Beth’s Blog

You’ll be excited to hear that Holly Harvey was here Monday and Tuesday of last week!

Well, maybe not so excited, if you don’t know who she is.  So, let me explain.

Holly is the new Product Manager for iBorrow.  And she’s not some new kid they’ve hired to try to make that goofy ILL software project work.  Holly has been with SirsiDynix since they were just “Dynix” (The first time around.)  She has the experience, skills, knowledge, and clout to get this stuff working the way it should. 

When she visited TBLC early last week, we mercilessly exposed every flaw we knew of in the current product, as well as listing its strong points and the potential we felt it had.  We had also solicited input from many of you, and we shared that with her.  We didn’t pull any punches, and she didn’t blanch or get defensive, when comments like “slow and clunky” and “our patrons hate it” kept coming up.

“So, then, (I hear you ask) how soon will iBorrow be perfect?”  Oh, come on!  You know I can’t answer that.   But here’s what I can say.

We laid out three main goals for iBorrow.

1.  It should work flawlessly all the time.

2.  It should work with all the major vendors’ ILS systems. (e.g. Polaris, Carl, Triple I)

3.  It should work so smoothly with OCLC that OCLC feels like a ’subroutine’ within iBorrow.

In addition we want several features to make life easier for ILL and public service staff and a way better portal.

Holly knows SQL (the Structured Query Language you use to get reports from a Horizon or URSA system).  On her first day back in the office she figured out how to turn a search in the client that ran for seven minutes and then crashed at Safety Harbor into a search that gave the correct results. 

In ten seconds!! 

To quote Jim Carrey in The Mask:  “Smokin!”

She and I went over the Mediated Borrowing work space in the URSA client and came up with an idea that we hope can cut work by ILL staff there down by 80%.  We don’t know if it will work when it gets to Engineering.  But if it does, we’ll name it after ourselves.  (Actually, we came up with several ways to improve the client, but this one is just a killer.)

The short version is that she seemed to agree with us 100% on what iBorrow ought to be able to do, and we hope she has enough clout at SirsiDynix to get the engineering resources to get it done.

As soon as we hear what’s coming in the next build, we’ll share it with you.

So, hang onto those iBorrow T-shirts.  They may soon be worth something.

–Al Carlson

Its location and appearance vary, but somewhere on your online catalog each of you has a link to iBorrow.  This enables your patrons to use iBorrow’s search and request powers, when they don’t find what they need in your own catalog.  We’ve uncovered a problem with this link, and we’d like to work with you to correct it.  Here’s the issue. 

Some of you use OCLC as your Lender Of Last Resort.  Some of you don’t.  If you do, you want your patron’s searches to include OCLC.  If you don’t, you want to exclude OCLC.  So, we actually have two different public portals.  They look alike, but only one of them searches OCLC.

To guide your patrons to the right portal, we listed all the participating libraries on our main iBorrow page in two distinct groups and–next to each group–put a Start Your Search button that takes the user to the right public portal.  You can see this at http://iborrow.org

This will come as a shock to you, but some people don’t read the list before clicking on a Search button.  So, they wind up in the wrong portal and get either too many or too few results when they search.

We’re redesigning the page to make it harder to choose the “wrong” library.  But the simplest solution for most of you is to simply skip our page altogether.  If the link on your own online catalog has an explanation of where it is sending the user and why it’s doing that, you could send them straight to the correct portal and skip our page.

Here’s how you’d do that.

If you use OCLC as your Lender Of Last Resort, you can send your patrons directly to:

http://iborrow.asp.dynix.com/uPortal/Initialize?uP_tparam=props&props=TBLC_OCLC&uP_reload_layout=true

If you don’t use OCLC as your LOLR, you should send your patrons to:

http://iborrow.asp.dynix.com/uPortal/Initialize?uP_tparam=props&props=TBLC_PATRON&uP_reload_layout=true

This may look confusing to you, but your Web person will know exactly how to use this.

If you have questions about this, please give me a call.  But, if you are clear on the problem and the solution, you can just go ahead.

–Al Carlson

If this were a movie, we’d be saying, “It’s quiet out there.  Too quiet!”  But we’re Librarians, and we like it when it’s quiet.  Especially where iBorrow is concerned.  Since the download of the latest build, Matt and I have been doing daily checks of the Mediate Loan and Fill Loan work spaces, looking for requests that  have failed to age properly.  There was one the very first week.  Since then, none.

We’ve been keeping track of complaints that requests passed on to OCLC were failing.  We’ve had maybe three, and Peter Fripp figured those out.

So, what we finally have is a borrower driven InterLibrary Loan tool that works.  (And I can hear you muttering under your breath, “Well, it’s about time!”  Amen to that!) 

If we were dogs, we would go lie down in the grass, let our tongues loll out, and just enjoy this for a long time.  But, we’re not.  We’re the species with the opposable thumb and the low boredom threshold.  And after about five minutes of satisfaction, we have to go out and poke something with a stick, just to see what will happen.  So, what’s next for iBorrow?

Well, first, we’re waiting (tapping our feet and glancing impatiently at our watches the whole time) for SirsiDynix to ‘officially’ announce that URSA/iBorrow is a “core product” and that they will commit the resources needed to turn it into an ILL tool that makes you say “Wow!” rather than, “Well, I guess it does sorta work OK.”   As soon as we get that word, we can start working with their Product Development team to implement the suggestions we’ve been putting in since Day One.

And we can start bringing more libraries into our current group of participants.  With a little final fine tuning, we could bring Hernando, Citrus, and Collier in right away.   Then we can move on to Polaris and the other systems we haven’t really worked with at all, yet.  Progress there, of course, depends on cooperation from the engineering teams of those other vendors.  We want SirsiDynix to make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Eternal optimists that we are, we have hopes that we will see this official announcement from SirsiDynix this week.  When we do, we will share it with you while it is still warm and giving off that fresh baked bread smell.

Meanwhile, enjoy working with an ILL tool that, um, well… works!

–Al Carlson

The entertainment newsletter Variety doesn’t cover iBorrow developments.  I have no idea why not.  Talk about entertaining!  But, if they did, their headline for the most recent build would look a lot like the one above.

Matt and I did our best to break it this weekend, but it survived everything we threw at it.  Normal functions work.  OCLC transitions work.  And–finally!–aging works.

Despite what you may hear, Matt and I are not Certified ILL Guys, so you may find flaws in the new build that we missed.  If you do, don’t keep them to yourselves.  Tell us, so we can get them corrected.  And if the new build really is as good as it looks so far, all I can say is, “Enjoy!  Enjoy!”

–Al Carlson

iBorrow is fresh and innovative. So why not have a Web page that expresses that? Now we do!

We are proud to announce the launch of our new iBorrow homepage. Recently redesigned, our new page is bright, clean and user friendly, and it flows seamlessly into the subsequent SirsiDynix site.

Check it out! We hope you like it.

SirsiDynix has a new build coming out.   The target release date is this weekend (August 3), and—like last time—Matt and I will test it over the weekend.  If it is safe to use, we’ll leave it on the server.  If it is full of nasty surprises, we’ll have them pull it off and put the current build back on before Monday, August 6. 

Its main goal is to fix the aging issues, so we will probably let a few requests ‘age’ in place at your location to see if the new build moves them on.  And we’ll create some test requests for folks such as Frodo Baggins, Tom Slick, Jethro Gibbs, and even Al and Matt.

The new build ‘should’ go on the server late Friday evening.   Testing continues as I write this Tuesday morning.  If it passes our test, you will see it download when you fire up your SirsiDynix icon Monday morning, August 6.–Al Carlson

Take a look at the title of this post, and ask yourself, “What do these names have in common?”  (OK, the letters “E” and “A”, but aside from that?)  The correct answer is, “Not much”.  And the point I’m stumbling towards here is that even though they look exactly alike from a distance, they are two distinct individuals.  I’m referring to Palm Harbor and East Lake here.  Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger actually are identical twins. 

The reason I’m telling you this is that some of you—and I’m not naming any names here—are sending iBorrow loans to the Palm Harbor Library when they should go to East Lake Community Library.  And vice versa.  In the old AlleyCat world, that may have been OK, but in the iBorrow universe, the two have nothing in common but their warm personalities and stunning good looks.  So, please pay attention, when you slap a mailing label on any iBorrow requested item you send their way.  Thanks. 

Footnote

I just took a look at some of the labels on our own TBLC web site, and it looks as though we may have been helping you get this wrong.  Oops!  We’ll look into fixing that, if you’ll do your part when sending things their way.

Right now, you’re probably asking yourself, “How did the test of that new iBorrow build go this weekend?”  To sum it up in a few words, “Half a fix is better than none.”  (Which sounds like something a drug addict would say.)

The OCLC connection seems to be fixed, and the aging problem seems not to be.  That’s a pretty wishy-washy assessment, so here’s some more detail.

Matt and I have both been able to push requests to OCLC, get the “Pending response from ISO lender” message, and see them move from Mediated Borrowing to Receive Loan a few minutes later.  That’s a good thing. 

That worked whether Mediation was turned ON or OFF for OCLC.  However, I have not yet been able to devise a reliable test to see if a request will go to OCLC unmediated, if it is not fillable locally.  Still working on that.

“Aging” fails to work, in that we found requests in Fill Loan and Mediate Loan both Saturday and Sunday that—based on their “Process By” date–should have moved on to the next lender in the string.  So, any Aging fix in the new build did not affect requests that had been placed before the new build was loaded.  It is possible that it will work correctly with requests that are placed after the download.  I think Tuesday is the soonest we could know that. 

The other good news is that nothing new seems to have been broken.  We got no weird, inexplicable error requests in any of our testing.

But there’s a catch to that one, too.  You will almost certainly have trouble loading the new build.  You will get Java load errors.  You will be annoyed.  You will probably say words your mother would disapprove of.

To reduce that aggravation, I have posted “The Fix” below.  So far, it has worked every time.  If it fails for you, or if you need help with it, give me a call.  Matt is on vacation this week.

If we learn new things about the build this week, I will send a follow up to his message.  And, as always, the information will be here on Beth’s Blog.

THE FIX
Correctly loading the new build is a two step process: clearing your web browser’s cache, and deleting old Java files.  Let’s take them one at a time.

Web Browser
Open your web browser and choose Tools, then Internet Options.
Delete your Browsing History (also called Temporary Internet Files) and delete your cookies.

Java
1. Find the Java icon in your control panel.  If you are using Windows XP, the path should be:
Start—Control Panel—Java
    If you have some other flavor of Windows, it may be Start—Settings—Control Panel—Java

2. Right click once on the Java icon, then click on Open
3. Click on the tab at the top called General.  (This will probably be the default)
4. Find the area near the bottom of the Java Control Panel that says Temporary Internet Files.
5. Within that area, find the Delete Files… button and click it once.
6.  In the Delete Temporary Files window that pops us, make sure there is a check mark in all three boxes.
7.  Click OK
8.  Click OK to close the Java Control Panel
9.  Close Control Panel by clicking the X in the upper right hand corner.
10. Launch your web browser (if it is not still open) and go to http://iborrow.asp.dynix.com/dynix
11. It should say Welcome to the URSA Information Portal. 
12.  Find the blue link that says URSA Information Administration Client and click on it.
13. Make sure the “I agree” radio button is marked with a dot, then click on the I Agree button in the bottom center of the screen.  You may have to use the blue vertical scroll bar on the right to bring the I Agree button into view.
14.  Java will start loading the new build.  The small window should be labeled Java Web Start, and it should say SirsiDynix Client in the center.
15 At the end, you should get a new window that says “The application’s digital signature has been verified.  Do you want to run the application?”  There should also be a green check in the “Always trust content from this publisher” box.  Click on the Run button.
16.  The next window will ask whether you want to create desktop and start menu shortcuts.  Click on Yes.
17 Log in and go.  Close your browser or click on the Home button.

If this doesn’t work, call 813-622-8252 ext 223.

–Al Carlson

Remember the last iBorrow build that came out?  Or have you successfully suppressed the memory?  I think it lived for two days, before we had SirsiDynix pull it off the server.  So, we have a new, and–we hope–better plan for this next build:  a test drive in our own environment.  Here’s how it will work.

About 8 p.m. on Friday, June 29, SirsiDynix will load the new build on the server.  Matt and I will test drive it over the weekend, using requests we are creating now, and see if we can break it.  If it survives our testing, it gets to stay on the server, and you will see the new build load on your PC on Monday morning, July 2.  If we find any significant problems, we’ll have SirsiDynix pull it off the server and put the current build back.

We chose to do this on a weekend, because we think there’s not much ILL work going on then.  If you tend to work in the SirsiDynix URSA client on Saturday or Sunday, you have two choices.  (1)  Take the weekend off.  (2)  Put on your crash helmet, grab a note pad, and join us in the testing.  If you want to ‘play’, please let us know by phone or Email, so we’ll know you’re out there.  And we’ll be interested in all the gory details of any errors you encounter.

As a “safety feature”, all patron requests made in the Portals this weekend will go to Mediated Borrowing.  Matt and I will push those on to where they should go on Sunday, whether the new build passes or fails.

If you come across any odd requests in the client between now and the weekend, look at them closely.  They may be one of our test requests.  Some have notes in the notes field.  And some will have borrowers with suspicious names, such as Frodo Baggins or Tom Slick.  Please leave them where you find them.

Questions?  You know who to call.

Peter Fripp called me back about 1:30 p.m. to tell me the URSA server was back online and that Engineering would look into why it had crashed.  I tested the client and the portals, and they worked as usual.

–Al Carlson