TUG Statistics and Reports Group Meeting

Minutes

March 9, 2004 – 9:30-11:30 a.m. – WLU Library Bibliographic Instruction Room

Present: Bill Halahan , Ron Mackinnon, Joanne Oud, Gail Sperling, Linda Teather

Minutes of February 12, 2004

The minutes of February 12, 2004 were approved. They will be added to the TUG Statistics and Reports (TSR) area on the TUG staff web.

Business arising

Guidelines and procedures for request form and database

Linda and Ron completed the lists of reports authorizers for UW and UG.

Functional area	WLU	UW	UG
Acquisitions	Linda Cracknell	Debbie Tytko	Linda DaMaren
Cataloguing	Brooke Skelton	Betty Graf	Linda Day
Circulation	Vera Fesnak	Alex McCulloch	Donna Sartori
Collections	Joanne Oud	Baiba Turner	Scott Gillies

The sustainability issue related to the request form and searchable database created by George Loney is part of a broader sustainability discussion ongoing at UG. Ron will keep TSR informed.

Reports listserv (tugreports-l)

The membership and implementation of the reports listserv were discussed. The group agreed that everyone on the tugmanagers-l list and all staff who attended Cognos training sessions will be initially subscribed to the list. Only the list owners can post to the list and postings will be limited to announcements of the availability of new or revised reports or PowerPlay cubes and messages from the Cognos server administrators. The introductory message will be revised to reflect this enlarged membership and list purpose. The listserv will be implemented at the same time as the reports request form and database.
Audience for PowerPlay training

Joanne responded to Scott’s request from the Training Team for guidance on the appropriate target audience and levels of training for PowerPlay and suggested a joint meeting in mid or late March. We will also want to discuss the timing of part 2 of ThoughtCorp’s training and arrange for this with ThoughtCorp.
Request form/database

George has completed most of the requested changes to the request form and database. The pop-up field definitions will be added after the server is upgraded in late March/early April. The group agreed to wait to implement the request form and database until the changes are completed.

Bill reported that he has almost completed updating his reports documentation.
Budget for 2004/05
Joanne completed TSR’s draft budget for 2004/05, taking into account the expense estimate Bill prepared for the 2004 Cognos Technical Forum and adding the cost of CubeRunner software. Gail will download the trial software after Acquisitions fiscal period close is completed and evaluate its potential for TUG.

Report on the meeting with the Steering Committee

Joanne reported on her meeting with the Steering Committee on February 25 th. The draft budget was approved and the Steering Committee was pleased with TSR’s work. They suggested that TSR prepare a two-year PR report for TUG staff. The TSR Chair will meet with the Steering Committee again in October.
Production server update

Gail outlined the plan for the upgrade she, Bill and Wolf will be undertaking on the production server this week to install O/S patches required to address security vulnerabilities. The upgrade is expected to take at least 3-4 days. Before the upgrade begins, production data will be copied to the test server and staff will be directed to use the test server during the upgrade. Wolf will upgrade the O/S, then Gail and Bill will have to completely reinstall the Cognos software and copy the data back from the test server.

Gail and Bill will evaluate the advantages and risks of taking advantage of this downtime to also upgrade the Cognos software to the MR2 version. Since this version fixes some web bugs, TSR members agreed that Gail and Bill should upgrade the Cognos software unless they find a compelling reason not to proceeed.
Ontario Cognos BI Group event

TSR approved Gail’s and Bill’s attendance at the Ontario Cognos BI Group special event in Toronto on April 21, 2004 .
Gail’s EndUser presentation demo

Gail gave TSR members a preview of her presentation, “Using Cognos PowerPlay to Create Statistical Reports”, in preparation for the 2004 EndUser conference and asked for comments and suggestions for changes. She will make some minor revisions to her PowerPoint slides before the deadline for submitting the session handout to Endeavor.

TSR members agreed the presentation would make an excellent basis for the introductory PowerPlay training for staff.
Next Meeting

Joanne will try to arrange a joint meeting with the Training Team.