Endeavor Consortium Work Group
Quarterly meeting
Council on Postsecondary Education,
September 8, 2006, 1:00 p.m.
Present
Shirley Ackerman (KY Hist. Soc.), Perry Bratcher (NKU), Ilona Burdette (St. Catharine College),
Rose Davis (WKU), John Detwiler (KDLA), Paul
Fuller (KCTCS), Julie Gilmore (KWC), Margaret
Prentice Hecker (KSU), Ray Hyatt, Jr.
(UK), Tari Keller (UK), Don Kim
(Murray State), Todd King (EKU), Leonor
Lopez (KSU), Aleeah McGinnis (Murray State Univ.), Sheri Myers (NKU), Granuaile
O’Flanagan (Morehead State Univ.), Mark Paul (U of L), Cathy Reilender
(Midway), Nelda Sims (WKU), Michael
Stapleton (KCTCS), Clara Stethen (St. Catharine College), Kelly Vickery (
Guests
Patrick
Jones, Sales, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc.
John
Rose, Director of Sales, Eastern Region, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc.
Kay Stanley, Manager, Product
Release and Integration Group, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. (by teleconference
link)
Linda
Voyles, Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. (by teleconference link)
Meeting called to order at 1:00 p.m.
by Tari Keller, moderator
Introductions
Introductions
around the table. Aleeah McGinnis introduced
Don Kim, the new Systems Librarian for
Oracle Patches
Conference
call with Kay Stanley, Endeavor
Information Systems, Inc.
Kay Stanley
explained Oracle patches via teleconference link. Oracle patches are applied at each
upgrade. The patches are
cumulative. If a site wishes to
apply a cumulative patch in response to a specific threat, Endeavor can do it
between upgrades for a fee.
SupportWeb has a more complete explanation.
The patches are
designed to address Internet security threats specific to Oracle and the AIX
operating system that are used by Voyager.
Threats and vulnerabilities are published by the Carnegie-Mellon
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).
When a CERT alert is published that could possibly affect the Voyager
database or operating system, Endeavor alerts primary Voyager contacts and Voyager-L. Most CERT advisories don’t apply,
because of the way EISI implements Voyager. EISI takes proactive approach, but
advises each site to evaluate its own security needs.
Endeavor update
Continuation
of conference call with Linda Voyles, Endeavor
Information Systems, Inc.
Linda Voyles listed
the following items:
After the
conference call was ended, discussion followed about individual and group
concerns regarding Endeavor’s delays since the last upgrade in providing
a basic service (sorting) to many of our library catalogs. The suggestion was made that the group consider
withholding payment if something like this happens again.
It was also noted
that:
Patrick Jones
offered to mediate contact between Endeavor and the hub administrators for resolving
the sorting problem for
Analyzer demo - Patrick Jones and John Rose
https://support.endinfosys.com/cust/voy/products/analyzer.html
Analyzer is the
Web-based reporting tool for use with Voyager. It is also bundled within
Deployment for
consortium: One server for
consortium, plus individual licenses for each institution. Users log in to their own database to
create reports.
The live demonstration
included capabilities for report selection and modification, the use of prompts
for report criteria and output formats, scheduling times to run reports, and a
brief description of the differences between administrative access (Technical
Author) and user-level access (Library Author) to the tool.
One shortcoming is
that Analyzer only does generic alphanumeric sort, which causes call numbers
not to sort correctly.
Report on ILS Task Force
Paul Fuller outlined
recommendations of the ILS Task Force convened by the Virtual Library Advisory
Committee (VLAC). The
recommendations are:
The task force also
strongly recommended that the next ILS be implemented on the vendor’s
native platform.
VLAC voted to
accept the recommendations, thanked the Task Force members, and dissolved the
group. VLAC purposed to form
another group to draw up the recommended RFI.
KYVL update
Enid Wohlstein
stated that the hub sites have provided their costs for hosting Voyager for the
consortium, but that the formats differed significantly, making them difficult
to compare. KYVL is interviewing for
its open librarian position.
Support by the legislature and CPE for funding for postsecondary
education—and library technology in particular—still appears to be
strong, despite the lack of funding for library technology in the current
fiscal year. She continues to make
the case for the significant cost savings realized by consortial purchases of
academic software (e.g., databases, ILS, and the recent consortial purchase of
Blackboard).
The American
Justice School of Law has joined the KYVL-Endeavor Consortium. Their library’s database will be
hosted on the West hub, managed by the
Endeavor training
budget report: An audit revealed
that a check for $85,754 was misapplied to a non-KYVL training account some
time ago, meaning that the training account has appeared to be funded at a
lower level than expected.
Database and
courier contracts are being re-bid this December.
A draft of the new KYVU
Strategic Plan will be presented to CPE on Sept 17.
Update on Voyager 5 problems
See the earlier
discussion after the Endeavor Update conference call and the beginning of the
Analyzer presentation.
Voyager5-05 patch
Scheduling? EISI recommends applying this patch
before the Voyager 6 upgrade in January, in order to resolve the sorting
problem. East and West hubs need to
decide on an upgrade time and let Tari Keller know. Estimated time to patch: about two hours per database. This is critical for
Other business
The group continued
its discussion about frustrations with Endeavor’s poor response to
support incidents, enhancement requests, and requests for pricing for adding
new institutions to the KYVL consortium.
Next meeting
Proposed agenda topics: January upgrade to Voyager 6
December 1, 2006, 1:00 p.m.
Send proposed agenda items to Tari
Keller.
The moderator
adjourned the meeting at 3:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Stapleton
Systems Librarian