SCLS Technology News

The retirement of @scls.lib.wi.us email

Buh-bye, @scls.lib.wi.us email!

The SCLS email server will be retired at the beginning of Febrary. What exactly will this mean for SCLS email users?

• Email sent to old @scls.lib.wi.us addresses or email lists will bounce back to the sender
• SCLS tech staff will no longer support Thunderbird or copy Thunderbird accounts from old to new PCs

What have we been doing to prepare for this?

• SCLS staff have updated the library addresses used for SCLS-managed services:
• SCLS Enterprise Wireless reports
• SCLS-hosted Form Assembly forms
• SCLS-hosted email list subscriptions
• The SCLS Detailed Directory and SCLS Email Directory webpage
• Libraries' OverDrive Content Reserve accounts
• Koha email notices
• Library staff that had @scls.lib.wi.us addresses should make sure they've done all the steps to prepare to retire the old @scls.lib.wi.us accounts. 

November 2014 Projects report

Technology Report for 11/12/14 Technology Committee Meeting

Library Fiber Project -
• 35 libraries have had bandwidth upgrades
• 5 libraries are in a ‘holding pattern’ because DOA and AT&T are having some ‘bureaucratic issues’.
• 3 libraries as scheduled to be completed before the end of the year
• 1 library will be completed in 2015 after their new building is built

Library-MUFN – UW network engineers have completed network design plans for HAW. The design requires attaching to some City of Madison fiber so this will need to be presented to city staff for consideration.

E-commerce – On November 4, we completed final testing. Everything looks good to go. Go live is not anticipated until January, 2015 since it will take as at least 6 weeks from final testing is complete to do the final implementation. Libraries will be receiving the plan shortly.

Office 365 – All of the libraries with @scls.lib.wi.us addresses that are migrating to Office 365 through SCLS have migrated.

The last portion of this project is the migration of SCLS-hosted email lists from the SCLS email server to WiscNet. The Office 365 Team will share more information about this move as they iron out the details and timelines.

Library Online Upgrade – The Tech Team is planning for an upgrade of the Library Online servers from version 4.4 to 4.9. This will then enable us to upgrade the Library Online clients to version 4.9 which will fix a pesty bug which caused PCs to log off due to inactivity when they were actively being used. The upgrade is scheduled for November 19th after hours.

2015 SCLS Technology Plan - The technology team has been developing the technology plan for 2015. The first draft of the plan is here. 

Five Year Technology Plan for DPI - This year DPI changed the five year system technology plan to an online format and asked every library to submit a new plan. SCLS is working hard to make this a plan that we can live with four five years. We anticipate that it will be a living document which will guide the structure of our annual technology plan. The annual plans will be structured to the goals in the five year plan forward. The five year plan will be reviewed by the Technology Committee, the ILS Committee, the Administrative Council and the SCLS Board. It will also be shared at the All Director’s meeting on November 20. The draft of the five year plan is located here.

Cindy Weber moving to ILS position-- Cindy Weber will be moving into the position left open by Joanna Jordan and will be working with Heidi to support circulation. Cindy has a long history of working with the ILS staff. She currently supports Talking Tech, notices and offline circulation. Cindy also has experience with documentation and training, and of course many years of technology help desk support experience. Finally, Cindy is still the go to person for Koha reports. With all of this, it seemed like a natural fit to have Cindy work full time on the ILS. The ILS staff are excited to work with her in this new role. Of course, this means that Technology Support is losing an employee. There will be an evaluation of this vacancy, but that is another story. Cindy will slowly transition to the ILS and will be ready to work on ILS full time as of January 1, 2015.

Drupal - 22 of 41 member library websites have been migrated to Drupal. On October 15, a Drupal security vulnerability was announced which allowed unauthorized access to SCLS-hosted Drupal sites before we were able to apply a recommended update. We rolled back all sites and reapplied the update to secure all sites and eliminate the possibility of further unauthorized access. We are making plans to virtualize the server hosting Drupal sites to improve our ability to cope with this type of issue in the future. We have also added server RAM and made site and server configuration changes to mitigate sporadic issues with slow page loads.

Preparing to retire @scls.lib.wi.us email

Are you ready for the SCLS email server's retirement? It's scheduled for the end of January 2015 -- and it's quickly approaching!

Your old email address is probably tied to many services and is out there in many places. If your library had @scls.lib.wi.us email, make sure that staff at your library start taking these steps now to be prepared:

1. Watch for email being sent to your @scls.lib.wi.us address and TAKE ACTION!
• Inform your vendors and other contacts of your new address.
• Update your blog and email list subscriptions. 
2. Update your website.
3. Update your printed materials.
4. Archive Thunderbird email you'd like to keep to a USB drive
5. O365 users: Remove autocomplete entries and contacts for @scls.lib.wi.us addresses

Have questions about the retirement of @scls.lib.wi.us email? Contact the SCLS Help Desk or leave them in the comments!

Another milestone

SCLS hit another milestone this Monday -- all of the libraries with @scls.lib.wi.us addresses that are migrating to Office 365 through SCLS have migrated!

Some stats about the Office 365 project:

• 25 libraries and 2 SCLS locations moved from @scls.lib.wi.us addresses to Office 365
• 3 libraries (6 locations) that did not previously have email through SCLS moved to Office 365
• The migration to Office 365 involved the creation of about 500 email accounts

Big cheers and "thank you"s go out to:

• our pilot libraries (REE, ORE, LDI, MCF) who helped us work out the migration process
• our many dedicated library Email Aficionados who worked with us to request accounts, share information with library staff, and answer questions
• all of the library staff who diligently worked through the documentation and instructions to get set up with Office 365

The email migration project was a whopper and we couldn't have done it without everyone's cooperation and help! 

September 2014 Project Report

© 2012 Robert, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

Technology Report for 9/10/14 Technology Committee Meeting

Library Fiber Project - The bandwidth upgrade project is nearing completion. 25 libraries have had bandwidth increases to-date. 7 libraries have completed the inside-the-building pre-requisite work necessary to bring fiber into their library. We are now working on moving most libraries that have moved to Charter and VPN back to BadgerNet. 5 libraries have moved from a VPN solution back to BadgerNet after fiber had been installed.

Library-MUFN - The Madison Meadowridge Branch is the third Madison Public Library System to come up on MUFN (Metropolitan Unified Fiber Network). The next library in the queue is the Hawthorne Branch.

E-commerce - There is one last issue that surfaced during the final software setup phase that is an issue with Envisionware and VeriFone. It is back in the hands of Envisionware. Once that issue is fixed, we will announce implementation plans. We are asking ILS for a 4 month period to work out how fines / fees will be distributed.

O365 - Things are going GREAT! Between June and August 90% of SCLS libraries participating in Office 365 have migrated. The Office 365 team is working with the remaining libraries to schedule their migration dates. The next phase of this project is to move SCLS-hosted email lists to WiscNet over the course of the next few months.

Windows 8.1 - Most new staff computers will have Windows 8.1 installed on them. SCLS Headquarters and Monroe are the first locations to have new Windows 8.1 staff stations. A Windows 8.1 configuration for public stations is being developed right now. Both the staff and patron configuration will be very similar to the Windows 7 configuration.

Limited Term Employees - We hired two new half time LTE employees to assist with covering the Help Desk, prepping PCs and data entry work. They are Jordan Rueden and William Allington. Both Jordan and Will are participating in IT programs at MATC. We are happy to have them on board!

Madison Public Library Meadowridge Branch - SCLS Technology services staff have worked with Madison Public Library to meet the needs for the new building. This included preparation of the network, installation of PCs, support for VendPrint and Enterprise Wireless. All the work is complete and ready for the library opening which is slated for next week.

Drupal - 20 of 40 member library websites have been migrated to Drupal. This summer, we welcomed DFT and DCL to the list of Drupal sites hosted by SCLS and kept sites up to date with security releases. Samuel Streiffer has returned to SCLS for the next year as an LTE and will be assisting with website content migration and programming.

2015 LSTA Grant: The 2015 LSTA grant technology was submitted on Monday, September 8. The grant includes the following:

• Purchase network equipment to increase the bandwidth in libraries with a critical need ($15,000)
• Provide assistance for libraries planning to join the shared ILS (LINKcat) using the open source LibLime Koha software ($2,000)
• Provide a Discovery Layer for the LINKcat OPAC of the shared ILS ($18,000)
• Create maker kits for libraries to use in their programming ($8,900):
• Sewing machines and cases (6)
• Portable 3-D printer and filament
• iPads for stop motion videos (also light boxes, microphones, lights, tripods and software) (6 total)
• 6 photo/slide/negatives scanners.
• SCLS will purchase laptops to support the kits for a total approximate cost of $3,000.

The migration to Office 365 is under way

The migration to Office 365 for email and calendaring is under way!

Pilot testing the migration process – done!
BIG THANKS to the libraries that pilot tested the migration process with us (Reedsburg, Lodi, Oregon, and McFarland). They asked excellent questions and helped us chase down many of the niggly details that we had overlooked.

Next step – lots and lots of migrations!
A large number of libraries selected “the first part of June” as their target migration time, and we are scheduling their dates. Library migrations to Office 365 will take place throughout the summer and into September.

How will you know who has new email addresses?

• Top 5 email – each week, SCLS will announce any libraries that have migrated to Office 365 in the "Top 5" email to scls-announce and provide a link to the…
• SCLS Email Directory webpage – SCLS staff will update the SCLS Email Directory (password required)  as libraries migrate to Office 365.
• Signatures – Staff who have moved to Office 365 often include their new email address in their signatures, and some have been including a special highlighted or brightly colored line indicating that their email address has changed.
• Office 365 directory - Email addresses for libraries that have migrated will be listed in the Office 365 contacts directory (available to library staff using the Office 365 interface for email).

How will the move to Office 365 affect the email notices sent by Koha?
When a Koha library migrates, Koha will be updated so that notices are sent from the library's new “linkcatnotices@<library>” address. Libraries will check the old notices account one last time the day after migration, and then begin to monitor the new “linkcatnotices@<library>" account for any bounced email notices.

What about the libraries that had already moved from SCLS email to their own email system?
We’ll be contacting those libraries to make sure that the contact information in our directories is up-to-date. With the information that those libraries provide, we’ll also make sure that staff’s SCLS-hosted email subscriptions have been updated, and we’ll work with the library to switch their Koha notices to a new address.

Interested in more information about the project?

• O365 Project Overview - a mile-high overview of the project
• Office 365 Sneak Peak (archived webinar) - Dan talks about the project (a brief demo of the O365 interface begins around the 11:20 mark)
• Detailed overview of Office 365 migration - a breakdown of the Office 365 migration steps
• Office 365 Getting Started documentation - documentation for basic tasks in Office 365
• Office 365 FAQ - updated as we receive questions from libraries

SCLS Technology Day--April 29 at Madison Public Library Central

SCLS to hold a Technology Day, April 29 9:15 to 3:45

Come and check out the new Madison Public Library Central branch and hear Head Bubblerian, Trent Miller, talk about the new and innovative programming happening at the library. Then take your choice of table talks and find out more about LINKcat/Koha, OverDrive (including some new devices), Square for payments, LibraryBox, Awesome Box and 3D printing, or brainstorm with your colleagues about new technologies and how you can utilize them in the library. Stay for the afternoon and get a sneak peek at Office 365 and a tour of the Library.

Registration

Registration is open and available here:

http://host.evanced.info/scls/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1969

 

Full Agenda

 

9 - 9:15 Registration & Refreshments (Chocolaterian)

 

9:15 - 10:30 Bubbler & Hackerspace Programming with Trent Miller, Head Bubblerian, Madison Public Library

 

Hackerspace, makerspace, community workshop. Call it what you will but they are popping up all around the nation, including several in Wisconsin. Jesse Vieau and Trent Miller from Madison Public Library will share their experiences in creating the Bubbler, a community maker program that is featured in Madison's newly remodeled downtown library.

 

10:45 - 11:15; 11:15 - 11:45; 11:45 - 12:15 Table Talks

 

Koha/LINKcat Mobile Technologies Table (ILS Staff)

 

ILS staff will talk about ways that libraries are using Koha for mobile checkout, and mobile uses for reports. This will also be an opportunity for library staff to share what they have been doing.

 

Gadget/OverDrive Table with Jean Anderson

 

Jean will have a couple of new gadgets to share with you. In addition, we’ll talk about OverDrive Support and how your library can provide the best patron support possible.

 

Square for Payments with Sue Ann Kucher

 

Online credit card payment will be available for LINKcat users in late spring, 2014.  However, this service will be limited to fines and fees in Koha.  Hear how the Reedsburg Public Library uses Square as their cash register. In addition to fines and fees, they use Square to collect payments for Friends merchandise, donations, and Local History materials.

 

LibraryBox, Awesome Box, and 3D Printing with Ben Miller

 

Ben will talk about boxes in the library - the LibraryBox, Awesome Box, and 3 D printers (which are kind of box shaped) - and how Sauk City is using all three of these in the everyday life of the library. Bring your questions or examples and join the discussion.

 

Library Technology Innovations (Vicki Teal Lovely and Technology Staff)

 

This will be an open-ended brainstorming session to discuss miscellaneous technology needs.  Those present will set the topics.  For example, we could have an impromptu discussion about maker spaces.  Or, perhaps you want to try providing tablets for your libraries and you are wondering how others are accomplishing this. You can bring questions and/or your ideas to share.

12:15 - 1:30 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

1:30 - 2:30 p.m Office 365 Sneak Peek (repeated at 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.)

You’ve heard about Office 365, now it’s time to experience it!  Join us for a demo that will include an awesome overview, a chance to ask all of your great questions, and an opportunity to learn about what’s coming next! We’ll even have a few computers set up so you can try it out!

 

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Tour of Madison Public Library (repeated at 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.)

 

Office 365

The Technology Committee met on Wednesday, March 12 and approved the proposal (pptx) to move from SCLS-hosted email to Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365 for email and calendaring. We're very excited about the upcoming changes!

All libraries with @scls.lib.wi.us addresses will be affected, and you probably have tons of questions --- "What's the timeline? What do I have to do? How will I learn about the features? When will my library transition? What if we're using Gmail instead of Thunderbird?"

More information can be found about the project in this Office 365 overview (pdf). Here are some quick highlights:

• The O365 project is HUGE. 
• Everyone with a @scls.lib.wi.us will get a new address.
• SCLS staff are developing timelines.
• Our initial O365 rollout will include email, calendar, and contacts features.
• Old Thunderbird email will not be brought into O365, but will be accessible for some amount of time while the transition occurs.
• There will be a period where both @scls.lib.wi.us email and new email will both be accessible while libraries switch over to their new email addresses.

Libraries can take some action now while SCLS staff are finalizing the details and timelines.

• Read the O365 Overview and pay close attention to the "Next Steps" section at the end.
• View the archived April 8th "Office 365 Sneak Peek" webinar to see what the O365 interface has to offer.
• Join us for Tech Day on April 29 - in addition to lots of fun techie topics, there will be O365 demos in the afternoon.
• Directors can fill out the O365 form for their library to opt in, opt out, or let us know if they have questions.