***** Archive and Backup your Data before updating***** ***Ensure that you are running a minimum version of before updating***

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1 Alexandria Release Notes 6/17/2011 ============================================================ Current Alexandria v5 customers will need to contact COMPanion prior to updating to version 6. This update is included as part of your support subscription and version 6 will require new registration codes. v5 to v6 data conversion includes core data such as item and patron records, transactions, patron history, authority control, acquisitions, etc. Quick reports and preferences that are no longer applicable will not be converted. It is highly recommended that administrators review their preferences and scheduled events settings due to a number of changes and differences. Scheduled Rebuild and Archives will need to be reconfigured in the new v6 Scheduled Utilities module. Due to multiple data enhancements, a database rebuild may be required on updating. COMPanion encourages all v6 users to update to this version at their earliest convenience. Please contact COMPanion at or COMPanion Technical Support at with any questions regarding this update or for release notes for versions prior to Documentation for version 6 is available online at: < ***** Archive and Backup your Data before updating***** ***Ensure that you are running a minimum version of before updating*** Alexandria v runs on the following operating systems. Below are more specific recommendations: Mac OS 10.5, 10.6, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 System Requirements for Data Stations Minimum Recommended Mac OS 10.5, Windows XP Mac OS 10.6, Windows 7 or 2008 G4, Pentium 4 (or equivalent) X86 Multi-Core/Processor 2 GB of RAM 4 GB of RAM or more 20 GB of Free HD/100,000 Items 20 GB of Free HD/100,000 Items 1024 x 768 Resolution System Requirements for Central Union Data Stations Minimum Recommended Mac OS 10.5, Windows XP Mac OS 10.6, Windows 7 or 2008 G5 or X86, Dual Processor/Core X86 Multi-Core/Processor Variable - see RAM Recommendations Variable - see RAM Recommendations 20 GB of Free HD/100,000 Items 20 GB of Free HD/100,000 Items 1024 x 768 Resolution

2 System Requirements for Controller Systems Minimum Recommended Mac OS 10.5, Windows XP Mac OS 10.6, Windows 7 or 2008 G5 or X86, Dual Processor/Core X86 Multi-Core/Processor Variable - see RAM Recommendations Variable - see RAM Recommendations 20 GB of Free HD/100,000 Items 20 GB of Free HD/100,000 Items 1024 x 768 Resolution System Requirements for Librarian and Researcher Workstations Minimum Recommended Mac OS 10.5, Windows XP Mac OS 10.6, Windows XP or 7 G4, Pentium 4 (or equivalent) X86 Multi-Core/Processor 1 GB of RAM 2 GB of RAM or more 1024 x 768 Resolution Browser Requirements for Web Librarian and Researcher Minimum (recommended) Optional FireFox 3+ for Mac or Windows Internet Explorer 7, 8, or 9+ Safari 4 or 5 + for Mac OS X and others for both Mac and 1024 x 768 Resolution Windows Controller and Central Union RAM Recommendations: Up to 5 collections: 4 GB or more Up to 20 collections: 8 GB or more Up to 30 collections: 12 GB or more Up to 50 collections: 16 GB or more NOTE: For controller or central union configurations managing more then 50 collections, contact COMPanion for specific recommendations. Overview of Major Features: Alexandria is a major release focusing on improved performance, reliability and stability. COMPanion has made numerous internal changes that positively affect the reliability of the system, particularly in large controller or central union configurations. Improved Performance, Reliability, and Stability. Implemented numerous Improvements to Researcher including: * A new 'Shelf Browse' feature that allows users to quickly view and browse additional items that can be found on the shelf near items in their search results. * An improved layout in the full item details view. * A new 'Cover Art' results view. * A new option to hide the patrons name in item reviews. * A dedicated Study Program Search Interface.

3 Alexandria now provides for centralized Site Management in Central Union configurations. Please contact COMPanion Technical Support prior to updating for specifics on how this new mechanism may affect your institution and data. Improved Support for Bulletin Board in a Central Union. Improved Map support in a Central Union. Implemented several new report selection options to make it easier to report on overdue items, outstanding charges, and lost items. Study program support has been enhanced to include the ability to specify which study program information is displayed in researcher results regardless of tag order in the MARC record. Study Program indexing has been enhanced for more accurate searches when multiple study program tags exist in item records. Receipt printer is now supported in Web Librarian. Saved Export, Utility, and Import Operation capabilities are now available in Web Librarian. SSL configuration has been improved and simplified. Basic French language support has been implemented. Added support for SAFARI Montage streaming video service. Additional Key Enhancements and Changes: Central Union: Alexandria now offeres centralized site management making it possible for administrators to maintain consistent critical site code data entry throughout the system. Site management affects a number of areas of the program where site specific information is required or expected improving overall system functionality in Central Union configurations. Please be aware that upon update to v site records will initially be created from existing address book, patron, and item data. If your existing data has inconsistencies some site record clean-up may be required. Please contact COMPanion Technical Support for additional details. Added site code support to Maps and Bulletins for Central Union configurations. Added site code support to Acquisitions records for Central Union configurations. Circulation: Reduced the picture size in patron details. The patron in-stock hold receipt as printed from the Circulation/Holds tab is now printing the correct values in the right places. Patron details can again be printed to the receipt printer from both the File -> Print menu item as well as by the QP command. Implemented a "Switch Site" menu item in the Circulation window Actions menu so Operators that work at multiple sites in a Central Union can quickly update the location their current location when required.

4 COMPedit: A new version of COMPedit (2.0.2) has been made available for installation with Alexandria. Connection Manager: Corrected issues that could cause difficulty in reconnecting Librarian Workstations to the server following work in offline mode. Controller: The Archive Now button in the controller's Site Information->Scheduled Events preference pane now performs a staggered archive operation, instead of archiving all collections at once. Controller now offers "Start All" and "Stop All" buttons so administrators can perform these functions without having to quit controller. A limited number of collections are started or stopped at a time. Operator preferences are no longer available on the Controller as they are not applicable. Security Preference are no longer available on the Controller as they are not applicable. Controller Operators can now log into controlled Data Stations using their Controller Administrator login credentials. Controller now offers a system analysis report under the Help menu. Controller now only creates a single zipped file for client installers regardless of the number of data stations being controlled. When a client install is requested via the web /install service an FCF file will be included containing collection connection information. Note that for special configurations we are also creating a copy of the FCF configuration file in each collections respective support folder. This allows a manual copy and paste of these configuration files if necessary. Security is now off by default in new installations of controller. It is recommended that administrators create a login and enable security early on in the setup process. Database: Widened several indexes to improve functionality in many reports, exports, utilities, and import functions. Reservations s no longer contain duplicate content. All address fields are now supporting lists. The first address in a list is used if a list of addresses is specified for a from or reply address. The domain is now tested when an address is saved to see if it is a valid domain in that it has at least one MX record in the DNS lookup. Corrected a number of subtle issues reported by some customers. Explore Builder: ebook selection now works based on policy name: ebook or Default ebook. Made numerous tune-ups in Explore Builder - search terms are now visible when a button is edited and there is now an edit button for accessing the "Define Button" window. Export: It is now possible to export Links associated with a title in tab delimited format.

5 Implemented support for export of Operator records. Address books can now be exported in either tab delimited or Alexandria AXD format. Import: Circulation Group imports have been restored. It is now possible to import Links associated with a title in tab delimited format. Implemented support for import of Operator records. The encrypted patron password field in import field mapping is now labeled correctly as Password - Encrypted. The specified field order for saved tab delimited Imports is now being correctly saved. Previously it was possible to import two patrons with the same SSN. This has been changed. If a patron being import has a duplicate SSN, then it is noted in the log and that field is set blank. Patron Status field is no longer incorrectly mapped to Patron Card Expiration Date. Item Management: Finds in Item Management will no longer include the record current in the circulation window. Updated the Item/Copy duplicate window to include the applicable options in the correct locations. Restored "Move Copy to this Title" feature. The Study Programs tab is now using a MARC style editor similar to that used under the Subjects tab. This allows operators to easily see and edit all 526 tags associated with a title. Added a Keyword search option to the Item Selection Window. Added "HL" and "GN" to the list of valid Lexile codes. The Item Management Award Note editor now allows for separate 586 records per line, instead of making a compound entry in a single 586 tag. Title and Series fields are again properly displaying the "Non-Filing Characters" menu item. Add Title Assistant publication year searches for the local collection are now working. You can again add a new medium type from the Item Management window. Copy and Title sequence number browse in Item Management is again working correctly. Awards notes are no longer erroneously cataloged as Bibliography in addition to Awards. The import menu option in Item Management is now opening the import window. Operation Management: Added a checkbox to the Operation Management window that controls whether or not this window opens automatically when the user runs an operation. The value of this checkbox is saved for each operator and defaults to open the window. Operation s and summaries now display the user-configured name of the report instead of the fixed name of the report template. Patron Management: Finds in Patron Management will no longer include the record current in the circulation window. When duplicating a patron the newly created record will now be selected.

6 When duplicating Patrons, we are no longer duplicating the Student Number field as it must be unique. Preferences: Added a preference to "Show Patron Name with Review." This allows operators to better protect the privacy of patrons and hide their names if desired. The hardcoded $20 value that was used as a fallback replacement cost if everything else was zero has been removed, so if it the copy cost is zero, it stays at zero, and this is reflected throughout the program. Updated several sound preferences and added many new options. Added Cover Art option to Researcher's "Default Search Results Mode" preference, allowing operators to default to this new results view if desired. The Transaction Period field in policy preferences will now be disabled if a hard due date has been specified and the current date has not passed the hard due date. Corrected an issue that could prevent preferences from saving or could result in occasional preference settings reverting to their default state. The circulation window idle timeout function now consistently clears the current item as it should. Reports: Implemented Overdue Items, Lost Items and Outstanding Charges circulation report selection options. Added Copy Number selection and sort to copy reports. Added Purchase Cost selection to Copy and Title reports. Added Lexile Code selection to Title reports. Added Medium selection to Copy reports. Added Copy Status and Copy Status Details reports. Added Item List - 1 Line Landscape and Copy List - 1 Line Landscape reports. Added Copy List - Complete report. This new report type contains all the information from the Copy List - Detailed report plus the Author, Publisher, Year, Extent, and ISBN. Added a new Damaged Items Letter circulation report. Added Bulletin List report, which displays the bulletin name, site, and expiration date. Items with zero checkouts will no longer be included in a Top Circulated Items report. Corrected sorting issues in the Top Circulation Items report. Added a total to the Circulation Letter to Parents. Added a checkbox Hide Barcode Number to Patron Barcode and Card reports. Added an Emulate button to the Schedule tab in Reports, Utilities, and Exports. This button sets the report to run as though it had been scheduled for right now. This is useful for testing proper setup of scheduled operations. Enhanced Publication Date Summary - added a column for Titles Without Copies, and a % of Copies With Publication Under 10 Years at the end of the report. A column was added to therefunds and Forgiven Amounts report to display the type. Types are Refunded, Forgiven, and To Credit. Added an Availability column to the Item List - 1 line report. On request of HISD, created Houston Super Summery based on the Collapsed - Brief - Landscape format. Removed the Houston Collapsed report. The Report Type: Subscriptions Claim Letter - is now sending the correct for each subscription.

7 Added a Language selection and indexing for 41_a, 130_l, and 730_l to Title reports and Title Searching. Fixed Ignore Barcode checkbox functionality for the AR spine labels report. Fixed the "No Last Used Date" Copy selection. Renamed "Forgive Fines" utility to "Forgive Charges," as this term is more technically accurate. A fine is a type of charge. The Amount column on the Circulation - 2 Per Page notice will now display Rate Per Day for overdue items still accruing charges rather than the copy replacement cost, which was confusing to patrons. Modified Circulation Letter report so that only overdue items are labeled overdue. Publication Year sorts are now working, which includes the publication date summary. Restored functionality to the Vertically Center Label checkbox, which was previously doing nothing in any report. Corrected font and formatting issues in several label reports. Researcher: Removed the 2 character search term restriction. Searches can now be performed on a single character if desired. Note that the Researcher will not perform searches when no search term is entered, except for in the study program search interface where a search can now be performed on program name / level alone. Full subject searches are now working correctly. URLs in the web now get prepended with ' if they don't have a protocol defined. Web windows now open with scrollbars by default Interest term searches are no longer an exact-match search unless there is a period at the end of the search term. Copy and Title Accession Date searches are now working correctly. Removing a Hold or Reservation from within Researcher works again. Several missing fields have been restored on the patron information window. Lexile Code now appears along with the score in the Researcher. Searches submitted through the URL are now working correctly. This means administrators can create functional widgets, etc. for their homepages, if desired. Links are now available in the Researcher. Added "Copy Information" link to search results in an effort to make it more clear to searching-patrons where they need to click to view copy-specific details. Researcher now offers an Accession Date sort option in results lists. By popular demand, the Bulletin Boards link has been moved to the Tools menu. You can now link to Explore Pane search results. Patrons now have the ability to perform more complex searches on the Simple Search interface using algebraic style syntax. You can now perform searches by specifying search parameters on the URL. This allows web site administrators to create search widgets if desired. Please contact COMPanion Technical Support for further details. Self Service: Implemented a Check Out Only security level for Self-Service mode. It is no longer necessary to clear the window between book drops. Self-Service stations are now allowed to check in temporary items.

8 SIF: Leaving SIF running even when the ZIS is not accessible no longer causes the SIF client service to be restarted for each communication attempt. We now force the SIF port to be "0" for pull mode. Enhanced SIF error logging for failed secure client connections. SIF v 2.0r1: grade level is now being parsed correctly and imported during synchronization. SIF: SchoolInfo local id is no longer rejected if it is very long (13+ characters). Utilities: Added a utility to modify Copy Replacement Costs by a percentage. Added "Delete After" option to Transfer Copies by Barcode utility. Modified the "Patron/Copy Notes" utilities to include the functionality to add as well as remove notes. The Remove Copy utility now properly removes titles with no copies when the "Remove titles without copies" option is checked. The undo script in the Transfer Copies utilities is now working, and being generated at the specified path. Web: Added UTF-8 conversion for the web. This means that the Researcher and Web Librarian are now displaying accented characters properly. Web Librarian: Made numerous improvements to web librarian, correcting several reported issues as well as introducing additional functionality in-line with that currently existing in the installed Librarian Client, including: * Added support for running saved Export operations. * Added support for running saved Utility operations. * Added support for Import operations. * Implemented support for several circulation commands currently available in the installed client. * Added circulation script import support to the Web Librarian. * Added slip / receipt printer support the Web Librarian. Plugin required. Web Router: Item images now display correctly in the Researcher when accessing a collection through a Web Router.