[655] in ad-lib
Softbackup and interim period
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (perkins@MIT.EDU)
Mon May 22 11:05:16 1995
From: perkins@MIT.EDU
To: advancecirc-lib@MIT.EDU, mark@MIT.EDU
Cc: gyoung@MIT.EDU, jgwansch@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 11:05:01 EDT
Circ managers and other Advance group members: I'm working on an
e-mail message to go to all circ staff, concerning "mitigating
measures" and other issues related to the "Softbackup period."
Unfortunately, I don't have all the answers I need yet. But here's
the info so far. I'll probably send something out even before I get
the statistics question resolved. Let me have your comments on this.
I want to send this out tomorrow.
[Grant: under FINES below, note that we do want to clobber fines from
the system after they occur. We also need to prevent any fine notices
from going out.]
* * * *
Here's an update on some of the issues related to using Softbackup, and
losing GLIS functionality, between May 30 and the day we start using
Advance.
1. FINES: We will not collect fines from patrons, starting NOW and
continuing until the last day of the interim system. David Ferriero
has approved this measure. The fairest way to handle this is to
suspend fines entirely, to the extent we can, even in the case of
patrons who are returning overdue books and offer to pay while GLIS is
still up this week. Grant says that it would be difficult to have the
system waive fines automatically, but that we can eliminate them from
the system after they occur.
2. PATRON REGISTRATION: During Softbackup, we will implement a downtime
procedure as proposed by Grant. Here's how it will work.
-Register the new patron by filling out a paper form for downtime
patron registration. Assign the patron a barcode.
-After the migration to Advance is completed, but before the
Softbackup transactions are loaded, we will add the patrons with their
barcodes to Advance. The Softbackup transactions download will find
the patron at that point and record the transaction.
We will need to coordinate with Systems to be sure the new patrons are
added to Advance at the appropriate time, before the interim
transactions are loaded.
3. SPECIAL DUE DATE: Starting last week and continuing until we go live
on Advance, we are charging and renewing 28-day-loan items until
8/31/95. I.e., all these items are going out on term loan.
4. PATRON PR: We should alert patrons, as appropriate, that for a period of
several weeks, we will not be able to send "hold available" notices,
place holds or recalls, do searches for missing books, or do bulk
renewals by phone. David Ferriero and Agnieszka Meyro are handling
production of a sign and book-insert explaining to patrons that some
of our services are temporarily suspended, offering our apologies for
the inconvenience, etc.
5. STATISTICS: [I await word on this. What sort of statistics will be
available, and will be required, for our annual reports? I've asked
DSF if we can just submit, for the year, all the stat's up through the
last day on GLIS. However, Grant says that we WILL be able to
generate statistics for Softbackup transactions; these will not be
perfect, but it's something. So I will find out from DSF what he
would like us to use for our statistics forms: just GLIS-generated
statistics through May, or GLIS statistics plus whatever we get from
Softbackup.]
6. DAILY DOWNTIME: As our Softbackup guru Mark Rousculp has
already explained, there will be about an hour each morning, up until
around 9:30, when Softbackup will not be available. This is necessary
so that Systems can download the previous day's transactions. During
this daily downtime, we will have to use manual downtime forms. For
students with magnetic-stripe cards, note down the patron's ID number
(the barcode number is not visible on the mag-stripe ID's). Do NOT use
diskettes to record transactions.
For specific questions concerning the use and limitations of
Softbackup, please contact Mark Rousculp (3-9446, mark@mit.edu).
Again, our thanks to Mark for all his efforts. -Anita Perkins
