Sirsi Admin

We started with a brief system review: Symphony, 3.6.1, local install – this is our most recent release and you will be fine staying here for a while. If you’d like to see some of the future enhancements we are planning, https://support.sirsidynix.com/fixes (limit by Symphony and “Current Development”).

Services: As we discussed, I saw that the Sure Sailing quote for the system audit was approved. Once this is scheduled, you’ll be assigned a consultant.

Cases: None of your cases currently required intervention. 

Library Set-up: I thought your backgrounds, tenures, and the community demographics were very interesting for your site and I was fascinated by the Criminal Justice program at your school. Congratulations on finishing up some of the work for your SACS reaccreditation and also to Molly for getting the my Account link working despite the security complications!

Contact review: changes noted below.

• Added the Primary contact to both Eric Owen and to Michael
• Added Sales, Finance, and LRM Contact to Michael
• Added LRM Contact to Molly
• Added both Molly and Michael as authorized for surveys
• Removed Authorization for support from Lisa Shen
• Added IT as Mike Taylor’s title
• Made In-Active Charles Mize

I’m really excited about some of your future projects and initiatives.

• System Audit
• The renovation
• We discussed getting BLUEcloud MobileCirc set up for you this semester as you are about to begin a renovation. If you encounter any difficulty setting this up, please do not hesitate to open a support ticket.
• You are creating an Education Section for the Children’s books, learning support materials, textbooks, etc. for that program
• You are also planning to integrate much of your reference collection back into the standard stacks.
• Once the renovation has been completed, you will try to inventory the collection. As a reminder, there have been a few recent threads regarding this on the System Admin listserv that may be worth following. Once you are closer to starting this project, we can review where in the Support Center you can locate the appropriate documentation. Proper set up on properties and reports related to inventory will be integral to the success of this project. I always felt there was a great deal of value in inventory from both a service perspective but also from a collection development perspective. 

Preferred structure of this relationship: Quarterly calls, next call scheduled 11/12. If I can be of service prior to our next scheduled meeting, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. 

Hi, Michael and Molly

Right after our call, I contacted Tracy Moyers from Data Services and said that your IT department would like to have a call with him (or someone from Data Services) to go over how authority processing updates would work.  I will let you know when Tracy gets back to me.

Then I sent mail to Brian Hutchings and asked him about the CAS project that Molly referred to at the end of the call today. The thing is, I do not see any evidence of a CAS “project”, and certainly nothing with Brian’s name associated with it.  But I followed through just in case I was missing something.  I do notice that Michael opened case 1153732 for an issue with CAS on the Test server, but the SirsiDynix contact for that was Ron Seamons.  Molly, do you have any email from Brian Hutchings about the CAS project?  (I have not heard back from Brian yet.)

Then we talked about your Symphony 3.5.2 and how you may want to upgrade to a later version of Symphony at the end of the semester.  SirsiDynix released 3.5.2 in September 2016.  After that, we released 3.5.2.1, then 3.5.3, then 3.5.3.1.  And in a week or so, SirsiDynix will release 3.6  And the SirsiDynix product roadmap indicated that SirsiDynix expects to release 3.6.1 at the end of the 2^nd quarter this year, or sometime in the 3^rd quarter.

So, let’s say you decide to upgrade to 3.6 as soon as the semester is over. What new enhancements and fixes will you get?  Today we went to the Support Center and then Documents > New Features and Fixed Bugs. We set the Product filter to “Symphony” and the Version filter to “3.5.2.1.” This generated a display of enhancements and fixes associated with Symphony 3.5.2.1. (I also pointed out some 3.5.2.1  OPAC enhancements geared to security.) Then we set the Version filter to 3.5.3, to see enhancements and fixes included in 3.5.3. And then we set the Version filter to 3.5.3.1 (and I pointed out that OCLC Connexion Integration with Symphony was included in 3.5.3.1.) And finally we set the Version filter to 3.6 (due out in a week or so.)  I pointed out that OCLC Connexion Integration will be expanded to include authority records in 3.6. Also, 3.6 will include the new Manage Hold Shelf wizard. And I pointed out that if anyone uses a custom Circulation toolbar, that custom toolbar will need to be updated to add the new Manage Hold Shelf wizard.

Now, I also pointed out that if you upgrade to Symphony 3.6, there is a bug with updating the WorkFlows client.  You will need to have a workstation administrator log in to the workstation in order to update the WorkFlows client.  We broke this in 3.5.3.1, and it is fixed in 3.6.1.  So if Symphony 3.6.1 is released in the early part of the summer, you may just want to wait and upgrade to 3.6.1.

Then we took a look at the new SirsiDynix Product Roadmap format.   For the most part, this is no longer a static, pdf document. Instead, it is interactive.  You can access the road map by going to Documents > Product Roadmap.  Use the filters to specify a product (Symphony, MobileCirc, etc.) Then specify a version. This can be a version number, or simply “Near Term” or “Long Term.  We saw today that “Near Term” (i.e. Symphony 3.6.1)  included an enhancement to Acquisitions, where staff can receive multiple purchase orders  in batch. And we saw that SirsiDynix expects to release the standalone Data Control Interface about the time of 3.6.1.  The Data Control Interface is a sort of API Lite, where you work from a graphical interface and do not have to manually enter commands on the command line.  It is much simpler than the traditional API that Sam Houston State uses.

Then to see a pdf timeline of the upcoming product release dates, we went to the Support Center home page.  We saw the SirsiDynix Product Roadmap link over on the right, and clicked on this.  On the resulting page, we clicked on the SirsiDynix Roadmaps Timeline pdf link.  We can saw that Symphony 3.6.1  is targeted for a 2019 Q3 release.

We also saw that you can go to the Support Center and then Documents > Videos to see a list of very short product videos.  To make this menu option work well for you, first set the Platform filter to “Symphony”. Then look at the list of videos. There is one on Symphony 3.5.3.1 Service Pack 1 that shows you how three new enhancements will work, including the OCLC Connexion integration.  And there a video on the new SirsiDynix Product Roadmap. And there is a video on the Symphony 3.6 “Manage Hold Shelf” wizard.

We then went to http://www.sirsidynix.com/events/all-webinars in order to see a list of videos recorded at the Connections Summit on Nov 13-14. Only the Opening Day and Symphony Day group of videos would be applicable to you.  During our call, I encouraged you to take a close look at the videos from “Symphony Day” in particular.  There are several Symphony videos that you and your staff may find helpful.  And please do take a serious look at the “Slicing and Dicing with the New BLUEcloud Data Control” video.  This is the exciting new “API Lite” functionality that I mentioned above.  You may want to consider acquiring the Data Control Interface once the library has upgraded to 3.6.1.

Then we talked about your eLibrary OPAC in general.  I explained that the platform it is on is very old.  There is only so much we can do in eLibrary to provide you with the security level that you need. The answer is to move to Enterprise, our discovery product.   And to give you an idea of the many “faces” of Enterprise, today we went to Community > Community Websites on the Support Center to see a list of over a hundred different Enterprise implementations from our SirsiDynix customers. Molly mentioned that the issue with adopting Enterprise is price.  I will follow up with Drew McNaughton, who is now your sales account rep, and let him know about your situation.

Finally, I reminded you about two  free trainings from SirsiDynix.  In fact, we took a look at them.  Here is how you can register for these classes.  On the right side of Support Center home page, locate the “Mentor 2.0” red Login box.  Log in to Mentor and you will eventually land at the Mentor home page. On the right side of the Mentor home page, you will see a vertical list of icons. The second icon is “Free Classes”.  Click this icon to access the list of free classes.  Here are the two classes I want to bring to your attention:

• Navigate SirsiDynix:  This 90 minute WebEx class is directed to library directors and new system admins.  It covers the basics of the Support Center, but more from the viewpoint of the library director. However, I have talked to longtime Symphony administrators who took this training and told me they learned a few things! As soon as your new library director starts, please go to User Management on the Support Center and create an account for him.  I would give him privileges for Training, Documents, Cases, and Community, at minimum. Then walk him through registering himself for Navigate SirsiDynix.

• Symphony Administration Essentials:  This 3-hour WebEx class is for Symphony system administrators.  It used to cost $300, but now we are offering it for free!  It is a great review, and also perfect if there is someone you are grooming to be a backup system administrator.  This class has been hugely popular. We just opened 5-6 more sessions. So if you are interested, I encourage you to claim a seat before all the sessions fill up again.

Let me know if you run into any questions or issues as you attempt to register for these classes.

Our next call is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21 at 9:30.  However, if anything comes up before then and you think that I can help, please do not hesitate to contact me!

After our call, I went to the Library Technology Inc. web site and of course you are right.  They are indeed shuttering their doors in March 2019.  I let the other SirsiDynix LRMs know.  However, our Data Services manager Tracy Moyers knew all about it, and is working on ways to easily transition SirsiDynix LTI customers to SirsiDynix for authority processing and cleanup.   And speaking of Tracy, I watched his Data Services Overview webinar recording after our call, and it was great.  There is a lot of information on how we do authority processing, as well as information on other services that his team offers.  Here is the link to the Data Services webinar recording:

http://go.sirsidynix.com/Data-Services-Overview-On-Demand-Reg.html

We talked today about the fact that Sam Houston State University is running Symphony 3.5.2, which was released in September 2016.  So it is almost two years old.  After 3.5.2, we released 3.5.2.1, and then 3.5.3 (quickly followed by 3.5.3.0 GA2, a patched version of 3.5.3 with fixes needed for libraries that run Symphony with Oracle.)  If you decide to upgrade to 3.5.3, you will go to 3.5.3.0 GA2.

But it is close to the beginning of the semester and you probably will not upgrade Symphony at this point.  As we discussed today, this fall SirsiDynix will release Symphony 3.5.3.1.  And today we went to the Support Center and then Documents > New Features and Fixed Bugs to see how we are progressing with the next version of Symphony. We set the Product filter to “Symphony” and the Version filter to “3.5.3.1.”  Each time the developers complete an enhancement or a bug fix, they update this list.  One of the enhancements that is complete is the OCLC Connexion integration with Symphony.  That is, you will be able to catalog in OCLC and the record will automatically be downloaded into Symphony.  You do not need Smartport or the Load Bibliographic Records report. The download can optionally create one copy as well.

Then we talked about your MobileCirc.   I advised you to go to the Support Center and then Releases > Releases. (This used to be “Downloads > Downloads/Upgrades” but we renamed it!)  Navigate down to the MobileCirc entry (the last entry in the BLUEcloud section.) Take a look at the Fact Sheet and also the Setup Guide, both available from links in column 4 of that entry.  The Setup Guide has a whole section on using MobileCirc as a self-check kiosk.  This webinar might be helpful also:

http://go.sirsidynix.com/KIOSK-Mode-for-MobileCirc-AM-On-Demand.html

You can also send email to the circulation listserv and ask other libraries for their experiences using MobileCirc as a kiosk. 

During our call we also talked about Basic Platinum vs. Platinum Premier.  On the Support Center, we went to Services > Subscription Services.   We saw that Platinum Premier includes API so you will not need a separate invoice line item for API. Also, Platinum Premier includes quarterly authority updates.

With Basic Platinum, you would have to retain your API line item.  You would also have to purchase quarterly authority updates separately.  And of course you would get fewer consulting hours and fewer training credits.

And speaking of training, today we talked about two free classes that SirsiDynix is offering.  We looked at the article on the Support Center  home page  “New, Free Trainings for Library Directors and System Administrators”.  These are instructor-led WebEx classes.  There are two offerings.  The first is “Navigate SirsiDynix”.  This brand-new 90-minute class walks you through how to tell what SirsiDynix products you have, what your account balances are, and what training is available. It walks you through how to use Mentor, and provides an overview of the Support Center.  It is great for library directors and new system administrators.  Maybe one of you could sign up for a February session, sort of as a ringer for the new library director. (Just a thought…)

The other class is “Symphony Administration Essentials.” This 3-hour class has been available for many years, but this is the first time SirsiDynix is offering it at no cost!   It is a great introduction for new Symphony administrators, and a good review for long-time Symphony administrators.  And it would be very useful if you wanted to train someone to be the system admin’s backup

The article on the Support Center home page has links that take you right into Mentor so you (and/or another staff member) can register. 

Usually in an LRM call we look at the SirsiDynix Product Roadmap together. But we did not do that this time. The current roadmap document posted on the Support Center  is too out of date.  SirsiDynix expects to release a new road map in the next week or so.  But the format will be different.  It will not be a static pdf document.  Instead, it will be similar to “New Features and Fixed Bugs.”

We also talked today about Molly’s case 1111644. This is the one about the copy over script.  The way it stands right now, it sounds like this script basically works. However, when the script finishes someone has to restart the services and someone has to edit the max reports value.  This is doable.  However, Molly is worried that other errors are going to creep in.  So I recommend that you leave this case open until you have done the copy over enough times to feel  confident that you can run the script without errors.

After our call, I noticed that when you go to Account > My Account >  User Management, Ann Holder is listed as active. Could one of you disable her account in  User Management?  It is important to keep the staff lists up to date, because this information is written to an interface that SirsiDynix uses to get information about our libraries.  Let me know if you need help disabling Ann’s account.

Finally, we looked at the Connections Summit videos, and some of the newer archived webinar recording links.  You can actually skip the Support Center and point your browser to http://www.sirsidynix.com/events/all-webinars.  Navigate down until you see the big “Webinars” header, followed by “Take advantage of free learning opportunities…..”  Underneath that you will see three tabs – Upcoming Webinars, Archive Webinars, and Connections Summit.  First, click on the Connections Summit tab, and navigate down until you see the “Jan 17” area for Symphony Academic Libraries.  Click on the blue “Watch video!” button to see the list of videos . At minimum, please take a look at the two Symphony videos.  They are excellent!  And each is only 15 minutes. 

Then go to the Archive Webinars tab.   I already pointed out the Data Services Overview webinar and the MobileCirc Kiosk webinar.  Here are some other webinar recordings you might enjoy:

Symphony Wizard: Fixed Format Manager – 10 July 2018 (outputting Symphony reports to excel)

Symphony Wizard: Tips & Tricks in Serials – 01 May 2018  (nice overview of the basics of serials check in)

Symphony Wizard:  Overview of Types of Symphony Reports – 03 April 2018

Symphony Wizard: MARC Export Utility – 13 March 2018  (presented in the context of an OCLC reclamation)

Symphony Hero: Item Search and Display – 24 Oct 2017  (stresses Boolean and wildcard searching in WorkFlows)

Symphony Hero: Bibliographic Lists – 23 Feb 2017  (my personal favorite – formatting bib information in report output)

You can see that there are many other webinar  recordings that you and your staff might find useful. And they are all free!!!!

Our next call is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov 14 at 10:00.  However, if anything comes up before then and you think that I can help, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Right after our call, I contacted your sales rep Larry Menlove and asked him to send you a quote for SMS messaging.  I believe he was going to call you and explain the tiers.  In other words, you can start out with a quote for X number of messages, and then if you need more messages we can quote you more.   I think Larry was going to try to talk to you this afternoon.  If you have not heard from Larry by Friday, let me know.

Then I verified that it is totally fine for you to attend Director’s Day at COSUGI, and by now you probably have already received the invitation.  Let me know if you hit any roadblocks when you try to register.

Then we talked about Michael Hanson, and I said that our records do not show him as “API Trained”.  So I sent mail to the head of our consultants (this is the team that does the API training) and asked them about Michael. As soon as they give the okay, I will update his status.

Otherwise, it sounds like all is on hold until you have the migration to Linux next month.  In the meantime, take a look at article 124675 on the Support Center.  It is the Routine Administrative Tasks (RATS) document for libraries running Symphony on an Oracle or Linux operating system. It outlines what we expect you will be doing every  day, every week, every month, and at the end of the year.  You may want to bookmark this article. (Remember, there is a “bookmark this page” link at the bottom of every Support Center article, and you can easily access these bookmarks by hovering over “My Account on the blue Support Center toolbar, and choosing My Bookmarks.)

Once the migration is scheduled, let me know and I will put it on my calendar.

After the migration, please check to see that your migration tech enabled the Oracle tab of reports under the Schedule New Report wizard.  You will want to start running the Synchronize Policies report daily, and the Analyze Oracle Tables report either weekly.

Then after the migration we can talk about enabling BLUEcloud Cataloging and BLUEcloud Circulation. Both of them are available to you at no cost. We can also talk about getting MobileCirc up and running and in use by staff. 

Finally, during our call we went over to the SirsiDynix Support Center and looked at some new features. For example, we looked at the new My Environments, located under My Account on the blue Support Center toolbar. This new feature will show you at a glance what version of Symphony you are running and what version(s) of Web Services you are running.  Then we looked at the new road map document, which you access from the “SirsiDynix Product Roadmap” link located on the right side of the Support Center home page.   We also went to the May We Recommend area also located on the right side of the Support Center toolbar, and saw that you could navigate to the list of upcoming webinars, and the list of recordings of past archived webinars.  In fact, you can access these same lists by bypassing the Support Center and going directly to http://www.sirsidynix.com/events/all-webinars.  During the call, I pointed out the link to the recording of the January 17 “Meet BLUEcloud Circulation” webinar.   You may want to make your circ staff aware of this webinar recording.

We did not set up a date for another call, thinking that we will probably see each other at COSUGI. However, just in case, I made a calendar notation for May 2 to contact you to set up a call for later that month or in June.  I don’t always get to COSUGI, and want to make sure we still get a chance to touch base this spring.

After our call, the first thing I did was contact your sales rep Larry Menlove and ask him to send you a quote for BLUEcloud Analytics.  You should be getting it within a few days.  I also asked him to send you a quote for migrating your current Windows isam Symphony server to Linux Oracle.  You did not mention this, but I included migrating your test server as well. You may or may not be interested in that.

We talked about upgrading your Symphony server to version 3.5.2 and it sounds like January might be an ideal time for you. As we discussed in the call, SirsiDynix will connect to the server and perform the upgrade for you at no cost, as long as you allow us to do it Mon-Fri from 8:00 to 5:00 Mountain Time.  But please open a Customer Support case soon and get yourself on the schedule.

You asked a question about excluding the user name and user ID from Checkout due date slips in WorkFlows.  Yes, you can do this.  Go to the Properties for the Checkout wizard.  On the Behavior tab of the Checkout properties, navigate to the “Charge printing” section and enable the “Print due date slips” or “Print charge receipts” (whichever one you use.)  Then click on the box to the right of the radio button you clicked.  You will see that you have the ability to include/exclude fields from the receipt or due date slip.   The user name and user ID are two fields that you can exclude.  I tried this myself and generated both due date slips and receipts that lacked a user name and a user ID.  Is that what you were looking for?

I have been mulling over your issue where you want to export MARC records and include the cat/flex key and the title control number. When you run the MARC Export utility, you are prompted to put the cat/flex key in a specific field in the export record. No problem there.  But after our call, I was confused about what you want to do with the title control number during an export.  To my knowledge, there is no way to in the MARC Export wizard to put the title control number in some specific field.  You may want to open a Customer Support case to ask about this.

There is one other approach.  Sam Houston State University has an API Subscription.  Have you joined the API listserv and asked the other API users if they could solve this for you with API?

Also, because you have an API Subscription, you have access to the monthly API Stump The Chump session.  You can see these in Mentor under class “SYM920 Symphony API: Stump-the-Chump Q&A.”  In fact, there was a session today, but the registration is closed. There is another one on Dec 5 at 10:00 a.m.  You might want to attend and see if they can solve your “catalogdump” problem that you described today. In other words, you are using catalogdump exactly the way our consultants used it to do some custom work for you, but when YOU try it, the output file cannot be read by MarcEdit.  They might be able to figure this out for you.

Finally, we talked about how to verify what version of Web Services you have. There are two ways to do this:

• Log into Web Services by pointing your browser to http://unicorn.shsu.edu/symws2015/admin with the username of “admin” and the password I gave you over the phone.
• Or, log into MobileCirc. Once in, click on the “About” link.  It will show you the URL being used, and the ILS Web Services version. (This is the version that is in the format of YYYY.MM.)

We determined that Sam Houston State University is running ILS Web Services 2015.08.

Once you figure out what version of Web Services you HAVE, then you need to figure out what version of Web Services you NEED.   To do this,  we went to the SirsiDynix Support Center and clicked on Downloads, then Downloads/Upgrades.  We saw that many of the BLUEcloud Products have Fact Sheets available from this page, and that, when appropriate, the Fact Sheets contain a Feature Dependencies matrix. This matrix allows you to match the Symphony version you have with the Web Services version you have, and then determine for this particular BLUEcloud product, how much functionality you can expect.  A green circle with a checkmark means you can expect full functionality in this BLUEcloud product.   An orange circle with a piece of the pie missing means that you can expect to see most of the functionality in this product, but some functionality might be missing.  If the whole box is grayed out, it means that there is so much functionality missing that we cannot support you on this particular BLUEcloud product.  Use this Fact Sheet matrix to determine if you need to open a case and ask for a Web Services upgrade. The only BLUEcloud product Sam Houston State University is actively using is MobileCirc. We looked at the Fact Sheet for MobileCirc and saw that your Web Services 2015.08 is too old to support MobileCirc.  So I recommended that you open a case and ask Customer Support to upgrade you to the latest Web Services.

Finally, we looked at the new bookmarking feature in the Support Center. We also saw that you can rate Support Center articles with stars, and can add comments to Support Center articles!  Then we looked at links to some webinar recordings, and noted that you can also access them from www.sirsidynix.com/events.

We did not look at the SirsiDynix Product Roadmap this time because the document has not been updated since April and the information is out of date. There should be a new SirsiDynix Product Roadmap posted to the Support Center any day now.

Our next call is scheduled for Thursday, Feb 16 at 10:00.  However, if anything comes up before then and you think that I can help, please do not hesitate to contact me. Also, when you get a date for your Symphony 3.5.2 upgrade, let me know and I will put it on my calendar.

Best regards,

Janet

It was great talking with you today and comparing notes from the July 15 conference call!   It sounds like you will be upgrading the production Symphony to Symphony 3.5.2 in either November or January, and then migrating from a Windows server to a Red Hat Linux (7?) server during spring break.  But in the meantime, you could certainly upgrade your test server to  Symphony 3.5.2 when that version is released in September,  and play with the new functionality. Remember, Sam Houston State pays maintenance on the test server, so SirsiDynix will perform the Symphony upgrade on the test server at no cost. Just open a case!

During the call, we went to the Support Center and then clicked on Downloads from the blue toolbar, and then Downloads/Upgrades.  We saw that you can navigate down to the “ILS” section to get to Symphony/Unicorn information.  I encouraged you to download the Symphony 3.5.1.1, 3.5.1, and 3.5 release notes documents to your workstation. You will want to read about the enhancements and fixes from each version. When Symphony 3.5.2 is released, the link to the 3.5 documents will drop off.  So it would be wise to grab any 3.5 documents you might want to consult later.

We also saw that the BLUEcloud products all have Fact Sheets documents on the Documents page. The Fact Sheets include information on what version(s) of Web Services work best with what version of Symphony to support that particular BLUEcloud product. During our call, we looked at the Fact Sheet for MobileCirc and saw that that you would do best with Web Services 2015.10 or 2016.04.  I said that our records show that Sam Houston State has Web Services 2015.08.  Per the fact sheet, that is permissible but not ideal.  So you may want to open a case and get your ILS Web Services updated.

Now, our information does not have the correct URL for your Web Services.   Could you verify the URL for me?  Go to MobileCirc and click on Help.  It will tell you the version of the ILS Web Services and I think (but am not completely certain) that it will provide the URL for the ILS Web Services.  If you could verify this information for me, I would be grateful.

We talked about BookMyne and why it was never adopted at Sam Houston State before.  My rationale was that prior to February 2016, the back end admin was completely different for iOS versus Android.   That meant double work. But now it is exactly the same.  We saw the links to the BookMyne Fact Sheet and to the BookMyne Setup Guide on the Downloads page in the Support Center.  I  confirmed that the student can log in to BookMyne with LDAP and see My Account information.  However, the question came regarding suppression of the My Account feature. What if you don’t want it?  After our call, I sent mail to Michael Staten, our product manager for BookMyne and asked him.  I will let you know what he says.

You asked about removing Symphony locations and item records.  To see a list of delivered locations and delivered items types which should never be removed, you can go to your Symphony help file.  Search for “Delivered Location Policies” and “Delivered Item Type Policies” to see a list of these policies that should never be removed.  But what about locations and item types that were not delivered but simply added over the years?  Regarding locations, see article 136425 in the Support Center for information on how to determine whether you can safely remove a location.  I could not find a similar article on item types.  However, I think you can look at the general principles in article 136425 and apply them to items. But then you would also have to check all the various maps – the circulation maps, the default price policy, the hold map, etc. It can get complicated!   You may want to send a query out to the SirsiDynix system admin listserv and ask if anyone has compiled a list of what to check when you want to remove an item type.

Our next call is scheduled for Wednesday, November 9 at 2:00.  However, if anything comes up before then and you think that I can help, please do not hesitate to contact me.  And I do hope that it works out that we can see each other at SCUUG!

Thanks for talking with me when I called you out of the blue just now!  I wanted to touch base with you, as you are now taking over from Linda Meyer.

One of the things I wanted to discuss with you is upgrading Symphony.  Sam Houston State is on version 3.4.1 Service Pack 5. We have since released Symphony 3.5, and Symphony 3.5.1, and then Symphony 3.5.1 Service Pack 1.  But it sounds like the plan is to hold off upgrading until Symphony 3.5.2 is released, because in 3.5.2 eLibrary will support TLS connections to your CAS server.  Right now, it looks like 3.5.2 is targeted for 3^rd quarter, and it may even be later than that.   So if you only do Symphony upgrades during University breaks, you may not be able to upgrade Symphony until winter break.

I was glad to hear that you are waiting for IT approval for BLUEcloud Cataloging.  Once they give approval, all you have to do to get started is to open a Customer Support case and ask to be set up.  You are fine to do this on your current 3.4.1.5 Symphony (though there might be a few features not available to you until you upgrade to a later Symphony version.)

Regarding API, because Sam Houston State pays for an annual subscription, you have the following perks:

• You are able to send one individual to a regional workshop each ear.  Will Michael Hanson be taking the workshop at COSUGI this year?
• Your staff is able to attend the online API classes throughout the year. You can attend them multiple times.
• You get Web Services SDK license (in case you want to build your own apps!)
• You get four hours of API Consulting each year, if you need help on special projects.
• You have access to Monthly Q&A’s “Stump the Chump” sessions.
• You have full access to the API documentation
• You have full access to the API listservs and forums
• You have full access to the API customer wiki

To register for one of the WebEx refresher classes, log into the SirsiDynix Support Center.  On the home page, over on the right, click on the Mentor 2.0 red “login” button.  When you get to the Mentor home page, click on the yellow “Course Catalog” icon underneath the photo of the girl in the blue sweater checking out the book.  Once the Course Catalog opens up, limit the listings by clicking on the “Subject” filter on the left. Then select “API”.  You will see all the offerings available to you, including the monthly “Stump the Chump” sessions!

During our call, I forgot to ask you about the Symphony Test Server at Sam Houston State University.  Our records, which may be out of date, say that the OS on the test server is Windows 2003.  Is that true?  If so, do you expect to upgrade the OS, since Windows 2003 is no longer supported (and will not be supported for Symphony 3.5.2)?

Finally, during the call we talked a bit about the User Management feature in the Support Center.  It is located under My Account on the blue toolbar.  I notice that Linda Meyer is still listed as active.  It would be great if you could go into User Management and deactivate her.  That way, it will be clear to the SirsiDynix staff that Linda is no longer at the library.

Our next call is scheduled for Tuesday, August 2 at 2:00.  But I look forward to seeing you at TLA in a few weeks!  Regarding the August 2 call, if something comes up before then and you think that I can help, please do not hesitate to contact me. Don’t wait until August 2!