[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Web Client and Load Balancer
We are running release 3.0.9 and I can connect to the web client if I browse directly to one of my application servers. When I try to login via the load balancer I get the login screen but when I try to login it just refreshes the login screen. Is there something that needs to be configured for the web client to work through a load balancer? We are using the pound load balancer and I have backends setup for port 443. Martha Driscoll, Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Reminder: Student Success Working Group
Those scripts are great and I used them as a basis for my student loading scripts. What these scripts don't do, however, is provide for overlay of existing records. There are decisions to make when identifying an on-file record that is a match for the incoming record. There are also decisions to make about what fields to replace with incoming data and which ones to preserve. For example we don't replace a password with incoming data because the student may have changed it from the default. In our consortium, we load patron records from multiple colleges on a regular basis. Some colleges provide a weekly file while others provide one file per semester. The workflow I have created is: 1. upload entire file into a staging table 2. update the staging records with record ID's if the student is already in the database (match point is ident_value) 3. update the usr, address, and card records for those already on file 4. remove the matched records from the staging table 5. assume the remaining are new and load them. Sometimes that is not the case and we have to fix by hand. Martha Driscoll, Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange www.noblenet.org On Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 3:53 AM Linda Jansova wrote: > Hi, > > Although I have not used it myself yet, I do believe you can batch > import patron records to Evergreen using SQL scripts such as those > available from the official documentation: > > http://docs.evergreen-ils.org/3.1/_creating_an_sql_script_for_importing_patrons.html > . > > Linda > > On 06/25/2018 05:40 PM, Bianca Parisi wrote: > > Hi-- > > > > Could we please add importing batch student (patron) records to > Evergreen to the agenda? Curious to see what other institutions are doing. > We have an automated process at the college that we need rethink/redevelop. > > > > Thanks, > > Bianca > > > > Bianca Parisi, MLIS > > Libraries and Learning Commons Technology Coordinator > > > > Niagara College, Welland Campus Library > > 100 Niagara College Blvd. Welland, ON L3C 7L3 > > (905) 735-2211 ext.7404 > > http://nclibraries.niagaracollege.ca/library > > bpar...@niagaracollege.ca > > > > > > -Original Message- > > From: Open-ils-general < > open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org> On Behalf Of Jane > Sandberg > > Sent: Monday, June 25, 2018 10:59 AM > > To: Evergreen Discussion Group < > open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org> > > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Reminder: Student Success Working Group > > > > Hi colleagues, > > > > One last reminder about today's Student Success Working Group meeting. > > We'll talk about citations, course reserves, and the Web client. > > > > It will be held at 10am Pacific / 11am Mountain / 12pm Central / 1pm > Eastern on the Zoom platform. You can use this link to access the > > meeting: https://linnbenton.zoom.us/j/938431327. You can also access > the meeting via phone. > > > > An agenda is here: > > > https://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=student_success_working_group:agenda_2018-06-25 > . > > Please feel free to add to it, or to let me know of additional topics > you'd like to discuss. > > > > Student Success Working Group meetings are open to everybody, and have a > particular focus on libraries that serve students at the primary, > secondary, and post-secondary levels. > > > > > > On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 7:36 AM, Jane Sandberg > wrote: > >> Hi colleagues, > >> > >> The Evergreen Student Success Working Group will hold its next meeting > >> on Monday, 25 June. > >> > >> It will be held at 10am Pacific / 11am Mountain / 12pm Central / 1pm > >> Eastern on the Zoom platform. You can use this link to access the > >> meeting: https://linnbenton.zoom.us/j/938431327. You can also access > >> the meeting via phone. > >> > >> An agenda is here: > >> > https://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=student_success_working_group:agenda_2018-06-25 > . > >> Please feel free to add to it, or to let me know of additional topics > >> you'd like to discuss. > >> > >> Student Success Working Group meetings are open to everybody, and have > >> a particular focus on libraries that serve students at the primary, > >> secondary, and post-secondary levels. > >> > >> > >>-Jane > >> > >> -- > >> Jane Sandberg > >> Electronic Resources Librarian > >> Linn-Benton Community College > >> sand...@linnbenton.edu / 541-917-4655 > >> Pronouns: she/her/hers > > > > > > -- > > Jane Sandberg > > Electronic Resources Librarian > > Linn-Benton Community College > > sand...@linnbenton.edu / 541-917-4655 > > Pronouns: she/her/hers > >
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] EG data backup retention policy
Josh, That's an interesting question! I keep 3 snapshots on a logging server (last 3 days). Once a week the latest snapshot gets sent to a cloud offsite backup service where I keep another 3 snapshots. We also run streaming replication so a second database server is continuously archiving the live database. And then there are the WAL archives which get written to the logging server and also sent to the offsite service with their snapshot. I constantly think I don't have enough backups. I can't imagine what the cost would be in time, lost productivity, and diminished service if a disaster happened and there was no viable backup. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/19/2017 2:38 PM, Josh Stompro wrote: Hello, I’m curious how many systems have a policy for how long you keep evergreen data backups. And I’m also wondering how long you keep your backup snapshots? I heard a comment from leadership of another library system that they keep 2 tapes/copies. The one in the drive waiting to be written and the one copy that is off site. With the goal of minimizing historical data that can be seized by law enforcement. I’ve always been way more paranoid of any one backup being bad vs worrying about data being seized, so the idea of only having one or two backup snapshots of the database makes me nervous. Thanks Josh Lake Agassiz Regional Library - Moorhead MN larl.org Josh Stompro | Office 218.233.3757 EXT-139 LARL IT Director | Cell 218.790.2110 --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Items not on Reserve being held for a patron
Dawn, In case it hasn't already been mentioned, you can create those 3 statuses in Evergreen and use them like you were doing in Sierra. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 5/19/2017 8:38 AM, Dawn Fritz wrote: Thank you all for the insight and definitions! Dawn On Fri, May 19, 2017 at 8:01 AM, Kathy Lussier <mailto:kluss...@masslnc.org>> wrote: Hi Dawn, I also wanted to provide some explanation on the use for the reserves statuses you mentioned. The reserves status is something that is used for academic course reserves. On reservation shelf is something that's used in conjunction with the booking module. It's basically the 'on the holds' shelf equivalent for items that are booked for a specific time period. I hope this helps! Kathy On 05/19/2017 07:28 AM, Joan Kranich wrote: Hi Dawn, Our libraries do not change the status of the item when a patron asks for the item to be set aside for them. Most of our libraries place a Hold for the patron, check in the item, and place it on the Holds Shelf. Joan On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 3:00 PM, Dawn Fritz mailto:dfr...@bapl.org>> wrote: Hi, We will be moving from Sierra to Evergreen this October. Presently, when a patron asks us to put an item which is on the shelf aside for them, we change the item status to "Main Lib hold", "Branch 1 hold" or "Branch 2 hold". These statuses reflect our 3 branches and help in searches for the items. There is no fee charged to the patron for this service. When we check the item out to the patron, the system prompts us to clear the hold status. I see in Evergreen that there are 2 statuses which contain the word "Reserve". Does anyone use these for held items which don't have the "On Holds shelf" designation? Also, does anyone have a way to show which branch has the item? Thanks, Dawn Fritz - Circulation Manager Bethlehem Area Public Library Bethlehem Pa -- Joan Kranich C/W MARS Member Services jkran...@cwmars.org <mailto:jkran...@cwmars.org> 508-755-3323 ext. 321 or ext. 1 -- Kathy Lussier Project Coordinator Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 kluss...@masslnc.org <mailto:kluss...@masslnc.org> Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier <http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier> --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Did you migrate from III?
Hi Glen, NOBLE migrated from III Millennium in 2012. For at least a year prior to that we did test migrations of data and refined our scripts and procedures. We finally did several full data migrations prior to our final migration in May 2012. I used yaz-marcdump to convert our bib output from marc to marcxml. I'm not familiar with xmlOpac but it sounds like that tool will put you a step ahead. I'm sure the tools have changed since I did our migration but one thing remains the same: know your data both in terms of how it is coming our of III and how you want it to go into Evergreen. One of the things I am glad I did was use the III bib record number as the database id of the bib record in Evergreen. This allowed me to match up items, circulations, and holds much easier and search the III system for the bib when trying to troubleshoot a problem. We migrated bibs, items, patrons, circulations, holds, serials, and fines. We utilized staging tables for much of the data which allowed us to query our data and fix problems as well as build mapping tables. We were very happy with our data migration. We put a lot of thought into data mapping and did lots of cleanup on the III side. I know there are others on this list who have migrated from III so if you have any more specific questions just ask. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 1/27/2016 8:53 AM, Glen Modell wrote: Hello, this is Glen at the Ann Arbor District Library. We are not an Evergreen site but are exploring it. I'd like to hear from anyone who migrated to Evergreen from Innovative Interfaces. I'm experimenting with bib record migration and I'm curious as to whether anyone was able to use the xmlOpac from III to get pre-packaged marcXML or whether you have have other suggestions. Thanks. -- Glen. * Glen Modell Library Automation Specialist Ann Arbor District Library 734-327-8322 mode...@aadl.org --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Announcement: new core committer named - Kathy Lussier
Congratulations to Kathy and to the Evergreen community for electing Kathy as a core committer. The MassLNC networks have been very fortunate to have Kathy coordinate our various Evergreen projects from writing software specifications, reaching out to funding partners, coordinating proposals to developers, coordinating meetings and conferences, and testing new code. All this and she bakes us cookies too! Kathy's hard work will continue to improve an already great open source community. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 11/9/2015 1:33 PM, Galen Charlton wrote: Hi, By consensus of the incumbent members, Kathy Lussier of MassLNC was invited to join the core committer team, and has accepted that invitation. Congratulations! An announcement on the Evergreen blog can be found here: https://evergreen-ils.org/welcome-evergreens-newest-core-committer-kathy-lussier/ Regards, Galen --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Need help with z39.5 configuration
Hi John, This is how I have my z39.50 targets configured for other Evergreen sources: name| label | code | format | truncation ---+--+--++ title | Title|4 | 6 | 1 isbn | ISBN |7 | 6 | 1 issn | ISSN |8 | 1 | 1 lccn | LCCN |9 | 6 | 1 tcn | Title Control Number | 12 | 1 | 1 pubdate | Publication Date | 31 | 1 | 1 item_type | Item Type| 1001 | 1 | 1 author| Author | 1003 | 6 | 1 publisher | Publisher| 1018 | 6 | 1 Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 10/26/2015 4:17 PM, John Clark wrote: Hi folks, I'm with the Maine Balsam Libraries Consortium and although retired, still help with trouble shooting, cataloging, etc. I have spent a fair amount of time looking online for the z39.50 attributes for an Evergreen library to no avail. I am looking specifically for the information added for author, word, title and ISBN after creating a new Z39.50 resource in server administration. To give you a better idea, I have the following after I click on new: Code, format, Label , name, truncation and no idea what to add. I would be eternally grateful for this elusive information and it might be a good thing to go into documentation down the road. We're running 2.8.3 and I'm doing this through the client. Thank you, John Clark --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts - AND books?
Hi Jennifer, The way the system is currently designed, the expectation is that the copy data will be available even if the people want to delete a record. The circulation tables records each circulation transaction. That table is used in reports that need to count circulation statistics. The table does not record specific information about the copy that was circulated, but it does point back to the specific copy. Let's say a professor wants to know how the eastern religion books circulated over the last 5 years. Maybe the college put some money into that program and bought a lot of material. Maybe some of the copies were damaged or lost and removed from the collection over the span of that 5 years. If the copies are gone when you run a circulation report, you won't be able to count by things like copy call number or copy statistical category. That data would have been removed with the copy. The same is true for bibliographic data. If the circulation transaction can't find the original bib, then categorizing your statistics by bib data won't be possible. The circulations will still be present in that table, but drilling down to specific details will be lost. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 8/6/2015 9:39 AM, Walz, Jennifer wrote: Mike, Yup. That is precisely it. I don’t want to have to remember to filter for “deleted”. That seems really a weird expectation, when it should have been deleted. (meaning it is not there) J And it clutters up the server. I like clean systems and only the stuff we have is there and nothing else. And we get weird and random empty records that we can’t figure out how they got there. Did someone make a mistake? Did the system get confused? Did we do something wrong? Then fixing that is just a pain. Would be nice to blast everything and just start over. With the phantom records hanging around the system, you can’t really do that. Maybe we could have a report run that “clears” the system only when you run it. It could be an admin only function and run when it is deemed appropriate. Our previous system had reports like that. It was lovely. Thanks! Jennifer -- Jennifer Walz, MLS - Head of ILS Random Weirdness Kinlaw Library - *Asbury University* One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390 859-858-3511 ext. 2269 jlw...@asbury.edu *From:*Open-ils-general [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] *On Behalf Of *Mike Rylander *Sent:* Wednesday, August 05, 2015 10:43 AM *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts - AND books? Jennifer, Where, other than reports that lack a filter on "Is deleted", are these items showing up? Thanks, -- Mike Rylander | President | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) | email: mi...@esilibrary.com <mailto:mi...@esilibrary.com> | web: http://www.esilibrary.com On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Walz, Jennifer mailto:jlw...@asbury.edu>> wrote: All – I completely understand! This is a valuable option for those folks who need this. But there should ALSO be an option for completely and utterly obliterating the record – if you need to.We just REMOVED about 600 books from our collection (remember that we are an academic library) and we never want to see them again. We expect that they are weeded and gone. But no. They are still hanging around the system to clutter things up. And confuse things too. That is why we are experiencing so much problem with our items we are moving around into a new Children’s collection. We weeded, we merged, and now we are changing call numbers. But the “deleted” stuff keeps showing up when we THOUGHT we deleted it and never want to see it again. I’m NOT saying to remove the option to “hide” items in case you want to use them again or in the case where there are items attached or fines or such. BUT, it would be really great to also have the option to really and finally REMOVE items from the system. There are times when that is needed as well. Thanks! Jennifer -- Jennifer Walz, MLS - Head of ILS Ministrations Kinlaw Library - *Asbury University* One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390 859-858-3511 ext. 2269 jlw...@asbury.edu <mailto:jlw...@asbury.edu> *From:*Open-ils-general [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org <mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org>] *On Behalf Of *Rogan Hamby *Sent:* Wednesday, August 05, 2015 10:10 AM *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts - AND books? Oh yeah, they reappear like fleas. It's one reason I don't like obliterating, things that folks are sure they never wa
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] user passwords for accounts - default?
Hi Jennifer, When you load your student records, you can certainly load in anything you want into the password field. It is usually helpful to load in something that is unique to the student like their birth date or university ID. You could load in the same password for everyone, but that would lead to students knowing how to access other students accounts. If you register patrons by hand, then you can change the random password to something else. It's a few extra keystrokes, but will get you by until records are loaded for you. When we migrated our data, we loaded the same password into each record. It was a random string of 25 characters and we never told anyone what the password was. As long as the patron has a valid email address in their Evergreen record, then they can reset their password from the login screen. People who did not have an email address just had to ask the circulation staff to reset the password for them. For public libraries who don't load patron records, we had business cards printed up with 4-digit numbers on them. When registering a patron, libraries input the number on the next card and hand the card to the patron. That way they don't have to say out loud what the password is. The patron can then go change it to something else. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 2/4/2015 4:00 PM, Walz, Jennifer wrote: Kathy, That is what I believe is happening now when you register a new user. But that is a random number. But the instructions on the web page say use your phone number. That is incorrect. And what I really want to know, is instead of generating a random number for each newly registered user, is there a way to auto populate the field with the SAME standard generic password. That way, when we personally register a new student, we can tell them “this is your generic password” so they can then go on the system to change it themselves.We would of course NOT post those instructions on the web site or opac. We also hope to be auto-loading our student records sometime soon. So in that process, can we fill in the SAME starter password for each new user record when the system uploads all of their other data?Does the system automatically generate a random password whenever a new record is created? Can we have it copy their barcode over to that field? Thanks! Jennifer -- Jennifer Walz, MLS – ILS Mysterium Kinlaw Library - *Asbury University* One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390 859-858-3511 ext. 2269 jlw...@asbury.edu *From:*Open-ils-general [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] *On Behalf Of *Kathy Lussier *Sent:* Tuesday, February 03, 2015 5:14 PM *To:* open-ils-general@list.georgialibraries.org *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] user passwords for accounts - default? Hi Jennifer, Another possible approach is to use a randomly-generated password when creating the account and then instructing users to use the "Create or reset your password" link on the "My Account" page to reset their password on the first login. The advantage to this method is users can then create their own passwords, which is a bit more secure than using a phone number or another number that might be easily obtained. Kathy On 02/03/2015 11:17 AM, Walz, Jennifer wrote: All – Ok. I do appreciate that Evergreen has built in security measures. They are very good. However, I am unclear about how we can change some of those settings to better match our needs. It appears to me that the default for user accounts passwords is the last 4 digits of the patron phone number. But we don’t enter a phone number most of the time. We use email as the required field instead. Phone number is not required on the patron registration form. So, then how do patrons know what their password is in order to access their account through the opac interface? Is there a way that we can set a default generic password to be populated into the patron registration form? We had that on our previous system and we could then tell all students to use that and then change their password after they got into their account.How do we make this work in Evergreen?How do students get into their account if they don’t know what the password is? Secondary issue: And I am assuming that somewhere in the templates we can change the language of the prompt for the opac webpage? Right now it tells patrons to use the last 4 digits of their phone number – which is wrong information. Can someone tell me where that text is so I can change it? Thanks! Jennifer -- Jennifer Walz, MLS - Head of ILS madness Kinlaw Library - *Asbury University*
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen for Academics meeting
Kathy, February sounds fine to me. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 1/8/2015 8:56 AM, Kathy Lussier wrote: Hi all, We have an Evergreen for Academics meeting today. However, it looks like I won't be able to attend/run this month's meeting due to a conflict. With the holidays, I also haven't had a chance to follow up on my action item from the meeting. Would somebody else be willing to run the meeting? Or do you think we should cancel and regroup in February? Kathy
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Hi Chauncey, I absolutely agree. Having a tool to update batches of patron records can come in handy for any number of projects that a public library may be doing, such as: - add statistical categories to users for better demographic information - fix data migration problems - fix interesting spellings of cities - update expiration dates - update passwords based on a formula - update usernames based on a formula - standardize prefix or suffix text - add/remove alert_messages Public libraries enter patron data by hand for the most part rather than load it from another database. Inconsistencies in spelling, case, and format could be easily cleaned up. I have also used patron load functionality to add dummy ILL patron records to our system. These are used to check out material to off-system libraries and loading them in batch ensures that coding for statistics is accurate and consistent. Deleting expired patrons is also not just an academic function. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/9/2014 8:44 AM, Chauncey Montgomery wrote: Great suggestion. Some of these features would be very useful in public library environments as well. Thanks for sharing. CM
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Rogan, Thanks for mentioning the unique identifier problem. I did intent to associate ident_value with the unique identifier coming from the campus system. Having non-unique identifiers from multiple campus systems is definitely a possibility. Our libraries are told to append the org_unit shortname to the university id. That mostly works well except in cases where a student was entered by hand prior to a data load and the library staff person did not enter the ID or entered it without the shortname appended. We will see barcode collisions in that case which will halt the load until resolved. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/9/2014 9:12 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote: I think the syncing between Evergreen and the student information system will be critical part and I think the workflow you mentioned Tim is fairly typical. I noticed that the wiki write up already mentions an ident_value. Is that intended to be a unique identifier from the origin student information system? If so, can we imagine a scenario where we might have multiple origin student systems, such as a consortium with multiple schools? We might need a table to identify those external sources. On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Tim Spindler mailto:tjspind...@gmail.com>> wrote: I don't know about others but at C/W MARS the academics provide a file and all the data comes from the student information system including mailing addresses. We often get one address that is a campus address and one that is a home address. I think Martha has it covered but we have some institutions who would want address information overlaid and others who might want all address in the record because of the way students can move around. On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 8:39 PM, Galen Charlton mailto:g...@esilibrary.com>> wrote: Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll mailto:drisc...@noblenet.org>> wrote: > I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions > that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience > loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me > know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on > the wiki. > > http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com <mailto:g...@esilibrary.com> direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org -- Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com <mailto:tjspind...@gmail.com> *P** Go Green - **Save a tree! Please don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary.* -- Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services, York County Library System “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
When I load student records I provide for up to two addresses. Libraries provide the local address first followed by a secondary address. The first address gets an address_type of 'MAILING' and it's ID is set in the usr.mailing_address and usr.billing_address. The second address gets an address_type of 'ALTERNATE'. Either address can be blank but all our libraries provide a primary address and some provide a secondary home or international address. I'm not sure how critical it is to have the secondary address in Evergreen. If students live on campus, then the campus address is used. If the student has a mail stop, then that can be included as well. Community colleges provide a single home address. It is important in our consortia to have valid mailing addresses for all patrons for notice printing. If the student borrows material from another library, that library may want to mail paper notices or a bill. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/8/2014 8:39 PM, Galen Charlton wrote: Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
The Evergreen for Academics group has been discussing several issues of importance to academic libraries including support for batch loading of patron records, batch patron update, and batch patron delete. Academic libraries regularly load student records at the beginning of a semester to both add new students to Evergreen and update the contact information and expiration dates of students already in the database. Loads can be once a semester but can also be more frequent than that. Even though academic libraries who regularly load student records likely have a set of scripts in place to automate this task, it would be great if there were an interface within the client, similar to Vandelay, for batch loading of patron records. Batch updates can also be important to change expiration dates for a group of students or faculty. As students leave their academic institution, it is important to delete those expired records. I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen for Academics
Hi Kelly, Another item to add to the list of issues is support for patron record loading. We have developed scripts to load new and update on-file records, but a user-friendly interface similar to vandelay would streamline the process. Some of our college staff would also like to manage record loading themselves. We load student records frequently. Some colleges provide one file at the beginning of each semester, but our community colleges provide weekly files for several weeks before and after the start of each semester. I load 300-400 files each year for the 10 academic institutions in our consortium. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 7/21/2014 10:11 AM, Kelly Drake wrote: Dear Evergreen Community, For the past year, Fenway Libraries Online (FLO), a consortium of 10 academic libraries in Boston, has been considering a migration to Evergreen. Many members of the Evergreen community met and spoke with members of FLO during this year’s annual conference in Boston. Thank you for your time, patience and information. All your comments and suggestions convinced us to continue pursuing a migration to Evergreen. Our investigation also suggested that it would be helpful to build an academic interest group within the larger Evergreen community. This group would be focused solely on academic issues as they relate to the ILS. Several existing Evergreen libraries and consortia have already expressed interest in the group and we have tentatively called it "Academics for Evergreen". To be most effective, Academics for Evergreen would be composed of any individuals or institutions that have an interest in enhancing the academic-related functions of Evergreen. Once formed, the group will identify the academic-related functions that most need attention and work to build knowledge, consensus, and resources to move moving these issues forward. So far we have identified a few of the possible issues, such as streamlined creation and management of authority records, enhanced search and browse by authority, support for multiple subject heading schema, improved staff workflows and possible improvements to course reserves integration. This list is by no means exhaustive and needs the participation of the Evergreen community to improve and refine it. Please respond and let us know if you are interested, have suggestions for moving these issues forward, or if you have any questions. Thank you, Kelly Drake Systems Librarian Fenway Libraries Online Boston, MA 02115 617-442-2384 Conference calls: Boston: 617-989-5050 Toll-free: 877-532-8229 Conference ID: 933794 Web conferencing: https://join.me/flomeeting
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Authority Control Processing
The discussion of authority control vendors reminds me that I don't have a solid grasp of authority record processing. This is what I have been able to figure out. Let me know if I have made any incorrect assumptions. Let's assume a 2.5 system. Initial record loading 1. Authority records are loaded into the system. 2. The script authority_authority_linker.pl is run. This script links reference headings in authority records to main entry headings in other authority records. 3. The script authority_control_fields.pl is run. This script goes though each bib record and creates a $0 in any field with a matching authority record. Does it matter what order this is done in? Ongoing Processing 1. As new bibs are added to the database, run authority_control_fields.pl on the range of new bib id's. 2. As new authority records are added to the database, run authority_authority_linker.pl on the range of new authority record id's. Do old bib records ever need to be run through authority_control_fields.pl again? What if they are updated? What if they are overlaid via vandelay? Is there ever a circumstance where a new or updated authority record now matches old bibs? How would you identify the bibs, or do you have to run authority_control_fields.pl through the bib database periodically? -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] marc_stream_importer.pl
Hi Kyle, I use marc_stream_importer.pl to load files of marc records. It takes a number of command line arguments including the queue you want to use and the merge profile. The queue will contain the record match set and holdings profile if you are loading copies. You can create an empty queue in Vandelay by selecting your record match set and holdings profile and click upload without specifying a file. Marc_stream_importer.pl assumes you are importing all the records with an exact match on the 901 $c. To use a vandelay match set, you need the updated version of marc_stream_importer. Bill Erickson made some changes to to enable the command line option to specify a merge profile. This version also supports overlay 1 match, overlay best match, and import non-matching records. Here is how I load a file: marc_stream_importer.pl --spoolfile /home/opensrf/file-7 --user xxx --password xxx --source 102 --merge-profile 2 --queue 11391 --auto-overlay-best-match --import-no-match --nodaemon You can find this version here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1279998 Marc_stream_importer.pl will empty the queue when it is finished (unless there were errors for whatever reason). It will also delete the file you loaded, so if you want to retain a copy of the marc file, make a copy. Vandelay works best when loading no more than 500 records at a time. I split my large files using yaz-marcdump and then either load them one at a time or put a script file together to load them one after the other. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 4/17/2014 6:37 PM, Kyle Tomita wrote: Hi all, I am trying to use marc_stream_importer.pl to import a list of marc records (in a mrc file) and use a vandelay merge profile. Can you use marc_stream_importer.pl to import a marc file instead of a vandelay queue? Kyle Tomita Developer II, Catalyst IT Services Beaverton Office Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Do you trim database tables?
I am using staging tables to load the patron records. Once they are in staging, I update the staging records with the actor.usr.id and then run a bunch of update statements for name, address, phone, etc. Those records not already in the database are added as new. This has worked fine but over the last month or two a large file (10,000 records) will cause the db load average to climb. I have started breaking up the files into smaller chunks. I'm not particularly worried about slow loading, but am concerned about the load average spiking. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 3/27/2014 9:43 AM, Mike Rylander wrote: Martha, Other than storage, the auditor tables won't impact performance -- they are insert-only in practice. What process are you using for loading patrons? If you're using the staging tables, it may just be a matter of creating some indexes. On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 9:40 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote: I've contemplated doing this but have been hesitant for a number of reasons. Moving storage to SSDs eliminated a lot of bottlenecks for us though. On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 9:35 AM, Tim Spindler wrote: Martha, Not that I have anything to add but I would like to know what are some good practices also. We also have similar issues where tables are getting quite large. Tim On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 9:33 AM, Martha Driscoll wrote: We have been on Evergreen for nearly 2 years. Recently it has been taking significantly longer to load patron records than it used to. We load files just about weekly for our college libraries and the files contain thousands of records. I asked a few people at the conference about trimming tables and found that some delete data out of auditor tables. Our actor_usr_history table is around 14 million rows and asset_copy_history is over 26 million rows. We don't currently age the circulations and the actor.circulation table is up around 67 million rows. I'm wondering what system administrators do periodically to keep the database running efficiently and what the potential trade-offs are. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org -- Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com P Go Green - Save a tree! Please don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary. -- Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services, York County Library System "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." -- Ray Bradbury "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." -- C.S. Lewis
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Do you trim database tables?
We have been on Evergreen for nearly 2 years. Recently it has been taking significantly longer to load patron records than it used to. We load files just about weekly for our college libraries and the files contain thousands of records. I asked a few people at the conference about trimming tables and found that some delete data out of auditor tables. Our actor_usr_history table is around 14 million rows and asset_copy_history is over 26 million rows. We don't currently age the circulations and the actor.circulation table is up around 67 million rows. I'm wondering what system administrators do periodically to keep the database running efficiently and what the potential trade-offs are. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Marc_stream_importer for batch loading
We have recently come up with a good way to load electronic resource
records that I wanted to share.
We have been struggling with how to load our electronic resource marc
records into Evergreen. We constantly receive files from vendors and
our cataloger loads them through Vandelay. Sometimes the records match
on-file records and just add an 856 link. Other records are new and
need to be added. Vandelay is a great tool because you can setup match
criteria and overlay profiles.
The only problem is Vandelay will timeout with a file of more than 500
records. We have tried splitting the files into 500-record chunks, but
the overhead in queuing up the files, especially when you split a
20,000-record file into 40 pieces, can add up.
The solution we have been happy with is an updated version of
marc_stream_importer.pl that Bill Erickson recently worked on (LP#
1279998). Bill added support for overlay 1 match, overlay best match,
and import non-matching records. By default marc_stream_importer
assumes you have supplied a record ID in a 901 $c. This version now
supports all the vandelay options but can be run from the command line
which also means you can script the loading of records.
Here is how I load a file:
marc_stream_importer.pl --spoolfile /home/opensrf/file-7 --user xxx
--password xxx --source 102 --merge-profile 2 --queue
11391 --auto-overlay-best-match --import-no-match --nodaemon
The record source and merge profile are specified on the command line.
The queue contains the record match set. If there are no errors,
marc_stream_importer will empty the queue.
I can find the record ID's of records added or updated in the log files:
#!/usr/bin/perl
@imported = `grep queue=11391
/var/log/evergreen/prod/2014/03/14/activity.log`;
foreach $line (@imported) {
if ($line =~ /imported_as= ischanged/) {next};
$line =~ s/.*(imported_as=[0-9]+) .*/\1/;
print $line;
}
Marc_stream_importer, like Vandelay, still has problems loading more
than 500 records at a time. I was getting 'out of shared memory errors
(see LP#1271661). The good news is that files can be easily split using
yaz-marcdump and then the commands can be stacked in a shell script.
Here is how to split a file into 500-record files:
yaz-marcdump -i marc -o marc -s file- -C 500 mybigfile.mrc > /dev/null
Then it's just a matter of creating a shell script to run through the
files one at a time piping the output to a log file so I can verify the
records loaded. Over the last 4 nights I was able to load 4 files of
5900 records each.
--
Martha Driscoll
Systems Manager
North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers, Massachusetts
www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Loading Batches of Patrons
Hi Carrie,
We told our colleges to provide the patron data in a comma separated
file with quotes around each data element to avoid problems with commas
in addresses. We gave them the specific order we wanted the data in as
well as the code to use for the permission profile and home_ou. If a
field is blank, for example street2, they need to provide a null field
(""). If the data files are not perfect, it's easy enough to fix them
with a perl script, but most colleges provide perfect files.
We load the data into a staging table and then update the staging table
with the database id number if the patron is already on-file. We match
on ident_value which is where we store the university ID. We then run a
script to update the on-file patron records which updates name, address,
dob, phone, email, and expiration date. Once the updates are done, we
remove those records from the staging table and load the new records
which remain using scripts very similar to the ones in the Evergreen
documentation.
A couple of issues we have run into:
Some files need to be converted to uft8 because of accents:
iconv -f ISO-8859-2 -t UTF-8 stufent-file > student-file-utf8
Some students get hand-input into Evergreen before we load. If the
library did not include the university ID, then we end up with duplicate
records or barcode collisions.
Once the scripts are setup, record loading works quite well. Some
libraries provide one file per semester while others provide files every
few days until the flurry of registration is over. I load about 40-50
files of students/staff/faculty per semester for 9 institutions.
Martha Driscoll
Systems Manager
North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers, Massachusetts
www.noblenet.org
On 10/2/2013 4:42 PM, Curie, Carrie L wrote:
Hi Everyone,
Is there anyone out there loading batches of patrons? If so, which
external systems are you extracting the patron data from? Are you able
to share what scripts you run on the data?
Thanks!
Carrie
Carrie Curie
Support and Training Specialist
PALS
A Program of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Minnesota State University, Mankato
3022 Memorial Library
Mankato, MN 56001
Phone 507.389.1976
carrie.cu...@mnsu.edu <mailto:carrie.cu...@mnsu.edu>
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Wishlist for future development by someone smarter than me
Hi Deana, Our users found the turtle confusing as well so we replaced the image with one for holds that need to transit: http://www.noblenet.org/tmp/intransit.png and one for holds that need to go to the hold shelf: http://www.noblenet.org/tmp/holdshelf.png These images go in /openils/var/web/xul/server/skin/media/images. To make Evergreen use your new images, you need to change the references to the turtle.gif in /openils/var/web/xul/server/circ/util.js. There is a reference to turtle.gif in the section that mentions transit_slip and another reference in the section that mentions hold_slip. When customizing Evergreen files, it's a good idea to make a copy of your original file first. Also, Evergreen upgrades will wipe out your images and util.js, so you'll need to update those again whenever you upgrade Evergreen. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 9/23/2013 5:04 PM, Deana Cunningham wrote: Hi, We have been using Evergreen for the past month or so, and in general I love it. I find the functionality on every page to be greatly enhanced from other ILS systems I have used in the past, and I really enjoy discovering new things. However, not all the staff here is an geeky as I am, and several have difficulty reading through the entire message that comes up when holds and/or transit items are checked in. Thus we are calling patrons to tell them their book is in at a branch they have never visited before and when they show up at the branch they usually frequent and the item isn't there they are getting justifiably upset with us! I was wondering if it would be possible to simply change the color of the "turtleman" notice that pops up for holds and transits? Make him one color for in branch holds, another color for simple transit, and a third for holds requiring transit? If I had an ounce of programming in by body I would do it myself, just to keep the flow of everyone's work day from coming to a screeching halt whenever turtleman rears his adorable head! Also, I am following the instructions for "wishlist" items from the Evergreen Launchpad page. Is this the right place to ask? Thanks! Deana Cunningham Branch Manager, South Branch Library 1550 S. Campus Dr. Creedmoor, NC 27522 Phone: (919) 528-1752 Fax: (919) 528-1376 deana.cunning...@granvillecounty.org
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** Re: Patron Family Groups and Cloning
Thanks for the reply Chris. It's good to know the background of this function. I wish the save and clone button were named something different to make the grouping more obvious, but I can't think of anything short enough for a button. Maybe there needs to be a checkbox that toggles the clone function between grouping and not grouping the copied record. Just thinking out loud here. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 9/11/2013 11:15 AM, Sharp, Chris wrote: Martha, This feature was created for the PINES consortium as a way to ease the registration of families. With that use case in mind, it makes sense that grouping would accompany cloning. Does that help? Chris - Original Message - From: "Martha Driscoll" To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 9:32:16 AM Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Family Groups and Cloning We have been using the save and clone feature when adding users to Evergreen as an easy way to copy similar information from one record to another. These are most often family members, but could also be students sharing an apartment. We have the setting 'Patron Registration: Cloned patrons get address copy' set to true because 1) we think it is just cleaner for each user to have their own address record and 2) we don't want to create linked relationships even for family members. We have discovered recently, thanks to using the horizontal display where it is prominent, that cloning creates a group relationship. I guess my question is what is the background of the cloning/grouping feature and why is cloning which is a great way to save typing so closely related to grouping? -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Family Groups and Cloning
We have been using the save and clone feature when adding users to Evergreen as an easy way to copy similar information from one record to another. These are most often family members, but could also be students sharing an apartment. We have the setting 'Patron Registration: Cloned patrons get address copy' set to true because 1) we think it is just cleaner for each user to have their own address record and 2) we don't want to create linked relationships even for family members. We have discovered recently, thanks to using the horizontal display where it is prominent, that cloning creates a group relationship. I guess my question is what is the background of the cloning/grouping feature and why is cloning which is a great way to save typing so closely related to grouping? -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Self Check and IE Errors
Lebbeous and Ben, Thanks for confirming. I'll look at OpenKiosk. I'm not sure how I feel about opening a launchpad bug. At first I thought the problem was caused by the symlinks with double slashes in /openils/var/web/js/dojo/opensrf, but fixing those didn't fix the problem with IE. I think I would rather see some of the other bugs get attention rather than making IE work. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 5/22/2013 2:46 PM, Ben Shum wrote: Hi Martha, I can confirm that behavior. Thus far, I've only worked with Chrome and Firefox when using the Evergreen self-check in my own testing. I'm not sure why it doesn't work with IE and never really paid much attention actually since I preferred Firefox or OpenKiosk ( https://www.mozdevgroup.com/products/openkioskdistro.html) as the base browsers for actual recommended use in the field. -- Ben On 05/22/2013 02:26 PM, Martha Driscoll wrote: We have noticed that the self check interface does not display the initial login screen when viewed in IE. It works fine with Firefox and Chrome. We tried IE 8, 9, and 10 with and without the pop-up blocker. We are using this URL: http://evergreen.noblenet.org/eg/circ/selfcheck/main I don't see a bug report on launchpad and wondered if anyone else has seen this. We have libraries that use a kiosk browser based on IE for their public workstations and would like to run the self check in this browser.
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Self Check and IE Errors
We have noticed that the self check interface does not display the initial login screen when viewed in IE. It works fine with Firefox and Chrome. We tried IE 8, 9, and 10 with and without the pop-up blocker. We are using this URL: http://evergreen.noblenet.org/eg/circ/selfcheck/main I don't see a bug report on launchpad and wondered if anyone else has seen this. We have libraries that use a kiosk browser based on IE for their public workstations and would like to run the self check in this browser. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] SQL Query Performance
Thanks for the explanation everyone. Now I understand the planner did not use the index at all because the deleted condition was not specified in the original query. I'm always happy to learn more about the database and appreciate the link to the partial index documentation. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] SQL Query Performance
We are working on a script to query the Evergreen database for circulation statistics for a given set of copy barcodes. We use Syrup for course reserves which is a separate database that has the copy barcodes for each item on reserve. We were finding the queries very slow, up to 45 seconds to count circs for about 20 items. Then we did some experimenting. It turns out that querying the copy table by barcode takes a long time, like 2620 ms to query 11 barcodes. Querying the same 11 copies by copy.id took 3.6 ms. If we add 'deleted = false' to the barcode query, we get 3.6 ms. In our database of 3,161,189 copies, cutting out the deleted copies eliminates only 904 copies. Why does testing for deleted improve searching so significantly? Here are the specific queries: SELECT id from asset.copy WHERE barcode in ( '36052001712495', '36052001643823', '36052001718112', '36052001743151', '36052001731610', '36052001729903', '36052001738771', '36052001738813', '36052001698058', '36052001675759', '36052001698009' ) 2620.654 ms SELECT barcode from asset.copy WHERE id in ( 1697551, 2432041, 2891221, 2919157, 2981459, 2996116, 3021567, 304, 3047655, 3076340, 3088677 ) 3.6 ms SELECT id from asset.copy WHERE barcode in ( '36052001712495', '36052001643823', '36052001718112', '36052001743151', '36052001731610', '36052001729903', '36052001738771', '36052001738813', '36052001698058', '36052001675759', '36052001698009' ) and deleted = false 3.6 ms -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Data migration – Best practices
Hi Don, I have two pieces of advice: 1. Migrate early and often. Prior to our migration I did several full data loads on our production hardware. After each I would empty the database and do it again. Each time I learned something new or found a better way to migrate the data. I also got a sense for how long it was going to take to do the migration for real. 2. Use staging tables. I created staging tables in Evergreen for copies, patrons, transactions, and holds. These tables were created to hold data from our old system using the old system field names. Staging tables allow you to look at the data, learn about it, and do some cleanup. Staging tables also allow you to preserve and archive the original data. For example if you decide to condense DVD, FAC-MED, and ARC-MED to dvd, but then discover 3 weeks after migration that there was a flaw in that logic, you can identify the original records and update accordingly. With the exception of the bib record load, all our migration scripts worked off of staging tables. Updating data in Evergreen after migration is certainly possible, but doing practice loads will allow everyone to see how the data is going to look and confirm or rethink migration decisions before you go live. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 3/8/2013 8:52 AM, Donald Butterworth wrote: Colleagues, We are approaching the point of migrating records from our Symphony system into Evergreen, and we are unsure what the best method is to accomplish this. Based on insights from the listserv and some serious cogitation, we have created hierarchies, parameters, and values that we hope will take advantage of Evergreen’s architecture. All along my expectation has been that we would export records from Symphony, take the data found in the 999 tag and massage it until it matches the values of our new Evergreen structures, and then do an import. However, recently it has been suggested that a better method would be to take the structures and values we currently have in Symphony and duplicate them (as much as possible) in Evergreen. Then once, the data is in Evergreen, change the values into what we really want them to be. I have to say that method number two make me very nervous because I remember that making global changes in our former “Horizon” system was virtually impossible. Here are some of the questions we are confronting: ·* What is the best way to simply re-label an Org Unit? For example changing the value ATSFLA to ATS-DCL? ·* What about circulation modifiers? What is the best approach to changing the values DVD to dvd, FAC-MED to dvd, and ARC-MED to dvd? ·* In Symphony we currently have two “Libraries” one for the main campus and one for a branch. But in Evergreen we want to take advantage of the “sub-library” option for our Archives and two other satellite collections. The Symphony “match points” that can be used to identify these sub-libraries are called “Home Location” and “Current Location”. What would be the best way to approach this problem, short of a light gun and a laptop? · * Is it true that all bibliographic records must have attached item/copy records in order for the bib record to appear in the public PAC? We have several thousand “analytic” records that have no attached item/copy records. Any insights will be greatly appreciated! Don -- Don Butterworth Faculty Associate / Librarian III B.L. Fisher Library Asbury Theological Seminary don.butterwo...@asburyseminary.edu <mailto:don.butterwo...@asburyseminary.edu> (859) 858-2227
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Holds in Evergreen and order notifications
Jill, Because Evergreen lets you query the database using SQL, it's pretty simple to create purchase alert lists. We run a script daily that creates a purchase alert list for each of our member libraries. The report is based on the ratio of number of holds to the number of copies owned. Each library can define their own ratio. Here is one of the reports: http://evergreen.noblenet.org/noble_stats/purchase_alerts.php?library=Danvers The data for the report is gathered via SQL nightly then a PHP script formats the report for the particular library. I'm not sure you need to be a programmer to use SQL and PHP, but chances are if you are running an Evergreen system you will have someone with those skills nearby. I believe Evergreen's built in reports function could also be used to create such a report, although I have not used it to do so. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 2/15/2013 10:33 AM, Jill Minor wrote: We’re curious: is there a way to set Evergreen up to flag books with a ceiling of holds (like say 8) to notify staff that more copies need to be purchased? Or do you need to be a programmer and use SQL or PHP to make that work? phpp2mebdAM.jpg Jill Minor Electronic Services Librarian Washington County Public Library 205 Oak Hill St Abingdon, VA 24201 276-676-6298 http://www.wcpl.net <http://www.wcpl.net/> Twitter:jillrhudy <http://www.twitter.com/jillrhudy> I link patrons and staff to technology.
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Action Trigger using ApplyPatronPenalty
The event definition did contain 'usr' for the Group Field. I removed it but still get a 'missing parameters' error when the trigger runs. I'm thinking that it may be more straightforward to run an SQL nightly that would add users to the patron block table if they meet the criteria and remove them if they don't. If anyone has any cautions about updating the database directly I would be interested. Here is the SQL I have written: --Add the block if they need it INSERT INTO actor.usr_standing_penalty (org_unit, usr, standing_penalty, staff) SELECT DISTINCT 1 as org_unit, acirc.usr as usr, 103 as standing_penalty, 1 as staff FROM action.circulation acirc WHERE acirc.due_date < (now() - '42 days'::interval) AND acirc.checkin_time is null AND usr not in (select distinct usr from actor.usr_standing_penalty where standing_penalty = 103) ; --remove the block if the items are no longer long overdue DELETE FROM actor.usr_standing_penalty WHERE standing_penalty = 103 AND usr not in ( SELECT DISTINCT usr FROM action.circulation acirc WHERE acirc.due_date < (now() - '42 days'::interval) AND acirc.checkin_time is null) ; Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 1/29/2013 8:28 AM, Bill Erickson wrote: Hi Martha, Does the event definition contain a value for Group Field? If so, I recommend removing the value and seeing of that helps. -b On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 10:00 AM, Martha Driscoll mailto:drisc...@noblenet.org>> wrote: We are trying to create an action trigger using the ApplyPatronPenalty reactor. The idea is to run an action trigger daily that will look for copies that are 42 days overdue and set a penalty we created called PATRON_EXCEEDS_LONG_OD. We are using checkout.due as the hook. Our libraries want to see an alert when a patron has material long overdue, but we don't want to set these copies to bills yet because of the financial implications. We are getting an error when the trigger runs: ApplyPatronPenalty: missing parameters The event environment consists of: Field PathLabel circ_lib context_org usr user The event parameters consist of: Parameter Name Parameter Value standing_penalty PATRON_EXCEEDS_LONG_OD The parameters that are missing are user and context_org. The penalty PATRON_EXCEEDS_LONG_OD is being passed to the reactor. Has anyone had any success using the ApplyPatronPenalty reactor? -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org <http://www.noblenet.org> -- Bill Erickson | Senior Software Developer | phone: 877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) | email: ber...@esilibrary.com <mailto:ber...@esilibrary.com> | web: http://esilibrary.com | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Action Trigger using ApplyPatronPenalty
We are trying to create an action trigger using the ApplyPatronPenalty reactor. The idea is to run an action trigger daily that will look for copies that are 42 days overdue and set a penalty we created called PATRON_EXCEEDS_LONG_OD. We are using checkout.due as the hook. Our libraries want to see an alert when a patron has material long overdue, but we don't want to set these copies to bills yet because of the financial implications. We are getting an error when the trigger runs: ApplyPatronPenalty: missing parameters The event environment consists of: Field PathLabel circ_lib context_org usr user The event parameters consist of: Parameter Name Parameter Value standing_penalty PATRON_EXCEEDS_LONG_OD The parameters that are missing are user and context_org. The penalty PATRON_EXCEEDS_LONG_OD is being passed to the reactor. Has anyone had any success using the ApplyPatronPenalty reactor? -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Fine Migration Question
That's good advice. I was counting on xact_finish to represent the return date in the bill detail screen. I'm not particularly a fan of creating static charges like this because they can be difficult for library staff to deal with over time, but it is a straightforward way to preserve fine information that our libraries don't want to lose. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 5/9/2012 12:14 PM, Jason Etheridge wrote: Incidentally, you may want to record that return date as a note on the billing, since you're doing circs as groceries (which I'm a fan of for simplicity of migration).
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Fine Migration Question
That was it. Thanks Jason! And thanks to Mark at Project Sitka for posting your script. -- Martha Driscoll, Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE) drisc...@noblenet.org >> s.date_ret AS xact_finish, > > You may be doing this part prematurely. If xact_finish is set, then > the transaction is closed (and the billings and payments are supposed > to be in balance). > > -- > Jason Etheridge > | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts > | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) > | email: ja...@esilibrary.com > | web: http://www.esilibrary.com > | Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & > http://evergreen-ils.org >
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Fine Migration Question
Hmm. I am putting data in money.billing. Here is my script that inserts
the fine info:
BEGIN;
INSERT INTO money.grocery
(id,usr,xact_start,xact_finish,billing_location,note)
SELECT DISTINCT
s.id AS id,
s.pnumber AS usr,
s.date_due AS xact_start,
s.date_ret AS xact_finish,
CASE
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'beb%' THEN 3 -- BEB
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'bef%' THEN 4 -- BEF
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'bev%' THEN 5 -- BEV
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'bhc%' THEN 7 -- BHC
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'blc%' THEN 9 -- BLC
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'dan%' THEN 11 -- DAN
WHEN s.charge_loc like 'end%' THEN 13 -- END
END AS billing_location,
s.descript AS note
FROM staging.iii_fines s
;
INSERT INTO money.billing (xact,amount,billing_type,btype,note)
SELECT DISTINCT
s.id AS xact,
s.amount_owed AS amount,
'III Fines' AS billing_type,
102 AS btype,
s.descript AS note
FROM staging.iii_fines s
;
SELECT SETVAL('money.billable_xact_id_seq', (SELECT MAX(id) FROM
money.billable_xact));
If anything looks crazy or wrong, let me know.
--
Martha Driscoll, Systems Manager
North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE)
drisc...@noblenet.org
> Quoting Martha Driscoll :
>
>> I am working on migrating fine data from our legacy circulation
>> system. I have inserted the fine data into the money.grocery table.
>> If I pull up a patron in the client there is no '(Has Bills)'
>> indicator under the name or an amount under the Bills button. If I
>> click on the Bills button I do see the charge that I added. I did
>> try running the fine_generator.
>>
>> When I ran this by Thomas Berezansky he thought the
>> money.open_usr_summary view has to be updated. Is that all that
>> needs to be done? That's a view and I'm not sure how to populate
>> that so any advice would be appreciated.
>
> During our migration, I put grocery bill information in both
> money.billing and money.grocery. That seemed to work.
>
> HtH,
> Jason
>
>
>>
>> --
>> Martha Driscoll
>> Systems Manager
>> North of Boston Library Exchange
>> Danvers, Massachusetts
>> www.noblenet.org
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jason Stephenson
> Assistant Director for Technology Services
> Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
> Chief Bug Wrangler, Evergreen ILS
>
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Fine Migration Question
I am working on migrating fine data from our legacy circulation system. I have inserted the fine data into the money.grocery table. If I pull up a patron in the client there is no '(Has Bills)' indicator under the name or an amount under the Bills button. If I click on the Bills button I do see the charge that I added. I did try running the fine_generator. When I ran this by Thomas Berezansky he thought the money.open_usr_summary view has to be updated. Is that all that needs to be done? That's a view and I'm not sure how to populate that so any advice would be appreciated. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Ldirector Setup
In the interest of starting some sysadmin discussion, I'm looking for some help on setting up a load balancer. I'm trying to get ldirector setup to load balance four bricks. I think I'm trying to do something a bit unusual in that I'm only using one load balancer. I'm not using heartbeat, but the man page for ldirector says 'ldirectord typically is started from heartbeat but can also be run from the command line'. I can start it, but I'm not getting redirected to my apache brick heads. Does anyone have any good resources on setting up ldirector? Has anyone set it up on only one load balancer? My notes are here: http://www.noblenet.org/evergreenwiki/index.php/Ldirectord_setup -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Should we have a systems administrators list?
Yes! Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 4/30/2012 8:11 PM, Justin Hopkins wrote: We just wrapped up the post-conference systems administrator training, which was awesome. Afterwards we were talking about the utility of a new discussion list focused on Evergreen systems administration. I think the topic is deep enough to warrant a list, and if this group is any indication there is also sufficient interest. Systems administration (troubleshooting server config issues, installing/setting up Evergreen, using git, performance tuning, network issues, cluster configuration, security, etc) seems to be an area that deserves it's own forum. I've received plenty of great help on those topics in IRC, which I'm very appreciative of, but let's face it - IRC is and probably always will be the domain of developers. I'm hoping that if enough people on this list express an interest that someone (Chris Sharp?) could create such a list. So let's hear it sysads - should we create the "missing list"? Regards, Justin Hopkins Coordinator, IT& Web Services MOBIUS Consortium Office c: 573-808-2309 --sent from a mobile device--
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** Re: Marc 880
Thanks Mike, I do see marc21expand880 in config.xml_transform, I just don't know how you use it. Do you invoke it during a load of bibliographic records or is it invoked when a record is saved? Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 11/14/2011 2:28 PM, Mike Rylander wrote: And, also, we did get that into stock Evergreen ... in fact, I was the one that committed it. So, you can use that today in 2.1. [Thanks to Galen for point out my memory hole...] --miker On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 12:53 PM, Mike Rylander wrote: And, I didn't attach the file. Here it is! On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 11:36 AM, Mike Rylander wrote: On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Martha Driscoll wrote: We have CJK in marc 880 fields and I don't know how to make them searchable or display in the catalog. I tried checking the list archives and found some related postings saying the 880 isn't indexed by default and something about config.xml_transform but I didn't really follow how you index them. Can anyone help? I'm running 2.1.0 on a test system. For searching, ESI built a custom XSLT (attached is the SQL for loading it) for one site to make using 880 fields simpler. This wasn't used in production because we went a different way in general, and it's so special purpose that we didn't submit it for stock inclusion, but it should give you an idea of what you can do. Also, time and tuits permitting, we're planning to bring the MODS 3.4 XSLT into stock Evergreen, which has provisions for mapping 880s appropriately. As for display, you can use BibTemplate (in the stock JS-PAC of 2.1) to display the 880 for another field. -- Mike Rylander | Director of Research and Development | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) | email: mi...@esilibrary.com | web: http://www.esilibrary.com -- Mike Rylander | Director of Research and Development | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source | phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) | email: mi...@esilibrary.com | web: http://www.esilibrary.com
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Marc 880
We have CJK in marc 880 fields and I don't know how to make them searchable or display in the catalog. I tried checking the list archives and found some related postings saying the 880 isn't indexed by default and something about config.xml_transform but I didn't really follow how you index them. Can anyone help? I'm running 2.1.0 on a test system. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Failing to install 2.1 with separate database
Joe, I have Evergreen running on one server and postgres 9.0 running on a separate server. On the database server, I download Evergreen-ILS-2.1.0a, but you could copy create_database.sql to your database machine. The install instructions also say you can run create_database.sql from your evergreen machine, but you need postgresql-contrib-9.0 installed (so you have those tablefunc.sql etc files). On the database server, I ran the create_database.sql script: cd /home/opensrf/Evergreen-ILS-2.1.0a psql -vdb_name=evergreen -vcontrib_dir=`pg_config --sharedir`/contrib -f Open-ILS/src/sql/Pg/create_database.sql The create_database.sql script does the database creation steps which used to be in the installation instructions. Namely, createdb -T template0 --lc-ctype=C --lc-collate=C -E UNICODE evergreen createlang plperl evergreen createlang plperlu evergreen psql -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.0/contrib/tablefunc.sql evergreen psql -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.0/contrib/tsearch2.sql evergreen psql -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.0/contrib/pgxml.sql evergreen psql -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.0/contrib/hstore.sqlevergreen You then run eg_db_config.pl on your evergreen server but without the --create-database option. It sounds like you may have postgresql 9.1 client on your evergreen machine and 9.0 server on your database machine? That may be a problem. I also had to tell postgres to listen for connections on all interfaces in /etc/postgresql/9.0/main/postgresql.conf: listen_addresses = '*' I also had to allow my other host to connect (it's on the same subnet as my database server) in /etc/postgresql/9.0/main/pg_hba.conf: # Evergreen servers # TYPE DATABASEUSERCIDR-ADDRESSMETHOD hostall all samenet trust I hope this helps. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 10/24/2011 4:39 PM, Joseph Haig wrote: A couple of months ago I started playing with the then release candidate of Evergreen 2.1 with Evergreen running on one server and the database on a separate server. When the final release came out I tried to upgrade but I get the following errors when attempting to set up the database: psql:Open-ILS/src/support-scripts/../sql/Pg/create_database.sql:24: /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/tablefunc.sql: No such file or directory psql:Open-ILS/src/support-scripts/../sql/Pg/create_database.sql:26: /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/tsearch2.sql: No such file or directory psql:Open-ILS/src/support-scripts/../sql/Pg/create_database.sql:28: /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/pgxml.sql: No such file or directory psql:Open-ILS/src/support-scripts/../sql/Pg/create_database.sql:30: /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/hstore.sql: No such file or directory First of all, I am using Postgres 9.0 but this is besides the point. /usr/share/postgresql/9.*/contrib does not exist on the local machine because the database is remote. This file create_database.sql does not exist in RC2 (the last release candidate I tried) so I am wondering where it has come from. Also, "diff -y Evergreen-ILS-2.1.0a/Open-ILS/src/support-scripts/eg_db_config.pl Evergreen-ILS-2.1-RC2/Open-ILS/src/support-scripts/eg_db_config.pl" shows that the eg_db_config.pl script has been modified since the release candidate to run this extra sql script. Can someone suggest a work-around so that I can get back to the behaviour that was in the release candidate. Thanks. Regards, Joe
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] User Stories
I would like to propose this user story. Unlike Addy Admin who already has an Evergreen system up and running, and Max Migration who is focused on data migration, Irene Install is a system admin in the process of installing and learning about Evergreen. Irene Install Irene is a system administrator currently using a proprietary ILS. Irene's consortium will be migrating to Evergreen and Irene wants to install a test system so she and her colleagues can learn more about Evergreen. Irene has tried to keep up with the technologies relevant in the proprietary vendor environment. She knows some perl, SQL, and unix administration. Irene can likely install the latest Evergreen tarball but may have some installation and configuration questions. Irene is new to the developer environment and is mystified by things like software repositories, subversion, git, patches, trunk, and branches. Irene would like to find resources that would help her get up to speed so she and her colleagues can test the latest development. 1. Irene can find information on Evergreen software repositories and how to use them. 2. Irene can download test marc, copy, and user data. 3. Irene can find discussion, specs, or documentation describing features. 4. Irene can find information on how to build, rebuild, and update Evergreen. 5. Irene can find information, discussion, and examples of ways to configure Evergreen. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Problems with the org chart
This is what I have figured out about hierarchy as it pertains to the 'can have users' setting. If this is wrong, someone please correct me. An org unit can be designated as having users, which means: - Workstations can register with that unit - Patrons can have that org unit as a home library - That org unit can be selected as a hold pickup point - That org unit can be selected as a working location for staff In John and Vicki's suggested hierarchy, putting the patrons at the top level could make sense, but I think you also need to have users at the 2nd level so workstations can login and checkin the items. We found that having items at a level that did not have users (workstations) put the items in transit with no way to get them on shelf. Also, patrons may need to select a specific branch for holds pickup. What we want for an org chart: System Has all patrons Branch Owns books -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Aged Circulation?
It sounds like statistical categories are a much broader concept, more like a custom field with no assumptions about what kind of data users may choose to store. In that case, I can see the reluctance to store that information in the aged_circulation table. I think there may still be a role for a more narrowly defined statistical category that is retained in cases where aging the circulation table is desired or mandated. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/3/2010 11:32 AM, Mike Rylander wrote: I don't have, on hand, empirical evidence one way or the other, but I think it's reasonable to assume that because it's a stated use case for user stat-cats, using stat-cat values to store individually specific information about a patron is not entirely uncommon. Also, because stat-cats can be locally defined, it's not unreasonable to further assume that local policy could leak information about patrons from "foreign" libraries. These (and others) are all things we'd need to think carefully about in expanding the set of retained patron data. All that being said, it is certainly a solvable problem.
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Aged Circulation?
If the aged_circulation table preserved the user statistical category and the copy statistical category then you would be less likely to keep the transactions over time and would therefore increase patron privacy. In our current system we use patron stat_cats for things like college major, faculty status (full time, part time), student status (commuter, resident), section of town for public patrons -- asically anything our libraries decide is important to count. We want to continue to query that information for statistical purposes, but don't want to maintain the history of an actual transaction which identifies patrons with historical checkouts. It's true that staff could put identifiable information in a free-text stat cat, but I don't think that would be the norm. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/3/2010 10:17 AM, Jason Etheridge wrote: Something to keep in mind is that the more data you preserve the less anonymous things really get (events can be more easily reconstructed, especially if augmented with outside data--e.g. surveillance). In the case of patron stat cats, we have a real foot-gun in that we allow free-text entry for patron stat cats, so they could really contain anything, including accidental or intentional identifying information (staff enters data in the wrong field, or you have a stat cat called Student ID).
[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** ***SPAM*** Re: generic training server with predictable data
I think that's a great idea and also like Dan's suggestion of including the sample data in the source so we can populate our own test system. I'm not sure we would use the sample data for end-user training, but see a huge benefit for consortia staff in learning Evergreen. One of the big hurdles we are trying to overcome is the learning curve in setting up Evergreen. A test system with some real looking libraries, circulation rules, shelving locations, bib records, statistical codes, patrons, etc. may not look anything like what our final goal is, but certainly gives us something to begin using, react to, test with etc. The other benefit of the sample data is the exercise of loading the data into the database. We know how to get our data out of our current system, and having templates to create our own load scripts would be great. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org Lori Bowen Ayre wrote: Hi All, I posted info about this idea and got a big 'ol nothing in response so I wanted to try one more time to verify that it really is of no interest to anyone. Here's the ideaas one of the RSCEL projects, were thinking of setting up a training server which would have a current version of Evergreen loaded, would be accessible to anyone (much like the demo servers) but we'd make sure we kept it totally current with one matching client software download. We'd also keep data in there that you could rely on being there for training (so we'd have to refresh it on some regular basis). Eventually, we'd contribute some exercises that people could use in their training which would use that training server and data. The idea is that you would then not have to worry about how to train your people on your own Evergreen server at the same time you were trying to get ready to go live. Also, by sharing the same data and server set-up, we could all contribute training exercises. So, if you think this would be useful or you think it would be a waste of time...please advise. Friendly amendments are also encouraged. We want to do something that helps people so if this wouldn't help anyone, we RSCELs will focus our attention somewhere else! Thanks for your feedback! Lori Ayre
