LTDS September 23-29 2018

The team continued to work on various issues related to systems including Alma.  In addition,  LTDS began planning for informational session in a couple of week.

 

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)

  • Continued work on documentation site
  • revising letters and troubleshooting
  • User management

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt, Nancy, Jamen)

  • Ordering new equipment
  • Updating/cleaning up the inventory.

 

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)

  • Continued to ingest  collections
  • Preparing servers for Islandora upgrade/migration

Web/Web applications (Jodie, Scott, Matt)

  • Work on the Adopt-a-book site
  • Updating wordpress

Other (all):

  • Troubleshooting bitmovin and filesystem issues
  • 3-D printing
  • Resolving various reported issues.

 

 

LTDS Sept16.-22nd

LTDS continues to work on known issues in Alma as well as new issues as they are discovered.  In addition,  LTDS worked on other projects and issues related to future migrations and current digital collections.

 

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)

  • Configured requests for Alma
  • Cleanup projects
  • Continued to work on documentation
  • Worked on access issues with some accounts

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt, Nancy, Jamen)

  • Beta testing new version of DeepFreeze on the Mac  (this will allow us to update the MacOS to the newest
  • Deployed new laptops to some staff

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)

  • Continued uploading items
  • Prepared several scanning requests for ingest
  • Reviewed needed changes for Islandora and started the process
  • Added images for the collection level folders

Web/Web applications (Jodie, Scott, Matt)

  • Meetings and continued work on the Adopt-a-book project
  • Working on placing events calendar into the library template.
  • Worked on Divinity exhibit

Other (all):

  • Started work on the SEM project
  • Continued review various projects  that have been delayed
  • Worked on various informs.

 

INFORMs resolved during the week

 

Communicating to groups via email.  What are the options?

Communicating to groups via email.  What are the options?

 

There are several ways to communicate to multiple people via email.  The simplest is to include everyone in the email TO: field but that is not always convenient. Other options include personal distribution lists, shared distribution lists, email lists, mail enable shared public folders, and shared exchange mailboxes.  A description of these options are below with a few of the pros and cons for each method.

 

Personal Distribution List: Created by an individual for their personal use by selecting “New Contact Group” in Outlook contacts.

 

 

 

 

Pros:

  • Can be created and edited by the creator at any time
  • Allows for all members to be seen by clicking on the “+” symbol near the list name in the email

 

 

 

 

Cons:

  • Only usable by the creator of the list
  • Needs to be maintained by the creator
  • Can have the same name as a shared distribution list

 

 

Shared Distribution List: Very similar to the personal distribution list but centrally maintained and is available to everyone with access to the library address book.

 

Pros:

  • Maintained centrally so everyone has access to the list
  • Allows the email addresses of the members to be seen

Cons:

  • Must be add the address book
  • Occasionally problematic from the web outlook client.

 

 

ListServ (email list) : email discussion list.  These have email addresses similar to your-list@list.vanderbilt.edu

Pros:

  • Allows users to send email to a single email address and have it send to many people
  • Provides an easy way to have discussions with a group of people without needing to remember everyone’s email address

 

Cons:

  • Cannot easily view who is on the list
  • Managed by a few people (not just LTDS)

 

Shared Public folders:  folder on the exchange server that can receive email and store other outlook items (calendars)

Pros:

  • Can be shared by multiple people
  • Can receive email

 

Cons:

  • Being phased out by VUIT and Microsoft
  • Unable to reply as the user
  • Unable to set auto-replies

Share Exchange Mailboxes (SEMs): a shared email address/mailbox

Pros:

  • Can be accessed by multiple people
  • Subfolders can be create maintain (same as personal mailbox)
  • Can create forwarding and auto-reply rules
  • Can be accessed directly via the web or through outlook client

 

Cons:

  • If accessing from Outlook client, the email address must be setup as a different account to allow the send as feature.

 

LTDS the September 9-14, 2018

This week LTDS spent a great deal of time working on Alma projects  and web cleanup projects.  In addition the team started to review non-Alma related projects and organizing a list of current Alma cleanup projects.

 

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)

  • Working on documentation and training materials for Analytics
  • Continue to work on cleanup projects,  since the sandbox is partially available additional tests are possible
  • Ongoing work to setup roles in Alma and standardize the workflow.

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt, Nancy, Jamen)

  • Deploy several new machines and reviewed hardware needs
  • Updated Mac OS in the Central Lobby
  • Investigated using the beta Mac deep freeze client

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)

  • Continued to add materials to both Digital Collections and Slave Societies
  • Work on the Adopt-a-book project
  • Added new Silas Clack collection.
  • Met with DGI to discuss next steps in the Islandora Audit

Web/Web applications (Jodie, Jamen, Matt)

  • Work on the Adopt-a-book project
  • Continued to work on interface accessibility improvements for the public site.
  • Worked on requested changes to the ArchivesSpace user interface,

Other (all):

  • Resolving various issues reported through INFORM
  • Reviewing outstanding projects

 

INFORMs resolved during the week

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

 

What’s New in the Digital Imaging Laboratory

Successful digitization results in a digital image that best depicts the physical item being digitized as accurately as possible. To ensure truthful color reproduction, color values must be matched to a known target.

Library Technology and Digital Services recently acquired X-rite’s ColorChecker, color reference targets, and camera calibration software for use in the Digital Imaging Laboratory. A digital image of the ColorChecker’s reference target is captured by each digital camera in the laboratory. These images are uploaded in ColorChecker’s software to create a DNG file. The DNG file is used to create a color profile. The color profile is then used across the lab’s image editing software to calibrate or recalibrate the color values of images created by the laboratory’s cameras.

The following samples from Le Vingtieme Siecle illustrate a digital image before color calibration and after color calibration.

Before:

After:

It is easy to discern the difference in color values. The color values of the bottom image best match the color values of the actual page.The ability to ensure color accuracy is vital to any digitization project.