The Technical Bit ...Liane BroadleyEUUG ConferenceScandinavia, 5th September 2001

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Contents

1 The USUG

2 The synchronisation process in a bit more detail

– Title control keys

– Item Cat 1s

– Decision Process - deciding what is sharable

3 Communication

– How do you let everyone know?

4 Future considerations

The USUG

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Who are the USUG?

• The Unicorn Super User Group

– A small group of QinetiQ IR/[dstl] KS staff

– Specialising in certain areas

• Our main roles in IR/KS

– To train Library staff

– To maintain a Unicorn manual/training materials specifically tailored for QinetiQ/[dstl] procedures

– To test new versions of Workflows in preparation for upgrades

– Act as first POC for staff and customers

The USUG

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How we achieve this

• Regular meetings

• Create training materials

– Crib Cards

– Handouts for tailored training

• Write test scripts

• Suggest policy decisions, and then implement them once approved

• Distribute materials etc via Forum, E-mail and training sessions

The USUG

The Synchronisation Process

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Title Control Keys

• Had never been an issue before

• Two new title key sequences were created

– aXXXXXX

– rXXXXXX

• Now had to input title keys in order for CORN-Synch to work

– Stops two title entries being made for the same document

– Stops different records being accidentally merged

– Had to be standard across QinetiQ and [dstl] for it to work

The synchronisation process in more detail

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Title Key Examples

• Books - i[ISBN]

• Journals - s[ISSN]

• Reports - The report number

• Problems

– Title key is only 14 characters long

– Consistency of title keys is essential if CORNsynch is to work

The synchronisation process in more detail

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Cats, Cats and more Cats!

• Item Cat 1s

– From 4 to 16

– No easy way to train our staff all in one go

– Even easier to make mistakes

– We knew how to assign them, but couldn’t advise on which ones to use when cataloguing

The synchronisation process in more detail

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The decision process for sharingThe synchronisation process in more detail

Is the report to be shared?

Are [dstl] likely to have

their own copy as well?

Yes

Change title key to match

record already there, and choose S-

RELEASED

No

Yes

Is it already on the

system?

Is the Item Cat 1 of the

record saying S-

TRANSFERRED?

Yes

Yes

Change title key to match

record already there and assign a

“copy release” item

cat 1

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How does it work?

• A report is run to find all the S-RELEASED and CORN-RELSD items

• A file is produced ready for uploading into [dstl] system

• [dstl] system takes the files, and compares title keys.

• If it finds a matching key it will simply add a call and copy to the existing record in the [dstl] system.

• If no match is found a new title record is created

• This new record becomes the “property” of [dstl]

The synchronisation process in more detail

Communication

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Letting everyone know about it

• Difficult as staff are wide spread across the UK

• Guides on assigning title keys and item cat 1s were written

• Number of ways of communicating

– Forum

– E-mail

– Training sessions if required

– Word of Mouth

– Trouble shooting

Communication

Future Considerations

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Letting everyone know about it

• Upgrades

– upgrading at the same time as [dstl]

• Deleting items

– Any records we delete after CORNSynch has run won’t be deleted on the [dstl] system

– Will need to work out how to clean up the system

Future Considerations