Beth’s Blog

Gail Wanner at SirsiDynix says the “old build” of iBorrow was restored as of 4:30 or so Monday afternoon.  Before you open iBorrow today, it would be a good idea to clear your browser’s cache. You know, delete temporary files and cookies. The URSA client uses your browser, even though it hides that fact pretty well behind the Java camouflage. And some of the stuff that it stores in your cache may create problems when you step back one build. This is a possible problem, not a certain one.  So,  if you have already clicked on the SirsiDynix client and gone to Request Manager before reading this, don’t panic. This is the first time we have had to ‘back up’ on URSA/iBorrow builds, so we don’t really know what issues are going to pop up.Please contact us, if you run into problems. Taking a ‘digital photograph’ of any error messages you run into will help a lot, of course.In case Matt or I have not already talked you through that process, here is the short cheat sheet:

This is a slightly expanded version of the Email I put out earlier.  At 4 p.m. on Monday, June 4, the URSA team in Provo will rip the latest build off the URSA/iBorrow server and restore the previous build. 

Picture, if you like, swords clashing and bodies falling, as the defenders of the New Build fight to the last breath to defend it, going down in defeat only reluctantly and with a defiant cry on their lips!  Or picture a guy with horn rim glasses and a pocket protector copying a file from one networked server to another.  Exciting or boring.  Your call.

Either way, we’ll have the Old Build around for a while, as the engineers take the New Build’s code into a dark room and beat on it with rubber truncheons, until it reveals why it went so wrong.  So, Matt and I will be declining overage requests, and you will have to manually send requests on to OCLC, even if you’d rather be unmediated.

We’ll update you by blog and email as we learn more.

–Al Carlson

In today’s (May 29) conference call, Aaron declared the new iBorrow build to be ‘good to go’.  He then took a bite out of it and said, “Yumm!”  (No!   Not really!)

You should get the new build Thursday morning when you double click on the SirsiDynix icon.  No new features.  Just fixes for the aging and OCLC problems.

Contact us, if you run into new problems, or if the existing ones aren’t fixed.

–Al Carlson

We’d hoped to download the newest build of iBorrow on Thursday, May 24.  But we agreed long ago that it was better to test a release thoroughly, even if that meant a delay.  Nobody likes buggy software.

The latest build is not yet reliable on managing OCLC as a Lender Of Last Resort, so we are sending it back for more work.

The new proposed download date is Thursday, May 31.  Stay tuned for further updates.

–Al Carlson

The latest iBorrow build is due out the week after next.  This one should be just a mini-build that fixes the Aging problem and the OCLC issues.  (Why do I have this sense of deja vu?)  The probable download date is Thursday, May 31.  That assumes that the prototype that rolled off the assembly line today does well when they take it out on the track and test it.

If this changes, we will let you know.

–Al Carslon

SirsiDynix’ change in ownership and the cancellation of Horizon 8 in favor of a Unicorn path to Rome have led to changes throughout the organization.  Some of them affect us.  Ken Adams and Mary Ellen Mortola have left SirsiDynix, so they are no longer part of the URSA/iBorrow team.  This does not mean iBorrow is going away, though.  The iBorrow software engineering team has two new members:  Robert Young and Roland Brown.  So, it is a shift in where the resources are applied, not a change in the overall project.

We have Ken’s personal email address, so if you want to email him or Mary Ellen to wish them well, contact me (Al Carlson), and I’ll pass on what I have.

Peter Fripp just called from SirsiDynix.  The iBorrow server is up and running again.  You should now be able to log into the SirsiDynix client and use Request Manager.

Call me, if you have problems. 

–Al Carlson  10:30 a.m. 5-01-07

Have you checked out the new iBorrow splash page at www.iborrow.org?

Tell us what you think!

As of 8:30 Tuesday morning, May 1, the iBorrow server seems to be down.  None of us can log in.  We have left voice mail with several staff at SirsiDynix, and will continue to call them.  They are on Mountain Time, so it is only 6:30 a.m. there.

We’ll post an update here as soon as the problem is resolved.

Did you know…

OCLC places the iBorrow request number in the Patron ID field of the OCLC ILL request?

and

iBorrow places the OCLC ILL request number in the Reference # field of the iBorrow request?  (it’s labeled Review File #, but it’s the request #,too!)