Prospector Catalog/Reference
Committee
January 15, 2004
Present: Barbara Allen, Wendy Baia, Joan Beam, Pam Blome, Mary Beth Chambers, Gwen Gregory, Carol Gyger, Florence Jones, Lois Jones, Kay Lowell, George Machovec, Janet Ryan, Mary Walsh, Carol White, Cynthia Wilson.
Minutes of the November 20, 2003 meeting were approved.
Introductions were made around the table to welcome new members. Lois reviewed the charge to the committee, and George handed out the membership roster for 2004, as well as instructions for subscribing to the Cataloging discussion list and for telnetting into the staff mode of Prospector.
There are still some issues with the Endeavor interface. Alpha testing of the circulation system took place in December. Beta testing with CSM and CSU staff has begun. After the beta testing, CSM has to decide when to go to the next software update (maybe in mid-February).
Regis is operating on III now. Some circulation issues arose during the switchover. To help address the issues, the “University Z” location was created for the old CARL item records. University Z temporary records will be deleted from the system soon.
A committee has been formed to review the efficiency and effectiveness of the current Endeavor system. In addition, the feasibility of switching to Sirsi is under consideration. If it is determined that the current system is inadequate, and switching to Sirsi will not provide marked improvement, UW will consider going through the RFP process with other vendors. The decision of this review committee will have an impact on when and if the UW records are loaded into Prospector.
PLUS
Arapahoe Library District’s records are loaded and live in Prospector. They are not available for circulation at this time. Aurora Public Library’s records are in the process of loading. Boulder/Louisville/Broomfield records will load third. February 6, 2004 is the target date for flipping the switch from PLUS to Prospector.
Not in service yet due to all the other projects underway. The new server will be put into service as soon as feasible.
The unattended backup functions are not working properly on the Prospector server. The Alliance is having to run some daytime backups for the time being.
This project has been tabled waiting for the new releases to be loaded. The project is ready to proceed. George once again gathered names for possible participation on a subcommittee.
Cynthia Wilson will be chair; Barbara Allen will be recorder.
Meeting schedule
The pattern of meeting on the third Thursday will be retained, with the exception of a couple of meetings that would conflict with conferences. Meeting dates were confirmed for 2004, with no meetings scheduled for July or December.
Limit by location is not working properly. If limit by location is not working soon, George will mask it from view.
The date limits work differently than the wording on the screen implies. Instead of doing a “greater than” search, it is really doing a “greater than or equal to”. The wording may need to be changed on the screen to match what the search is actually doing.
Limit by language looks at the 008 and 041. George will check Prospector settings to see how we have limit by language configured. If anyone has an important language group in their collections outside the usual top languages, send the list to George so he can make sure those languages are included in the Prospector limit by language list.
The screen arrangement of AVS was discussed, and George distributed a screen shot.
George will send out a message on the discussion list to make sure we all have our WWWoptions file set properly for AVS (Innovative users only). George also described the function of AVS that continues searching if no “and” results are found. The system continues with an “or” search, then presents the results using a relevancy ranking which uses word frequency and word placement to move better hits to the top. He used “Hunt for red November” as the example.
The problems with “Thinking in Java” and “Soul among lions” still persist. Until the Regis temporary item records are deleted, and the CSM record loading and testing process is complete, the records will probably continue to be a problem.
Resending a batch of records seemed to correct the cutter problem. Re-sorting volume numbers at the local level will not carry through to the central site. According to discussion at the last IUG, (as best those of us in attendance could remember) this is something that III will not be addressing because of the processing load such a sort would require.
NetLibrary
The contract with NetLibrary has been renewed under the same provisions as before, with the exception that DU Law has withdrawn from the arrangement. At the request of Member Council, a query has been sent to NetLibrary to provide a set snapshot of the original load. The Council asked that the records for the titles that were not purchased in that original load (approximately 25%) be deleted from the database to prevent future purchase. The request was also made that until the records could be deleted, that they turn off access to the unpurchased titles. NetLibrary has been asked to send a new set of owned records to load to replace the original load. All record sets newer than the 2002 load will be left for possible purchasing.
A new record set of new titles is due in the next month or so. George will also ask for a list of records purchased by DPL so other contract participants can load MARC records if they wish.
Next meeting: February 19, 2004. 12:30-3:30 pm. Alliance Offices, 1st floor conference room.