BTECH Minutes - 11/6/02

[Library Web Manager <webman@library.berkeley.edu>]

BERKELEY TECHNICAL SERVICES DISCUSSION GROUP MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
9:00am to 11:00am
303 Doe Library
Guests: ERG Group, Ralph Moon

ANNOUNCEMENTS
-The B-Tech web site has been moved to the BPM website. Also, the meeting
minutes have also been redone and are available in their new form from the
B-Tech web site. See http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/BPM/BTECH/
-Don't forget to get your supplies such as big red rubberbands, binding
string, tattle tape, label shields, undu, Innopac labels, and spine labels
from Mainly Stationary at Moffitt. Contact John Trujillo at 642-3636 to
make arrangements to go over to pick up your supplies.

AGENDA

1) Gladis account requests on the web/Charis Takaro

Systems is in the process of beefing up security for Gladis Maintenance
and Auto Circulation accounts. They will be making some changes to
increase security. In the coming months they will be instituting mandatory
annual password changes. You will be able to choose what your password is,
but you will need to change it on an annual basis. After the initial
implementation of password changes, it will become annual after that with
the system prompting you to change your password. Password changes will
still be done on the simple password change form on the web, but they will
be processed automatically overnight so the changes will take effect the
next day, and an email notification that the change was successful is
planned.

Systems will also start tracking student v/s staff accounts, which they
have never done in the past. Universal holdings edit will become more
restricted and they will be clustering the ERR so that everyone can fix
them without having universal holdings edit. A library wide review of
everyone with Universal Holdings edit will take place, so that only those
whose jobs require it will retain that level of access.

Charis and her group are also working on updating the online Gladis
authorization account form. They want to make it easier to understand and
use. A new form will be up in about a month. Charis will send out to the
group, a request for volunteers to help her in the review it. She is
interested in the comments and questions from the people that actually use
the form in order to make it better. If you use the online form to request
accounts and want to help out, please let Charis know when she sends out
her call for help to the group in about a month.

2-ERG Group, evolving URL technologies/Ralph Moon

R. Moon discussed the two most widely deployed technologies for addressing
the problem of link maintenance in catalogs and Web pages. PURL's
(Persistent URL's) use a local or remote directory to store the resource
URL's, and a single directory update can restore multiple broken links.
DOI's (Document Object Identifier's, a form of URN or Uniform Resource
Name) also use online directories to store resource URL's. In principle,
these are connected into a global network, but no such network exists yet.
As a consequence PURL's and DOI's currently provide similar functionality.
Deciding whether to implement either of these (or some other) URL
management scheme requires an evaluation of the expected efficiency gains
and of the risks associated with having all of the organizations URL's
stored in a database that could become inaccessible.

3-Training issues, standards, training plans, etc, open discussion./Judith
Weeks

An open discussion started regarding what is currently happening with job
related training for Library staff. In particular, what types of support
systems, written training plans, group training for basic tasks etc. are
available or need to be developed? Currently very little planned job
related training and refresher courses are offered. Training as a function
of ones job is critical to success in the job and needs to be formally
recognized and built into the job structure. Questions also came up as to
what was happening with the training coordinating position vacant in LHRD.
What will this person do, when will they be hired?

Many ideas were bounced around the table. Members offered some great
suggestions as to what types of training needs there are and offered some
possible solutions: generic training plans and/or training check off
sheets for different types of job descriptions to assist in the training
of new people; ongoing job related training for staff in the form of
refresher courses or perhaps a formal mentoring system for technical
services could be organized; standardized staff PC workstations would
help, with training on how to make the best use of the computer; and the
development of a training council, with liaisons and/or specialists in the
areas of systems, technical services, circulation, etc.who would ensure
consistent training throughout the organization. Judith Weeks and Ginny
Moon will bring up all the above at the next TSC meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00am