the technical bit... liane broadley euug conference scandinavia, 5th september 2001

The Technical Bit ...Liane BroadleyEUUG ConferenceScandinavia, 5th September 2001

2

Contents

1 The USUG

2 The synchronisation process in a bit more detail

– Title control keys

– Item Cat 1s

– Decision Process - deciding what is sharable

3 Communication

– How do you let everyone know?

4 Future considerations

The USUG

4

Who are the USUG?

• The Unicorn Super User Group

– A small group of QinetiQ IR/[dstl] KS staff

– Specialising in certain areas

• Our main roles in IR/KS

– To train Library staff

– To maintain a Unicorn manual/training materials specifically tailored for QinetiQ/[dstl] procedures

– To test new versions of Workflows in preparation for upgrades

– Act as first POC for staff and customers

The USUG

5

How we achieve this

• Regular meetings

• Create training materials

– Crib Cards

– Handouts for tailored training

• Write test scripts

• Suggest policy decisions, and then implement them once approved

• Distribute materials etc via Forum, E-mail and training sessions

The USUG

The Synchronisation Process

7

Title Control Keys

• Had never been an issue before

• Two new title key sequences were created

– aXXXXXX

– rXXXXXX

• Now had to input title keys in order for CORN-Synch to work

– Stops two title entries being made for the same document

– Stops different records being accidentally merged

– Had to be standard across QinetiQ and [dstl] for it to work

The synchronisation process in more detail

8

Title Key Examples

• Books - i[ISBN]

• Journals - s[ISSN]

• Reports - The report number

• Problems

– Title key is only 14 characters long

– Consistency of title keys is essential if CORNsynch is to work

The synchronisation process in more detail

9

Cats, Cats and more Cats!

• Item Cat 1s

– From 4 to 16

– No easy way to train our staff all in one go

– Even easier to make mistakes

– We knew how to assign them, but couldn’t advise on which ones to use when cataloguing

The synchronisation process in more detail

10

The decision process for sharingThe synchronisation process in more detail

Is the report to be shared?

Are [dstl] likely to have

their own copy as well?

Yes

Change title key to match

record already there, and choose S-

RELEASED

No

Yes

Is it already on the

system?

Is the Item Cat 1 of the

record saying S-

TRANSFERRED?

Yes

Yes

Change title key to match

record already there and assign a

“copy release” item

cat 1

11

How does it work?

• A report is run to find all the S-RELEASED and CORN-RELSD items

• A file is produced ready for uploading into [dstl] system

• [dstl] system takes the files, and compares title keys.

• If it finds a matching key it will simply add a call and copy to the existing record in the [dstl] system.

• If no match is found a new title record is created

• This new record becomes the “property” of [dstl]

The synchronisation process in more detail

Communication

13

Letting everyone know about it

• Difficult as staff are wide spread across the UK

• Guides on assigning title keys and item cat 1s were written

• Number of ways of communicating

– Forum

– E-mail

– Training sessions if required

– Word of Mouth

– Trouble shooting

Communication

Future Considerations

15

Letting everyone know about it

• Upgrades

– upgrading at the same time as [dstl]

• Deleting items

– Any records we delete after CORNSynch has run won’t be deleted on the [dstl] system

– Will need to work out how to clean up the system

Future Considerations