SCLS Technology News

SCLS-hosted Drupal websites moving to new web server November 5-8

During November 5-8, SCLS staff will be moving 60 live and beta Drupal websites that we support to a new hosted solution outside of SCLS Headquarters. This move will allow SCLS staff to continue administering these sites on a scalable, reliable, industry-standard platform with improved support for our staff. To make this move, we are asking for cooperation (and some patience) from those who maintain library websites.

Complete website maintenance/updates before November 5

If you need to put something on your website to have it available during November 5-8, make sure it is added before November 5. This includes any edits that you do while logged into your Drupal site, or any file transfers you do using FileZilla, Dreamweaver, or other SFTP client.

Watch for status updates during November 5-8, and be prepared for small amounts of downtime

• Sites will be up and available for viewing for MOST of this time.
• Sites will be moving to the new server one at a time, 10-20 sites per day, during business hours.
• While a site is being moved to the new server, it will experience a brief (hopefully less than ½ hour) period of downtime, when it will display a maintenance message.
• Don't plan on making website updates during November 5-8.
• SFTP access will not be available November 5-8.

Plan for resuming normal website maintenance tasks by November 9

• Rose will email the scls-drupal email list with the list of sites whose moves were completed each day and update the Status Wiki.
• Once your site's move to the new server is completed, you can resume edits that you do while logged into your Drupal site.
• SFTP access will be restored on November 9 after all the site moves are completed.

Libraries should be able to resume all normal editing and SFTP processes on November 9th and should not notice any differences in how their sites look or behave. In the end, you can expect little-to-no change in your website maintenance experience, but our maintenance operations will be more efficient and secure.

HTTPS for authentication

On Monday, May 21st, SCLS will update the scripts we use to provide authentication and access to Online Resources (Ancestry, Flipster and other library-subscribed resources) to be https. These changes involve a couple dozen vendors and even more products and library subscriptions.

Even though SCLS staff have done extensive testing and already made many updates with vendors, there will likely be some hiccups. We'll be adding an entry to the SCLS Status Wiki with information about the update when it is complete. After that, if library staff or patrons have any trouble accessing resources in the library, or if you get reports of trouble from remote users:

1. Check the SCLS Status Wiki to see if SCLS is aware of the problem
2. If there is nothing in the Status Wiki, contact the Help Desk with details about the problem

SCLS and https

You may have seen a couple of TechBits in the past year about https:

• TechBits: Non-secure HTTP
• TechBits: More on HTTPS 

Well, SCLS is finally starting to take the plunge. The main SCLS website, www.scls.info has been updated to https! We are also in the process of making updates to the scripts we use for accessing Online Resources, and those should be updated by the end of May. In June, we will begin to transition SCLS-hosted library Drupal websites.

Stay tuned for updates, and please let us know if you run across anything that isn't working quite right!

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.

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.

More on Drupal

It's been a little while since we wrote an update about SCLS' Drupal progress. As you may remember, Drupal is a free content management system used for publishing and managing websites. Using Drupal will make it possible to add modern website features member libraries have requested, including calendars and event listings, photo galleries and slideshows, RSS feeds, mobile websites, and more. It will also enable website updates to be made from any Internet-connected workstation with a web browser, without the need for additional software purchases.

Rose has been tucked away in her office working furiously on all things Drupal...  Drupal documentation both for libraries and SCLS staff, Drupal developer access for intermediate users to allow more self-guided progress, and migration of library sites to Drupal. She's been making some good progress, too!

Since our last update on Drupal, 5 sites have gone live: Kraemer Library in Plain, Rio Community Library, Spring Green Community Library, Marshall Community Library and Baraboo Public Library. Many other libraries are working hard to enter content and get ready.

Rose will be on leave in April and May. During that time, Drupal libraries can call the SCLS Help Desk for support.  

Power outages and other chaos

Ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes (besides some elevated heart rates) when SCLS is having problems?

Tuesday, around 1:30, our building lost power due to a transmission line outage. Luckily, our server room equipment and many of our PCs and phones are on backup power units called UPSes. Unfortunately, these battery backups can't power us forever.

So what happened?

• We updated the SCLS Status Wiki -- it's a super-quick way for us to get the information out there about what's going on. In this case where the network was also down, it wouldn't help from libraries' SCLS network PCs, but it still could be accessed from smart phones or other non-SCLS devices.
• We called our power provider to see if they had information.
• We divided up a phone list and everybody with access to a phone started calling libraries.
• We started shutting down the server room equipment in a controlled fashion. Doing this ensures that when the UPSes run out of juice the servers and other equipment don't come crashing to a halt in a very unfriendly, bad-for-recovery sort of way.

Because the server room equipment was running on backup, libraries didn't even realize we were having issues right away. Often as we were calling to let them know we had problems, they were telling us they "just went down."

After the power was restored (around 1:56), we started bringing the equipment back up. This is a tricky process, as there's a definite protocol to follow in order to make sure everything works. A very simplified version looks something like this-- 

1. Start up device A. Wait for it to finish booting up. Confirm it is working correctly.
2. Start up devices B and C (which depend on being able to talk to device A). Wait for them to finish booting up. Confirm they are working correctly.
3. ...and so on, and so on until everything is back up and working.

As soon as everything was powered up and we had confirmation that all the services were working again, we called the libraries to let them know that we were officially back up, everything should be working, and they should call the Help Desk if they ran into any services that weren't working.

A power outage is a bigger-than-usual service disruption, but other types of service outages are similar. Usually some folks are working on trying to troubleshoot and address the problem, while others are doing their best to communicate the problem to the libraries.

Whew! So glad these sorts of things don't happen every day!

Feedback? Please let us know!

Drupal Migration Progress

Drupal ducks and photo courtesy of Kerri

Our Drupal ducks are in a row! 20+ libraries responded to the Drupal Migration Interest Survey, and the migration has begun.

Over the past 3 months SCLS staff and the libraries participating in the project have been hard at work behind the scenes. We've set up draft websites, trained 4 of 6 groups of library staff on the basics of using Drupal, and begun design and feature customizations on the draft websites.

31 library staff have attended the training sessions and begun preparing content for their draft websites (which will soon become their new websites). Brand new websites for Monticello Public Library and Columbus Public Library have launched, and more will be on the way in 2013.

Drupal for SCLS-hosted websites & migration survey

SCLS will begin offering the Drupal content management system to member libraries for website maintenance in the remaining months of 2012. If you saw the Drupal Demo webinar, you might be excited to start using Drupal and wondering how to sign up. (If you missed the webinar, the recording is available.)

Here's how you can opt-in to start using Drupal. If SCLS currently hosts your library's website, please complete the Drupal Migration Interest Survey by Wednesday, September 26. The survey will be used to assess your library's website needs and plan the project queue for migrating websites to Drupal.

If your library completes the survey and opts to use Drupal, the existing website hosted by SCLS will undergo a conversion process for compatibility with Drupal. Training will be provided to help designated staff at your library learn to use Drupal. After the conversion & training, staff at your library will be responsible for posting updates to the library's website using Drupal.

Background information about Drupal

An update on Drupal

What is Drupal?
In the past year, you may have heard about a tool called Drupal that SCLS staff have been investigating to meet your libraries' website needs. Drupal is a free software package for managing and publishing websites.

What's in it for you?
Using Drupal will make it possible to add modern website features member libraries have requested, including calendars and event listings, photo galleries and slideshows, RSS feeds, mobile websites, and more. It will also enable website updates to be made from any
Internet-connected workstation with a web browser, without the need for additional software purchases.

Our list was actually quite a few more pages than this one...

What have we done so far?
In the past year, Greg, Kerri, and Rose have been learning how to host the Drupal software, learning how to use it, and making plans for how to make it available for the websites we host. In the process, we've begun using Drupal for 3 live websites: the Lester Public Library of Rome website, the Beyond the Page website, which is a collaborative project headed by DCL and involving all Dane County libraries, and a website for the Book'n It Run, which is a fundraiser for SUN.

What is the plan?
The next phase of the project is to make Drupal available to your libraries and prepare your staff to use it. We're proposing that over the remaining months of 2012 and into 2013, we will provide training for your staff and convert the 40+ websites we host to use Drupal without undertaking major redesigns on each site. We intend to provide options for continuing to use the same design your existing website uses or choosing a new design from a selection of themes. We'll be able to enable some of the new features right away -- no lengthy redesign process needed.

Numerous libraries have requested major redesigns, and we remain committed to providing this service, once we have a majority of the sites we host on the same platform. Moving to Drupal before a full redesign will help you and your staff become familiar with using it without the additional work from the redesign, and moving the sites we host to Drupal in rapid succession will help make our training and support efforts more efficient. We'll only have one platform to support, and you'll have lots of peers who are learning how to use it.

What happens next?
SCLS staff continue to work on developing best practices and creating documentation & training material. We will be providing more information about Drupal in the future and seeking volunteers to be early-adopters for the migration project.

Watch for more info in upcoming weeks!