[496] in I/T Delivery
3rd Barton delivery report for May
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sarah Shreeves)
Mon Jun 4 09:30:58 2001
Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20010604092938.024329e0@hesiod>
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 09:31:10 -0400
To: delivery@mit.edu, stc-lib@mit.edu, c3-lib@mit.edu, barton-lib@mit.edu
From: Sarah Shreeves <sls@MIT.EDU>
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Project Name: Third Barton Transition
Project Leader: Sarah Shreeves
Report Date: May 31, 2001
URL: http://macfadden.mit.edu:9500/barton/transition/
General
-----------------------------------------
Ex Libris delivered our full test load two weeks late on May 14th. There
was a major communication breakdown between Ex Libris-Israel and MIT about
the readiness of the server and the status of the data during the first
week of May, which resulted in the further delay (some of this is reported
in last months delivery report). However, since this time the
communication has been much improved.
We spent the last full two weeks of May testing our full load. We
initially discovered many indexing problems that have since been
resolved. Ex Libris is now working on the remainder of the problems reported.
Accomplishments in May
-----------------------------------------
Project Management:
-- We decided to shift our switch to production date ahead a week so that
we will be coming up on July 9th. Despite Ex Libris' assurances that they
could make the original date of July 2nd, we felt that we needed to give
our staff the breathing room of that week. We have moved all of the other
dates accordingly (see http://speedbump.mit.edu/mm/3rdBarton.htm for details)
-- Eric Celeste, Christine Moulen, and Sarah Shreeves met with our project
manager from Ex Libris, Michael Kaplan, and our main contact in Israel,
Noam Kaminer. We got updates on a number of issues and discussed the
communication problems that we had been having. MIT feels that we have had
much better communication over the last three weeks.
-- Ex Libris-Israel proposed setting up a parallel instance of ALEPH on
grammy as we approached our STP date of July 9th so that testing/training
and the loading could occur at the same time. MIT accepted this proposal
and Ex Libris has spent time this month setting that up.
Data Conversion:
-- Functional teams spent May 14-25th testing our data in the full test load.
-- Problems reported to Ex Libris throughout these two weeks and in a final
report form on May 26th.
Server configuration:
-- ASST set up the remaining disks on grammy.
-- A disk failed on grammy on May 28th. Grant and the asst team were able
to resolve the problem and grammy was back up and running by the evening of
May 30th.
-- Ex Libris installed 14.2.1 in parallel with 14.2.0 and have loaded MIT's
full test load to it. Indexing was continuing on May 31st.
Workflow:
-- Christine pulled together a file for the SAP feed and sent it to FSS on
May 30th. She has been working with Suzanna Garfunkel in FSS to pull this
together.
-- Beth Siers and Noam Kaminer (ExL) agreed to test bib loaders in
June. The question of building holdings and items on bib loads seems to
have been resolved though it has not yet been tested (Christine will write
a program to explode the expansion codes).
Production in ADVANCE:
-- The process of freezing production in ADVANCE began on May 29th when we
ceased creating title changes and child records for serials and journals.
OPAC:
-- Design and implementation of search screens continued on the web OPAC.
-- Access to new design given to library staff.
-- Usability testing began with a small group of staff and students.
Training:
-- -- Circulation training (May 1-2), ILB training (May 3), Cataloging
tables training (May 14), Reserves training (May 29 (training offered by
Ex Libris). The reports training and systems librarian training that was
to take place were rescheduled to June.
-- Staff catalog training continues.
-- Web training group continues to develop training program. They offered
their first train the trainers program on May 31st. (web training group)
-- Training for staff continues in functional modules
-- Held meeting to discuss training needs for local processing.
Publicity:
-- Flyers and table tents out to all libraries
-- Letter from Ann Wolpert delivered to faculty.
Misc:
-- Ezra Schwartz from Ex Libris came to demo the new interface that he is
designing and that is projected to be part of the ALEPH client in about a
year. Kathy Cahill joined library staff at this demo.
-- Joan Kolias continued work on reports.
-- Carl Jones and David Johnson set up permissions for staff in various
units to test.
Goals for June
--------------------------
June is a busy month!!
Project Management:
-- Identification of issues/functionality that will be phased in post-July
1. Communication with library staff about these (Sarah, project team)
-- Begin putting together project report for Steering Committee (Sarah)
Server:
-- Specs for back-up server sent to Ex Libris for review
-- Determine needs for a larger capacity tape drive
Data Conversion:
-- Test data on new patch of ALEPH (14.2.1) (functional teams)
-- Extract all data except circ data for production database (Christine,
Greg, Beth). All due to Ex Libris by June 27th (and earlier)
-- Conversion of data for production database (Ex Libris)
Workflow:
-- Continue workflow testing
-- Test loaders, feeds, interim circ module, self check out machine
-- Determine priority reports for Day 1
Production in ADVANCE:
-- All data (except Circ) frozen in ADVANCE by June 15th
-- Communicate with users about ADVANCE being frozen
Publicity:
-- Continue publicity with in-library publicity, article in Tech Talk, and
news on web site
-- presentation to all library staff at all staff meeting June 27th
Training:
-- Continue OPAC basic training for staff; begin Advanced OPAC training
-- Begin web OPAC training
-- Continue functional training
-- Ex Libris training: Web Services (June 5), System Librarian training (TBA)
OPAC:
-- Yohanan Spruch (ExLibris) to demo/speak about frameless web OPAC June 13th
-- Continue design and implementation of web OPAC
-- Determine long term plans for implementation of frameless web OPAC
Misc:
-- Naomi Leiser (Ex Libris) at MIT for table consulting June 6-7
-- ITAG meeting on security issues June 6th
-- Continue work on permissions.
-- Plan for celebration in July.
Team Dynamics
-----------------------
Again the project team has been working very hard. Their ability to hold
up under the pressure of the time schedule and to do a thorough,
conscientious job are the key factors in keeping this project on target.
Key Learning
-------------------
As always communication! And again, a supportive sponsor who's willing to
wade in when needed has been essential.
At this point in the game with so many tasks and details to be taken care
of being ahead of yourself by a week or so in terms of preparation makes
life a little easier.
