Aleph-Based Applications University of Haifa Library Yosef Branse “Developer Meets Developer” Ex Libris Jerusalem 4-5 November 2009

University of Haifa Mount Carmel

University of Haifa  Founded 1963, accredited from 1972  Six faculties : Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Education, Science & Science Education, Social Welfare & Health Sciences  17,000 degree students  c academic staff, 600 administrative staff

University of Haifa Library  Central library  c. two million items (print and nonprint)  c. 23,000 current periodical subscriptions  Pioneer in library automation in Israel, with projects from c (Index to Hebrew Periodicals)

Ex Libris Products in Use 1.Aleph (since Aleph 300, mid-1980s) – SFX, Metalib – Digitool Primo (“OneSearch”) - First Israeli installation - Cooperation with Ex Libris in development of Hebrew interface – bX (including publishing)

Our toolbox  RedHat Linux  Apache Web server  Oracle 10  SQL+  php – versions 4, 5  shell programming (csh, bash)  Aleph services

Our partners University of Haifa Library is unique among Israeli academic libraries in having its own in-house information-systems department. We work in close cooperation with other University divisions :  MIS  Student Authority  Human Resources  Computing Division

Extensions to Aleph  Circulation - processing of reader data (students and staff) via files received from other divisions - SMS notifications re arrival of books on hold, overdues, upcoming return dates

Extensions to Aleph  Acquisitions - orders-status reports - invoice payments  Course readings  Reference services - followup on reader consultations

Extensions to Aleph  Online registration for orientation sessions and tracking participation  Updating dealer domains in University’s proxy server  Automatic update of users and access authorizations for University’s Single Sign On (SSO)

Circulation / Reader data  Personal data regarding students and staff members is forwarded daily from relevant divisions.  Material is checked for validity and used to format files in format required for updating, via Aleph services, reader-data tables in ADM library HAI50

Circulation / Reader data – 2 -  Readers are classified into a large number of borrower types, based on parameters such as degree, tenure, etc.  In normal circumstances, new reader will have Library privileges the day following entry of personal data into University database

Circulation / Reader data – 3 - create or replace view reader_data (tz, name, title, type, status, expiry_date, mail_address, mail_zip, , phone1, phone2, phone3, phone4) as select distinct substr(z303.z303_rec_key, 1, 9), convert(z303.Z303_NAME, 'IW8ISO8859P8', 'UTF8'), convert(z303.Z303_TITLE, 'IW8ISO8859P8', 'UTF8'), z305.Z305_BOR_TYPE, z305.Z305_BOR_STATUS, z305.Z305_EXPIRY_DATE, convert(z304.Z304_ADDRESS, 'IW8ISO8859P8', 'UTF8'), z304.Z304_ZIP, z304.Z304_ _ADDRESS, z304.Z304_TELEPHONE, z304.Z304_TELEPHONE_2, z304.Z304_TELEPHONE_3, z304.Z304_TELEPHONE_4 from z303, z304, z305 where substr(z303.z303_rec_key, 1, 9) = substr(z304.z304_rec_key, 1, 9) and substr(z303.z303_rec_key, 1, 9) = substr(z305.z305_rec_key, 1, 9) and regexp_like(substr(z303.z303_rec_key, 1, 9), '[0-9]{9}') and upper(trim(substr(z305.z305_rec_key, 13))) = 'H1' and z304_address_type = '2';

Orders Status Reports  Aleph catalog includes local field citing lecturer or librarian who requested purchase of an item  Tracks order details in items table (z30) of ADM library (HAI50)  Current order status is stored in table  Person who initiated order can view listing of all items and their current status

Orders Status Reports  Twice monthly, letters are sent via reporting on items whose order status has changed

Invoice payments  Invoices are recorded in ADM library via standard Aleph module, but there is still a need for a mechanism for requesting payment to dealers and accessing archival data  Using inhouse system, acquisitions staffer requests preparation of payment orders consolidating invoices

Invoice payments for dealers, depending on available budget  Invoices are scanned and stored for future reference as needed, along with details of the payment order.  Staffers may view details according to different parameters, such as all payments to a dealer, total payments in a fiscal year, etc.

Reference Services  Helpdesk staffers can type in ID number of patron requesting assistance and view pertinent data (name, department of study, expiration date of Library privileges, authorization to access online resources, etc.)  Online form enables input of details regarding consultation – duration, nature, location – which are stored

Reference Services in a table and used to generate summary data regarding the helpdesk consultations over a period of time  Online forms facilitate user registration for a variety of orientation sessions for both faculty and staff, given throughout the academic year, and personal consultations with reference staff.

Reference Services Additional interface allows students to confirm – via a session-specific password – their participation in an orientation. Data obtained can be used for statistics and for informing departments how many students have had mandatory Library introduction.

Desiderata - Things to learn and do … someday  APIs  Revise local applications for general use, upload to EL Commons  Documentation, via Library wiki  Organized function libraries  Use of templates in php (Smarty, Savant3)  Compare use of PL/SQL v. php with OCI8 extensions for retrieving and processing database records  SQL tuning

Thank you! Questions? Yosef Branse University of Haifa Library Haifa Israel Library website: