Van Route Cancellation

The North Country van delivery route is being cancelled for today (Wednesday, January 30, 2008). All other van routes have gone out as scheduled. Sorry for an inconvenience this may cause.

Two New Vans Have Arrived

The NH State Library's Interlibrary Loan Van Delivery Service has just replaced two of their more decrepit vans with new models. The new vans are White 2008 Chevy Express vans. Stan and Jarod were the happy recipients this year and the vans they had been driving have been funnelled down through the fleet with the two considered to be in the worst condition sent to surplus. The new vans, sporting their logos, and are now in service.

OCLC users - it's time to upgrade

OCLC has announced that all Connexion client users (this includes participants in the NHAIS OCLC program) must upgrade to client 2.10 by April 1, 2008. Beginning April 1, you will not be able to log on to OCLC cataloging with older versions of Connexion client.

To verify your version number, go to the Connexion Help menu and select About OCLC Connexion Client. The complete version number for the new client is 2.10 is 2.10.2909.22845.

You can download the new software using your OCLC authorization number and password.

FYI: Mailings went out last week by van to the directors of all of the libraries who participate in the NHAIS OCLC program with participation statistics for 2007 and an agreement to be signed if your library wishes to continue having direct access to OCLC cataloging. An invoice for this access was also included.

Database backup & NHU-PAC reloads

Last week NHAIS Services had a call from a library which had lost its catalog to a catastrophic computer failure. Local backup files helped restore the database up to a point but entries from recent months were missing. It isn't the first time we've had a call like this. We hope it never happens to you but keep in mind that, should you need it, NHAIS Services can provide a file of MARC records representing your NHU-PAC holdings. What we can give you, of course, is based on what you've told us you have in your collection. If you've been reliably adding NHU-PAC holdings for new acquisitions and deleting NHU-PAC holdings for discards, we should be able to give you a useful file.

For those libraries that submitted a request to reload their holdings so the NHU-PAC would be more or less in synch with their local databases, please be patient. Generally, we're finding about 20 percent of the data submitted for this process needs to be handled manually. For a collection of 15,000 items, that's 3,000 holdings that need to be matched up one by one. It's taken 4 years to make it through 38 percent of the reload requests submitted. Because many larger libraries were involved at the beginning of this project, that 38 percent of requests represents a much higher percentage of NHU-PAC holdings. This year we'll continue working with smaller libraries that submitted reload requests.

If you haven't submitted a reload request but are interested in doing so, you can find a copy of the form online. To be eligible, your library must be able to provide NHAIS Services with a file or files of MARC bibliographic records representing your collection, must be an ILL participant, and must be adding holdings for current acquisitions to the NHU-PAC.

Do you have a plan for preservation?

Is preservation planning one of those things that never makes it to the top of your to-do list? Here is a chance to get moving on this important project for your library:

The New Hampshire State Library presents

Preservation Planning Workshops for Public Libraries:

How to Survey your Preservation Needs

Two all-day preservation planning workshops will be conducted by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) and are designed to help public libraries identify, assess, prioritize and address their preservation needs. The workshops are free and will be held on February 12, 2008 in Andover, MA and on March 25, 2008 in Lancaster, NH. Funding is made possible by LSTA and a grant funds from the Maine State Library. The workshop agenda information and registration are at http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/Preservation.html

Web 2.0 & Your Library

Is your library taking advantage of Web 2.0?

Consider this: The nation's most prestigious library is now collaborating with a major Web 2.0 site to reach people like never before.

The Library of Congress recently announced a new pilot project to display photos on Flickr, a popular photo sharing site. Why did they choose Flickr when they had already had digital library to display their photos? Simple. They went to where the people are. They showed that their main concern was to expand access and not to maintain complete control of the items and metadata.

This seems like a good time to talk about metadata. Instead of trying to tag (assign keywords) each photo with the appropriate library-approved subject headings, LOC has embraced social tagging (on Flickr) and is allowing the general public to tag its photos for them. Again, why have they abandoned the traditional, restrictive approach? The answer is the same: to allow for greater access and community participation.

I think this is a huge step forward for libraries in understanding and accepting the importance of Web 2.0 components and how they affect our libraries. What can we all take from this?

• Go to where the people are. (Did you know that a keyword search for "new hampshire" on Flick brings up nearly 130,000 photos! Trust me, many of your users are already there.)
  
• Allow for more user participation. Your users want to participate in their library. Take a look at the comments on this LOC photo.

Please know that I am not suggesting that we abandon traditional library methods; I am simply suggesting that we take advantage of the resources available to us to bring libraries and our valuable resources back into people's lives in new ways. We must ask ourselves, "How valuable are our collections if they are not easily accessible?"

Like always, let me know if you have any questions or would like to know more about how Web 2.0 can help your library!
Bobbi
bobbilee[dot]slossar[at]dcr.nh.gov

NHU-PAC classes in Brookline Jan. 29, 2008

Classes in using the NHU-PAC for searching, cataloging, and doing interlibrary loans will be held at Brookline Public Library on January 29. Classes are free but space is limited. Registration is required and can be done online. For details about the classes go to http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/nhais/NHUPACclasses.htm; on the same page, click on the online registration system link to register. If you need help registering, call the NHAIS Help Desk at 271-2141.

Holdings Maintenance connection problem update

It was noted here in a November posting that NHAIS Services would be implementing some hardware changes for NHU-PAC servers before the end of the year. The order for the new equipment is still going through the state's purchasing process and it now looks like it will be the end of March before the upgrades can happen. In the meantime, we expect there will continue to be times when some libraries will be unable to load the Holdings Maintenance login page. We continue to ask for your patience and that you please try again later if you cannot get into Holdings Maintenance.

NHU-PAC survey results online

Last spring NHAIS Services asked NHU-PAC users to tell us how they use the current system and what they like and dislike about it. Results of the survey are now available online as a PDF file. To view it, you may need to install Adobe Reader which is available free from Adobe.

After the survey was completed, attendees at a packed session at the spring NHLA/NHEMA conference were asked to name the one thing they would most like to see changed in the NHU-PAC. More than 40 different suggestions were recorded. The most requested feature was exact title matching, mentioned by six people. Next in popularity, with four "votes," was more sophisticated searching in the ILL program.


A NHAIS committee is taking your comments into account as it writes a request for proposals to be sent to vendors seeking to provide a system which will run the next generation of the NHU-PAC. The contract for the current system expires in the middle of next year.

LR, SE, SW van routes cancelled Jan. 14

Donna Gilbreth reports:

The New Hampshire State Library has cancelled van routes for the Lakes Region (LR), Southeastern Area (SE), and Southewestern Area (SW) today [Monday, Jan. 14, 2008] due to the weather. The North Country (NC) route WILL be running. For a list of library delivery stops affected by this cancellation please check http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/monday.html. Thank you for your understanding.

Donna Gilbreth
New Hampshire State Library Reference and Information Services
20 Park St. Concord, NH 03301
603-271-2060
donna.gilbreth@dcr.nh.gov

Monday's NHU-PAC Restored

I think we have now recreated the NHU-PAC interface as it existed last Monday, before the system went south on us. If there is a link, or sub-tab, or search that was part of the NHU-PAC interface last week and is no longer there, please let us know what is missing.

Lost Books for December 2007

Here is the lost book list for December 2007.

Remember, the list can be viewed and edited anytime on the nhaislostbooks wiki. The password for editing the wiki is available to NH libraries by contacting Mary Cronin at Madison Library.

• Guns of August (videorecording)
  Salem Kelley Library owns, Amherst Town Library borrowed
  VIDEO 940.3 GUNS
  
• Goodfellas (dvd). Loan to Nelson/Rodham Mem (498782). Return to Ctr Harbor/Nichols
  
• Eco. Name of the Rose (hc). Loan to Ctr Harbor/Nichols (478320). Ret to Northfield/Hall Mem
  
• We requested the book, "The Night my Sister Went Missing" on Nov. 28th. It was request #516192. NHU-PAC says that the book was shipped from Plainfield on 12/4/07. However, we never received the book. Has anyone seen it/did it arrive at the wrong location? Thank you,
  Donna Zecha, Library Media Specialist
  John Stark Regional High School
  618 N. Stark Highway
  Weare, NH 03281
  (603) 529-5313
  

NH Downloadable Audiobooks Consortium Invoices Sent

If you are a member of the NH Downloadable Audiobooks Consortium, please check that you have received an invoice from me (Bobbi) this week. In most cases I sent the invoices via email to the library director. Please let me know if your library did not receive an invoice.

(Please note that the libraries that just joined the consortium last month were invoiced in December. You did not receive a second invoice.)

NHU-PAC is back

Thursday, Jan. 10, 8:20 a.m.: The NHU-PAC returned to service last evening after a 26-hour outage. The integrity of the database itself was never an issue--all the bibliographic records and the holdings data associated with them are fine. In fact, NHAIS Services added hundreds of new records and holdings to the NHU-PAC and merged dozens of duplicate records during the outage. The problem was traced to a file controlling how NHU-PAC's Web pages display. This was replaced with a backup from nearly a year ago to get us back online.

Your search results will be up-to-the-minute but you may find some things different about the appearance of the NHU-PAC . Some of the resources recently added to the Librarian's Tools tab are gone and you won't see links for recent Children's Book Reviews or recently added downloadable audiobooks. NHAIS Services will work on restoring these features in the days and weeks to come. We won't be able to restore any lists you might have saved, however: SirsiDynix tells us these would have been lost during the recovery.

We recognize what a significant inconvenience this outage has been and, as Charlie Le Blanc mentioned in his posting yesterday, we will be working with SirsiDynix in looking at the cause and how we can recover from a similar incident in a more timely fashion.

System operability

The NHAIS web page is back in service. There may be some problems because the backup used to re-create the web page was from February of 2007. Staff will investigate, in detail, the presentations and try to make any correction needed to bring the NHAIS web page back to this past Monday's status. A quick test of the various pages at 6:30 PM today (1/9/08) shows all facets of NHU-PAC working as they should. Testing from simple memory is not a very reliable platform, so tomorrow's fine tooth comb approach will drag out any hidden problems.

SirsiDynix is unable to provide an explaination beyond the mythical "vampire electricity". One of the problems is that the backup scripts that would have made the re-build more timely were disrupted some time after the last system upgrade. I will be dealing with that issue on Monday when I return to the office.

I am really sorry for the disruption in your work flows and staffing caused by this outage. An effective method of preventing this in the future is also on the table for this coming Monday.

Charlie

NHU-PAC outage update

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 3 p.m.: Work continues on getting the NHU-PAC back online. If there's a change before 5 p.m., information will be posted here. Otherwise, check back Thursday morning.

NHU-PAC outage update

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 11:55 a.m.: Expect the NHU-PAC to be out of service for several more hours. A snowstorm in Utah has delayed the arrival this morning of some of the SirsiDynix support staff who've been working on our problem since yesterday afternoon. The next update will be posted here by 3 p.m.

NHU-PAC outage update

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 8:20 a.m.: Expect the NHU-PAC to be offline for the rest of the morning as work to restore service continues. The next update will be posted here at or before noon.

NHU-PAC outage update

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 7 p.m.: SirsiDynix is still running diagnostics on NHU-PAC's web server at this hour. The next update on this situation will be posted Wednesday morning.

Current System Outage

The NHU-PAC is currently (4:37pm, Tuesday) unavailable. We are looking into the problem and will get things back up and running as soon as possible.