CDL Database Transitions

a. Melvyl-T Public Release

On April 23, 2003 CDL rolled out the new Melvyl-T catalog to the public.  Compared to the legacy Melvyl catalog – which will continue operating until August 2003 in parallel to the new catalog – Melvyl-T has a new format and design.  It offers users a variety of enhanced features, and contains completely updated data for the holdings of the UC system.  Once the legacy Melvyl catalog has been retired, Melvyl-T (for Transition) will become Melvyl.

Melvyl-T is available at: <http://melvyl.cdlib.org>

b. Help Us Load Test Melvyl-T

The CDL has completed multiple successful in-house peak load tests using specialized software to simulate well over a thousand simultaneous sessions searching Melvyl-T.  Now that we have released the catalog publicly, we have the opportunity to have actual users test in combination with simulated users to create at least 1,200 simultaneous sessions during the test period.  We know from our usage data going back many years that Melvyl’s peak usage time comes in the fall.  We want to see if the system needs any further tuning now, rather than waiting until November.

The CDL is encouraging as many staff and other users as possible from the campuses to search and display records during a 15 minute period on May 1.  The test will take place from 9:30-9:45 a.m. Please search in Basic, Advanced or Command modes in Melvyl-T (http://melvyl.cdlib.org) and display results in different formats.  Please do real searching—-the kind you do in your everyday work.  If you encounter problems during the test period, you should report them via the Comments and Feedback link at the bottom of all Melvyl-T pages.