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Melvyl Catalog Maintenance: UCLA Record Load into the Melvyl Catalog

August 12, 2004 Author: CDLCategories:

UCLA has moved its catalog, ORION2, to an Endeavor Voyager system and renamed the catalog the “UCLA Library Catalog.”  The CDL has been working intensively for several months with Ex Libris and the UCLA library to ensure a smooth transition in the Melvyl Catalog from UCLA’s Taos holdings to its Voyager holdings, and to minimize the impact of the UCLA reload on other campuses.  Part of this process has included the deletion of UCLA’s five million old records and the addition of five million new records into the Melvyl Catalog.

The Melvyl Catalog will be frozen between August 21 and September 17.  Please advise your users that since no new records will be added during the freeze, users will not receive their usual Automatic Updates (SDI Requests).

The database with the new UCLA snapshot records in it will be switched into production on September 18.  This process should be invisible to catalog users.

A full description of this complex process follows:

Due to limitations with the Ex Libris software, the CDL cannot use the normal database update programs to replace UCLA’s records.  Instead, all 25 million records must be exported from the database and the existing UCLA records removed.  The exported records, plus the new UCLA records, will be fast loaded (i.e. loaded without indexing) into a new database, and then all records will be indexed and merged.  The CDL anticipates that this process will take six to seven weeks.

This activity will take place in a duplicate copy of the database on a different machine so that the intensive processing will not impact response time in the production system.

The CDL will not freeze loading in the production database until testing is complete on the rebuilt database.  Loading will then be frozen while catch-up loading of the weekly files that have accumulated in the maintenance period takes place in the rebuilt database.  Catch-up loading is necessary to bring the two databases into sync so that services like Update will function without interruption.

Loading will proceed more quickly in the rebuilt database if the number of records accumulated in the six to seven week maintenance period is held to a minimum.  For this reason, the CDL has requested that records associated with special projects be held during this time.

The following is the latest version of the schedule of activities (subject to revision) for the project:

  • July 12: Reload/reindex/remerge began in a copy of the production database.
  • August 21-September 17: The loading of all campus records will be frozen in the production database.
  • September 18: The newly reloaded database will become the production database.
  • Week of October 11: The backlog of frozen weekly files will be cleared for all campuses except UCLA.  Normal loading will resume for all campuses except UCLA.
  • Week of November 15: The backlog of UCLA weekly files is cleared.

The CDL will provide information about any revisions to this schedule.