Our everyday work with Symphony. EurLib 2015

Transcription

1 Our everyday work with Symphony at the EP library EurLib 2015

2 EP library's LMS Symphony is the Library Management System used at the European Parliament Library since 2010 a SirsiDynix product before 2010, the EP library was using Loris the current presentation is built on EP library staff s experiences

3 The team a technician who developed macros and APIs, who takes care of software upgrades (together with SD), etc. an administrator (access rights, training, weeding lists, etc.) a person in charge of serials management a person in charge of the contacts with SD but no real Library System Manager

4 Stability Excellent stability of the tool Over five years, we have never had any interruption: Symphony PROD and TEST have always run normally Between 15 and 25 users are permanently connected during working hours

5 OPAC We don't use either of the OPACs offered in Symphony either the traditional one (elibrary) or the Web 2.0 version (Enterprise) We wanted to have a search tool (i.e. LIS search) which would include the catalogue (Loris/Symphony content) but also Library Links, Policy Area posts, EU history pages, Ask EPRS, and the News

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7 Connection with the Intranet Our LMS is connected with LIS, an Intranet site that provides the users with data extracted from Symphony, i.e. search function services for book reservations and overview on current loans:

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9 Search function limited number of search options and not always coherent, e.g. search on title "Demography of Europe" using the "browse" functionality > no result; search with keyword functionality on "demography" and "Europe" > result...

10 Memory but useful memory of the last accessed record, accessible through hyperlink from one module to another:

11 Layout Symphony s layout is clear, precise and easily understandable Organised in seven modules: Acquisitions, Cataloguing, Circulation, Finance, Offline, Reports, Serial control Each module contains a certain number of wizards, i.e. action modes: add, call, check, check out, delete, discharge, display, duplicate, modify, renew, review, etc. Surprising 1990 s interface...

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13 Speed rapid for the achievement of tasks for moving from one tab or one wizard to another nevertheless the launch and shutting down of Symphony are slow

14 Poor flexibility in acquisitions: if the order is, by mistake, passed in a wrong currency, there is no possibility for correcting the error afterwards lack of flexibility in printing or in reports

15 Usefulness of reports used to extract information from the DB necessary for DB maintenance (e.g. indexing, cleaning of the records, maintaining the list of delinquent users, weeding, batch corrections, etc.) used to circulate claims for overdue loans and to notify information specialist colleagues about received issues of journals used for notification about recently received or catalogued books, but

16 Reports they are not user friendly : without a special training and regular use, one can't run a report even if the reports are made also for producing statistics, they don't cover all the fields > acquisition of WebReporter report data cannot be used as such; the layout does not allow easy extraction:

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18 Customisation Not as customisable as Loris was Requires Perl knowledge (programming language) API training needed to get the most out of the system

19 Cataloguing complete compatibility with MARC 21 not linked with Eurovoc comparative ease of editing records drop down lists for some of the fixed field values:

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21 Authority records possibility to create an authority record while working in the cataloguing mode impossibility to see which bibliographic records are attached to any individual authority update of bibliographic records associated with an authority only happens overnight, not immediately no search by keyword (browsing only)

22 Terminology Surprising sometimes: "renew user" for "renew loan" "user is a delinquent"...

23 Help, manuals and FAQs Help, manuals and FAQs, in English and French, are very well done; they are helpful for the creation of reports as they explain how to run them and give warnings individual MARC tags direct links to the MARC 21 manual and to RDA (the latter we are not using yet) etc.

24 Support SD provides user support, but the EP does not allow remote access to our computers EP had total 36 problem cases with SirsiDynix 2010 (2, from Oct), 2011 (16), 2012 (5), 2013 (7), 2014 (8), 2015 (2, till May)

25 Current version: Symphony 3.5 In 2010, version was installed EP library upgraded recently to 3.5; with it, more functions are very easily accessible in cataloguing or circulation with a right click, e.g.: discharge, claims return, change item ID, renew, place hold, etc.:

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27 Future perspectives our contract with SD ends at the end of November 2016 EP s library will take part in the common call for tender coordinated by the Commission