Wot’s in a Name?Enterprise/Portfolio & the Discovery Layer Experience in the Swift Consortium

Lloyd Brady – Swift Systems Administrator

Prologue: Naming (un-)conventions of SirsiDynix

• Unicorn – Symphony• iLink – iBlink – iBistro – e-Library• Hyperion – Enterprise - Portfolio

The Swift Environment• Two database instances – VIC & NSW• 22 library services (20 have

purchased the Discovery Layer, but only 6 are live)

Naming Conventions

• Profile for each library service (at least one)• Unique domain names for each profile

(swft.xxxx.ent.sirsidynix.net.au). EG:– http://swft.cprl.ent.sirsidynix.net.au– http://swft.cobb.ent.sirsidynix.net.au– http://swft.gvrl.ent.sirsidynix.net.au– http://swft.hclc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au– http://swft.chrl.ent.sirsidynix.net.au– http://swft.wrlc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au

Initial Implementation• “Global” policies:– Hit List and Detail Display fields– Naming conventions for profiles, images and other

files– Custom content directories

• Harvesting schedules• “Federated” searching – NOT• Configuring Display Codes

Implementation (cont.)

• HCLC migration from EPS Rooms• CPRL launch October 2010 - Enterprise 3.1 • 6 Profiles currently live• Other libraries wait for features/bug fixes

promised in future release

To Share or not to Share

• Creating and sharing Rooms?• Search limits – where are the search groups?• Custom content files and directories:– /custom/web/content/xxxx

E-Library Integration

• Moving between interfaces– Mirror the look & feel?– Separate My Account logins– Possible confusion for users

• Online User Registration– Different URLs for each library needed

Version 4.1 – The Good

• Simple content management system• Fuzzy Logic Searching & Facets• Federated targets (sort of)• Web Services & My Account Display• Static URLs for results and RSS feeds• Gutenberg e-books• Syndetics display and Google Books (“accordion”

panels)• Custom Roles (almost)

Asset Stuff (Portfolio)

• Asset Administration• Metadata standards• Searching for Assets (Asset search limits)• Asset (in)security• Harvesting other databases• Hyperion data import

Statistics

• Google Analytics– E-Library v Enterprise/Portfolio– Counting Searches (sort of)

• Syndetics Statistics– Inflated content hits due to “pre-polling” of

Syndetics data

Version 4.1 – The Bad

• My Account Hold Dates• Custom roles not quite there• New Titles display• Volume Holds not working• Library Favourites• Databases tab/icon• No security for Assets (without Accountability)• Pickup Libraries – a MESS

New Titles Lists

• Display nice – Function poor• Does not use pre-existing Information Desk

policies/Bulletin Lists• “Custom” lists very limited options• “Library group” limit does not seem to work

Volume Holds

• Unable to select Volume in most instances• Where you can select Volume, the hold

doesn’t necessarily get filled by that volume• Cannot place more than one hold on a title,

even if volume is selected

Asset Security

• All assets are searchable, whether they have a security level assigned or not

• No easy way of assigning assets to a particular profile

• If you have the URL to a particular asset, you can access it no matter the security level assigned

Pickup Libraries

• Libraries display as policy codes, not descriptions

• No order to the list of Pickup libraries• No way of re-ordering the list• No “blank” field at the top of the list (i.e.

“Choose a Library”

What’s Needed

• Pickup Library fixes• My Account hold dates• Email alerts when System Tasks fail• Requests integration (display in My Account)• More Language label sets

What’s Needed (cont.)

• Change the way Syndetics content if pulled• Rooms management – make only available to

the Profile the room is created for• Reconfigure the New Titles lists to work with

the Information Desk policies• Asset improvements– Real security– Assigning particular assets to particular Profiles

Spin over Substance?

• Good product, with many excellent features• Some basic functionality missing or

mismanaged• Marketing and promotion seems to have

taken precedence over care functionality

Epilogue: Enterprise or Portfolio? – Why the name change?

• Enterprise– To boldly go...– Too Trekky?

• Portfolio– “Arty” for the cultured

UK/European market?– Bureaucratic?

What they should have called it...

• Temporal

• Archival

• Repository for

• Digital

• Images &

• Stuff