CODI News

Customers of Dynix, Incorporated

Volume 12, Number 4 Fall 1998

Menu - Master (MAST)

President's Letter

Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds gain momentum when the winds blow. Some of you just have leaves blowing around all over the place, some of us are lucky enough to have tumbleweeds. This time of year, with pretty much every library and school activity under full swing, it seems we can often barely grit our teeth and hang on for dear life with the number of commitments, activities, and issues that are plopped on our plates. Juggling all these issues without indigestion requires a healthy and productive attitude, not to mention an endless sense of humor!

Your CODI Board has been incredibly active up to this point in the 1998 year, wrestling with many issues. Among some of our achievables at this point are passing a sound budget for FY98-99. A tremendous amount of work has been undertaken by our Vice President, Susanne Woodford, on all the behind-the-scenes activity of conference planning for our upcoming Seattle Conference, February 10-12, 1999. The conference is early this year. By the time you receive this newsletter you may have to smack your forehead and realize you've missed the pre-conference early-bird registration dates. Please know that in order to be self-sustaining in our conference costs, we have very specific milestones in our catering and hotel contracts which cause much of the early deadline trauma. We know that the conference venue this year, Seattle, is a very expensive market for our members. We struggle always to balance overall costs with the ability to hold conferences in regional venues that involve more of our members throughout the country. Next year, 2000, we hope to be East, so far east that we can dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean, maybe! Board members are working on final proposals for Year 2000 sites, and a contract should be signed within the next several weeks.

Tumbleweeds. They travel at high rates of speed, leaping over cars, through streets, gathering material to take with them as they journey. The changes and challenges this year for the CODI organization are many. Travelling at a high rate of speed over a series of issues, we want first and foremost to remember several key points: we are not in this alone; we need to be effective and good stewards of our organization; and we must rise over many obstacles carefully and deliberately as we are flung headlong into the changes and challenges that lie ahead.

Foremost, if you are reading this from the web, you know that we have eliminated the ineffectual bulk mailings of our newsletters that never seemed to arrive in time. By cutting back on costs and labor for processing and mailing our newsletters, we feel we are able to enhance the value of the newsletters in a more flexible web format. By using the web medium more fully, we hope that the news will gradually become more newsy and less archival in nature. We're still looking for a few good writers who may be interested in helping Bruce Heimburger, our editor, in a combination of feature articles and various html-based projects. Those of you who are CODI members will continue to receive notification that the newsletter has been posted to the web. Those of you who are not CODI members can, for the moment, enjoy the newsletters at no charge. Those of you who have asked for additional paper copies as part of your newsletter subscription will continue to receive them for this year as per your 1998-99 membership dues.

Other challenges that the Board has begun active work on to this point are four major issues:

• Seeking ways to enhance input by the international clients through our current CODI membership structure. A gift, given to us by the University of Adelaide, has now enabled the members of all the Boards (CODI, CANDU, CODA, DUG, MADU) to use a listserve based in Australia for streamlined communication among the continents. Continued strong liaisons among all user groups have provided much support and understanding of our role as users in a global society.

• Seeking legal and structural alternatives for new initiatives through our bylaws. Rapid changes in a global environment necessitate that our bylaws and Board stay abreast of many legal and structural alternatives available to the Board. I am hopeful that positive efforts in this area will be ready and presented to the membership by the Spring Ballot.

• Seeking liaison and rapport with our sister organization, the Horizon Users Group. Marge Freeman, JAD Coordinator, and I attended the Horizon Users Group Meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina Nov. 9-11, 1998, at the invitation of the Horizon Board. Both groups have been contacted by Ameritech Library Services regarding participation in a joint conference. Ameritech proposed that the joint conference be held in the year 2000, a proposal which was flatly rejected by both Horizon and CODI Boards as too soon to achieve given the independent structure of both organizations. A list of concerns and points of discussion were forwarded back to Ameritech in response to ALS's request for a joint conference, and that document serves now as the basis for the beginning of future negotiations with both Ameritech and the Horizon Users Group. A relationship was forged at the Horizon User Group meetings in Raleigh, and we will build carefully and deliberately on that relationship to continue negotiations toward a joint conference at some point in the future. Talks and various efforts for joint cooperation on various issues are underway, but it has become clear that having a joint conference raises many issues beyond simply agreeing to meet together at an agreed-upon time and space. The "M&Q conference scouting expedition" gave us a bird's-eye view of many larger issues that need to be addressed in the next several months.

• Other goals: Seeking continued ALS support towards increased opportunities for JAD process input and development issues; Seeking options and feedback on the System Administrator Certification Program as it continues to be offered here and abroad; and Seeking additional ways to strengthen our regional groups and their effectiveness.

We hope to have an open forum for many of these issues at the Seattle Conference, and, as they become more formal proposals, we hope to be able to put forward recommendations to be voted on in our Spring Ballot. There might even be another survey or two lurking in the near future for more member input as the projects move along.

All in all, the Board continues to work actively and constantly in their areas of interest. I am happy to be a part of a creative and dedicated Board who have willingly taken on new projects and graciously allowed ourselves to think out loud and refine our goals as we go.

Tumbleweeds. Their momentum gathers fellow and kindred colleague tumbleweeds as they journey through life. Our momentum this year with our fellow "tumbleweeds" has achieved many positive initiatives already.

The privilege of seeing the Ameritech Product Plan and SUNRISE in action every couple of weeks is also a valuable experience. (Since PLA in Kansas City in March of 1998 through CODI in February of 1999 I will have listened to the metamorphosis of the Ameritech Product Plan eight times in the period of a single year; and will have seen 6 different demonstrations of the continued product development of SUNRISE.) The privilege of observing ALS in action is exciting and rewarding for all customers, watching a new product develop from the ground up and knowing that we are positively actively partnering in its growth and development. It is an opportunity that has given many of us on the Board much insight into the direction and depth of Ameritech's plans, as well as allowing us to see first-hand Ameritech's commitment to its global customers.

Tumbleweeds. Occasionally they reach the end-of-the-line, struggling to break through a barbed-wire fence. Oh, Dear! Well, with the world as your sandbox, the sky's the limit! No barbed-wire fences in sight! Did I ever tell you that some of my colorful analogies only work up to a point? :_)

Roll on, giddy-yup, ye tumbleweeds all, see 'ya in Seattle!

Seattle Conference Update - Susanne Woodford

Hello from Seattle!

I am sure you wouldn't want to miss our New Directions - Y2K and Beyond conference in February 1999. If you haven't done so yet, send your registrations in NOW! Remember, after December 1, the registration fee is $325.

Our keynote speaker at the Wednesday afternoon session is Willie C. Aikens, Director of Companywide Process and Strategy for The Boeing Company. He facilitates the operation of the Information Systems Steering Committee, the Boeing Production Strategy Council, and is the Program Manager for Year 2000 Readiness for Boeing. He sits on the Presidential Commission for the Year 2000. His address will give an overview of Y2K issues and solutions.

Confirmed exhibitors to date are: EBSCO, Rasmussen Software, Management Dynamics, Ameritech Library Services, Hyper Technologies, Checkpoint, A-R&B Associates, Percon, 3M Library Systems, SUN Microsystems, InData, & Unique Management. Current sponsors are 3M Library Systems, EBSCO, and Unique Management.

The Conference Planning Team is continuing to plan for an exciting conference in Seattle. Until next time, See You in Seattle in February!

CODI -VP and Conference Chair voice: (206)684-6632

King County Library System fax: (206)684-6690

300 Eighth Avenue North

Seattle, Washington 98109-5191

Feature Article . . .

Editor's Note: This writer of this article, Steven Heywood, is involved in administering a Dynix system for Rochdale Library Service, a library system in England. What I have reprinted below are actually two presentations Steven has recently done on the topic of library services to the disabled. Any while the topic isn't directly related to Dynix software, it is interesting to see how libraries in other countries are dealing with issues we are also facing in the U.S.

Envisage uses an ordinary PC with a speech synthesiser, keyboard, keypad and software supplied by Libris. Libris also did the data conversion to make the Library Catalogue available on PC.

Rochdale's investment in Envisage was part of a project funded by the DCMS Wolfson Challenge fund.

Like all public library services, Rochdale has an obligation to address the needs of all sectors of the local community. Like many other library services, we provide materials in alternative formats - in large print, on tape, as subtitled videos, in other languages. These collections are co-ordinated centrally but are available throughout the Borough.

We wanted to take things a step further. Recently we started to expand the number of OPACs (on-line public access to the catalogue) in our (then) three automated libraries. We were also about to start putting most of our branch libraries on-line, including OPACs at each library. Wouldn't it be nice if the print on the OPACs could be made bigger? And what about people who couldn't see the screen at all, could something "read" the text out loud? We were talking to Alan Reeves from Libris about another matter when he explained that they'd been working on a project called Testlab and were now working the results up into a product called Envisage. We were interested.

Last Summer, just like lots of other public libraries, we were suddenly offered the chance of some money from the DCMS Wolfson Challenge Fund. For various reasons, the obvious projects didn't meet the criteria of the funding and we had to rethink. We came up with a bid building on the expansion of our OPACs and including different ways of making information accessible to different types of people. We still felt something obvious was missing. The realisation dawned: Envisage. We put the bid in and thought no more about it. Imagine our surprise when it was successful.

There are four main pieces of hardware:

1. An "off the shelf" Gateway 2000 PC running Windows 95

2. A Juno voice synthesiser

3. A Libris keyboard

4. A Libris keypad

At each library, someone switches their PC on before opening time. They open Envisage by double-clicking on the Windows icon and it's ready for the public to use.

The Envisage catalogue is a simple menu. There are four options:

Title keyword search - where the word(s) appear anywhere in the title

Author search - you're asked for the author's surname then forename(s)

Subject search - this doesn't currently work for us because of the way we have set up our catalogue. We don't have the subject information in individual bibliographical records. Instead, we have a bit of special coding allowing us to have subject headings attached to the Class Numbers. This will change in September after we upgrade our Dynix system.

Other searches - some of these don't work because we don't include the data in our bibliographic records ("Location" and "Category" are examples). The Class Number searches could be very useful to visually-impaired people - we have a local classification scheme for audio items which can be useful.

At the moment, I have advised staff to suggest that people just use the first two options for now while they (and the staff) get used to it. Some members of staff are already very comfortable with it and have helped members of the public explore some of the other searches.

The results of the search are a lot simpler than those of the ordinary OPAC. We tried to keep the amount of bibliographical information to a useful minimum so that we didn't have too much clutter on the screen. The only copy information we display is the library and collection. Oh, and the item barcode number, which was our mistake (as it happens, it can be useful, but it's very disconcerting to hear it out loud as a number).

All the Library Catalogue is available, including "ordinary" books; large print collections; cassettes; CDs; sub-titled videos; and materials in alternative formats such as Braille.

People do use Envisage, which is the first hurdle negotiated. In fact, many people prefer to use Envisage to the ordinary OPAC terminal - it's colourful and the writing's bigger. A few people who are known to have visual impairment have used it and were generally happy but made some suggestions to make it easier to use without having to ask for help. We're keeping note of any suggestions and I'll pass them on to Libris.

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Some web sites which may be useful:

AbilityNet - amalgamation of Computability Centre & Foundation for Communication for the Disabled - advises on software that can help people with disabilities.

Action for Blind People

Centre for Applied Special Technology - includes Bobby checker, which can check whether your web site meets the guidelines of the Web Accessibility Initiative (see below)

Disability Net

In Touch

Microsoft - accessibility and disability

New York Institute for Special Educational Needs

Royal National College for the Blind

RNIB - amongst other things, can check your web site for accessibility

Scottish Sensory Centre

SPEDEX - special education exchange web site for parents and people involved in the education of visually-impaired children and young people

What's New On Blindness - updated monthly, with links to other sites

World Wide Web Consortium (Web Accessibility Initiative)

Memo from the Nominating Committee

As Past President, I serve as Chair of the Nominating Committee. At this time I am requesting 2-4 volunteers to serve on the Nominating Committee for positions open in 1999-2000. Committee activity is open to employees of CODI member libraries.

Nominating Committee work includes recruiting nominees for open positions and preparation of the ballot. We are looking to have Nominees in place before the Conference so we can hold a candidates forum at the Conference. Board positions to be elected are:

If you are interested in working on the committee, respond directly to me, not to Dynix_L.

__

I would love to publish one or a couple of short articles in the next newsletter of members impressions of the Seattle CODI conference. If you plan on attending, please consider putting your experiences in writing and submitting them to me for publication. The deadline to receive material for inclusion in the next issue of CODI News is March 1, 1999. The publication date will be approximately March 15, 1999.

A reminder to the regional CODI coordinators: contact Thom Hendricks, at Mandan Public Library, who is the CODI user groups liaison, or myself with times and locations for your regional meetings. We will make sure this information gets posted on the CODI website. Also, there are several regions without a listed contact. Please check your regional listing and send updates as needed.

I hope to see many of you in Seattle.

Bruce Heimburger

CODI Newsletter Editor

Phone: 803-929-3406

September 16, 1998

A First! The CODI Board had its first electronic board meeting on Wednesday, September 16, 1998, at 2pm CDT. The meeting room was hosted through the generosity of Continuing Education at Marywood University.

Present: Susan Johns, Susanne Woodford, Cathy Schappert, John Hurley, Ann Tenglund, Bonnie Schuster, Gretchen Freeman

Schappert had previously faxed the report to all members. She explained that the video sale income was from the old security video, and that the conference registrations were stragglers from the Salt Lake conference , from automation skills credit that is just now coming to CODI. The report was approved as faxed.

Johns reported that a detailed report would be mailed within the week. Concerns included the plight of the EURO, and how that would be handled by CIRC and ACQ. The conference is always joint with Horizon, which was a fun experience. The Horizon users see less of a reason for them to participate in the JAD process at this point. Gretchen indicated that thus far the JAD teams for serials binding and for Staff Workstation (Cataloging) have international team members involved.

Johns has been in contact with John Opgaard from Horizon. They have offered for a CODI representative to attend their November conference in Raleigh, NC. at member rates, and if Marge Freeman participates in an enhancement discussion with a JAD presentation, she would also received a reduced registration. Travel money already in the budget should cover this. Motion to have Johns and Freeman attend the Horizon conference approved. ACTION: Woodford will ask conference planner Pia Jones to determine how Johns can use a complimentary plane ticket that CODI holds.

HUG has appointed a special committee to explore future joint conferences with CODI, and would like representation from CODI to this committee. Johns, Woodford, and Olson agreed to serve.

Based on the membership survey and initial scouting by conference planner Pia Jones, Florida appears to be a good potential site for the 2000 conference. Additional information is still necessary before final commitment and site selection. ACTION: Schuster will contact various Floridians to determine local support for a conference there. A few local contacts should be identified and the names passed to Pia. ACTION:

Woodford will instruct Pia to get more specific information on pricing and dates for various Florida sites. ACTION: All board members will check local calendars for school break times and other dates that might be poor meeting times. Pia will be asked to verify LITA conference dates; other national conferences are already blocked in her schedule.

Woodford reported her attempts to follow up her survey to ascertain the effects of raising the conference registration to $225. Thus far, no negative comments have been received. The Board discussed the details of the banquet dinner contract for Tillicum Village, and the repercussion if registration did not meet the minimum guarantee we need to make. The Board felt if our deadline for the first major payment installment could be changed to be after the pre-registration deadline, so we would not be held to the contract if our registration projection is incorrect, then there would be no problem signing the contract. ACTION: Woodford will contact Tillicum to negotiate a change in this payment date.

Woodford reported that the committee plans to mail the preregistration packets by mid October. Follow-up information will emphasize email and the web site.

The Board discussed whether to continue to accept Dynix automation skills credit as payment for the CODI conference registration. That form of payment requires a great deal of extra processing for both Cathy and Frances Orton, and additionally CODI does not actually receive the money until well after the conference because our payment must be processed by Ameritech as well. The Board concluded to continue to accept this payment, since it may be the only way some libraries can send people to conference. However, since it requires more work for our hourly wage employee as well as from board members, it seemed justifiable to require a surcharge for all automation skills payments. Motion approved that all automation skills payments have a $25 surcharge. The Board also discussed late registration fees. ACTION: Woodford will work out schedule of registration fees, including late fees and automation skills and non-members, and email to the board for comments.

Tenglund has been working with Bruce to get newsletter files converted for the web site. The same files have been sent to Frances for her end of the publication.

ACTION: Schappert request to table Newsletter Committee report until next month was approved.

ACTION: Discussion tabled until next month.

JAD LIAISON: Olson noted a new JAD request had just been posted for Web training. Johns said that Marge Freeman had reported that ALS had reviewed CODI Ed as part of the development for the staff workstation project.

WEB LIAISON: Tenglund reported primary work was getting the newsletter onto the web site. It is tested with Netscape Navigator Gold v.3 and Internet Explorer v.4, which covers the most commonly used browsers in our earlier web survey. She will also work with Woodford to test the links to the Seattle Conference site.

BY-LAW REVISION

ACTION: Tabled until next meeting.

REVIEW OF PRIOR ACTION ITEMS: Frances should have an updated Board roster to distribute to the Board. Johns had previously distributed Scholar communications to the board. Hendricks was unable to attend the meeting, thus no update on regional communications. Johns will provide additional federation/Canadian communications after she returns from CODA. JAD Coordinator gets closer to sticking as the permanent title; no one had any new suggestions. Use of the WebCT meeting software came into place sooner than expected. This first meeting went quite well. Some members had ongoing problems getting bumped off, but others remained connected the entire meeting with no problems. For a group of novices, we were able to work through discussion of several issues. Etiquette techniques need some work, but overall consensus was that the method had worked well in addition to saving CODI large phone costs. The Board will also try using the Bulletin Board available.

October 14, 1998

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