Melvyl® Catalog and Database Transitions

a. Melvyl® Catalog Name

On April 27, the University Librarians and SOPAG discussed the first of many policy issues related to the Melvyl®Union Catalog.  As a result, they endorsed a proposal that now takes effect, that the full title of the new catalog will be: Melvyl®: the Catalog of the University of California Libraries.

During the transition process, the Aleph catalog will be referred to as Melvyl-T, shorthand for Melvyl Transition catalog. This will enable
-Clear distinction between the two versions of the catalog
-Creation of a URL that parallels existing URLs for other CDL services and which will remain the URL after the transition: melvyl.cdlib.org
-Legacy Melvyl to have a banner that points users to the transition catalog, with information to induce them to try it.

An overview list of the policy issues that will be addressed during the Melvyl transition is available, along with other related material, at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/catalog/.

b. Melvyl® Catalog Transition Teams Begin Their Work

Two of the three Melvyl® Catalog Transition teams have meetings scheduled.  The Database and Technology Team, led by Karen Coyle of CDL, met in a two-day session May 14 and 15 at CDL in Oakland.  This was their first opportunity to dig into the technical system requirements needed to adapt and bring up MELVYL on the ALEPH System.

The Melvyl® Catalog Transition Services Team, led by Ann Jensen, will meet on Friday, May 18, to consider and discuss various issues related to the functionality, presentation, and interface of Melvyl-T (as the transitional Melvyl will be called).

Notes from these meetings will be posted to the Melvyl Catalog Transition Information Page soon: http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/catalog/.

c. CDL-Hosted Databases Test Accounts Extended

A&I Test Accounts Extended And Expanded [http://www.cdlib.org/about/test-accounts.html]
– Test accounts for potential vendor replacements for the CDL-hosted Databases have been extended through May 31.
– TELNET access via Ovid has been added to the test.

Please Encourage Faculty, Staff, and Students To Complete Surveys When Testing (online survey is linked from the test accounts page)
– Comments received by May 27 will be reviewed by theA&I Transition Steering Committee (TSC) members at their meeting on June 4.
– The tests will be available through May 31 for general comments.

Completing the Survey Does Make a Difference
For example, Ovid has now re-formatted their opening screen to show a single entry for each database, and they have changed the search defaults so that search terms will no longer be automatically mapped to controlled vocabulary terms.

d. A & I Staff FAQ

In the months of March and April, Laine Farley and Ellen Meltzer visited seven UC campuses to discuss the A & I transition with library staff and some faculty.  In the course of those visits, staff raised many issues more relevant to library staff than to others interested in the CDL and its transitions in general.  An A & I Staff FAQ, drawn from campus visits, is now available from the libstaff CDL-Hosted Abstracting and Indexing Databases Transition Page [http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/sharedcoll/a-i-trans/aistaff_faq