Cosugi 2011:Day 2- After the Sessions-Phoenix Public Library

After the session on Day 2, Steve and I walked to Phoenix Public Library. That was a very long walk for 1.5 miles. I wouldn't want to do that again in a 90 degree desert weather. We were so glad to get into an air conditioned library when we got there. I was shocked to see how big the library was. The picture is at the right. It has 5 stories and the space was huge inside. The building was built as if it were a company instead of the library. Of course I did ask a librarian about that. Her answer was that it was built as an industrial complex because it costs less than it were to build a library. Maybe the builder's expertise was more industrial?
Steve is admiring how big the library is!

These are express internet stations. How many do we have at RPL? One?

Phoenix's DVD Collections

Instead of Walking Back to the Hotel, We Took the Lightrail

Cosugi 2011 Day 2:Session 5-Web Services 3.0

I was hoping to pick up something from this session because I am using web services for our catalog. However, I was kind of disappointed that I didn't pick up much from this session. The session lasted only 30 minutes. The presentor mainly explain how he used web services 3.0 to do display information for for library. I already knew the features so I didn't pick up much. I think Sirsi's web services is such a new thing that most people do not have a chance to do anything yet. In fact, we didn't get the licence until April 20th which is while I attended this session.

Cosugi 2011 Day 2:Session 4-API Sharing Session

The audiences were the ones driving this session. Joel Hahn from Niles Public Library was there to answer any questions that we may have relating to the tradtional API programming.I didn't have any question so I sat there the whole time listening to other people's issues. Didn't pick up much neither as they were not related to our issues. :(

Cosugi 2011 Day 2:Session 3-Introducing:Sirsi Customer Support-It's All About You

The director of ClientCare had a presentation on the new Customer Support(formerly Client Care). Satisfaction has been reportedly up since this new model was rolled out in February. The model is: Once a case is done, an email is sent with a few options. 1. Close, 2. Talk to the person who provide the resolution, 3. Leave the case open, 4. Provide comment on the case.

Cosugi 2011 Day 2:Session 2-Mobilize! On the Go Options in Horizon and Symphony

According to Sirsi, BookMyne and PocketCirc are just the start of the mobile applications. This is an exciting news because according to a new study, by the end of 2011, half our the users will be using smartphones while the other half uses the traditional feature phones. However, there isn't much library related applications available. Which way is Sirsi moving in the mobile area?
1. BookMyne for androids will be released at the end of August 2011
2. Analytics will be on the new web services that they will be releasing soon. Programmer can use this function to extract data.
3.On June 30, an application will come out for facebook. The app resides on the library's Facebook page for patron to use. It is similar to that of the MyAccount feature except that it is on Facebook.
4. Sirsi is moving away from PocketCirc to Ipad and phone devices.
5. Sirsi is developing an application for smart phones so that patrons can just checkout books on their phones instead of using the checkout stations.

Cosugi 2011 Day 2:Session 1-How Far Can You Go?Tools to Extend Your Symphony System

Margaret Pelfrey and Nathan Quinn mainly talked about 3 tools in traditional APIs and Sirsi's web services. This session is mainly for programmers who are looking to see if there is anything new that can help them with developments.
1. SERFTools
2. Apiserver: Batch receive items in transit between libraries, batch edit call numbers, pay bills in batch.
3. Dataloading Tools:Insert a MARC tag into selected bib records, extract user data, and globally remove a MARC tag from bib records
4. Web services: Nathan Quinn talked about the functionalities of web services and costs:
Webservices:
*A web Services class is offered every other month with no cost to their customers.I am excited about this a I have been downloading and learning on my own to write the MyAccount feature for our library. I will for sure want to take this class soon.
*Costs $600 for big libraries or consortium
*Costs $250 for medium libraris
*Costs $199 for small libraries
*No cost to customers who have API Subscription. Yay, RPL falls into this group
*WS 3.1 will be released on June 30th,2011 to include more features.

Cosugi 2011:Session 3-Integrating Personal Services and Social Media into E-library

Margaret Pelfrey from Sirsi had a nice presentation on using API to email patron's PINs directly from Elibrary, allow patrons to edit their email in real time through an Elibrary interface and how to add Social Media links in elibrary.
We do not use Elibrary but I attended this session anyway mainly because there wasn't any other interesting session for this time slot. LOL. In my opinion, this is too much work. With the emergent of Sirsi's web services things could be done quicker and more efficient.