Data modifications!
Horizon is a wonderous system… I’m finding all kinds of things I didn’t know were a problem! In exporting records I finally got it so everything would export, and I converted it all to UTF8 format before attempting to load it into my Koha playbox.
Well I have one set that won’t load so I’m going to have to go back and work on that extraction again and see what is wrong with those records.
I also discovered that I had some Authorities with space 50 which should have been 450 tags, but until I tried to load them into Koha they wouldn’t load… So discovered those records and fixed them. MarcBreaker didn’t have a problem it broke the records as if there wasn’t a problem…
So even when you think you have things pretty clean there will always be something!
I still like the fact that I can have a “Play” system even before I got started!
I found out in my call today that I might not have to type in all the codes. From our data they can manipulate the codes!! There will still be setup issues, but that is to be expected!
With all my preparation I still feel that this should be a fairly smooth migration.
Whew!
Servers have been ordered! Price of servers since the original quote has come down so we are now getting 2 servers bigger and faster than before!!!
To say the least they got our check!
Had our first planning call today. I am very comfortable with several of the individuals on the team as they are former Horizon support individuals so they know the table structure etc. well.
Tomorrow will tell! They are going to send me a document with a timeline for target dates, and then I will talk with them about migration extraction testing!
I also have a call with the Sales person to talk about the changes in programming that I had requested. I also discovered a pretty big one on my list is the 10 digit vs 13 digit ISBN conversion! Horizon does it well, and Koha needs to do it if that is our matching algorithm!
Things are going to start to roll!
Prepare your data
No check has been cut, but I’m cleaning house… We deleted all items that are lost or missing prior to 8/1/06 – 2 years old hanging in the system.
I instructed all the librarians to review their students that didn’t get updated and move them to a generic location that I can delete those borrowers.
WEED! get rid of those items that you have been holding off on for the new books. We will pay by the BIB record for migration.
REMEMBER! there is a record limit size for MARC so those records that you might have more than 1000 items on you might want to DUP the bib record, keep track of it and then move item records so that you will be able to export all of your data! Equipment, Magazines, Worldbook etc…
We are starting to ponder how will our interface look at what changes are we going to have to make to accomodate this “new” front end. We are going to have to build some webpages for electronic resource access – ie databases that can link to the catalog. Maybe have 3 profiles – elementary, Middle school, High school? and those links will be unique for the level similar to how we have it now?
More next week! Still working on importing authority records. I think I have some that are non compliant and will need to tweak them … More cleanup!
Items to consider!
OK I started extracting data and came to realize that I have several bib’s that won’t export as they have reached a maximum number of characters a MARC record can hold.
I have found that any record(mainly equipment and magazines) that have more than say 1500 items need to be split into multiple records for export… Keep that in mind in your preparation for export! So I have made the Wireless/Keyboard Mouse record into – Wireless/Keyboard mouse – Elementary, and Wireless/keyboard mouse – Secondary which keeps it within the numbers needed.
Magazines on the other hand are another issue since we are using the Serials module. there are copy records attached etc… So I’ve been asking those schools that get that magazine to check their backissues and do they really hold them that long? Is there a reason to have the barcode still active in the automation system? If not WEED them. At least it will get my holdings(items) down to an exportable fashion!
Currently are you using student ID’s in the record so that you can continue to load student data? – we are going to start loading the entire student schedule into the borrower record! That way it doesn’t matter what period/section you do overdues for. The building decides and needs to keep track of just those codes. We can then load borrowers daily with a cron job!!!
Pictures – new wrinkle – not all schools release the student photos – even for the grade book so we will be limited to the campus’ that wish to participate. Can’t promise “ALL STUDENTS WILL HAVE Pictures” can just say that is an option.
Next big hurdle – faculty ID numbers. We in the past have not used an uploaded file they were created as needed. HMMM…. how can that be handled for the future?
Last year 2007-2008 we encouraged the schools to buy the $15 number pads that are USB and have the students type in their ID numbers just like the lunch line. VERY SUCCESSFUL… No more cards except for Kindergarten that we print new ones at the beginning of the year. Generally after the first month or so the students know their ID”s so NO MORE CARDS! What a time saver ALL year long not just at the beginning!
