once logged in, click “edit” tab at top to start, click “save” button at bottom when finished. Contact Mary Cronin at Madison Library to get a login.
Mary
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If you have seen the following book, please notify us right away as we have a very disappointed young patron!
Left New Durham PL on November 4: Emperor's code by Gordon Korman (39 clues #8) NHUPAC# 944833
Never arrived at Gordon-Nash Library in New Hampton, never made it back to New Durham :(
Linda Dowal, Director/Children
Diane Bacon, Assistant Director/ILL
Gordon-Nash Library
69 Main Street
New Hampton, NH 03256
744-3365
FAX 744-6555
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Could everyone please be on the lookout for The Office – Season 5 v.1 & 2? It seems to have gone missing on van transit. Please contact either Patricia at plynn@sps.edu or myself at sgagnon@anselm.edu if you find them. Thanks.
Best regards,
Sue
Susan E. Gagnon
Interlibrary Loan Specialist
Geisel Library - ILL
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Drive
Manchester, NH 03102
sgagnon@anselm.edu
Tel: 603-641-7303
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On Nov 18 the Randolph Library sent in a request for a book "Miss Seeton by Moonlight". When I inquire on the system, it says the book was shipped from Lancaster (Weeks Memorial) on Nov 19. We have not received the book as of today - Dec 9. This is ILL request #953134.
Thanks for your assistance.
Rodney Hayes
Assistant Librarian
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Somewhere between Boscawen and Somersworth there's a book called Batman: Green Gotham by Scott Ciencin.
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Newmarket PL returned a DVD Jean de Florette Manon des sources to the Durham PL on July 30, 2010. It never arrived.
NHUPAC # was 896237
spine label = DVD JEAN
owning library = Durham PL
Thank you, Jane
Jane W. Frechette
Newmarket Public Library
1 Elm Street
Newmarket, NH 03857
603-659-5311
603-659-8849 (Fax)
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Monday, December 13: The North Country NHSL van route has been canceled for today.
Monday, Dec. 13: NHU-PAC searching will be disabled for a few minutes starting at 7:43 a.m. to allow installation of an updated index. Searching service should be restored in about 5 minutes.
Thursday, Dec. 9: NHU-PAC searching will be disabled for a few minutes starting at 7:40 a.m. to allow installation of an updated index. Searching service should be restored in about 5 minutes.
Wednesday, Dec. 8: NHU-PAC searching will be disabled for a few minutes starting at 7:38 a.m. to allow installation of an updated index. Searching service should be restored in about 5 minutes.
Sue Wolfman, our LYRASIS Member Representative asked me to share this invitation with NH libraries. NHAIS libraries are elegible to recieve discounts from LYRASIS vendor partners like this one.
Greetings to New Hampshire public and school librarians! On behalf of LYRASIS, I would like to invite you to an AWE webinar (Advanced Workstations in Education) http://www.awe-net.com/, on Wednesday, Dec, 15, 2010 from 10:30AM – 11:30AM. AWE is a valued vendor partner of LYRASIS, and will be presenting an hour long webinar highlighting its Early Literacy Station™ (ELS), which is a groundbreaking stand alone (no internet connection needed!) educational tool for children ages 2 through 10. The English edition includes 50 educational software programs spanning seven curricular areas that are top rated by Children's Technology Review.
If you are interested in attending this webinar, which is limited to 40 participants, please reply to Sue by Thursday, Dec. 9. Thank you, and I hope you will be able to join us!
Regards,
Sue
SUE WOLFMAN
Member Representative
Serving MA,CT,NH,VT,ME,RI
LYRASIS
1438 West Peachtree Street, NW, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 30309
sue.wolfman@lyrasis.org
800-999-8558, ext. 2927
direct dial: 678-235-2927
fax: 978-649-9461
Monday, Dec. 6: NHU-PAC searching will be disabled for a few minutes starting at 7:36 a.m. to allow installation of an updated index. Searching service should be restored in about 5 minutes.
Wednesday, December 1, 8:10 a.m.: The Southeast B van route (Tori) is running late today, but you will get a delivery.
Donna Gilbreth
Supervisor, Reference and Information Services
New Hampshire State Library
20 Park Street
Concord, NH 03301
603-271-2060
donna.gilbreth@dcr.nh.gov
