Just wanted to let you know that I've just received confirmation of our Voyager upgrade schedule. The server will be upgraded during the evening of Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008. Which means that, when you come in on the morning of Monday, Jan 7, 2008, the Voyager clients will be down. I'll be working with OIT to remotely push out the upgrade, like I have in the past, and I'm striving for the minimum down-time possible, but just to be on the safe side, please be prepared to be down for the first few hours of the day.
Please remember to leave your PCs on over the weekend, this is crucial if you won't be in on Monday morning. You can log out of your profile (Usually, Start > Log Off > Log Off on XP machines) but the computer MUST BE POWERED ON when I start the upgrades on Monday morning. If it isn't, then I have to get the liaison to power it on, which may involve tracking down office keys, and it always makes for an aggravating morning for everyone involved.
I'd like to issue a hearty thanks to the upgrade liaisons for providing their assistance. They will be visiting you all on Monday morning, letting you know when I'm about to start your campus's upgrade, at which time you'll need to stay off of your computers. When the upgrade is over, they'll let you know and check to see that Voyager was successfully upgraded on your machine. Please report any problems with the upgrade to your liaison as soon as possible.
Clarkston: Amy Yang
Decatur: Adrienne Graham
Dunwoody: Pete Bursi
Newton: Rebecca Rose
Technical Services, Media Services, and NonPrint: Tessa Minchew
If you have any questions about this process, please just let me know.
Showing posts with label upgrade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upgrade. Show all posts
Friday, January 04, 2008
Monday, August 06, 2007
IMPORTANT: Change to Voyager Upgrade Date
To accommodate the schedule of my gracious OIT contact, I have to upgrade the Voyager clients beginning around 2:00pm on Tuesday, August 7. Since the server is being upgraded that evening, Voyager will be inaccessible after I do our upgrade. Circulation & Media Services should be prepared to do manual check outs from 2:00pm until closing, and anyone else who has any work to do in Voyager should try to do it before 2:00pm. If you are leaving the office before 2:00pm, please leave your computer on, just log off of your profile.
When you come in on the morning of August 8, our server will have been upgraded and the clients should work just fine. Your upgrade liaisons will be giving you a heads-up before the upgrade begins.
Clarkston: Amy Yang
Decatur: Adrienne Graham
Dunwoody: Carmel Chaille
Newton: Rebecca Rose
Tech Serv, Media Serv, NonPrint: Tessa Minchew
Please let me know if you have any questions, and thanks in advance for your patience during the upgrade.
When you come in on the morning of August 8, our server will have been upgraded and the clients should work just fine. Your upgrade liaisons will be giving you a heads-up before the upgrade begins.
Clarkston: Amy Yang
Decatur: Adrienne Graham
Dunwoody: Carmel Chaille
Newton: Rebecca Rose
Tech Serv, Media Serv, NonPrint: Tessa Minchew
Please let me know if you have any questions, and thanks in advance for your patience during the upgrade.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Voyager Upgrade Date Set
Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know the date of the Voyager upgrade has been set. Our server will be upgraded on the evening of Tuesday, August 7. This means I will be upgrading Voyager clients on the morning of Wednesday, August 8. This process will work much as it has the last few times. I will be performing the upgrades remotely, and each campus will have an upgrade liaison to facilitate the process and report problems to me. Here are the folks who have graciously agreed to be your upgrade liaisons.
Clarkston: Amy Yang
Decatur: Adrienne Graham
Dunwoody: Carmel Chaille
Newton: Rebecca Rose
I'll be handling the liaison duties for Technical Services, Media Services, and NonPrint.
Remember, when the server is upgraded, the Voyager clients will not work until they are also upgraded to the new version. So, Circulation, especially, should be braced for a little downtime, but I will do my best to turn the upgrades over as quickly as possible, and, on that note, there are a couple of things that you can all do to help me achieve that goal.
1.) This week, your liaison will be checking the IP address of every computer requiring a Voyager client, and reporting that information to me. If you need the client, make sure you make it on this list.
2.) Please remember to leave your PCs on on Tuesday evening, this is especially important if you won't be in on Wednesday morning. You can log out of your profile (Start > Log Off > Log Off on XP machines) but the PC must be POWERED ON when I start the upgrades on Wednesday morning. If it isn't, then I have to get your liaison to power it on, which may involve getting office keys, and always fouls up my workflow.
If anyone has any questions about the upgrade, please just let me know. And thanks in advance for your patience!
Clarkston: Amy Yang
Decatur: Adrienne Graham
Dunwoody: Carmel Chaille
Newton: Rebecca Rose
I'll be handling the liaison duties for Technical Services, Media Services, and NonPrint.
Remember, when the server is upgraded, the Voyager clients will not work until they are also upgraded to the new version. So, Circulation, especially, should be braced for a little downtime, but I will do my best to turn the upgrades over as quickly as possible, and, on that note, there are a couple of things that you can all do to help me achieve that goal.
1.) This week, your liaison will be checking the IP address of every computer requiring a Voyager client, and reporting that information to me. If you need the client, make sure you make it on this list.
2.) Please remember to leave your PCs on on Tuesday evening, this is especially important if you won't be in on Wednesday morning. You can log out of your profile (Start > Log Off > Log Off on XP machines) but the PC must be POWERED ON when I start the upgrades on Wednesday morning. If it isn't, then I have to get your liaison to power it on, which may involve getting office keys, and always fouls up my workflow.
If anyone has any questions about the upgrade, please just let me know. And thanks in advance for your patience!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Finally Getting Around to Tweaking Blogger
Hi all. Guess you've noticed that things are a little different here. In its recent upgrade, Blogger added a lot of new features that I just haven't had time to take advantage of, but I did get to hack at it a little bit today.
First thing that you will notice is a new template. This one seems to go with the library style sheet a little bit better, and it's available for free through Blogger. So, no coding for me! Yay! Now, in order to convert to it, we did lose a bit of our sidebar content, but I'm not sure how much we were using that anyway. The RSS feeds section went away, but there's a link to an Atom feed at the bottom, which should work fine in most major feed readers.
Is anyone particularly attached to the "Library Blogs" section? I'd like to build it up a bit or get rid of it altogether. Please let me know how you feel about that, and if you'd like to add anything else in the sidebar.
Next, we now have the ability to tag our posts! Blogger calls them "labels" for some reason, but they act like tags. When you are editing a post, you will see a field in the lower right called "Labels for this post." Just type your tags in there, separated by commas. I've gone back and tagged the last few months worth of posts, and will try to tag it back to the beginning eventually. If you click the "Show all" link next to the right of the "Labels for this post" field, you will see the tags that I've already used. Click on the ones you like and they'll appear in the field, no typing. I recommend doing this, so we can class like posts somewhat together.
I can add a category list in the sidebar, and put links to the most used tags, if you all want. However, you can also just click on a tag in any post and see all the posts that share that tags.
I'll try to keep an eye on the new posts, and tag the ones that need it. So, if you don't like tagging, or just don't want to do it, no worries. I'll take care of it for you.
So, tell me how you feel about all this new blogginess, by email or in the comments.
First thing that you will notice is a new template. This one seems to go with the library style sheet a little bit better, and it's available for free through Blogger. So, no coding for me! Yay! Now, in order to convert to it, we did lose a bit of our sidebar content, but I'm not sure how much we were using that anyway. The RSS feeds section went away, but there's a link to an Atom feed at the bottom, which should work fine in most major feed readers.
Is anyone particularly attached to the "Library Blogs" section? I'd like to build it up a bit or get rid of it altogether. Please let me know how you feel about that, and if you'd like to add anything else in the sidebar.
Next, we now have the ability to tag our posts! Blogger calls them "labels" for some reason, but they act like tags. When you are editing a post, you will see a field in the lower right called "Labels for this post." Just type your tags in there, separated by commas. I've gone back and tagged the last few months worth of posts, and will try to tag it back to the beginning eventually. If you click the "Show all" link next to the right of the "Labels for this post" field, you will see the tags that I've already used. Click on the ones you like and they'll appear in the field, no typing. I recommend doing this, so we can class like posts somewhat together.
I can add a category list in the sidebar, and put links to the most used tags, if you all want. However, you can also just click on a tag in any post and see all the posts that share that tags.
I'll try to keep an eye on the new posts, and tag the ones that need it. So, if you don't like tagging, or just don't want to do it, no worries. I'll take care of it for you.
So, tell me how you feel about all this new blogginess, by email or in the comments.
Another Voyager Upgrade On Its Way
Hi everyone. I just learned that we will be upgrading from Voyager 6.2.1 to Voyager 6.5.1, somewhere between Friday, August 3 through Friday, August 10. I won't know the specific date until I hear from our Service Site Coordinator, but I wanted to give you all a heads up.
Most everyone knows the drill by now. The server will be upgraded, usually in the evening, and after this you will be unable to access Voyager from your PCs until I have upgraded the clients. This has to happen on each and every PC that runs Voyager. The last couple of times, OIT has been gracious enough to help me push out a script to each computer, which dramatically reduces our downtime. Otherwise, I would have to drive to each campus, and upgrade each PC by hand, which can take quite a while.
I've also found it helpful to have an "upgrade liaison" on each campus, to check that the script has run correctly on everyone's PC, relay questions, etc. I'm going to be contacting folks about doing that and I'll let you know when we have our victims, *ahem*, I mean lucky volunteers.
For a little more info about 6.5.1, allow me to quote the esteemed Phil Williams. "One of the primary features of this upgrade will be the implementation of the "UB Local Block Policies". The Service Site Staffs will set the appropriate UB Local Block Policy Definitions in accordance with established GIL Express standards. We are anticipating that GIL Express transactions will continue through the upgrade period, however if difficulties do arise a notice will be sent to the listserv and a message will be put on the GIL Universal Catalog web site."
I would advise that everyone read the release notes for this version.
http://download.gil.usg.edu/gold/0605/relnotes.pdf
If, after that, you're feeling especially curious, please feel free to peruse the rest of the 6.5.1 documentation.
http://download.gil.usg.edu/gold/0605.html
Both of these links will ask you for our GIL Knowledge Base username and password (which is the same as the Endeavor Knowledge Base username and password). Give me a call if you've forgotten it.
If anyone has any questions, please drop me a line. And thanks in advance for your patience during the upgrade!
Most everyone knows the drill by now. The server will be upgraded, usually in the evening, and after this you will be unable to access Voyager from your PCs until I have upgraded the clients. This has to happen on each and every PC that runs Voyager. The last couple of times, OIT has been gracious enough to help me push out a script to each computer, which dramatically reduces our downtime. Otherwise, I would have to drive to each campus, and upgrade each PC by hand, which can take quite a while.
I've also found it helpful to have an "upgrade liaison" on each campus, to check that the script has run correctly on everyone's PC, relay questions, etc. I'm going to be contacting folks about doing that and I'll let you know when we have our victims, *ahem*, I mean lucky volunteers.
For a little more info about 6.5.1, allow me to quote the esteemed Phil Williams. "One of the primary features of this upgrade will be the implementation of the "UB Local Block Policies". The Service Site Staffs will set the appropriate UB Local Block Policy Definitions in accordance with established GIL Express standards. We are anticipating that GIL Express transactions will continue through the upgrade period, however if difficulties do arise a notice will be sent to the listserv and a message will be put on the GIL Universal Catalog web site."
I would advise that everyone read the release notes for this version.
http://download.gil.usg.edu/gold/0605/relnotes.pdf
If, after that, you're feeling especially curious, please feel free to peruse the rest of the 6.5.1 documentation.
http://download.gil.usg.edu/gold/0605.html
Both of these links will ask you for our GIL Knowledge Base username and password (which is the same as the Endeavor Knowledge Base username and password). Give me a call if you've forgotten it.
If anyone has any questions, please drop me a line. And thanks in advance for your patience during the upgrade!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Blog Upgraded to New Version of Blogger
[Too many upgrades these days for my tiny little brain.]
Well, I've been putting it off, but Blogger finally bullied me into upgrading the blog. You wont notice anything too different on the front-end, but a few added features under the hood including a "Labels" feature which sort of functions like categories, in a less satisfying way. Anyway, poke around and tell us what you think.
One little problem, now that the blog is upgraded, you will have to convert your Blogger account to a Google account if you want to post or comment. It's pretty straightforward. If you try to log in using your Blogger account, it will badger you to convert to the new account before you proceed. Just follow the prompts. If you already have a Google account, you can use that. Or you can create a new one, again, by following the prompts. A word to the wise, when converting a Blogger account and creating a Google account at the same time, you will be prompted for an active email address. Whatever you put in here is what you will use for your login name, so choose wisely grasshopper. You might be able to change it later on, but I'm not sure about that, so why not save yourself the trouble and give it some thought up front.
Creating a Google account through Blogger will not give you access to purportedly life-changing features like Gmail or Google Talk.If you want to sign up for a Gmail account and then use that as your Blogger account, you have to have an invitation from an existing Gmail member. Please email David Free or myself and we'll shoot you an invite. [Update: You can still email David Free or me, we always love attention, but it looks like you no longer need an invite for Gmail. You can just sign up on your own.] Also feel free to email or call us with any questions you may have about this switch.
Well, I've been putting it off, but Blogger finally bullied me into upgrading the blog. You wont notice anything too different on the front-end, but a few added features under the hood including a "Labels" feature which sort of functions like categories, in a less satisfying way. Anyway, poke around and tell us what you think.
One little problem, now that the blog is upgraded, you will have to convert your Blogger account to a Google account if you want to post or comment. It's pretty straightforward. If you try to log in using your Blogger account, it will badger you to convert to the new account before you proceed. Just follow the prompts. If you already have a Google account, you can use that. Or you can create a new one, again, by following the prompts. A word to the wise, when converting a Blogger account and creating a Google account at the same time, you will be prompted for an active email address. Whatever you put in here is what you will use for your login name, so choose wisely grasshopper. You might be able to change it later on, but I'm not sure about that, so why not save yourself the trouble and give it some thought up front.
Creating a Google account through Blogger will not give you access to purportedly life-changing features like Gmail or Google Talk.
Upgrade to Voyager 6.2
Just wanted to let everyone know that the server site has informed us that we must undergo another Voyager upgrade next week. Apparently v.6.2 has some needed fixes (see attachment). It has been road tested by the folks at UGA, and passed their approval, so everything should be fine. (I have some hopes that it will help with our OPAC-issues, but there are absolutely no guarantees on that, so keep sending in those problem reports until you hear from me otherwise.)
As of now, the schedule I've been given for the upgrading GPC's server is the evening of Monday, February 26th. This means that when you come in on the morning of the 27th, Voyager will be down on everyone's PC. I am working with OIT to prepare another packet delivery system and we have high hopes that it will work as smoothly as it did last time. If it does, down time will be minimal. If not, I may have to drive to your campuses to upgrade PCs manually. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that. I don't want you to experience any more down time than is absolutely necessary.
As I understand it, GIL Express transactions are expected to function normally between 6.1 and 6.2 libraries, so no GIL Express downtime is expected. Please report any problems you might experience.
Thanks in advance for your patience! Hopefully this will be our last upgrade in 2007.
As of now, the schedule I've been given for the upgrading GPC's server is the evening of Monday, February 26th. This means that when you come in on the morning of the 27th, Voyager will be down on everyone's PC. I am working with OIT to prepare another packet delivery system and we have high hopes that it will work as smoothly as it did last time. If it does, down time will be minimal. If not, I may have to drive to your campuses to upgrade PCs manually. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that. I don't want you to experience any more down time than is absolutely necessary.
As I understand it, GIL Express transactions are expected to function normally between 6.1 and 6.2 libraries, so no GIL Express downtime is expected. Please report any problems you might experience.
Thanks in advance for your patience! Hopefully this will be our last upgrade in 2007.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Voyager Upgrade Looming
[I sent a message about this to everyone's director, to forward along, but I thought that I'd post it here too, just in case anyone missed it.]
The slot GPC has been allotted for the Voyager upgrade is Wednesday, December 20th, beginning that evening and hopefully ending by the following morning or afternoon.
I'm exploring the possibility of a remote upgrade with OIT, which is very gracious of them. However, if we can't get that working, I'll be manually upgrading every PC running Voyager, just like John did last year, starting December 21st. I will make it my only priority, but even devoting all of my time to it, it may take a while for me to get to every campus, so your patience will be greatly appreciated.
Circulation (for GPC materials) will be down until the machine you run it on is upgraded. GIL Express will be down for the duration of the entire upgrade. This means that all USG institutions must be successfully upgraded before GIL Express service can resume anywhere. The estimate is that GE will be down from December 13, 2006 through January 5, 2007. This service suspension has been discussed at length on the UC/UB listerv, and I imagine that GPC circulation staff are familiar this discussion.
That's about all that I know right now, but if you have any questions, please just drop me a line. I'll keep you posted as more details become available.
The slot GPC has been allotted for the Voyager upgrade is Wednesday, December 20th, beginning that evening and hopefully ending by the following morning or afternoon.
I'm exploring the possibility of a remote upgrade with OIT, which is very gracious of them. However, if we can't get that working, I'll be manually upgrading every PC running Voyager, just like John did last year, starting December 21st. I will make it my only priority, but even devoting all of my time to it, it may take a while for me to get to every campus, so your patience will be greatly appreciated.
Circulation (for GPC materials) will be down until the machine you run it on is upgraded. GIL Express will be down for the duration of the entire upgrade. This means that all USG institutions must be successfully upgraded before GIL Express service can resume anywhere. The estimate is that GE will be down from December 13, 2006 through January 5, 2007. This service suspension has been discussed at length on the UC/UB listerv, and I imagine that GPC circulation staff are familiar this discussion.
That's about all that I know right now, but if you have any questions, please just drop me a line. I'll keep you posted as more details become available.
Monday, November 06, 2006
USG Upgrade to Voyager 6.1
No specific dates for GPC yet, but they're predicting sometime this December and I expect that I'll start working on our individual machines shortly after that. (I have to touch each PC that has the Voyager client.) The Voyager 6.1 documentation has been placed on the GIL Download web site. Remember that access to the GIL Download web site requires our SupportWeb user id and password. If you've forgotten it, drop me an email and I'll send it to you.
The GIL Download site has user guides for each module in Voyager 6.1, but they're extremely long (828 pages for circulation alone). I would, however, recommend taking the time to read the release notes, which are a much more manageable length (9 pages). Some of the highlights are search enhancements in WebVoyage and the Voyager staff interface, improvements to the display and sorting of results lists in the staff interface and the display of results lists in WebVoyage, and ISBN-13 support.
This is the gist of what I know right now, but please feel free to send me your questions and I'll do what I can to get them answered.
The GIL Download site has user guides for each module in Voyager 6.1, but they're extremely long (828 pages for circulation alone). I would, however, recommend taking the time to read the release notes, which are a much more manageable length (9 pages). Some of the highlights are search enhancements in WebVoyage and the Voyager staff interface, improvements to the display and sorting of results lists in the staff interface and the display of results lists in WebVoyage, and ISBN-13 support.
This is the gist of what I know right now, but please feel free to send me your questions and I'll do what I can to get them answered.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Internet Explorer 7- Upgrade NOT Recommended
I figure that everyone saw this genmail, but, with all the computers we have in the libraries, it bears repeating.
As of today, Microsoft will be pushing Internet Explorer 7 as a high priority update through Windows Update. If you have a PC that is set to download and install updates automatically, you'll be getting this new IE and it is not receiving rave reports. As I understand it, this new version is causing some problems with Banner and WebCT, and is likely to cause problems with other Web applications. Now, after speaking with our friendly neighborhood OIT guy, Andrew, I have learned that a script was run last night to connect everyone's Windows Update to a central server at OIT. Updates from Microsoft will go through this server before being released to our individual PCs and OIT will not be allowing the IE7 update to go through at this time. If anyone has trouble accessing websites on a library computer, check the version number of IE as your first troubleshooting step. The new one may have slipped through on that machine and you should call OIT and have it removed. I'd keep a close eye on your public computers in particular, if students are using them for WebCT, Banner, and the like.
I would also advise not upgrading your home PCs to this new IE version just yet. However, if it slips through, I understand that it is a little easier to uninstall than previous versions. Best to avoid all that mess and just not install it in the first place though. Or better yet, use Firefox. I've used it at home and in the office for a couple of years and I'm in love. It's the best-est. Erik Larkin of PC World has written a very detailed review of the two browsers, if anyone is interested.
As of today, Microsoft will be pushing Internet Explorer 7 as a high priority update through Windows Update. If you have a PC that is set to download and install updates automatically, you'll be getting this new IE and it is not receiving rave reports. As I understand it, this new version is causing some problems with Banner and WebCT, and is likely to cause problems with other Web applications. Now, after speaking with our friendly neighborhood OIT guy, Andrew, I have learned that a script was run last night to connect everyone's Windows Update to a central server at OIT. Updates from Microsoft will go through this server before being released to our individual PCs and OIT will not be allowing the IE7 update to go through at this time. If anyone has trouble accessing websites on a library computer, check the version number of IE as your first troubleshooting step. The new one may have slipped through on that machine and you should call OIT and have it removed. I'd keep a close eye on your public computers in particular, if students are using them for WebCT, Banner, and the like.
I would also advise not upgrading your home PCs to this new IE version just yet. However, if it slips through, I understand that it is a little easier to uninstall than previous versions. Best to avoid all that mess and just not install it in the first place though. Or better yet, use Firefox. I've used it at home and in the office for a couple of years and I'm in love. It's the best-est. Erik Larkin of PC World has written a very detailed review of the two browsers, if anyone is interested.
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