ALEPH

UF Reclamation Report

UF Report

University of Florida Reclamation Project Summary
Report by
Daniel Cromwell, LMS Field Specialist, FCLA
3/24/2010

USF Reclamation Report

University of South Florida Reclamation Project Summary
Report by
Daniel Cromwell, LMS Field Specialist, FCLA
3/4/09

Brief summary:

What's the maximum length of a bib record or bib field?

Answer: 

The maximum size of a bibliographic record or the maximum length of a field allowed in Aleph is documented in the v.19 Staff User's Guide, Cataloging, section 4.2, p.30:
-- fields are limited to 2000 bytes
-- records are limited to 5000 subfields and 45,000 bytes

"For this reason, when cataloging online, the system does not allow the user to enter more than 2000 bytes per field. When long fields are imported into ALEPH, if the text for a single field is more than 2000 bytes, the system splits the text into separate (repeated) fields. Split fields are prefaced by $$9. For export purposes, you can use this method to catalog long fields."

======================================

So how do bytes translate into characters? From Ex Libris Knowledge Base #8192-5113:
"Note that characters with diacritics take up two bytes each and that Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and CJK characters are all double-byte in ALEPH's unicode implementation....English a-z are stored as single-byte characters."

This means that a 505 all in English can be up to 2000 characters long. A 505 all in Chinese vernacular can be up to 1000 characters long. A 505 in English, French and Spanish can be between 1000 and 2000 characters long, depending on how many characters with diacritics it contains.

Use LCA10 System Number to Get Record Before & After*

Report area: 
Authority Reports
Report Type: 
ARROW Report
Description: 

Produces a report of an authority record updated in a particular load; shows before and after view of the record. Enter LCA10 system number and weekly load number. The data from this report comes from the Data Warehouse Tables.

Sample Report:
lca10systemnumber.jpg

Report URL: 

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/lca10_before_after

Single Bib Pilot Project Background

Scope:

  • CSUL interested in pursuing a one-bib file architecture, possible reasons:
    • save FCLA time for management of 11 instances, easier for upgrades, regular processing
    • "Regain control over cataloging"
    • save SUL staff time, more things can be loaded one time only (by FCLA?)
    • enhance user ability to get at materials in other SULs with Aleph ILL or PDQ
    • savings in disk space
  • need to redo Aleph arch for all participating institutions

Current Status - Single Bib Pilot Project:

Setting up Jobs to Run Automatically

There are a number of Aleph Services that you may want to run at regular intervals to ensure smooth and efficient workflow in your department. FCLA will recommend many jobs that are necessary to manage specific functionality used at your Library. For others that you would like to have setup, follow these steps:

1. Under Services in any of the client modules, run the desired job.
- Take a look at the Help to find out exactly what the job does, and the meaning of some of the settings (ex. sublibrary, dates, input filename, etc.).
- Fields with * next to them are required.
2. Once you've setup the job with the settings needed to customize it for your needs, run it and check the output when its finished to verify that the output is what you expect.

FSU Reclamation Project

Project title
OCLC Reclamation Florida State University

FSU Reclamation Project

    • fsu OCLC Symbols included in this project

  • FDA - FLORIDA STATE UNIV TALLAHASSEE, FL 32306-1005 United States
  • FDP - FLORIDA STATE UNIV, PANAMA CITY BR PANAMA CITY, FL 32401 United States [Actually, Panama Branch Library, Panama]
  • FFQ - FLORIDA STATE UNIV COL OF MED TALLAHASSEE, FL 32306-4300 United States
  • FMZ - FLORIDA STATE UNIV, MUSIC LIBR TALLAHASSEE, FL 32306-1180 United States
  • FSL - FLORIDA STATE UNIV, LAW LIBR TALLAHASSEE, FL 32306-1600 United States
    • Aleph sublibrary/location codes mapping to OCLC symbols

Why do I get the error, "ID already exists" when I try to create a patron with this barcode?

Answer: 

This error occurs when the patron account has been deleted, but not the associated barcode. We're not exactly sure why this happens. When this occurs please don't hesitate to let us know and we'll delete "hanging" barcode for you.

To prevent this from happening, we've found through trial and error, that the best way to delete a patron account is to Open the patron account in the Circ Client, and delete every bit of information from the account starting at the bottom under, Patron Registration, and working your way up.

See screenshot, Delete IDs from Additional Ids, Address Information and Local Patron Information. Once you get to Global Patron Information, select Patrons - Delete Patron.

How do I search for a record with a holdings number?

Answer: 

Connect to the holdings library through the "Aleph/Connect to..." menu choice in the Cataloging client. Once connected to the holdings library the top most input box can be used to pull up the holdings record just as it is used to pull up a BIB record when connected to the BIB library.

APFeed - Aleph to PeopleSoft/Banner Financials Interface

APFeed (Accounts Payable Feed) is an interface program written by FCLA to transfer invoice data from Aleph to either Banner or PeopleSoft.

Here's the basics:

  • The interface utilizes the Service, Invoice Report (acq-10), in the Acquisitions Module.
  • Data needed for PeopleSoft or Banner is input in the General Invoice form so it will display in the XML output of the Report File from acq-10.
  • The APfeed program reads a tab delimited text file that is based on chartfields with default data and XML data from acq-10 output to create a flat .dat file for transmission.