UNF Library Systems

Making the Move to eBooks

2010-12-07T16:43:00.001-05:00

I've been away for a long time and I think both of the people who subscribe to this blog have mentioned my absence in passing. Promoting, acquiring and implementing new products like Primo Central, Libguides, and Digital Commons, takes a lot of time. Always in the background has been my more direct liaison work. I am several other librarians are getting the message loud and clear that the schools want ebooks. Well, we are working on it. In fact, a recent offering from Netlibrary they call the Science and Technology Subject Sets looks very intriguing to me. These subjects include:
Astronomy & Physics
Biology & Life Sciences
Chemistry & Materials Science - 2010
Energy Technologies
Engineering & Technology
Environment & Earth Sciences
Green Technology

These titles, if purchased, would be readable on a broad variety of devices and not just via computer. As liaison to the CCEC, I'm particularly interested in the Green Technology section. This seems to be a hot topic right now and we could probabaly use the additional titles in our collection. One of the key incentives to increasing our netlibrary holdings is that title for title, the netlibrary ebooks are more popular than our print collection. Now, if only we could get Patron Driven Acquisition going, then I would really have more time to write.

Does the Rise of Mobile Computing mean the Fall of the Library Lab?

2010-09-02T11:02:00.000-04:00

We are entering what some call the Post-PC era. That is a time when people move away from traditional desktop computers to a new form factor. The most recognizable are the iPad and iPhone but many other examples exist. While that may or may not be the ultimate destination of the world's consumers, it is a basic vision shared by others. It's not a ground breaking one either. The growing power of the smartphones along with increased sales suggests that many of our students now possess the ability to access all of the library's content in the palm of their hands. It is reasonable to assume that the number of students with this ability will continue to rise. So how does this effect the library and the 357 public computers it supports and what will the students need in terms of computing from the library in the future? In order to answer this, we need to understand what the current and future generations of smartphones and Internet tablets can do.

The modern smartphone or Internet tablet is, essentially, a hand-held computer. It has a keyboard, either physical or virtual, a high resolutions display (often greater than DVD quality) and a host of applications including a modern web browser and is typically smaller than the ultramobilePC or netbook. While many of the applications are specialized or focused on entertainment, it is the web browser that defines the device. With a modern web browser students may access the catalog, library databases, read ebooks, work within Blackboard, and create documents using web tools like Google Docs. They can do almost everything on a device like the iPhone or Nokia N900 that they can do on the library lab computers. Exceptions, for the moment, include specialty software packages like SPSS and Minitab thought these are not likely to be too far behind. In fact, Zonetec's Synergy 3000 Statistical Process Control is available as a web application. While Synergy 3000 is not the tool of choice at this university, it successfully demonstrates that the capability for web-based statistical applications exists. Simply put, if you can do it on a desktop computer, you can do it on today's hand held device.

So what does the student body need with a computer lab? From the perspective of the individual student, they need to be able to create and print large bodies of work. Neither the physical thumbpad nor the virtual keyboard lends themselves well to typing thousands of words in a format one would wish to deliver to a professor. However, many use thumbpads to produced thousands of words in text messages with their cell phones. As for format, creating a polished document on a 3.5" screen is another chore most would not undertake willingly. However newer smartphones are capable of taking advantage of touchscreen technology to perform complicated text editing and younger users are growing up accustomed to using these tools. So it would seem that specialty applications not withstanding, the library lab is more of a convenience than necessity to the individual student with most of the computer's value coming from the full sized keyboard.

But what about handheld computers? Handhelds, it would seem, do not lend themselves well to group collaboration efforts, another critical function for our student population. What group of students would willingly sit crouched about a 3.5" screen trying to make sense of the others edits? Interestingly, smartphones like the HTC Evo 4G (among others) supports HDMI out so a group could connect one of their phones to a large screen monitor or TV for all to see. Likewise they could attach a USB hub and multiple keyboards for the text input. Imagine a group of students, each with their own smartphone or tablet, collaborating on a research paper using a web-based application and seeing the changes in real time because they could connect one of their phones to a 50" LCD in a library group study room. That technology exists today. Additionally most of today's top tier devices include cameras and video capture capabilities so students wishing to create or add video to their projects could do so with their hand-held. That's a feature the overwhelming majority of the library's lab computers currently do not have.

Connectivity is critical to the modern world and has been a long standing draw for libraries. However, the current generation of hand-helds now offer speeds of up to 5Mbps which is likely what most users experience at the university on the wireless guest network. It is far less than a wired connection but plenty for streaming video or working online. The upcoming 4G standard is expected to reach speeds of up to 20 times the current rate. As a result, the library will not likely have much to offer on this front in the intermediate future

Given this, the library lab appears to be a technological tool whose day is rapidly approaching an end. But the facts do not fit this vision. Let's begin with what we know about the library in its current state. The library labs are heavily used. In fact, use is going up with an overall increase in logins of over 40% from CY 2009 over CY2008 (see Core Lab Data 1 below). During peak peak hours (10AM-6PM M-TH) the library must open 2102A as an overflow room and has recently begun opening 2102B as well. The library is also home to 80% of all of the printing performed through the campus pay-for-print system. We also know that the students want more group study space. This has been a top request for years on the library surveys.

So why are the labs so popular when they can seemingly be so easily replaced? One primary reason for this is simple, the sophisticated hand held device that provides the kind of functionality to replace the desktop has not made it into the hands of the mainstream market. One of the most popular of these devices, the iPhone (including the iPad and iPod Touch), has less than 1% of the total web market share. So, the long-term desirability of the library lab environment appears to spring from its specialty applications and space as well as supporting the technology have-nots. These features, however, do not explain why the library is, by far, the most popular lab on campus.

Core Lab Data 1.

Lab CPUs 2008 Logins 2009 Logins Growth

Reference 36 58,821 74,023 25.84%

West 128 205,070 271,336 32.31%

Periodicals 5 8,264 10,739 29.95%

Group Study 18 1,876 14,564 676.33%

Classroom A 40 4,401 12,285 179.14%

Classroom B 40 1,240 3,401 174.27%

Laptops 37 4,048 8,043 98.69%

TOTAL 304 279,672 394,391 41.02%

The library offers one thing that the other campus labs do not. Library patrons have a one stop shop for all of their information and content creation needs. No other lab on campus offers personal research support, application assistance, bibliographic instruction, or access to unique physical materials. The library is the only place a student needs to go to research and create. It is for these reasons that we are compelled to continue to support large numbers of computers in the library. Unless the library is willing to branch out to other locations and provide the same level of service and materials, it will remain the only one-stop solution for student research needs. Given the demands placed upon lab computers and the call for increased group study area, the logical response is to plan for more collaborative space without reducing the current count of computers. The anticipated growth of UNF from ~16,000 to 25,000 students over the next few years is another matter to consider.

LibX Updated for Solr

2010-08-19T11:47:00.001-04:00

Last week FCLA replaced the search technology behind our OPAC. The new open source Solr seems to be working well and is expected to save money over licensing the commercial product Endeca. Unfortunately it broke our Libx plug-in and the other liaisons have quite clear that they want it fixed. I am pleased to say that this has been resolved. If all works properly, your browser should alert you to the new update but, if not, you can get it from the links to the right. So go get it and start searching.

Getting Ready for Fall #1 The New and Improved Lab

2010-08-18T13:54:00.001-04:00

I've not blogged in a while but that is not to say that I haven't been working. In fact, this has been my busiest summer yet. The good news is that we have made some improvements that should be appreciated by the students and faculty.

As the title states, we've upgraded our lab. 95 new computers were purchased to replace some of our aging machines. The new machines have 2.93GHz Core i3 processors and 3GB of RAM so they should be plenty fast. They also have Windows 7 which we have found performs significantly better than our old Vista image. Finally, in response to the many requests from students, we have installed SPSS and Minitab on all of our lab PCs. This last part is really exciting. I believe we have opened the door to truly enhancing the student experience in the library by providing more of the tools needed at this university. In the future I hope to be able to add other titles like Photoshop.

The new computers were deployed in the Reference Lab (second floor), Periodicals lab (third floor) and the west half of the West Lab (second floor). We also placed iMacs in the first floor group study rooms. The iMacs have built-in mics and cameras for audio/video capture so groups can have a little privacy when creating those A/V projects.

If you would like to see other features or enhancements in the library labs, sound off in the comments section.

Six Sigma and UNF

2010-05-21T13:03:00.001-04:00

I'm very excited to have been invited to Robert Augspurger's HSA 6758 Quality Management in Health Care class. Robert has asked that I speak about Six Sigma, my experiences and how it works in the health care world. We'll likely review the DMAIC process, the 15 Deliverables and the Project Charter I use here at UNF. This comes on the heals of of Barbara Tuck's special workshop with his class to show students how to search our databases to find pertinent information on six sigma projects undertaken in health care and should be another great opportunity to show how the library can be a partner in education at UNF.

Password Problems

2010-05-10T15:51:00.001-04:00

Last week we discovered that there are some special characters allowed for UNF accounts that do not work with the library automation system. The characters $ + # % & are not accepted when trying to log in and renew items are check library account status. We have requested changes to library and ITS web pages. In the mean time, keep using tough passwords but, please, avoid the above characters.

Elluminate Lessons Learned

2010-04-21T16:26:00.002-04:00

For those interested, Lauren and I tried to create a short how-to class using Elluminate. It's a very cool tool but there are some things that might be helpful to first time users. Below is our list of Lessons Learned after using Elluminate for the first time. Enjoy!

Michael's Lessons:

Elluminate defaults to 1 speaker and video broadcaster at a time. You have to change this in the settings.
If you are not going to use a headset, you need to turn the microphone gain down to about 33%. Using a headset helps a lot.
Even on a LAN, video quality should be kept low or medium with no more than 2 feeds.
Get the presenter in early to get settled. There is always a little adjusting to be done.
The number of reserved slots needs to be set high. If people come and go, their reserved slot may not be released.
Chrome does not display management features.

Lauren's Lessons:

Don't fidget too much.
Make sure that the camera is straight ahead instead of at an angle and as far away as possible. Part of this is making sure that the main screen in a dual screen setup is set to the monitor with the camera and physically moving monitors to accommodate this.
Practice using the instructor capabilities a lot before the session. Can use LearnCentral vRoom for this.
Sharing individual applications is much easier than doing a Web Tour or sharing the entire desktop.
Open as many applications and webpages as you can prior to starting the session, so you are not constantly waiting on the screen to load or having to navigate while talking.
The camera is close, so it is not necessary to exaggerate motions or facial expressions as if you were teaching in front of a crowd that is farther away from you.
Get more comfortable with silence and talking to yourself as you will not be able to read people's facial expressions and it is not as easy to get verbal feedback.
Prepare a lesson plan with examples beforehand. Pick relevant examples that demand several search strategies and will be successful.
Speak slowly and work on transistions from one resource to another.
Make sure to explain everything you want the students to know as you will not be able to easily clarify if someone is confused.
Make sure to use the mouse cursor to highlight different features of applications as viewers cannot see pointing.
Try to look up and straight into camera as much as possible.

Morgan and Claypool Synthesis Trial for CCEC

2010-03-29T11:11:00.001-04:00

Starting immediately Morgan & Claypool's Synthesis is available to UNF from now until the end of April. The Synthesis Digital Library may be accessed directly while on campus or from off site by logging into your library account. For more information, you can also see our flyer.

A Possible Resource for Engineering and Computer Science

2010-03-09T11:47:00.001-05:00

A representative from Morgan & Claypool Publishers has contacted the library with an offer for a free trial of their Synthesis Digital Library. I'm joining the Engineering faculty meeting today where I hope to get some feedback on the material. The Synthesis Digital Library focuses on content provided by prominent contributors in their respective fields. Those fields include Biomedical Engineering, Computer & Information Science, Digital Circuits, Electromagnetics & Antennas, General Engineering, Technology and Mathematics and Signal Processing & Communications.

SSH into Osprey

2010-02-08T16:51:00.002-05:00

It seems that every semester UNF students are assigned a task that requires logging into Osprey. This isn't hard but sometimes students don't know where to begin so I've put together a super short video to show you how to do it on a Mac. I'll try to get something together on a PC but it takes a lot more effort for me to create a desktop PC video so..... :)

Have a look below and see if this helps.

Firefox 3.6 and LibX

2010-02-01T13:31:00.001-05:00

A new and improved version of Firefox was release on January 21, 2010. New features include Personas, which is a new type of theme, full screen native video support and a variety of technical enhancements. If you really want to know more, check out their release notes page.

I've hardly had time to check it out so I'm not sure how different the overall experience will be but it doesn't work will all of the old extras so you may have to make a change. If you take a look at your Add-ons, you will probably see a list of themes and extensions and if you are running the LibX toolbar, it will display an alert showing it needs to be updated. I've just finished the new build so you can get it working in a matter of seconds by clicking on the update button or by clicking on the appropriate LibX extension in the files section of my blog (to the right ->).

Engineering Books Ordered Last Fall, 2009

2010-02-01T11:36:00.001-05:00

The Engineering list for Fall, 2009 is a bit longer than Construction.

1. Nanoscale processes on insulating surfaces /by Enrico Gnecco & Marek Szymonsk
2. Robotics : control and programming /J. Srinivas, R.V. Dukkipati, K. Ramji.
3. Photovoltaic systems engineering /Roger A. Messenger and Jerry Ventre.
4. Operations management for MBAs
5. Gravitation : Foundation and Frontiers
6. The ComSoc guide to next generation optical transport : SDH/SONET/OTN /Huub v
7. Architecting resilient systems : accident avoidance and survival and recovery from disruptions /Scott Jackson.
8. Alternative energy systems and applications /B.K. Hodge.
9. Emerging nanotechnology power : nanotechnology R & D and business trends in the Asia Pacific Rim /editor, Lerwen Liu.
10. Martian outpost : the challenges of establishing a human settlement on Mars/Erik Seedhouse.
11. Acoustic microscopy /G.A.D. Briggs, O.V. Kolosov.
12. Advanced microsystems for automotive applications
13. EMC of Analog Integrated Circuits /Jean-Michel Redoute, Michiel Steyaert.
14. Ultra-fast material metrology /Alexander Horn.
15. Photovoltaics in the urban environment : lessons learnt from larg-scale projects /edited Bruno Gaiddon, Henk Kaan and Donna Munro.
16. Mind, machine, and morality : toward a philosophy of human-technology symbiosis /by Peter A. Hancock.
17. Electrocatalysis of direct methanol fuel cells : from fundamentals to applications /edited by Hansan Liu and Jiujun Zhang.
18. Advanced design of mechanical systems : from analysis to optimization /edited by Jorge A.C. Ambrosio, Peter Eberhard.
19. Escaping the bonds of Earth : the fifties and the sixties /Ben Evans.
20. The foundations of signal integrity Huray, Paul G.
21. Flight physics : essentials of aeronautical disciplines and technology, with historical notes /E. Torenbeek, H. Wittenberg.
22. Fundamentals of high-frequency CMOS analog integrated circuits /Duran Leblebici, Yusuf Leblebici.
23. Seawater desalination : conventional and renewable energy processes /Andrea Cipollina, Giorgio Micale, Lucio Rizzuti, editors.
24. Dynamic offset compensated CMOS amplifiers /Johan F. Witte, Kofi A.A. Makinwa, Johan H. Huijsing.
25. Crack analysis in structural concrete : theory and applications /Zihai Shi.
26. Finite element method in machien design /V. Ramamurti.
27. Up and running with Autodesk Inventor Simulation 2010 : a step-by-step guide to engineering design solutions /Wasim Younis.
28. Introduction to wind energy systems : basics, technology and operation /Hermann-Josef Wagner, Jyotirmay Mathur.
29. Surface design : applications in bioscience and nanotechnology /edited by Renate Foerch, Holger Schoenherr, and A. Tobias A. Jenkins.
30. A fine line : how design strategies are shaping the future of business /Hartmut Esslinger.
31. Foundations in applied nuclear engineering analysis /Glenn E. Sjoden.
32. The grand energy transition : the rise of energy gases, sustainable life and growth, and the next great economic expansion /Robert A. Hefner, III.
33. Dark side of the moon : Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the space race Biddle, Wayne.
34. Essentials of distributed generation systems /Gregory W. Massey.

I noticed a couple of titles haven't been invoiced so be sure to check the library catalog for availability.

Construction Books Ordered Last Fall, 2009

2010-01-29T16:28:00.001-05:00

Here is a list of the Construction books purchased this Fall, 2009. If you don't see the kinds of things you are looking for, let me know.

1. E-city : digital networks and cities of the future /Paolo Fusero.
2. Exploding the myths of modern architecture /Malcolm Millais.
3. Total facilities management /Brian Atkin, Adrian Brooks.
4. Construction administration for architects /Greg Winkler, Gary C. Chiumento.
5. CCC/CCE certification study guide.
6. Artificial intelligence applications for improved software engineering development : new prospects /Farid Meziane and Sunil Vadera, editors.
7. Construction purchasing & supply chain management /W.C. Benton, Linda F. McHenry.
8. Interrogating pop in architecture : architecture design innovation program /edited by Daniela Konrad
9. Icons of American architecture, from the Alamo to the World Trade Center, v.1-2 /Donald Langmead.
10. Greening our built world : costs, benefits, and strategies Kats, Gregory.
11. Sustainable construction : green building design and delivery /Charles J. Kibert.
12. Building acoustics and vibration : theory and practice /by Osama A.B. Hassan.
13. Project and cost engineers' handbook /edited by Kenneth K. Humphreys.
14. Environment, technology and sustainability /Hocine Bougdah and Stephen Sharples ; with Peter F. Smith .
15. Smart building in a changing climate /editors, Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Machiel van Dorst, Arjan van Timmeren.

The Library Liaison Program

2010-01-26T17:19:00.001-05:00

The library liaison program began this summer so I am a bit behind in my blog. Fortunately, I'm not too far behind in my work. This summer I became the liaison to the College of Computing, Engineering & Construction (CCEC). My role is to be the goto librarian for that school. This requires that I learn about the courses they are offering, research objectives and needs that may be fulfilled by the Thomas G. Carpenter library. I'll work with CCEC faculty and students to determine which resources they need which includes books, periodicals, videos, software, training, etc. So far I have visited their faculty meetings, a couple of classes, and a couple of orientations. The reception has been very warm and positive but there is so much more we could be doing. In subsequent posts I'll talk about the books we've purchased, programs we are developing and technologies we hope to introduce to make the educational experience for everyone at UNF richer and more successful. Next up, the books of 2009.

Web Printing is Now Available at UNF

2010-01-26T16:51:00.001-05:00

LIMES

2010-01-20T08:28:00.001-05:00

The Library Inventory Management E-System or LIMES.

Problem Statement

The library's ability to effectively track unauthorized departure of physical material is too limited with the current system. The rate of false positives and negatives is too high.
The library is incapable of producing an accurate inventory of physical materials without special funding for additional staff.
The process of discharging library material is labor intensive and there may be significant delays and errors in the process.

Library Business Requirements
I propose separating the business requirements into two categories. Requirements will consist of the absolute minimum functionality acceptable to the library. Preferences will consist of those feature we would like to see. This category should be for those features we do not have now.

Requirements

Must work with Aleph ILS
Support the following formats:

Books
Optical Media (e.g. CD/DVD etc.)

Does not overlap/conflict with other campus systems
Support standard protocol
Unobtrusive hard to I.D. (students will not easily recognize and remove it.)

Preferences

Improve inventory process efficiency
Improve shelf reading efficiency
Support Electronic Devices (e.g. laptops, ebook readers, etc)
Improve security over current magnetic
Automate check-in

More Print/Copy Issues

2009-12-17T14:22:00.001-05:00

The color webprint issues remain unresolved and now we have a new glitch. The color copier devices reads that the charge for color copies is 9¢ per page. That is incorrect and it will charge 50¢ per page. The appropriate people have been informed and we are waiting to hear back. I'll post up when I have more information.

Web Printing is Now Available at UNF, but.....

2009-12-17T14:15:00.003-05:00

Web printing is a great tool I've been asking Auxiliary Services to add since about May. It enables patrons to use their own computers to print to our pay-4-print system without any form of configuration or driver installation. The only limitation is the file support which is pretty good but does omit .odt or the open document format. I've made a brief video walk-through so you can take a look.

Now for the down side. Color printing is not working properly. If you send a file through the web printing page to the color queue, you will be charged for a color print but it will come out of one of the monochrome printers. I've submitted a ticket and spoken with Auxiliary Services and others and will give an update once I hear something back

Looks like web printing is working properly now.

Process Maps

2009-08-27T17:29:00.001-04:00

If you know me, you know I like to create process maps. Since we had some confusion around creating Special Borrower cards for Dean's Leadership Council members, it seemed like a perfect candidate for mapping. Have a look at the file area if you want to see it. This one is rough and I'll update it as I get more information. I'll also add more over time.

Another LibX Update

2009-08-26T16:28:00.002-04:00

Per request from the Library Collection Development Liaisons, I have updated LibX to include the SUL Union Catalog. Click on the appropriate link to the right for the latest version.

Note that contextual menus may still only search the UNF catalog. That is adjustable through the LibX tool menu.

Select the Context Menu tab and choose which fields you wish to search.

Be sure to leave comments if you have thoughts about the update.

LibX Update

2009-08-18T09:58:00.001-04:00

I recently discovered that the libx plugin for Firefox did not work with version 3.5 so I have updated it. Some of you have found it to be helpful with your liaison work. If you were not aware, you can right click on any text and choose to search our catalog by title. In any event, look to the right column where I keep links to files for the latest version or click here to download.

Aleph 19 Upgrade: The Final Week

2009-07-14T16:02:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, July 21 FCLA will upgrade our Aleph Library System from version 18 to version 19. Our system will be down from approximately 5:45AM to 10:00AM. The library OPAC will work but the patron empowerment features, like holds and renewals, will not. Here is how the upgrade process should proceed.

Some of you have been asked to to assist with the testing in preparation for this conversion and department heads of affected areas have been given a checklist to verify functionality using the test client. If you were given a checklist, please review the operations and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I will be coming by this week to install the Aleph 19 Production client on your machines. It will not work until the new system is brought online Tuesday.

On Monday, July 20 I will install the new offline circulation module on to the circ desk. In the highly unlikely event that Aleph goes down Monday evening, circulation events should be recorded manually. Please insure that all student workers understand this or library transactions will be lost.

On Tuesday, July 21 all circulation should be handled through the Al500 Offline client until we are given the go ahead to switch over to production. Once that happens, I will share through a lib-all email. At that point I will be at the circ desk ensuring that the morning’s data is loaded properly. If you have any issues with the new client, please email me and I will do my best to find a solution as soon as possible. I am setting the circ desk and the OPAC as my first priorities.

I do not expect this process to be difficult or painful. FCLA has put a great deal of effort into preparing for this and we have been testing for quite some time as well.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know as soon as possible.

Aleph 19 Offline Circ Client

2009-07-14T14:36:00.002-04:00

In testing for the Aleph 19 upgrade, we made a couple of discoveries. First, the version 19 offline client is different and must be installed. I was hoping to use the v18 client but FCLA says no. Second, the path to the dat file created by the client is slightly different. Instead of going to T:\AL500\OFFCIRC\FILES\NFU50\OFFCIRC.DAT we need to go to T:\AL500\OFFCIRC\FILES\USM50\OFFCIRC.DAT Not much of a change but certainly enough to throw people off if they are not comfortable with the process.

Aleph to Banner Data Transmission

2009-07-13T15:49:00.004-04:00

This week we met with UNF ITS and Finance to go over the progress of our Aleph to Banner export project. The news was very good. FCLA sent over the data from Aleph and ITS successfully imported it into our Banner Financial System. The process appears to match what I envisioned from the outset. When the data is imported into Banner, all of the fields will be filled an our business office will simply need to approve the transaction without entering much, if any, data.

Our next steps will require ITS to automate the ingestion of our index number. This number is the same 99% of the time so that will be part of the approval process for our business office. We will also have an "accuracy report" produced, again by ITS, to tell us what was entered into banner and what was left out. Finally, we decided to ask ITS to script the import process to run nightly which is, of course, much faster than our current manual process which is only done once a week.

We are going to retest the rejection process of PCARD transactions. The initial thought was to automatically reject any invoice without the proper n-number and ingest any invoice with an n-number but we must also reject invoices that contain the text PCARD even if it has a legitimate n-number. We will perform one more export to validate the process and then go live. Hopefully this will all be wrapped up before Fall.

Browser Functionality

2009-07-13T15:45:00.000-04:00

Recently a couple of links were sent my way that my browser wouldn't render properly. This is particularly irritating to me. I believe a browser should work properly, quickly, and conveniently in that order. Unfortunately my browser of choice at the time (Flock) was not up to the challenge. Sure, it has a ton of cool features that I love but it is not particularly quick and seemed to be falling flat on the proper aspect as well. I decided to have a look by running it through the acid test or acid3test to be more precise.

The Acid tests are part of the Web Standards Project developed to discern a browser's support of html standards, particularly DOM and Javascript. By going to http://acid3.acidtests.org/ you can see how your browser rates. I did this with the Mac version of Flock and scored a 70. I didn't know how good or bad that was but I wasn't terribly encouraged so I ran a couple of others through the mill. Firefox, unsurprisingly did little better with a 72. I say unsurprisingly because Flock is built from Firefox. Next I tried Opera 9. It did much better with an 85. Finally I tried Safari and scored a perfect 100. Safari is very fast and apparently supports html standards very well. It does fall short on a few of the features that I have grown accustomed to, though so I decided to see if I could fix that. I found keywurl which restores my keyword search functionality I grew to love in Flock and Firefox. Other plug-ins allowed me to try to replicate Firefox's "Awesome Bar". Oddly, the next time I hit the acid3 site, my score had dropped to 99. After uninstalling the other plug-ins (keywurl did not have an impact), I made it back to 100. This might explain the disparity between Flock and Firefox given that Flock uses the same engine but is a very heavily "plugged-in" version of Firefox.

So I guess the lesson here is that you can't have it all. Speed, compatibility, and functionality are truly warring with each other and it looks like you are going to have to take your pick. Oh and in case you were wondering. Internet Explorer 7 on Windows scored a 5 on the Acid3 Test. No, not 50 but FIVE! IE8 reportedly is much better with a score of 20. That is particularly disappointing considering all of the things Internet Explorer can't do and it isn't even very fast.

Aleph Version 19 and Receipt Printers

2009-07-01T11:14:00.006-04:00

On July 21, 2009 UNF is scheduled to undergo the upgrade from Aleph 18 to Aleph 19. As part of our preparation for that event, we are looking at how v19 handles receipt printing. UNF already has receipt printing configured and if your school doesn't I highly recommend it. Contact Ellen Bishop at FCLA for help with this one. She and Robb Waltner (then Head of Access Services) put together the templates which are now part of our client package and carry over from version to version.
What does not carry over are the settings which I would like to share in case anyone else needs to do this. I must say in advance that I had intended to do this myself this week but Robb (now Head of Acquisitions) beat me to it). Once you have v.19 Test installed and your receipt printer set as your default printer you must implement the following steps:
1. Set the receipt printer to be the default system printer.
2. Edit the circ\TAB\print.ini to P for loan and return receipt.
3. Run htmlprint.exe (in alephcom\bin) and set the margins to 3,2,3,2. Note: This is different from v18.
4. Edit alephcom\TAB\alephcom.ini to NewPrintType=Y
5. In the Circ client under Aleph - Options - set up loan options select "all loans in one receipt".
6. In the Circ client under Aleph - Options - set up return options select "print return receipt"
7. Edit alephcom\TAB\alephcom.ini to defaultPrintConfig=0 in order to bypass the print preview.

That should get the receipt printers humming. Again thanks to Robb for doing the labor on this one.

Aleph2Banner: The Problem

2009-04-20T17:13:00.001-04:00

The Aleph2 Banner project is an attempt to automatically export book vendor payment information from Aleph into our Banner financial systems. Our current process has library staff enter this data into Aleph, then pass paperwork to the library business office where it is re-entered into Banner and then, entered one final time into an Access Database for reporting purposes. The work performed by our business person on these tasks is said to average about 20 hours per week. If we could automate this task, we stand to make a huge impact on our workload.

With some direction from FCLA, we've found a report (ACQ-16) that we believe can take the place of our Access database report but it will requrie Acquisitions and Serials to complete the budget information in Aleph. Up until now, they have not entered assigned budgets which meant that the report shows a negative balanace after the first payment.

Other issues include the use of library specific codes for the vendors that do not match Finance's vendor codes and the fact that purchases made with our PCard are automatically entered into Banner so they will have to be bypassed somehow in the export or import process.

The projet team includes Serials, Acquisitions and Systems with support from ITS, Fianance and FCLA. Our goal is to implement this new process for the start of the new fiscal year, July 1 2009. Over the next few weeks we hope to make subtantial progress which I will document here.

LibX and Acquisitions

2009-04-03T10:30:00.001-04:00

Ever since Robb Waltner took over Acquisitions, we've been looking at ways to modernize the book ordering process. Robb is a great manager and has some excellent ideas including the use of Blackwell's Collection Manager. Unfortunately one of the useful features of CM doesn't work properly for us. CM has the ability to use an open url to quickly search our catalog for duplicate titles. Hopefully this will be corrected in the near future but, in the mean time, I've put together a little toolbar using LibX. LibX is a site that allows you to build a toolbar for Firefox or IE that searches your catalog. I built one a long time ago but didn't see the use. Fortunately, Robb did. Try the UNF versions of the LibX toolbar if you would like. It's pretty raw but it allows you to search UNF Mango as well as drag and drop terms to Google Scholar. There's even a shameless link to this blog. Hey, if you don't like it, make your own.

Laptops Return to XP, Students Save Time!

2009-04-02T13:43:00.000-04:00

Back in February I wrote about the good and bad of Vista on the laptops. Well, as it turns out the bad outweighs the good and our laptops have returned to WindowsXP. When it was all said and done, speed mattered most. Here are some numbers that should make it easy to understand. Starting up our laptops took 53 seconds with XP, 73 seconds with Vista. That's over 37% longer to boot up with Vista. Login times were worse. It too one minute and 35 seconds (1:35) for XP to log in and get a useable browser one screen. Vista took two minutes and fifty seven seconds (2:57) to do the same. That's more than 86% longer. Overall from off to ready to use, XP took 2:28 to Vista's 4:10 (~69% longer). Yep, close to 5 minutes from the time you check out a laptop to the time you get to use it not including the amount of time it takes to type in a user name and password. Heaven forbid you mistype or have to reboot. This was just unacceptable and the return the XP seems to be just fine with the students. In fact, I've not heard any complaints about XP or the rollback to Office 2003. Now I see why Dell charges users to downgrade to XP. I still wouldn't pay it, though. :)

Aleph Reports Downloads

2009-03-24T08:51:00.000-04:00

Due to increasing demand, I'm starting to put some collected Aleph reports online to download. The first is Circ08 which includes annual circulation data by sublibrary and collection. Each tab represents an entire fiscal year starting with 2004/2005. I'll add 08/09 at the end of this year.

As I find and create more general interest reports, I'll post them on this blog. You should see links in the right hand column.

Aleph v.19

2009-02-19T16:23:00.001-05:00

This summer FCLA will begin to migrate the SULs to Aleph version 19. Already available is a draft time line which shows that we will have full test servers available to us by the end of April and the upgrades will begin in July. I will primarily focus on working with FCLA and ITS to ensure that our many automated jobs like the PLIF, CashExport and Banner Export continue to work smoothly. In addition, Nick, Jose and I will ensure that the test client is installed on all of the appropriate computers so that library staff can take a look and see what is new and also run through their workflow to ensure that everything still works. On FCLA's upgrade agenda are some webinars to help library staff transition but we do not expect to see a big change in features with the exception of E-Reserves. If you are interested in jumping right in, the v19 users guides may be found here.

Revisiting Vista and the Laptop Checkout Program

2009-02-18T13:34:00.001-05:00

Over the summer we brought in 40 laptops to check out to students. They were tested with WindowsXP but immediately moved to Vista to support the campus effort to migrate. The good news was that Vista enabled us to map the student network drive and print reliably. The bad news was that Vista is much, much slower to boot and log in. The image for these computers was pretty well streamlined thanks to a lot of hard work from our C-Tech Nick so we decided the best option was to increase RAM from 1GB to 2GB. After discovering a very good deal on memory prices, we actually jumped to 3GB. This dramatically reduced the boot time but it is still very slow compared to XP. In he mean time, laptop popularity has really spiked and we may have 30+ laptops checked out during our peak periods. It is at these times that we run into trouble and students have difficulty logging on. Right now, Nick is working on an XP image that will preserve students' ability to access their drive and print but it is not likely to be as seemless as the Vista image. Another concern is ITS' reluctance to allow Office 2007 on an XP machine. This may require us to put Office 2003 on the laptops further increasing the disparity between the laptops and desktops at the library.

Clearly there is no easy solution. Of course we could hope that Windows 7 is released this summer and that is packs the functionality of Vista with the performance of XP but I'm not holding my breath. I have said a few times in the past that Vista was a victim of exagerrated media and that it isn't as bad as you hear (yes, it's slow). I still believe that statement to be true, but I also believe that Windows 7 is experiencing the same kind of hype in the opposite direction. I doubt very much that it will be as good as the current buzz is making it out to be but we can always hope. I'll post more as the laptop situation evolves.

Student Scanners in the Library

2009-01-14T16:11:00.001-05:00

Almost since the first day I started here at UNF, I have heard students ask our librarians about scanners. Two years later I finally pulled the trigger and bought a couple. On the second floor, next to the Reference Commons, we have a fairly standard 8.5"X11" flatbead HP scanner connected to an iMac. It is on the network and automatically maps to the H drive when students log in with their n-number. It already seems to be getting heavy use and Sarah has spoken with me about training so expect to see some meeting invites soon.

On the third floor, I've added a large format Epson scanner which will scan ledger size (11"X17") documents. It too is connected to an iMac on the network and resides in Paul's fish bowl in front of the big microform scanners. Hopefully this will be a benefit to the students and Faculty alike.

While both scanners connect to the network and map the student drive, they do not automatically map any other drive. There is a simple, though not intuitive, method of mapping other drives. If you wish to save files to the network simply follow these instructions:

First, click on the desktop, then click on the menu item "Go" and select "Connect to Server". A box will appear will where you need to type smb://oak/library$/ to get to the library drive or smb://oak/Users/N-number/ if you want to get to your private network drive. In the case of that last one, type your actual N-number. This will create an icon on your desktop for the respective drive. Give it a try.

Updating the Library Computers

2008-12-05T13:44:00.001-05:00

Our first major technology orders of the year arrived yesterday. It was the largest memory order I have ever seen. 264 sticks of memory totaling 528 GB of RAM are now ready to go into our students computers. Nick and I spent most of the afternoon yesterday upgrading the student laptops from 1GB of RAM to 3GB. We did some preliminary testing a while back and discovered that boot times could be reduced dramatically with the addition of more RAM. On an interesting side note, all twenty of the currently active laptops were checked out yesterday afternoon with students waiting for more as we made them available. I would say that 25-30 were checked out at once late Thursday. So it took a while for the laptops to catch on but they now appear to be very popular. I suspect that all forty will be in use quite often next semester.

Aside from doing memory upgrades to the laptops, we will add more RAM to all of the student computers in the West Commons, Reference, and Periodicals. We will also bring most of the computers in 2102A&B up to 3GB as well. Some of you may be wondering why we are jumping all the way to 3GB. To put it simply, the price difference between a single 1GB module and a 2GB module was so small that we felt it was worth the little extra money. For example, it was only about $10 more per laptop to go to 3GB vs. 2GB.

Next week, Nick and I are going to perform some more tests to show the impact the extra memory has on boot and log-in times. I'll post them here for those interested.

Laptop Checkout at UNF 1.0

2008-11-05T16:15:00.001-05:00

Over the summer we purchased 40 laptops to check out to students. We installed Vista on the laptops and the performance has been a little disappointing (read:slow). Recently we decided to see what a memory upgrade would do for them. We pulled the memory from half of the computers and added it to the other half to bring the total to 2GB. The results were very positive especially in the realm of boot times where we shaved a full minute off the start-up times. We've left one half upgraded and the other half awaiting new RAM but demand for laptops is up and nearly all of the 20 working laptops are being checked out. Fortunately our FCLA money has come in early and I hope to get the rest of the computers working within a couple of weeks. When it is all said and done, we will have 3GB of RAM in each laptop. I'll

One side effect of the slowly growing popularity is the demand on the wireless network. During one of my recent walk-throughs I counted over 100 laptops in use by students and almost none of them belonged to the library. Fortunately ITS is currently beefing up our wireless network by adding six additional access points. This should enable us to handle of demands of all of our laptop using patrons for quite a while.

In addition to memory upgrades and added access points, we're going to go back and take a look at the image on these laptops and see if we can tweak anything to improve overall performance. This should happen during the break in December.

Cloud Computing

2008-10-14T15:05:00.001-04:00

While trying to look ahead and see what is coming next, I keep running into a term that I am not sure everyone understands. That term is "Cloud Computing" and I think we are going to be hearing that term more and more.

In order to understand Cloud Computing, let's set the framework for the current model of computing. Think about the way you typically work today. You sit down to your computer, open a file in your documents folder with an application installed on said computer and create a piece of work. If you want to do something different, you open another application on your computer or install another application on your computer to give you more capability. Eventually your computer runs out of memory, storage, processing power or whatever and needs to be replaced with a new more powerful system.

Cloud Computing is different. It refers to the use of multiple networked computers (the cloud) as the primary resource for the computing tasks. That could mean that the software, storage and processing resides on some computers other than your own. Perhaps the most commonly recognizable example of this is our own campus webmail. By using your browser, you access your email but all of the work is being done by the servers on the other side. The sorting, sending, even storage exists on a collection of servers managing your mail, scanning for viruses and spam and more. You no longer need to have an email application on your computer and you no longer need to store email on your computer.

That's a very simple example but there are many more. Some of you may have been to a website called HouseCall which is a site for free virus scanning online. This replaces (to a limited degree) the application installed on your computer that scans for viruses. GoogleApps is an excellent example of Cloud Computing which competes with Microsoft Office in which word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software as well as document storage is handled online. Even YouTube is an example. With YouTube I can capture video, convert it, and play it. I used to have to install iMovie, Sorrenson Video and QuickTime to do all of that.

If this sounds a little familiar to some of the older or more savvy computer users, that's because it is not new. In fact cloud computing is, essentially, network computing or grid computing. Those that remember the days of dumb terminals might have already picked up on that. To paraphrase Sun Microsystems, the network is the computer and that which sits on our desktop becomes little more than a widow into it.

While each example I have given requires a computer running a web browser, other methods could be used to access cloud computing but this is just an introduction. Over the coming weeks, I'll talk and write in detail about more. In the mean time, see if you can spot some examples of Cloud Computing and post them as comments to this article.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

RSS Readers

2008-09-30T16:02:00.001-04:00

Our last Blue Sky Friday discussed RSS and Flock but I thought it might be useful for everyone to see some documentation on the subject. Probably the most important thing about RSS is that you have to have an "aggregator" or RSS reader to be able to read the RSS feed. Most current browsers include an RSS reader. These include Firefox, Internet Explorer 7 (not 6), Opera and Safari as well as Flock. The RSS reader used in Flock and by some of the Firefox users in the meeting is called Sage. If you are using Firefox, you may want to give this one a try. If you cannot view an RSS feed, you are probably using an old browser and need to upgrade.

RSS feeds make it easier to stay on top of the information you want. By finding feeds that focus on your specific topic of interest you can avoid plowing through infromation you don't want. In the case of our own library catalog, you can create a search and subscribe to the feed so that whenever new materials are added, the titles are listed in the subscription.

When searching for RSS feeds, keep your eyes posted for the feed icon. It is the symbol that shows an RSS feed is available for the information you are viewing. Some of my favorite RSS feeds are Digg, BBC Americas, and Slashdot oh and of course the UNF Library's What's New feed. Feel free to leave comments with your favorite feeds.

Top Ten Visions for the Library

2008-09-22T14:21:00.001-04:00

I've belonged to the T.A.G. (Technical Advisory Group) for over a year now and one of the first things I talked to them about was putting together a vision for our libraries. I quickly placed mine on the super secret TAG member eyes only blog but no one took up the challenge to confirm my genius or decry my insanity. Now, nearly a year after posting it, I'd like to share it with all of you. Below is my Top 10 list just as I posted it back in 2007.

Top Ten Things I'd Like to See in the Library

Here is my top ten list of the technologies I would like to see in SUS
libraries. It is my personal list. Perhaps others share this vision.
Please comment.

1. Virtual Special Collections.
One firm belief that I have is that if you cannot check it out, it should be available online. I'd like to be able to have a virtual full image tour of Special Collections. Every picture, every object should be viewable and browseable(sp?). I envision something like a QuicktimeVR tour or Second Life exhibit.

2. Patron unmediated borrowing
One-click ILL that goes directly to the lending institution.

3. Patron unmediated checkout
It just sounds cooler than self check-out

4. Real-time account creation.
From Banner's mouth to Aleph's brain, when you become a part of the university family, you shouldn't have to wait to have a library account nor should our librarians have to create a temporary ID.

5. All SUS users accessible through Aleph
Please don't make me leave Aleph and go to a web page to determine the status of another University student already in Aleph. Don't even make me log in as someone special. We have a union catalog, how about a union patron file?

6. Catalog results with book covers, reviews and a virtual map
I want to see the book. I want to know what the faculty and post grads think and I want a picture of where to go to get the book.

7. Catalog results with campus associations
If we have an authority in the field of astrophysics, I'd like to know it when I pull up hits in our catalog on the subject. Have contact info or links to their website. This is the next step in knowledge management IMHO.

8. Seamless sign-on for Aleph patrons
Once you log into the network, you shouldn't have to login to your library account. You certainly shouldn't have to have a separate user name and password.

9. A single report to display holdings count and circulations by call number range
Doesn't everyone want this?

10. SUS driving media contracts
We have the power to tell the vendors what we want and the what rights we want if we bargain collectively. I think we give up too easily.

Vista Migration in the Library

2008-09-09T13:04:00.000-04:00

We are a couple of weeks in to the semester and computer use has been very heavy. In fact, heavier than I remember last year at this time. At this point, I think I can give some reasonable first impressions of using Vista in the library commons.

First thing is that it seems to work. Our environment consists overwhelmingly of Dell PCs. These range from one to Four years old though most are one to two. We don't seem to be experiencing driver incompatibilities so commonly discussed on the web. I have to give our C-Tech Nick most of the credit but I suspect that many of the reported issues were a bit exaggerated. One exception is a problem we are experiencing printing from Firefox. It appears that special consideration must be made with default printing from that app that we didn't have to deal with in XP. The solution is likely simple but with over 270 frozen computers, the implementation of such a fix may be a chore.

The greatest chore was the development of the image. Without going into great detail, the tried and tested tools used to develop and deploy images to PCs do not get along with Vista and Microsoft's own replacements were sorely lacking. It isn't a user issue but it caused enough time and pain to be worth mentioning.

The best thing so far is that Vista appears to have eliminated an annoying problem we had with computers occasionally hanging during the login process. This would happen just prior to displaying a usable desktop. We never found the cause so the solution was to ctrl-alt-delete, log out and then log back in again. I haven't seen a Vista machine do this and that is very nice.

On a negative note, Vista is slower. This shouldn't be a surprise. I think every version of Windows is more resource intensive but it takes longer to boot, longer to log in and the applications, specifically Office 2007, are not as snappy. The login time is the most annoying and Vista seems to be in no hurry to give users a desktop. Once again, Nick has put a lot of effort into streamlining the library's image and I will stack our computer performance up against anyone else on campus but it is still tedious. I hope to alleviate some of this by upping the memory in our computers to 2GB (from 1GB). This may not help the boot and login times but should impact the application speeds.

Overall, the move to Vista is not a bad thing. If the additional memory can resolve the performance issues I mentioned than we will have a better commons than we had with XP. Just be sure to note that this "upgrade" cost us a considerable amount of behind the scene's work and will cost us in hard dollars.

I'll revisit this again at the end of the semester to give a longer term impression.

Library Media Macs

2008-09-09T12:36:00.000-04:00

The iMacs in the Media Services area continue to be more of a challenge than we had originally hoped. All of the iMacs have been configured to log into the campus domain, which is good. They have also been configured to print to the pay-for-print system, also good. Unfortunately, when printing from installed appllications, you must one again authenticate. This is handled by receiving a login dialog upon selecting your print options. This in and of itself is not bad but the username field is already filled in with your proper name and that will not work. You must change your name to your N-number and then enter your password below. This is not a terrible thing but certainly not completely user friendly. Worse is the fact that when trying to print from Firefox, the user ID box appears and dissapears immediately so you cannot authenticate at all. In other words, no printing from Firefox. I hope to have a solution to the Firefox printing issue today (September 9, 2008) even if it means using Safari instead but no timeline is set for changing the username display.

Another issue we face is that some of the DVDs from media services do not want to play properly when using the EyeTV application. The DVD menu will launch but you cannot select "Play All" or any of the chapters. I have experienced this with the sign language DVDs. The only solution is to use the iMacs DVD drive (not the VCR/DVD combo) and use Apple's built-in DVD player. Again not terrible but certainly less than intuitive. No timeline is set for resolving this issue either.

Finally, I am concerned by the fact that the iMacs' browser has been locked down to limit access to sites supporting their specific purpose but that is not clear when sitting down to the computers. I hope to have a new bookmark file installed today that shows where they can go. I'd also like to revisit which sites are blocked.

The iMacs seem to be fairly popular and I think things will get better but we need to work out some of these usability issues.