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2009/04/01
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:35 by SELCO Admin
  
Michael Scott, Assistant Director I had the opportunity to visit the media centers at the Lewiston-Altura Schools on March 18, 2009. I started my visit in Lewiston at the Elementary Media Center where I was met by Sharon Manley, the District's Media Specialist. The elementary school serves students in PreK - 4th Grade. The elementary media center, located near the middle of the school, is a large space open at both ends (closed off by bookshelves.) There is ample seating for students to study or do projects, a large collection of library materials, a few public access computers (a larger computer lab is located next door), and a large information desk. There is a storytime area that is used with various classes during "library time." Students have 30 minutes of designated time to come to the media center during the week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and on the day I visited a first grade class was just finishing up their time. It's amazing what is squeezed into 30 minutes: listening to a story, doing a learning activity, and checking out/checking in of books. The elementary media center has also become a bit of a "greenhouse" as many plants have found their way onto the tops of library shelves! Sharon stated that the plants come and go but Media Assistant Jean Reisetter is in charge of caring for the plants as she (Sharon) doesn't have a "green" thumb! Next in the tour of Lewiston-Altura media centers was a visit to the high school which is also located in Lewiston. The high school serves students in grades 7-12. The high school media center is a large space that houses both the collection and study areas but also a computer classroom. The media center is open to students Monday - Friday from 7:45 AM to 3:00 PM and was a busy place on the day I visited. Sharon is able to spend Mondays and Fridays at the high school and during other times Melissa Merchlewitz (part-time media center and part-time counselor's office) takes care of the media center. Finally, my tour stopped in Altura at the intermediate school, which serves students in 5th and 6th grades. Scheduled library time is on Thursdays and both Sharon and Jean spend time at the intermediate media center. When Sharon or Jean isn't available, one or more secretaries at the school are able to assist students in checking out and checking in books. The intermediate media center is the smallest of the media centers but has a sizeable book collection, plenty of study areas for students, and several public access computers. Though not a regular library day on the day I visited, in the short time I was there a few students came in to return books and check new ones out. I was impressed by the amount of service that Sharon and her staff were able to provide to the students in the Lewiston-Altura Schools. It certainly is a challenge keeping everything on schedule. Speaking of schedule, I thought I'd share a bit of Web 2.0 going on there. At the high schoo media center, with the computer classroom in the media center plus two computer labs attached to the media center, there is always a need to manage their use. Google Calendars is used to manage the schedule. I was quite impressed! I want to say thank you to Sharon, Jean, and Melissa for making me feel so welcome at the Lewiston-Altura Schools. To check out photos from my visit, go to the Lewiston-Altura Schools set on SELCO's Flickr site.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:31 by SELCO Admin
Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian Just got out of the keynote for today. Michael Edson, Smithsonian Institution, did a terrific presentation entitled Digital Strategies & Knowledge Commons. Michael covered a lot of ground but he mostly discussed the concept of the commons, which is any space that is set aside for the use of the community rather than individuals. Back in the old days, a common was usually land set aside so that everyone would have a place to graze their sheep (or cows or pigs or whatever). Nowadays, the knowledge commons is that space (increasingly online) featuring information, knowledge, and wisdom that is freely accessible without restriction for the benefit of all. Sounds like the natural stomping ground for libraries, doesn't it? I don't really have time to write up everything that Michael talked about in his excellent presentation but the good news is that I don't have to; it's all available online: Enjoy!
Last changed: Nov 18, 2009 09:43 by Rachel Gray
Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian This is a recording of the March 26, 2009 meeting of the SELCO ILS Operations & Technology Policy Joint Committee. We have split the video into four segments for your convenience:
2009/04/02
Last changed: Mar 10, 2010 11:47 by Rachel Gray
Rachel Gray, Project Librarian
The third library program video for the Smart Investing @ your library grant is now available online! The program is titled "Riding out the current financial storm" and was presented by Phyllis Onstad at the Caledonia Public Library on March 10, 2009. This program was also done March 26 at Grand Meadow Community Center and will be presented again on Apr. 23 at the Northfield Public Library at 7:00pm.
More information on Smart Investing can be found at smartinvesting.selco.info . Smart Investing @ your library is funded by a grand from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association.
The program description: This program will provide key strategies and tools to prepare for times when money is tight, you lose your job, or have suddenly reduced income. It will also share key resources both online and in the community that will assist families and individuals.
We have split the video into three segments for your convenience:
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:20 by SELCO Admin
Mick Reese, Systems Manager There was a fair amount of media attention given to the latest computer worm, dubbed 'Conficker' over the last couple weeks. Although the hype sure made it sound like there would be some major problems on April 1st as this worm activated itself.
The Automation department here at SELCO was not worried about this particular worm. The worm itself has actually been out for several months, April 1st was only a date that it set to activate, and possibly cause problems. We have several sound security measures to protect both library computers, as well as the servers here at the SELCO office:
- The SELCO office and all public library networks are secured by a SonicWall Firewall device. This firewall blocks random attacks that come across the Internet trying to infect PCs and servers.
- All incoming SELCO email is scanned for worms and viruses before being delivered to a user mailbox. Also, our spam firewall does a tremendous job blocking a huge amount of spam that can lead to malware and viruses.
- Individual library PCs run a solid antivirus software that is updated regularly, and public internet PCs run Disk Protection which protects the PC further from getting a virus infection.
- Windows updates are installed on a regular schedule on library PCs asd servers in the SELCO office to patch vunerabilities that worms such as Conficker exploit.
Even though the media picked this particlar worm to highlight and invoke some fears, the truth is there are virus and worm attacks going on daily. Yesterday was just as uneventful for viruses as any other day here at SELCO.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:18 by SELCO Admin
Ann Hutton, Executive Director Olmsted County Public Health Services and the Rochester High School PTSAs will co-sponsor a public forum, SEX: What's love got to do with it? on Monday, April 13, 2009, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. at Century High School. This educational event is open to the public and will focus on healthy versus unhealthy teen sexuality, countering the normalization of sexual harm, and the powerful role of parents.
2009/04/06
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:16 by SELCO Admin
Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager I will probably by this book. Her best point was that people do not want to suck, and we need to stay current with changes so we don't accidently make people feel like they suck. Another point was about the demographics of information users and managers - it is 63% of the population that is bubbling up with innovation, who are time-starved and who find hacking things a normal, acceptable reaction ("gorilla knitting" is a form of hacking this traditional artform). Remain relevent. Become a RenGen Library. Connect, collaborate, communicate. Think about what makes people feel like they suck - Martin said Dewey, fines, even needing a library card make some users feel like they are doing something horrible and they don't want to feel that way.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:14 by SELCO Admin
Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager SirsiDynix announced this morning that they are alpha-testing some new functionalities on their internal equivalent to our Service Desk application. One of their goals was to empower system administrators to find our own solutions more efficiently within their knowledge base, and to navigate through their website and manage our side of the tickets more effectively. I have a sympathy for that. I took notes and did some brainstorming about how I could make my users more successful - reaching for that win-win! The twitter tag for this conference is #SirsiDynix.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:13 by SELCO Admin
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
During the opening session today, SirsiDynix presnted their roadmap for the upcoming year. The company is definitely working at Web 2.0. They are showing some interesting developments, such as an iPhone app that allows you to - using the phone's GPS - find the closest library to their current location. They could then launch a mobile iPAC to check availability, and even place a hold.
They also presented the roadmap for Horizon. Yes, there are new versions in development. Horizon 7.5 is due out Q3 2009, and will include some database upgrades. Beyond that, Horizon 7.5.1 is also in planning for early 2010. Contrary to what we were told a couple years ago, we don't see any end of development for Horizon anytime soon.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:12 by SELCO Admin
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
An interesting session that I attended today talked about using text messages for sending notices, rather than email. Some patrons don't check their email often, and their cell phone is what they use to stay connected. It is estimated that 2 billion text messages are sent every month.
All cell phone providers allow a email to be sent that is converted to a text message as it is delivered to a phone. One library has set up an option for patrons to receive their notices by text. This may not be something SELCO would implement, but another example of communicating with the patron in new and exciting ways.
2009/04/07
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:11 by SELCO Admin
Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager
Colleen Medling, of Salt Lake County Library Services, spoke of the reports and workload analysis that she manages. They use WebReporter and other tools to figure out how many books a shelver should be reshelving, to find workflow problems in ILL processes, to justify the purchase of a mechanical checkin and sorting unit. And they are watching trends - the percentage of expired holds has dramatically dropped this year, perhaps because of their educational campaign to tell patrons that a hold causes the library $17, and an expired hold is wasting that money. Hard facts behind such statements make it difficult to brush off.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:07 by SELCO Admin
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
I attended an excellent session today from Jeanne DeMars of Traverse des Souix regional library ssytem. They went live with NCIP in November on their unicorn system. The NCIP protocol automates a great deal of the process of a MnLINK request. NCIP traslates actions taken in VDX to an action in the local ILS system. Here's a detailed example of what is automated:
A MnLINK request comes in from a patron outside the region. With NCIP, VDX talks to the ILS, and the request is automatically made (and shows up on the local library's pick list to be filled). No staff intervention needed at this point. Once the hold is filled by the local library and sent in delivery, the only step ILL staff needs to take is to issue the SHIP command in VDX. VDX checks the item out to the ILL patron again with no staff intervention.
An incoming MnLINK item is partially automated with NCIP as well. In the case of Traverse des Souix, VDX creates a brief MARC record, puts hold, sets pickup location, and puts the item in transit all automatically!
So what are the numbers? Traverse des Souix saved 42% of staff time in processing ILL lending requests (nearly 38 hours per month) as well as time savings from the local library staff.
This is all of great interest to us, as SELCO is looking into NCIP for Horizon so we also will be automating some of the MnLINK ILL process.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:04 by SELCO Admin
Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian There is more to RSS readers than just following blogs. Learn about using RSS feeds to get updates on database searches, follow breaking news stories and stay informed about severe weather.
2009/04/08
Last changed: May 05, 2009 10:01 by SELCO Admin
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
I attended a session this morning to get more details on the Horizon product roadmap for 2009. SirsiDynix is planning two upgrades in the coming year, which really shows that Horizon is not a "dead" product.
The first upgrade, due out in July, focuses on an upgrade of the underlying database (Sybase 12.5) that Horizon runs on. The version that Horizon currently runs on will be End of Life - no longer supported - at the end of 2009. By upgrading the underlying database, SirsiDynix if effect assures several years of continued support.
Also scheduled for early 2010 is an upgrade that will include several new features as well as problem fixes.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:59 by SELCO Admin
Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian Recently, more articles have been published in local newspapers featuring public libraries in the SELCO region. The Argus featured an article about the Caledonia Public Library's many resources and how the library is a true asset to the community. The Austin Post-Bulletin featured another article about the Austin Public Library discussing how library use is up and stressing the fact that the library is always a reliable resource for people of all ages. To read the articles, please click the following links: Local library offers relief from bills, job hunting resources and friendly atmosphere -- Caledonia Argus Public Library offers value during tight economy--Post-Bulletin, Austin
2009/04/09
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:55 by SELCO Admin
   
Michael Scott, Assistant Director
On April 7, 2009, I had the opportunity to visit 4 schools in the Winona Area Public School district: Winona Middle and High Schools, and Central and Washington-Kosciusko Elementary Schools. Mary Alice Anderson, the district's lead media specialist, was my tour guide. The purpose of my visit had two purposes - do a site visit to several of the school media centers in the district and discuss the 2008-09 Annual School Library Media Center Report with the Winona media specialists. For photos of my visit, check out the Winona Area Public Schools folder on SELCO's Flickr site. I started my visit at Central Elementary School in Winona. This Kindergarten-4th Grade school (all Winona Area elementary schools are K-4) is located near downtown Winona and has about 80 students enrolled. The media center is located on the second floor of the building and was recently relocated from two windowless rooms to two renovated classrooms with plenty of large windows for natural light. There is a nice collection of books for students and the computer lab attached to the media center is large and has all new computers. Linda Chadbourn, Central Elementary's Media Secretary, added her artistic touches to the space with characters from Winnie The Pooh and the Bearenstain Bears adorning the walls. Mary Alice and Linda report that students are very happy with the new space. Next stop on my tour: Winona Senior High School. There we met with Terry Kroening, the Winona Senior High Media Specialist. In 2006, the Senior High Media Center underwent a major renovation to transform a two-floor, little-used media center into a stunning single-floor media center that is in constant use. The space is large and very inviting. There are 3 computer labs located within the media center plus a large multi-purpose room that is used by classes as well as the public. There is a wide variety of seating, from bistro tables and stools to study tables and chairs, to a set of comfortable chairs in a seating area that looks out on what the staff call the "best view in Winona" - a view of the lake. The collection has been updated to include more teen fiction and more recent titles throughout the collection. I can tell you that this media center is STUNNING! After saying goodbye to the Winona Senior High School, it was off to the Washington-Kosciusko Elementary School. There we met with W-K staff Gay Casper and Helen Kanthack. The newly renovated media center was opened this school year and is another beautiful space. The previous media center was actually housed in the hallway that now leads up to the entrance to the new media center. The space is bright and inviting. A few touches from the past were kept, including a short bookshelf in a little nook in the back of the media center and a very large wooden cabinet that is used for display. Some new touches include a large backroom space for processing materials and housing office space, a small conference room that sits atop an old stairwell (removed), and some really great red chairs! The red chairs were a donation from the Washington-Kosciusko PTA. The media center also houses a large computer lab through a pair of swinging double doors. Students, parents, and staff are thrilled with the space and the excitement has resulted in a large adopt-a-book program at W-K. On the day I visited, the W-K Media Specialist Gay Casper had just finished "Battle of the Books" for the 4th graders. This is a reading program that several of the elementary schools in Winona participate in that has a competition at the end. My final stop of the day was at the Winona Middle School. The media center was playing host to the Winona Area Schools media specialists meeting. Jill Nysse, the Winona Middle School Media Specialist, gave me a tour of the space. The media center is located in the center of the building and is a large, inviting space. Upon entering the media center, students and visitors are greeted by two large sculptures of a Native American on horseback with a raised spear on one side and a couple of running buffalo on the other side, giving the illusion of a hunt. These are but only two pieces of art housed at the library. As you can see from the Flickr photos, there is also a sarcophagus sculpture as well. The media center's information desk is located in the middle of the media center. There are 3 computer labs, a video production room, an instructional classroom, a teacher work room/professional area, offices, storage, and conference room all housed in the media center. On the day I visited, the media center was a buzzing with activity as students were preparing for the MCA and MTELL tests that begin the week of April 14, 2009. As I said at the beginning of this post, the other purpose of my visit was to discuss the 2008-09 Annual School Library Media Center report with the Winona Area School Media Specialists. They were interested in what was all involved in participating and what information they needed to provide. We had a great discussion about the report and I am hopeful that Winona Area Public Schools will be represented in the report for this school year. I would like to say thank you to Mary Alice and her staff at Winona Area Public Schools for making me feel so welcome and allowing me to visit their media centers.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:47 by SELCO Admin
Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian My girlfriends and I traveled to the Windy City last weekend to take in the Broadway tour version of RENT at the Oriental Theatre, Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Not only did I get excited about the play, but I also loved the fact the playbill included an article about the Chicago Public Library! What a way to promote the library!! The article explored the Chicago Theater Collection housed at the Chicago Public Library. The collection includes costume sketches, newspaper clippings, press releases, and budgets. A lot of the local theaters send their old artifacts to the archive at the library, and after the library catalogs the items, they are available for anyone to see. Some of the interesting artifacts include a program from the original 1902 stage version of The Wizard of Oz, the original score for Grease with musical notes and lyrics written in pencil, and scrapbooks compiled by unknown "theatre-goers" over one hundred years ago. I wished I had more time to check it out!
2009/04/10
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:44 by SELCO Admin
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Michael Scott, Assistant Director For all of you Facebook users, there's a new app to add to your Facebook profile: the MnLINK Gateway Search! The app was developed by Minitex staff member Michael Berkowski and I had the privilege of serving on a committee to help get it ready for primetime for Facebook. If you are interested in adding the app to your Facebook profile, go to the MnLINK Gateway and click on Add MnLINK Gateway Search to your Facebook Profile in the left column.
2009/04/13
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:37 by SELCO Admin
Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian A short discussion on the recent Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, and its effect on library materials with Michael Scott, SELCO's Assistant Director.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:34 by SELCO Admin
Michael Scott, Assistant Director I came across a short news article in the April 1, 2009 issue of Library Journal about how the North Carolina State Library launched a program in March 2009 to train 300 librarians to help their patrons connect with employers and conduct job searches. The program, which cost $30,000, was a partnership that included North Carolina's Department of Cultural Resources (the department that the NC State Library reports to), Department of Commerce, and Employment Services Commission. Nine workshops were held around the state and focused on NC Live, the state's statewide electronic database consortium as well as additional print and online resources for skills such as resume writing, job searching, and interviewing. A Job Search Toolkit, hosted on pbwiki, was created that includes contributions from library staff from around the state as well as Internet and NC Live resources. I thought this quote from Linda A. Carlisle, Secretary of the NC Department of Cultural Resources summed it up well: "Most top U.S. retailers no longer accept in-store paper applications, leading many people to head to their libraries for help and online access." I have heard from a number of library staff from around the SELCO/SELS region that this is what is happening at their libraries more than ever. Having recently worked in hospital libraries, I can attest to this change in applying for jobs. The two hospitals I worked for move quickly to online-only applications for jobs within in the hospital and the hospital library was one of the few places that had computers available for hospital staff and other job seekers to use to apply for a job. To check out the article in Library Journal, click here.
2009/04/14
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:32 by SELCO Admin
Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian Microsoft announced recently that Windows XP will move from Maintream Support to Extended Support on April 14, 2009, i.e. today. This is in line with Microsoft's standard 15-year schedule for product support: Mainstream Support for the first fve years after a product is released Extended Support for the next five years Custom Support for the final five years of the product's life
In this case, the move to Extended Support is actually two and a half years late, due to delays caused by the slow rollout of Vista. So, what changes today? Not all that much, really. The main change is that Microsoft will no longer be releasing non-security updates to the software. Patches to fix security problems will continue to come out but that is it. In addition, any further support from Microsoft will only be available for a fee. This is not much of a change as most support for XP is provided via PC vendors who sell PCs with XP pre-installed. For more information, see the following articles from: SELCO has no plans to change the level of support we provide for XP (as part of PC Support) based on any of this. I'm passing it along just in case you've seen this in the news and were wondering if it would affect you.
2009/04/17
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:30 by SELCO Admin
Michael Scott, Assistant Director April 15 is known throughout the United States as Tax Day. However, on April 15, 2009, besides filing my taxes, I had the opportunity to visit the media center at the Alden-Conger Schools in Alden, MN. Kathryn Ubl, Alden-Conger's Media Specialist, met with me to give me a tour of the media center as well as the school itself. Alden-Conger Schools are located in a single building in Alden and includes Pre-Kindergarten through 12th Grade and has a student population of over 400 students. The media center is a bright, inviting space. The information desk is located just inside the entrance to the media center. There is a computer lab connected to the media center and the school psychologist's office and a special education classroom are also part of the space. Currently, the speech and language department is housed in the media center's workroom as the school is undergoing some renovations. There are public access computers available for student use, tables and chairs for studying, and a large collection of fiction and non-fiction materials for all grades. Tucked back in a corner is an area for storytimes, complete with a rocking chair. The media center has several large windows which let in a large amount of natural light and there is a separate outside entrance. In the area that holds the collection and study areas, the space is about a story and a half and murals cover the upper part of two walls. Elementary students have regularly scheduled time in the media center but are also free to come to the library anytime to check out books. On the day I visited, several boys were in to check out books during a class period. Middle and High School students don't have regularly scheduled media center times but are able to make regular use of the library. During my visit, several different classes were in to use the media center. To ensure that students have the information and technology skills necessary for success, Kathryn uses the Big6 approach, an information and technology literacy model and curriculum. She has adapted it for Alden-Conger Schools and continually works to ensure that students develop the information skills they need to be successful. During my visit with Kathryn, I had the opportunity to visit with Jenny Hanson who teaches computer and technology skills for Alden-Conger. Jenny recently completed the Library Media Education program at Minnesota State University Mankato. She and I discussed the layout of the media center and offered suggestions to Kathryn. Kathyrn had asked for some ideas on improving the layout as the media center is getting new carpet this summer. She would like to maximize her space and make the flow better. It was fun to try and figure out this puzzle. If you have ideas for Kathryn, feel free to email her at kubl@aldenconger.k12.mn.us. To see photos from my visit, check out the Alden-Conger set on SELCO's Flickr site. I want to say thank you to Kathryn and Jenny for welcoming me to Alden-Conger Schools and allowing me to visit.
2009/04/20
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:28 by SELCO Admin
Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian The SELCO Advisory Committee meeting was held on April 14, 2009. The SELCO Advisory Committee is made up of the directors from all of the public libraries in the SELCO region. The group meets 6 times per year in February, April, June, August, October, and December. The meeting video is a flash video, and has been broken down into four sections for ease of viewing.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:27 by SELCO Admin
Rachel Gray, Project Librarian For kids to grow up money smart, it is important to teach them good financial habits. Topics in this program include techniques for encouraging children to save, spend, earn, borrow and give money wisely. This video is from a library program at Lake City Public Library April 7, 2009. This program was also presented at Rushford Public Library on February 12 and at Dodge Center Public Library on March 9 at 7:00pm. More information on Smart Investing can be found at http://smartinvesting.selco.info. Smart Investing @ your library is funded by a grand from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association. We have split the video into two segments for your convenience:
2009/04/21
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:21 by SELCO Admin
Ann Hutton, Executive Director
Austin library users offered their thanks to Maureen Steenblock honoring 29 years of service to the library and the community. Through 29 summer reading programs and countless storytimes, Maureen shared a joy of children's literature and libraries. One of those she influenced is Tyler Irvin who was a library page and worked for Maureen. Tyler is now a degreed librarian and manages SELCO's cooperative project with the Chatfield Brass Band and Music Lending Library as LSTA Project Librarian. Congratulations Maureen on your retirement and our appreciation for the years of service to the region. For more pix.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:18 by SELCO Admin
Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian SELCO doesn't support Apples and, unless we hear some demand from the Online Libraries for such a service, doesn't plan to start. Therefore, I don't write much here about Apple topics. And I certainly don't want to open up a new front in the Mac vs. PC holy war. Having said that, I recently ran across an article that looks at some of the conventional wisdom about Macs and PCs in a way that is much more impartial than most of what you hear on the internet. I pass it on for your consideration: 7 Mac Myths Debunked (Or Proven)!
2009/04/23
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:15 by SELCO Admin
Michael Scott, Assistant Director At 1:45 PM today (April 23), the tornado sirens sounded in Rochester to announce the statewide tornado drill for schools and businesses. SELCO staff participated in this drill as part of regular safety training and gathered in the designated area in the SELCO office building. The designated gathering point is denoted with a burgundy stripe along the top of the wall near the ceiling and runs from most of the way down the main hallway at SELCO. I'm pleased to announce that everyone knew where to gather and did so. Though just a drill, it is good practice for us all as we head into warmer weather and tornadoes and severe weather start occurring again. As many reports have stated, most severe weather occurs between 3 PM and 6 PM. A reminder that at 6:55 PM on April 23, 66 of the 87 counties in Minnesota will hold another tornado drill for folks at home or working the second shift.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:13 by SELCO Admin
   Michael Scott, Assistant Director On April 23, 2009, I had the opportunity to visit the all three media centers at the Kasson-Mantorville Schools. I started my visit at the Kasson-Mantorville High School in Kasson, MN. K-M High School currently houses grades 7-12 but in the 2009-2010 school year, 7th and 8th graders will be moving to the Kasson-Mantorville Middle School, currently under construction. I met with Chris Lannin, the media specialist for the High School and special guest Donovan Lambright, SELCO Automation Librarian (we didn't realize that we'd both schedule a visit this day!) We received a tour of the media center, which is a large bright space. There is a computer lab attached to the media center with 34 computers and there are another 45 computers in the media center itself. There is plenty of studying and seating areas as well as a large collection of books. The space is highly utilized by various classes and on the day that we visited, several classes were using the computer labs. The Intermediate School is currently located in Mantorville and houses the 5th and 6th grades. This is currently the oldest building in the district and will be closing down at the end of this school year as the 5th and 6th graders will be joining the 7th and 8th graders in Kasson at the new Middle School. However, even in the older building, students still had access to a large collection of books as well as a number of computers located in the media center. We ended our tour of the Kasson-Mantorville Schools at the Elementary School in Kasson. This building houses Kindergarten through 4th grade. It is set up in pods and each grade has a pod. Each grade has 7-8 sections and continues to grow! The media center is located near the center of the school and is a large, open, and bright space. There are two computer labs attached to the media center as well as a large collection of materials. The media specialist at the Elementary, Jenny Dalsted, mentioned that she sees 30 classes of students per week in the Elementary media center for a half-hour each - so certainly a busy place! Jenny currently has responsibilities for the Intermediate School and will have responsibilities for both the Elementary and Middle School in the 2009-2010 school year. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the Kasson-Mantorville Media Centers. Technology certainly plays an important part in the work the media center does as a supportive collection. The district has been fortunate so far to not need to make as many cuts as other schools have experienced and continues to grow. I want to say thank you to Chris and Jenny for welcoming Donovan and I to the Kasson-Mantorville Schools! To see photos from our visit, check out the Kasson-Mantorville photo set on SELCO's Flickr site.
2009/04/24
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:11 by SELCO Admin
Mick Reese, Systems Manager
It is apparent by the time the news item came out late Tuesday, completing the DayEnd run on Tuesday took a lot longer than in the past when there has been a issue with DayEnd. Usually, when DayEnd doesn't run it is because of an error on the client PC. DayEnd runs on one of the servers at the SELCO office in a Horizon session. If, for some reason, the server gets restarted, or the Horizon window gets closed, DayEnd won't run. When this is the case, DayEnd gets started by 7:30 the next morning, and will finish up within a few hours.
On Tuesday, the DayEnd run started normally on the server, and about 40 minutes into the process, a database error occured. That database error caused the Horizon client to crash, and the DayEnd run was left partially finished. We became aware of the issue first thing the next morning. Since this was not a typical error, I spent a few hours in the morning checking for a reason for the error, and even spent time with SirsiDynix support. This was to make sure that we didn't have some kind of corruption in the database that would lead to more failures and bigger problems over the next couple days. By the time I felt comfortable re-starting the DayEnd run, it was nearly 11am. By then, the system was quite busy with the libraries open. Because of this, the normal 3 to 4 hour process took closer to 7 hours. When it comes to running DayEnd, it makes a real differnce when there is no other database traffic to compete with. The DayEnd run did complete with no other issues, and Horizon was back to normal on Wednesday.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:09 by SELCO Admin
Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian UPDATE, 04-27-2009--I just realized that I omitted a Day End failure date from the list at the bottom of this blog post. I have inserted the missing information in bold. Appolgies for the mistake. Mick Reese, Systems Manager, just posted some good information on our recent Day End problem and I wanted to add a few observations. The problem we had on Tuesday was a new one. As far as I know, we've never had Day End go down because of this kind of database error. It's a little worrisome and Mick is pursuing it with SirsiDynix; it's not the kind of error you just move on from once everything is working again. The other Day End failures we have suffered over the years are much more banal. The Day End process runs on the same Horizon client that we all use for checking things in and out, cataloging, and other day-to-day library tasks. From time to time that client crashes. The possible explanations are endless: momentary glitch in the connection between the client and the Horizon server a hung process on the PC running the client slowness on the database server causing it not to respond as fast as the client expects
I doubt there is anyone in the region who has used Horizon for more than a week and hasn't experienced the same thing. 99% of the time, the problem is not serious. You restart the client and continue your work. Irritating. But not catastrophic. Unfortunately, the situation gets a little more serious when the client in question is running Day End. Or is scheduled to run Day End later in the day. This isn't one person trying to check out or catalog. It's the process that generates a wide range of critical functions including, but not limited to: Even if the problem was trivial, the result is not. Since no one is here at midnight, when Day End runs, we end up playing catch-up the next day. In an attempt to manage the problem, we check the status of Day End every morning. On weekdays, we perform this check at 7:30 AM when the Help Desk opens for business. On weekend, it happens one hour before On-Call hours start (7:00 AM on Saturday and 11:00 AM on Sunday). When we find it to have failed we restart it immediately. We've observed this problem in Horizon from the very beginning. Calls to epixtech (as they were called then) were not productive. It didn't happen very often and there was no clear answer as to the cause when it did. As the company morphed back to Dynix and then SirsiDynix, this pattern continued. They never threw up their hands and told us not to call. They just didn't ever seem to have a real answer. Understanding the complexity of the systems involved, I have a hard time getting too upset with the support staff. This really is a nightmare of a problem: After awhile, we stopped calling and just learned to restart the process as needed. I will say that I think this should have been addressed by those who design and develop Horizon's system architecture. It seems to me that the problem stems from entrusting such a critical process to the most unstable piece of the system: the PC-based client. Surely this would be better run as a server-based process? While I don't have any old posts to HORIZON-L or the Horizon Enhancements website to prove it, I know that we're not the first Horizon customer to make this observation. For whatever reason, this has not been done. Making these kinds of changes to a database system is not trivial; perhaps the risk of making such a change was judged to be greater than the risk of simply maintaining the status quo. I would understand that, particularly if a new version of the system was on the way. With the demise of Horizon 8, however, I think there is a good case in favor of taking a fresh look at the issue. Particularly if there is going to be further development on the system. Please understand that I'm not trying to downplay the problem or evade SELCO's responsibility for it. We will continue to look for ways to make Horizon more stable. We will also work actively with SirsiDynix to resolve whatever caused the database error that crashed Day End on Tuesday. I appreciate the patience and understanding everyone in the SELCO community has shown . I do feel that we all work together more effectively in an atmosphere of facts. In order to share some perspective on the Day End problem, I'm posting a log we maintain on the frequency of Day End problems. This list only goes back to July 2008; that is when we started maintaining the log: DAY END FAILURES SINCE JULY 01, 2008
07-06-2008
07-07-2008
08-29-2008
09-29-2008
10-09-2008
04-10-2009
04-21-2009
2009/04/27
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:07 by SELCO Admin
Michael Flores, User Technology Manager When it comes to computers and equipment, hardware failure is a part of life. Whether we like it or not, or how much we try and keep it from happening the unexpected can and will happen. That is why we have put together a dedicated set of loaner staff PCs and equipment for library use. This Loaner Pool consists of the following items: 4 - Dell Staff Vista PCs 4 - Dell Staff Monitors 4 - USB Symbol Barcode Scanners 4 - Star Parallel Receipt Printers 1 - HP Black & White Network Laser Printer
This equipment is here at SELCO and is in place for extreme emergency cases, such as the only circulation PC crashing, or losing your main receipt printer and cannot wait to order a new one. As these situations arise simply contact the SELCO Help Desk and based on your situation we will deploy the necessary loaner equipment to the library. In fact just today we had our first actual check out of equipment from the loaner pool. Pine Island was hit by a power outage that left their main receipt printer on the circulation computer dead. Jeanne is planning on purchasing a new thermal receipt printer in the upcoming PC Purchase. So in the meantime we were able to deploy a loaner receipt printer for her to use until she gets her new thermal from the PC Purchase. Once she has that she will return the loaner receipt printer back to SELCO to be deployed out to another library. So the next time an unexpected hardware failure happens at your library on a critical piece of equipment, don't be afraid to contact the SELCO Help Desk so that we can help you get through the difficult time and minimize your down time.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:05 by SELCO Admin
Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager I follow a number of people in twitter, one of them being user srharris19, a collections librarian from the University of New Mexico, mostly because I like his tweets and his humor. So today he passes on a really fun opportunity, to be part of a new book from IT Books, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. They are looking for twitter wit from people who love books, who work around books, and who enjoy the humor in their daily lives. For more information about this opportunity, go see Steven Harris's original twitter and follow the link to a PDF from IT Books. Or if you follow me, it will be a twitter post from me in a few minutes. My twitter username is Jonya.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:04 by SELCO Admin
Ann Hutton, Executive Director The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) will undertake a study focused on public libraries. The Background Paper outlines possible evaluation issues, with the first question focusing on public library funding and organizational structure, including whether public libraries are funded in an equitable manner. The issue of "equitable" has recently been a point of legislative discussion when Rep. Roger Reinhart (07B) introduced HF1570, "a bill relating to libraries: authorizing libraries in certain cities to charge fees to nonresidents." In normal library parlance, we define non-residents as individuals not residing in or paying property taxes to support Minnesota public libraries. Representative Reinhart's intention was focused within the state, specifically individuals living near Duluth and using the financially strapped Duluth Public Library but paying a much lower county tax rate. The discrepency between levels of support for libraries varies widely from region to region, county to county, city to city, and when comparing city to county. Using the State Demographer's 2006 population estimates and the 2007 annual report data from each local unit of government supporting libraries in the southeast, the county per capita support ranges from $9.89 to $28.65 and city per capita support ranges from $17.64 to $71.36. The 2007 Per Capita Chart* lists each of the 11 member counties and the 36 cities taxing for library service. As more information becomes available on the OLA Study of Public Libraries it will be posted to the SELCO website and tagged "OLA Study" for ease of searching. * Note: The 2008 Per Capita data will be available shortly pending completion of the 2008 annual reports by local libraries.
2009/04/30
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:02 by SELCO Admin
Michael Flores, User Technology Manager Some of you may or may not have heard that there is a new release of Internet Explorer coming out from Microsoft called Internet Explorer 8. This new version of Internet Explorer has a lot of features that will speed up your browsing as well as add some extra security to your web surfing. While I could write a whole article on some of the new features, I am not going to in this blog post, but have listed a URL below if you would like to check it out. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Internet-explorer/default.aspx What I do want to talk about in this blog post is the impact of Internet Explorer 8 on SELCO and on the online libraries. Paul Conrad and I have done some testing on this with different setups such as public computers and staff computers. I am going to talk about each of these separately. For public computers the biggest concern is, will Internet Explorer get updated during the update window and break my public computers. The answer is no, the reason for this is due to the fact that Steady State or the Toolkit will only perform Critical updates. Internet Explorer 8 is flagged as an Important update, so it will get downloaded, but not installed. To update it on your public computers they would have to be done manually. The thing to keep in mind though is that you are not required to update. There is not a lot of functionality to be gained on the public computers, however if you are a PC Support Customer, and would like to do the update anyways, please contact the SELCO Help Desk so that we may schedule a time to update your public computers. For the staff computers we have tested Internet Explorer 8 with Citrix, Webmail, and Web Reporter and it seems to work fine. We did notice a java script error in some of the parts of Web Reporter, but one of the features of Internet Explorer 8 is to run in Compatibility Mode and this fixed the problem. So as above with the public computers, if you would like to update your staff computers to use Internet Explorer 8 and are a PC Support Customer, please contact the SELCO Help Desk so that we may schedule a time to update your staff computers. So in summary, Internet Explorer 8 is still just Internet Explorer. It has some new bells and whistles, but is pretty much the same. It is not a required update at this time, and unless you just want the latest and greatest, upgrading is completely optional. If you are a PC Support Customer, please give us a call at the SELCO Help Desk and we would be happy to discuss with you about updating and schedule a time to do so.
Last changed: May 05, 2009 09:00 by SELCO Admin
 
Michael Scott, Assistant Director On April 28, 2009, I had the opportunity to visit the media centers at the Kenyon-Wanamingo Schools in Kenyon and Wanamingo, MN. I started my visit at the Elementary School in Wanamingo, which houses Kindergarten - Fourth Grade students. Cindy Baumgartner, the Elementary Media Aide, met with me and gave me a brief tour of the media center. The media center is located near the center of the building, directly across the hall from the Elementary Office. The space is large and open, with a large book collection, a computer lab, and an area set aside for storytime. On the day I visited it was fairly quiet (arrived just as a class was leaving and before the next class was to arrive). Students have "library time" two times per week for 20 minutes at at time and Cindy works with students to learn research skills and improve their reading skills. The school will be undergoing a major renovation this summer with the installation of a new HVAC system and new windows. This will have an impact on the media center as some materials and equipment will need to be moved or covered. Additionally, the new windows will be larger and will take away some of the existing wall space that the media center utilizes for signs, decor, etc. According to Cindy, the renovation is definitely needed as the boilers the school is currently using are old and don't always work properly. After a great visit at the Elementary Media Center, I headed down Minnesota Highway 60 to Kenyon for a visit at the Middle/High School. Grades 5 - 12 are housed at this school and share one media center. I was greeted at the Media Center by Lisa Nelson, the new media aide for the Middle/High School. Lisa gave me a tour of the large space that is the Middle/High School Media Center. It houses a large collection of books, a conference room/career center, and has a large amount of seating for students to study or read. The media center has a large backroom for storage and all of those other behind-the-scenes tasks. On the day I visited, the media center was buzzing with activity, with students coming in and out to use the media center's resources. Two major projects that Lisa has undertaken are a major weeding of the collection and the addition of a graphic novels section. If you check out the photos from my visit on Flickryou will see the early stages of development of the graphic novels section. As Lisa pointed out, once she moved the graphic novels to their own section and added to the collection, students found them and started asking for more. As both Lisa and Cindy are fairly new to their roles in the media centers, I know that they would appreciate any feedback, advice, etc. that other media center or library staff would have to offer regarding collection development. They truly are working diligently to ensure that their collections are up-to-date and have the information resources and materials their students need to be successful. If you have suggestions, please feel free to email them. Cindy's email is Cbaumgartner@kw.k12.mn.us and Lisa's email is linelson@kw.k12.mn.us. I want to say a very special thanks to both Cindy and Lisa for allowing me to visit and being such great hosts!
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