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SELCO Librarian
Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager
I’ve had the opportunity to run notices while Corrine has been on vacation and have been watching the number of notices that go out via email this week. I’m curious if the numbers will go down since we have begun running pre-overdue notices. This would only be on the email notices, of course, since pre-overdue notices are only going to people with email addresses. However, I have noticed an interesting thing.
Some of our Online Libraries send out more email notices than crash mailers. A year ago, only two of the nineteen libraries with notices on January 1st had more email notices than crash mailers. Of today’s run, seven of the thirteen had at least as many email notices as crash mailers, and three of those Online Libraries have almost three times the email notices as crash mailers. This is a ratio that has gone up significantly this past year and I hope it continues to rise as email notices are free, are delivered to the patron’s email server instantly, and also allow a patron to get pre-overdue notices if the Online Library has decided to have SELCO staff run them. I feel this must add up to a significant savings over a year’s time. I realize local policy about delivering a physical notice to an overdue patron is also in play here, but I thought I would mention the strong increase in email notices during the last year in hopes it might encourage other libraries to make an effort to reduce costs by asking patrons if they could respond to email notices as well as they do for mailed ones.
Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian
I found an interesting article involving Philadelphia libraries and budget cuts while reading the Rochester Post Bulletin.....check it out!
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=49&a=377631
Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian
During a lull on the Help Desk this afternoon I caught up on a couple blogs I've not had time to read lately. I ran across both inspiring and funny bits I want to share with all of you.
- Librarian.net- On 12/18/08 a video of "Staff from the National Library of Australia performing Thriller at the 2008 staff Christmas party" was featured. Very fun if you have a few minutes to see what librarians from Down Under do for entertainment.
- LISNews: Library and Information Science News - On 12/24/08 there was a post called "More readers are picking up electronic books" that quotes a New York Times article that looks at purchasing trends of a variety of ebook readers. I was surprised to learn that the Kindle reader from Amazon is most popular among 55- to 64-year-olds. I associate ebook readers with a younger demographic for some reason.
- Stephen's Lighthouse - On 12/22/08 Stephen blogged that the VHS format is officially dead since Distribution Video Audio, the last major distributor of VHS tapes, sent out their last truckload of tapes in October. While this isn't too surprising, it does mark the end of an era. What will this do to library collections? We'll have to wait and see.
- Tame the Web - On the 12/15/08 post, Michael (the blog's author) shared the news that Google's Book Search now include some magazines. A commenter to the blog shared the list of titles that are searchable. I think this kind of expanded search from Google will help patrons find more up-to-date information.
These are just a few blogs out there on librarianship. I'd be very interested to hear what blogs others are reading and what tidbits they find interesting. Please comment on this post and share what peaks your interest.
Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian
Yesterday, Christmas Day, the SELCO email server was deluged with a new wave of spam. Like the one that we had a couple of weeks ago, the messages consisted of a graphic with very little text. This is one of the harder forms of spam to filter, both because there is little text to check for stop words and because many legitimate business use the same kind of email for holiday sale emails. This group of messages was more sexually explicit than the last. The timing of this group of messages was almost certainly not an accident. By sending them out on Christmas day, the spammers ensure that most organizations will not be monitoring their email servers. Many organizations will have systems staff taking time off to travel with family for a few days after the holiday. All this adds up to more time going by before corrective measures can be taken.
So, enough excuses. What are we doing about it? Mick Reese, SELCO Systems Manager, and I had a phone meeting today to go over our options (Mick is one of those System Admins who is taking time off to be with family this week). We decided to:
- Increase the sensitivity of our spam filter to block these messages. Our current settings have proven inadequate; going much further will likely block some email from legitimate businesses sending this kind of email. I believe that the explicit nature of the spam justifies this step. Mick will carry out this task by the end of the weekend.
- Contact our spam filtering company to find out why messages with explicit subject headings are not being blocked. The body of the messages has little text but the subject headings seem dirty enough that the filter should be blocking them anyway. It's possible that we have something misconfigured in the filter.
- Re-evaluate the way SELCO uses email distribution lists. Since Exchange distribution lists are just email addresses that bounce messages to list members, they will accept a message from any address. The alternative is to set up a server running the free LISTSERV software. Listservs, as you probably already know, can be configured to only accept email from list members. We haven't taken this step before because it's not perfect and will require considerable effort from both SELCO staff and users. Spam that has been faked to appear to come from a list member (aka "spoofed") is very common and will get past the listserv. Setting up the listservs will require a complete reworking of our email distribution lists with all users having to re-subscribe to their lists. Measuring the benefits against the costs, we have not chosen to take this step. Recent events with spam have convinced me that we should revisit the issue after New Years when everyone is back from holiday travels and the ILS Operations Committee has their next meeting.
That's it. Please accept my apologies for this offensive batch of unwanted email. Spam fighting is a never ending struggle and we will continue to tackle the problem.
Michael Flores, User Technology Manager
On Wednesday, December 17, 2008 Microsoft announced that there was a necessary security update for Internet Explorer. According to Microsoft this security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer.
I have done some research on this update with the standard staff and public library setup in mind. While this is an update that we do recommend doing, it is not as critical of an emergency as originally believed. This vulnerability will have less of an impact on library systems as the staff and patron user ids are users, not administrators.
However we do recommend updating your computers. Public computers running the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit or Microsoft Steady State will download this update automatically as part of its weekly update. Staff systems are not normally setup to automatic windows updates, and will require this update be done manually. This can be done by simply running Windows Updates, this update will be downloaded and installed. We have chosen not to do automatic updates on staff systems due to the problems that can be caused with the local software.
If you have any questions or concerns about this update, or would like help in running windows update please call the SELCO Help Desk for assistance.
Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager
The Horizon upgrade over-wrote some of the customized view changes we have made to the system, so when you go into Horizon you do not always see the screens you are used to seeing. Fortunately, no changes were made to the views such as ‘Notices for Review’ or ‘Edit Item for Bib#’ which allows each location on the system to see only their own notices or to have certain fields automatically filled in. What was over-written is within the views themselves, such as columns displaying or not and the number of characters for a field in that column.
SELCO staff are rebuilding those views as quickly as possible but we still have some to go through and to test. It has been very helpful to see the emails coming into the Help Desk regarding what people have noticed and want to bring to our attention. Please continue to do so. Two changes that are in the queue and do not need to be reported are the absence of the "request date" from the Request Pull List, and the order of the fields in the "Edit item for Bib#’ view. Additionally, some locations had modified their Pull List columns and those changes will be restored as soon as possible.
Another blog post will go out when we have completely worked through the outstanding view change tickets. Thank you for your patience! It is appreciated.
Rachel Gray - Information Services Librarian
I had the opportunity to attend the second MLA Institute for Leadership Excellence (MILE) in Spring 2007. This bi-annual conference brings together people in Minnesota libraries who are interested in becoming leaders in our state library community. I learned a lot about myself as a leader through a variety of speakers and also with a mentorship with a more experienced librarian. Since MILE 2007, I have learned a lot about opportunities I have in the MLA with helping plan this year's conference and in helping out with other behind-the-scenes jobs.
I am pleased to announce that the MILE Institute is being offered for the third time next spring from April 28-May 1, 2009. I am on the planning committee for MILE 2009, and would like to extend a personal invitation to all members of MLA interested in becoming a leader and work in a library to join us - no matter your current position in the library world, or the years of experience you may have. More information can be found on the MLA website, including the application form. Applications are due on January 15, 2009 - the deadline has been extended from the December 15 date on the brochure.
Over the last few days, there have been lingering issues running reports in Web Reporter. Some users are getting an error when running a report, and the error that appears can be rather cryptic and alarming when seen, because it returns some code that includes an SQL error. Because of the cryptic nature of the messages, it has been hard to diagnose and repair these errors. Some of the errors have been caused by a simple timeout error, which we have seen in the past. Others, however, require some work in Web Reporter to update the report.
I have been working with SirsiDynix to improve the way the Web Reporter software is running the reports, and I believe the frequency of these errors is decreasing. Many reports are now running properly. That being said, there are still some reports that are not running, and need to be looked into further, and possibly updated.
If you encounter an error like this, please contact mreese@selco.info with the specific report that you’re unable to run. We will look into why that report is still not running correctly.
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
We've become aware of an issue in Horizon where some blocks were duplicated, caused by an error in Day End. This issue is not related to the upgrade.
When trying to check in an item with a block, Horizon will give an error, and not allow the checkin. Because there is a duplicate block on the item, Horizon is not able to resolve both blocks.
All checkouts are working fine, and most checkin will work as well, it only affects certain items in which a duplicate block was generated. We are working with SirsiDynix to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible.
Carla Johnson, Cataloging Services Librarian
The other night, I turned on the NBC 6 o'clock news and caught a story on how libraries are gaining in popularity due to the poor economy. Just when people are flocking to libraries, not only are budgets being cut, but libraries are being closed. This is nothing new or surprising in the library world, but I thought it was interesting that this story was shown on national news. Perhaps it will trigger some input from library users with their local governments. (link to news video below)
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
On Tuesday, Donovan pointed out a few of the problems
that we have been working on since the upgrade. I want to give a
status update on one particular problem, originally reported by
Owatonna Public Library.
The issue has to do
with marking an item as "staff only" after checkin. This also has been
reported by Red Wing Public Library, and has been reproduced by by
myself.
SirsiDynix has been contacted regarding this issue, and it appears to be an actual programming bug. At this time, their programmers are looking into the issue, and we await a solution from them.
We'll be sure to post an update on the blog when this issue has been resolved.
Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian
We are hearing from Online Libraries that did not initially sign up for Pre-Overdue Email Notices but are interested in proceeding. Therefore, we are adding new libraries on Friday, 12-12-2008. So far, we have heard from:
- Caledonia PL
- Preston PL
- Chatfield PL
- Red Wing PL
If you wish to add your Online Library to this list, please send email to preoverdues@selco.info no later than 12:00 Noon on Friday, 12-12-2008. We will run the scripts on Friday afternoon and the first notices will come out for you on Monday, 12-15-2008. Please do not send email to individual SELCO staff to make your request. The preoverdues email address helps us coordinate this task between the various people involved so that no one falls through the cracks.
If you have any questions on Pre-Overdue Email Notices, please contact the SELCO Help Desk.
