Request Issue

Many of you probably have not heard about this, or if you have you may have just thought it an isolated glitch. Some patrons have reported that when trying to place a request in i-Bistro they would receive an error message that the request could not be placed because it already exists. Now aside form an meta-physical explanations this was a source of some confusion. We tried to replicate here at the DDL and at first could not. This led to even more confusion on our part. We did manage to replicate the error and with our consultant’s help found the source of the problem. Deep in the bowels of Unicorn is a file that governs the creation of the ID number for the request module. In our case there are 34 of these files, one for each library. However when the fine folks at SirsiDynix set up our system they neglected to create a unique file for each of the libraries. So we had a case where some of the autoIDs, which were supposed to be unique, were not and hence we would get that odd little error message. We have since corrected all the offending files and now requests should work as intended without any of those error messages. We can only hope we haven’t frustrated too many patrons to the point of not placing requests.

Email Update - so close now!

Please read through this update fully before trying to login to the new email server. We have finally reached the point where the email server is up and running - sending and receiving email. That said, we still have work to do such as creating email distribution groups, mailing lists and tightening up the junk-mail / anti-spam rules, which we will continue to work on.

In short, as of tomorrow morning, 2/14, everyone will be able to login and use email, but understand that we have more work to do before this is done.

A couple of really important bits of information:

1. The plan initially was to change everyone's login to the format of firstname.lastname, like in the spreadsheet that was sent out to the director's. Unfortunately we weren't able to implement this at this time, without causing significantly longer down time. So, this is going to occur at some later date. That means that currently you should login with the same login name you have been using on the old server.

I'll use Dianne Burk as an example:
On the new server it was intended that she would login as dianne.burk, but since this isn't in place yet she will continue to login as dburk, which is what she has been using to access the old webmail program.

2. Everyone's password has changed, and each library will receive a call tomorrow morning with the new information. Once you login, you should change your password. This is not difficult to do:
1. Click on Options in the upper right hand corner of the web page.
2. Click on Change Password on the left side of the web page.
3. Enter your old password and enter your new password twice.

The password requirements are as follows:

1. must be at least 7 characters
2. must have at least 1 uppercase character
3. must have at least 1 number
4. you can use a special character, but it is not required.

You can access the email server at this url: https://owa.lib.de.us/

Email Update

The email server is the final stages of configuration and should be up in a few hours. The URL for the new email service should be: https://owa.lib.de.us. We will let you know if there is any change to that.

Email Update

The migration process is progressing, but slowly... MTM now feels that one more day will be needed to finish things up. While they are hesitant to commit to a particular time tomorrow, the consensus is that we should have email service sometime around 2 to 3pm.

I will provide another update tomorrow.

Library Email Solution update

Work continues on the servers, and the schedule remains as last stated. Plan to not have email on Monday and Tuesday. Email should be back up sometime Tuesday evening. The next update will be late Monday or early Tuesday.

Library Email Solution

We are still in the build-out stage and will continue this for the rest of the week. This will push back the migration until Monday.

So, expect to have email access through the rest of the week, and over the weekend, and expect to NOT have access on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Preliminary testing has shown that while email does migrate over, the address book information does not. So, please take some time over the next few days to copy (or print out) the contents of your address book so that you will have it readily available to add back in on the new system.

I will send further updates as they become available.

Library Email Solution

Server build-out and configuration will continue today and tomorrow.

Once the server build out is complete, we can run a test of the migration process to see how smooth (or painful) this will be. Once this test is complete we will be able to layout a more detailed timeline for migrating the old email.

As it currently stands, it looks like we will have email down-time on Thursday and Friday while the migration occurs and then we transport the server to DBSi. As email service will be down over these days, I will provide updates via the blog that Vinny setup: http://systemthis.blogspot.com/

So, expect continued email access today and tomorrow and then click on the link above for updates on progress for Thursday and Friday.