But is it... working? We're behind a firewall, which creates problems to start. And because of that and backward-compatibility issues with 4.1.1, we use the Infotrieve Store & Forward Server which creates two problems: 1) people not using our full address and items do not arrive, and 2) Infotrieve S&F server downtimes. (They say there are no compatibility issues between versions, and technically there aren't, but that's if people with 3.4 check a certain box in their installation of Ariel and no one knows that.)
My kingdom for something that works! As far as I can tell, the only other alternatives are Odyssey, Relais Express and email. Not enough people use Odyssey (yet), Relais has growing customer support concerns much like Ariel, and email creates too many bounces or undelivered. For those of you who have Ariel running smoothly, I salute you, but we're not all in that boat unfortunately. Best, Sue Groshong Library Technician | Library & Information Commons Seattle Children's 206-987-2098 sue.grosh...@seattlechildrens.org -----Original Message----- From: Breedlove, W Stephen [mailto:breed...@lasalle.edu] Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 1:32 PM To: Discussion of the Ariel Document Transmission System Subject: RE: [ARIE-L] All three vs. either/or (was RE: Ariel alternative) I'm learning a lot from this discussion and second Christy's comments below, particularly her comment about Ariel being a "working" product. When I saw all of the messages in my inbox today from the ILL list from folks dropping Ariel, I thought, as I have several times in the past, what's going on? Why are people having so much trouble with Ariel? We couldn't live without it: we use Patron Delivery and send articles securely and directly to our institution's patrons' email addresses and to other libraries' email addresses. The only issue can be file size sometimes, but we've found a workaround in Ariel by using Microsoft Office Document Image Writer, to reduce file sizes--since, if the size of the article is too large to send to email we can't save it on a flash from Ariel and then use MyMorph to change it from a PDF to a TIFF. I've been able to take a 68,000KB file and reduce it to 1,500KB. We can keep the delivery queue for several weeks in case someone needs something sent again. We've been lucky, it seems, that we have never had any serious problems with Ariel. Whenever I've had to contact support, also no problem. We are on XP and have 4.1.1. We also use Odyssey standalone for importing articles and sending and to receive. The scan function we could never get to work very well. We also have a separate email address to receive articles directly from other libraries. We check that several times a day. We have yet to use Article Exchange, but I'm glad to know it's there as another alternative to explore. I can understand that many libraries that don't have Ariel or Odyssey find it very useful. Nothing really concrete to contribute here. W. Stephen Breedlove Reference and Interlibrary Loan Librarian La Salle University Library breed...@lasalle.edu 215-951-1862 -----Original Message----- From: arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu [mailto:arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Christine Bird Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 1:37 PM To: Discussion of the Ariel Document Transmission System Subject: [ARIE-L] All three vs. either/or (was RE: Ariel alternative) We use Ariel, Odyssey, Article Exchange and email to send requests and we're happy to receive requests in any of those ways as well. Like Tom, we use Ariel because it gives us the ability to post documents to a server for our patrons to view, so at this point, to eliminate Ariel completely would leave us without a secure way to deliver articles electronically to our users (a HUGE step backwards as far as service goes.) Also, I would hesitate to drop a working product (keyword WORKING!) that other libraries still use since our patrons prefer receiving desktop delivery of their requests and I want to give lenders as many options as possible to get articles to us in that manner. Christy HRM Christine Bird Interlibrary Services Coordinator University of Hartford Mortensen Library-ILS 200 Bloomfield Ave. West Hartford, CT 06117 860-768-4364 (p) 860-768-5298 (f) ill.hartford.edu (Ariel) ill.hartford.edu/ILL (Odyssey) -------------------------------------------------- From: "Steven Espinoza" <espin...@csusm.edu> Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 1:10 PM To: "Discussion of the Ariel Document Transmission System" <arie-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: [ARIE-L] RE: Ariel alternative? > Today...I am going to work on setting up a new system (Windows 7) and > Ariel 4.1.(1?). > I work in Systems and not ILL so every three years I read up on the > virtues of patience just for this event. > > As for alternatives, we use ILLIAD and Odyssey too! I have spoken to our > Resource Sharing manager and all I can get her to say is they will > "consider dropping Ariel...next time". > > So my question is...are many of you using all three or are you making an > either or choice? > > Thank you. > > - Steve > > -----Original Message----- > From: arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu > [mailto:arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Craig, Tom > Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 9:28 AM > To: 'Discussion of the Ariel Document Transmission System' > Subject: [ARIE-L] RE: Ariel alternative? > > We continue to use Ariel vs. Odyssey standalone because Ariel allows us to > post articles to our web server and automatically notifies the email > addressee to that effect. This allows us to scan articles of large file > size without having to deal with attachment size limits. Certainly Ariel > is unsolvably quirky, but it continues to work acceptably for us. We > still use Windows XP and Ariel 3.4. > > --Tom > ***** > Thomas B. Craig, MSLS > Director of Library Services > Watson W. Wise Medical Research Library > University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler > phone: 903-877-2864 > fax: 903-877-5412 > email: thomas.cr...@uthct.edu > ***** > Opinions stated are those of the sender and are not official statements of > the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. Please do not > share or forward without permission. Please inform the sender of > misdirected messages. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu > [mailto:arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Bouchard, > Kerry > Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 11:17 AM > To: Discussion of the Ariel Document Transmission System > Subject: [ARIE-L] RE: Ariel alternative? > > > We've been using Odyssey and ILLiad for several years > with good results. Since the Odyssey component is free, I'm a little > puzzled by the number of libraries still using Ariel, given the lack of > vendor support - it seems like the vendor abandoned it some time ago. The > latest hurdle here has been getting a scanner to work with both Ariel and > Windows 7, and I really hate to pour any more hours into Ariel. > > -Kerry > > Kerry Bouchard > Director of Automated Systems > Mary Couts Burnett Library, TCU > 817-921-4304 > > -----Original Message----- > From: arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu > [mailto:arie-l-boun...@mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Estabrook, > Alexia > Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 9:43 AM > To: Discussion of the Ariel Document Transmission System > Subject: [ARIE-L] Ariel alternative? > > I have been having issues with Ariel for a while, the lasted being that > the send to function is not working. After months of working with IT we > just cannot figure out what is wrong... That and the fact that Ariel has > not been updated in a very long time has lead me to consider alternatives. > > What other Ariel-type products are people using and why? > > We currently recieve 95% of our requests via Docline and the other 5% via > OCLC. I need to do more research but was initially thinking of pairing > Odyssey and Illiad. Am I headed in the right direction or am I way off > base? > > Any and all suggestions are appreciated. > > Alexia D. Estabrook-Isely, MSLS > Consultant, Medical Library > > Providence Hospital | Helen L. DeRoy Medical Library Main Phone: > 248-849-3294 | Fax: 248-849-3201 | Email: alexia.estabr...@stjohn.org > Library Home Page: > http://www.intra.providence-hospital.org/MedicalLibrary/ > Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information protected by law. 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