[400] in magellan
Third Barton Bi-Weekly Report
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Carl Jones)
Thu Feb 17 12:50:37 2000
Message-Id: <200002171750.MAA01009@torill.mit.edu>
To: magellan@MIT.EDU
Cc: stc-lib@MIT.EDU, 3rdbc@MIT.EDU, 3rdbarton@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 12:50:21 -0500
From: Carl Jones <carlj@MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: carlj@MIT.EDU
Project Name: Third Barton Project (Project to find a replacement
Library Management System)
Project Management Team: Nina Davis-Millis, Joan Kolias, Carl Jones
Report Date: February 17, 2000
URL: http:/macfadden.mit.edu:9500/c3/3dbarton
Accomplishments Past Period:
- Determined we have 3 vendors who have received the strongest staff
response (Ex Libris, SIRSI, Innovative) and whose products seem
to be good potential "fits" for MIT.
- Completed site visit to University of Notre Dame (Ex-Libris)
on Feb. 3rd.
- Contacted the 2 vendors (Endeavor, DRA) who did not make the
second cut.
- Steering Committee is strongly recommeding we weed the
vendors down to
two finalists. Steering Committee's reservation being having
three vendors, besides taking up the extra staff time, might
actually make the selection process even more difficult, with
staff potentially feeling even more
fragmented about their possible choices. We should complete our
site visits and use a short RFP in order to determine who those
two finalists should be for the
planned extended demos which will take place in spring.
- Gave a brief report during All-Staff meeting on status
of Third Barton and need to start planning upcoming scenarios for
testing the systems during the site visits.
- Work underway on progress report for Steering Commmittee
providing an
overview of where we are currently in the selection process.
Goals for the coming period:
- Send hard-copy memos to vendors who did not make the second
cut. Officially inform those who did they're are short list and
that they will soon receive a brief RFP.
- Begin real work on the brief RFP, we're getting very close on
time if we're to stick reasonably close to our timetable of
inviting the vendors in for extended demos this Spring and
making a final decision over the Summer.
- Site visits to Philadelphi: Drexel U. and Temple
U.(Innovative), and Rutgers University in NJ (SIRSI). These
visits are now scheduled for the 8th and 9th of March.
Key Learnings:
- Visit to Notre Dame pointed out the importance of managing
the post-installation process. Talking with Notre Dame made it
very clear the first (and perhaps even the second) year
following actual implementation will be a
very busy one and we need to plan accordingly. Notre Dame
concluded they needed more staff (and with more expertise) than
they initially had on hand in order to make the most effective
use of the system. This next year should be a very interesting
one for them.
Issues:
- Fallout from one of the vendors who were not pleased to be left
out of the next round.
- Not an issue per se, but we have heard that Harvard University,
due to the so-far unsatisfactory DRA implementation at UCLA,
has withdrawn its conditional committment to going with DRA's
next-generation TAOS system. Instead Harvard will look again at
Ex-Libris, who were their original
second choice.
Team Dynamics: none
