ITTS Update

We have received a script from a UNIX systems specialist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County that converts Listproc lists to Sympa. It has required some modifications to work in our situation, but we have tested it and expect to be able to begin converting all active lists sometime in the next week or so. In preparation, we have asked list owners to identify lists that are no longer active and can be eliminated before the conversion takes place. List owners will be notified well in advance when we are ready to proceed with conversions. We greatly appreciate the generosity of Dale Ghent at the University of Maryland Baltimore County!

Posted by admin under Mailing Lists | No Comments »

A test version of Moodle, an open-source course management system, has been created and released to staff who currently have courses running in WebCT. We will experiment with this software until May 31st, at which time we will determine if it suits our needs. If it does, we will develop a transition plan to move to Moodle before our WebCT license expires in November.

Posted by admin under WebCT | No Comments »

We have received notice that a patch has been released for iMIS 10. This patch corrects a problem with some transactions. We have not experienced many of these problems, but must install the patch anyway. We will notify everyone in advance when we are ready to install the patch.

Posted by admin under iMIS | No Comments »

We have entered a very active phase in the Collage implementation project. After American Libraries Online went live in December, we discovered that the content services switch (a device that allows us to direct traffic between the old and new systems based on URLs) we had installed in August was not the right switch for our needs. A new switch was ordered immediately and was delivered and installed in late February. We had to put several units’ conversions to Collage on hold while we waited for the switch. Now that the switch has been installed, we can pick up the pace of conversions to Collage.

We are moving to Collage unit by unit, rather than risking one massive “go-live” event for the entire association. The basic conversion process is for Duo (our implementation consultants) to convert a unit’s graphic design into Collage, pull over the unit’s content, fix anything they see wrong, and then turn the content over to the unit for their review. Units then vet the conversion and report back any problems they encounter. Duo fixes the problems, and the unit’s content is then scheduled to go live in the new system Unit staff are also trained during this period.

Three units are currently using Collage to manage their content: American Libraries, LITA, and the ALA Library. Next to go live will probably be AASL and PLA. ACRL/Choice is ready as well, but they would like to wait until after their National Conference to go live (early April).

ASCLA, YALSA, and the Washington Office are currently in the process of reviewing their content after the first-pass conversion by Duo. RUSA’s conversion was delayed while Duo and Serena (makers of Collage) resolved problems found during the first pass. Next up is ALCTS. A revised conversion schedule follows. (Please note: these are the dates Duo expects to hand off the unit’s content for review of first pass at conversion. Depending on how long the unit takes to review its content and how extensive the fixes needed are, a go-live date could be anywhere from a week to three weeks following the date below).

American Libraries              Live in Collage
LITA				Live in Collage
ALA Library			Live in Collage
ACRL				Pending National Conference
AASL				Imminent go-live
RUSA			 	03/28/07
ASCLA			        In review as of 03/22/07
PLA				Imminent go-live
Washington Office		In review as of 03/22/07
YALSA			        In review as of 03/22/07
ALCTS			        03/30/07
All other Offices		04/06/07
LAMA				04/13/07
ALSC				04/27/07
ALTA				05/11/07
All Round Tables		05/25/07
ALA general & cleanup	        06/15/07

Posted by admin under CMS | No Comments »

The new content services switch was installed today. This will allow ACRL to move to Collage after their national conference later this month.

Posted by Sherri under CMS | No Comments »

“We experienced a disconnection from the internet at 11:20 a.m. Saturday morning. The DS3 internet connection service maintained by AT & T was not functioning. This service is typically extremely reliable, and we will pursue a refund for the down time. During this period, we had no web presence, and there was no email in or out. Our alert system failed to notify us because the messages go out through our internet connection, including text messages sent to cell phones. We have revised our alert system to include outside (non-ALA) email systems, so that we can receive messages when ALA services are down.

Service was restored at 2:45 p.m. Sunday afternoon.” – Tim Smith

Posted by Jenny under Internet Service | No Comments »

Our list server (Listproc) went down yesterday. Listproc is now back up and running but is still experiencing some abnormal behavior. In the effort to get listproc back online, we may have lost some messages with all the spam that we deleted. Please check your lists for lost messages and resend them. Lists currently running on Sympa are not affected.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Posted by Sherri under Email Issues | No Comments »

The server that scans email for viruses was down last night. This caused a backlog of incoming email. We have about 4500 messages in the queue that need to be processed. The current configuration can process about 1000 messages an hour over the normal incoming rate.

Posted by Sherri under Email Issues | No Comments »