Category: Updates

What has LTDS been doing the week of 8/31-9/6

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)
* Replaced Alumni IDs with Alt-IDs (from Sirsi)
* Continued to work on clean-up projects including the duplicate charges
* Configure Sandbox access
* Continue working on notification letters

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt, Nancy, Jamen)
* Deployed a few new laptops
* Processed new and released ETD’s/troubleshoot ETD’s
* Ordered equipment, computers and software
* Troubleshooting hardware issues
* Worked with VUIT on increasing resources to improve performance

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)
* DIL got up to full speed with a working plan for scanning
* Continued to upload items into the system
* Scanned items for upcoming Divinity exhibit
* Created book batches to prepare items for ingest
* Ingesting ESSSS scans & troubleshooting

Web/Web applications (Jodie, Jamen, Matt)
* Drafted document detailing the election process for Library Advisory Council
* Resolved several issues with the commodore-r-group repo/website in Github
* Renewed & installed SSL certificates
* Setting up “From the Director’s Chair” box on Biomedical home page
* Continued cleaning up formatting issues
* Implemented accessibility improvements on Heard and division home pages

Other (all):
* Triage inform tickets
* Alumni access issues
* Answering Libanswers related to Alma/Library Catalog
* Training of LTDS Student Assistants
* Calibrate and test 3D printer upgrade
* Begin adding LogMeIn and local accounts to podium computers

Inform tickets resolved through Thursday:

LTDS August 26 – August 30

LTDS continued to work on cleanup projects in Alma and finalize (for now) various configurations.  The team is also reviewing projects that have been tabled — including deploying additional laptops to staff and for circulation.

This week we also had our students return!!   Please welcome Jonah, Sam, Gabriel, Maya, and  Cindy!

A few of the items this week were:

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)

  • Revised several notices including Acquisitions notices
  • Removed XXX users (old staff accounts from Sirsi)
  • Continued to work on clean-up projects including the duplicate charges
  • Suppresses more that 65,000 items from display that were in the withdrawn location.

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt)

  • Deployed a few new workstations

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)

  • DIL got up to full speed with a working plan for scanning
  • Continued to upload items into the system

 

Web/Web applications  (Jodie, Matt)

  • Added error checking on the web site to prevent issues caused by other servers crashing
  • Started discussions and plans for the adopt-a-book site
  • Continued accessibility improvements.
  • Launch of the news desk

Other (all):

  • Students returned!  Work with them to alert them of changes,
  • triage inform tickets and feedback form
  • Alumni access issues

Inform tickets resolved through Thursday.

 

 

Library website: now with more error checking

Yesterday morning, we received several reports that the library website wasn’t functioning properly — there were missing menus and scary error messages. No one on our team had made any changes to the site, though — so what happened?

Well, over in another part of the university, the server that hosts the university calendar system went offline. The library website pulls our events lists from this system every time you visit a library homepage. So, when the library website tried to find the events lists, there was nothing there…so the library website said, STOP! I cannot do anything else until I find the events! (not unlike my 2-year-old kid 😅), and it stopped loading the page midway-through.

Once we identified the issue, we removed all events boxes as a temporary measure. Later in the day, we were able to put in a code fix that tells the library website to keep on going, even if it doesn’t find any events. (Ditto Recent Library News items, which pulls from the Library News Online site.)

Even better, we were able to share our solution with the university’s web department, who then implemented the fix in the main university website. More stable sites for all!

LTDS August 19 – 25, 2018

Although work on Alma issues continue in LTDS, the team was able to address a few other areas last week.  Please let us know if you have questions about other LTDS activities.

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)

  • Continued to address issues from migration including clean-up projects
  • Revised user letters/notices
  • Correct circulation transactions
  • Worked on EDI ordering/invoiceing

 

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt)

  • Setup Macs
  • Imaged and deployed additional machines

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)

  • Ingested ESSS and Commodore  collections
  • Worked on issues associated with displaying PDFS
  • Started rebuilding solr index
  • Shifted DIL workflow to Adobe
  • Scanned items for exhibit

Web/Web applications  (Jodie, Matt)

  • edited javascript
  • Addresses issues from the feedback form
  • Added to documentation

Other:

  • Upgraded archivesspace
  • continued work on AD cleanup
  • Worked with VUIT to hand-off A/V Support
  • Worked to revised the VURJ

 

LTDS August 12 – 19, 2018

The team continues to work on clean-up projects while balancing enhancements to Alma/Primo with other projects that were delayed due to implementation.

  • Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)
    • Added users and refined roles
    • Loaded orders
    • Completed registration form and implemented
    • Continued work on clean-up projects (removing duplicate barcodes)
    • Discussed TOU changes
    • Prepared for changes to the letters
    • Working through migration issues
  • Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt)
    • Replaced several smaller monitors
    • Configured a new mac mini for Central reference
    • Replaced and re-imaged several computers for staff
  • Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)
    • Continued to add more items to Fedora
    • Re-calibrated scanner
    • Continued preparation for the Islandora audit
  • Web (Matt Jodie)
    • New WordPress site
    • Updated wording on TVNews website
    • Corrected errors resulting from migration
    • Tested accessibility improvements
  • Other (all)
    • Worked with VUIT to help hand-off classroom support (fall semester trial)
    • Continued to catch up on processing new and older ETDS
    • Upgraded Archives space

The team also resolved various issues reported through INFORM.

LTDS August 6th – 10th 2018

The team continued to review  INFORM requests and prioritize various tickets and began to work on reducing some of the back-log.  Beyond working on INFORM tickets and communicating various project status, the team also worked on many items including:

  • Alma/Primo (Nancy, Jamen, Tao)
    • Completed loading missing items
    • Started configuration of Proquest EDI
    • Continued to create/modify user roles as needed
  • Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)
    • Continued to load ESSSS and Commodores to reduce back-log
    • Reviewing display changes in Archives Space
    • Scanned materials for Curator talk
  • Web (Jodie and Matt)
    • Continued to work on reported issues with areas of the new website
    • Adjust some text on the TVNews  website
    • Worked on Google Tag Manager configuration
  • Other items (All)
    • Caught up on ETDs
    • Met with Discover Garden to discuss audit process
    • Re-image and replace several older computers
    • Attended several meetings with others in the library and on campus.
    • Began preparing for migrating the library SharePoint environment to the new version
    • Started review of the Library Active Directory (AD) Organizational Unit (OU) in preparation for the new directory services (project Genesis)

 

LTDS July 30 – August 3 2018

Although the web refresh is in production and we have gone live with Alma,  the team continues to work on both systems.  The team is also reviewing additional projects that have been on hold.  A few of the items that LTDS worked on last week are below.

  • Alma/Primo (Nancy, Jamen, Tao)
    • added missing holdings records
    • EDI profile creation
    • continue work adding users
    • procedures for adding batch records
    • Adding and reviewing work orders
  • Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)
    • Several items digitized for publications
    • Continued to add items to the repository
    • Upgrade Islandora Modules
    • Reviewing the DIL operations in comparison to Washington University’s lab
    • Began preparation for Discovery Gardens review of our configurations
  • Web (Jodie and Matt)
    • Several projects related to the staff directory
    • Continued to review methods to optimize the website
  • ETD (Nancy)
    • During the migration,  processing ETDs were slowed down. Work to resolve the back log is proceeding
  • 3D Lab (Scott)
    • Moved and performed some maintenance on the printers
  • Other items (All)
    • Responding to various Inform tickets
    • Adding documentation for the web site,  Alma/Primo, and other projects
    • Investigating power options in Baker
    • Continued to work on printer/scanner issues

 

ILLiad upgraded on May 20th

The ILLiad server was upgraded on May 20th after discussions with ILL.  The timing of the upgrade was moved up in order to allow ILL (Central ILL, Law, and Biomed), the ILS Implementation team, and LTDS to work on integration with Alma.  The upgrade went well and most clients were updated without any incident (right mouse click on the icon an select run as administrator).  LTDS has received a couple of issue reports since the upgrade.  The initial issue with sending out notifications has been corrected.  We are still investigating an issue when attempting to view library information in the OCLC Holdings tab.  We hope to have this resolved shortly.

Please contact LTDS if you have any questions or concerns.

Microsoft Updates

Earlier this year, Microsoft pushed out an update for all of their products to address a security issue. This update is significant in size and will require some time to be applied. Please allow your computer to update. It may even restart a number of times and may take a couple of hours to complete. We apologize for the inconvenience, but this must be done to assure the security of your data. Thank you.

Network outages Monday January 15th

Several people reported issues when attempting to access anything online on Monday.  The problem was caused by an issue with one piece of network hardware.  The problem with the hardware was corrected in less than 2 hours.  VUIT takes network outages very seriously and were able to isolate and correct the issue quickly.

If you experience connectivity issues,  please call LTDS.  The Library is often one of the first areas to notice a network issue so quickly reporting the issue is helpful.