ALEPH and the network
The Library ALEPH server and the network - opportunity and frustration
August 06, 2006
Lake Batllava
Pam also went to Lake Batllava with Bedrije.
A beautiful spot.
A beautiful spot.
Progress report
Pam, Rebecca, and Brian have left, having accomplished a tremendous amount in just a few days. As Rebecca notes in her entry, she helped the cataloging department with Cutter tables and UDC, MARC21, and questions about ALEPH.
Pam has been working with the reference librarians, who are also responsible for reserve. They have sorted out the manual reserve procedures and policies, and are ordering reference books. They are putting together lists of reserve books to purchase. It is extraordinary how little information there is on print reserve procedures. All current articles and books about reserve discuss electronic reserve, not reserves in print.
Brian has been working with the IT group. He brought up a web server using IIS on the MS WIN2003 server, installed Deep Freeze – a workstation security and imaging application from Faronics which we purchased in the US (also used in the GSLIS Tech Lab), installed the Linux operating system on a small server, and has done some training in command line Linux to support the ALEPH configuration files.
I have been meeting with Besim Kokollari and Faszli Gajraku to decide how to spend the funds from the US State Department and the United States Office Pristina. Besim is the Head of the University of Pristina University Library Center, and Faszli is the Head of Collection Development. Besim is getting a quote and license from eIFL.net for a suite of online databases that will be made available to roughly 15 higher education institutions throughout Kosovo. eIFL.net is an independent foundation whose purpose is to help make databases available to library users in transition and developing countries. It was initially funded by the Open Society Initiative, part of the Soros Foundation. Besim and Faszli are sorting out the collection development budget, and how to order the books quickly to meet the October roll out date.
We are addressing library network bandwidth issues, which, if not solved, will make the 25 recently purchased public workstations an exercise in frustration. The network is too slow. We are also outlining a web site for the University Library Center.
We have made good progress. I am remaining in Pristina for a few days, and will have more to report. It is good to see the participants in the Kosovo Librarian grant again: Besim, Urim Sallauka, Ramush Zeka, Bedrije Mekolli, and Bukurije Haliti. Today, thanks to Urim and Besim I spent a wonderful afternoon at Lake Batllava, roughly 25 km north of Pristina. Kosovo is a stunningly beautiful country. I enclose two photos: one of Lake Batllava – the beauty of Kosovo, and the other of the ALEPH server and the library network rack – opportunity and frustration.
August 03, 2006
Busy and Productive Days
We haven't blogged much because we have been so busy! I'll let the others write about their areas, but I can say that we have had some successes in Cataloging. We have worked together to create a modified version of the LC cutter tables for the Albanian language. We created "linker" fields in aleph. We solved some problems, including how to display issues and volumes in the correct order. We've done lot of talking and looking at examples of various MARC fields and how they are used. I have really enjoyed working with Bukurije Haliti, Gjon Berisha, Hazbije Qerigi, and Lavdije Rrahmani! And I can now say "I'm tired" in Albanian -- jam lodh!
BKUK - National and University Library of Kosovo
The inside of the building is just as complex as the outside. It's taken a couple of days to figure out which hallway leads where.
July 31, 2006
Airport road 3
Satellite dishes everywhere.
Airport road 2
Lots of newly built buildings right next to half-rebuilt ones.
Some scenery along the road into Pristina from the airport
Some scenery along the road into Pristina from the airport
Originally uploaded by Simmons College GSLIS.
Arrived In Kosova
Operating on one hour of sleep in the past 30, so please forgive the brevity. The four of us arrived safely in Pristina at about 4 pm local time. We got into our hotel and then had a meeting over dinner with Larry Corwin from the US Office Pristina (http://pristina.usmission.gov/).
I'll try to post a couple of pictures taken on the way into town from the airport.
Oh, and just before I posted this, the power went out for about a minute--apparently a regular occurrence! Good thing I was using the laptop battery.
July 27, 2006
Background - Kosovo Librarian grant
Here is some background on the Kosovo project. Simmons GSLIS and the Institute for Training and Development (ITD) jointly conducted a 17-week training and academic program for nine Kosovars employed at the National and University Library of Kosovo. The dates of the program were August 21 to December 17, 2005. This program and the Kosovar participants’ expenses were paid for by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
The goal of the project was to familiarize the Kosovar participants to the policies and procedures of contemporary librarianship so that they may serve effectively as librarians in a new University Library Center at the University of Pristina in Kosovo. The participants will support the university curriculum and needed expertise in all aspects of university librarianship.
The major components of the stateside program were: academic classes at Simmons GSLIS in Boston and South Hadley, university library internships, visits to a variety of libraries and other relevant organizations, lectures and workshops at ITD, action planning, homestays with American families, and technical and cultural trips to Boston, New York City, and Washington DC. Each participant took courses in GSLIS.
The participants returned to Kosovo in December 2005. We are now following up on the training. My colleagues are all front-line, practicing librarians, expert in their fields, and I am looking forward to working with them.
Brian Kysela, Mount Holyoke College
bkysela@mtholyoke.edu
Information technology, Linux, Apache, web development, WIN2003
Rebecca Henning, Amherst College
rrhenning@amherst.edu
Cataloging, ALEPH systems training, technical services workflow
Pam Skinner, Smith College
pskinner@email.smith.edu
Reference, electronic resources, reserves
Our time in Kosovo will be comparatively short, especially compared to what needs to be done. Brian, Rebecca, and Pam will be in Kosovo from Monday through Saturday, July 31 – August 5. I will remain until August 8. Our goals are to work with the participants on specific services in the library. The rollout date for the University of Pristina Library Center is October 2006. Even with such a short time frame, we are optimistic and look forward to success. We especially look forward to meeting with the Kosovar librarians again.
Terry Plum