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TUG Statistics and Reports Group Meeting

Minutes 

October 4, 2005 – 1:30-3:30 p.m. – Wilfrid Laurier University

Present: Alan Gale, Bill Halahan, Joanne Oud, Gail Sperling, Linda Teather

1. Committee Membership Changes
   A welcome to Alan Gale, TSR’s new member from Guelph. Thank you and good-bye to Joanne Oud, who will be replaced by Vera Fesnak as Laurier’s member after this meeting. Linda will send an announcement about membership changes to the Steering Committee, then to the TUG staff list.
   
   
2. Overview of TSR terms of reference and organizational structure
   Review of committee mandate and workings for our new committee member. An overview can be found on the TUG staff web site at http://staff.tug-libraries.ca/trellis_reports/terms.html.
   
   
3. 1. Approval of minutes of May 4, 2005 meeting
      Minutes were approved with corrections previously made. They will be added to the TUG Statistics
      and Reports (TSR) area on the TUG staff web.
      
      
   2. Business arising
      • 2004/05 expenditures and 2005/06 budget: We had a last minute emergency server purchase at the end of the 2004/05 fiscal year. The server was paid for by Waterloo in 2004/05 but the cost share will be done in 2005/06. Linda will send a revised 2005/06 budget to the Steering Committee noting this issue, and will start on our 2005/06 expenditure statement. So far, expenditures include the Cognos Technical Forum in Orlando and one user day in Toronto.
      • UW Statistics infrastructure & ARL e-metrics meeting: this meeting took place June 8 at UW.
      • Implementation of request form and database: we thought this was ready to go but have run into unexpected problems with the request failing. It will be a few months before staff is available to look into the problem. In the meantime, we will create an interim procedure for requesting reports. Gail will work on creating a Word template of the form that people can fill out ande-mail to the TSR group. We will remove the form from the web page until it is working and replace it with a link to the Word form. Linda will send an announcement to the TUG reports list when this is ready.
      • Production server replacement plan: the new production server is now up and running well with version 7.3 MR 1. There is however a problem with support of the version of Oracle that we are running for TRELLIS, which means that some things don’t work (for example, drill through with LC class view). The old version is still installed on our old server (now the test server), and could be enabled if needed. The Oracle problem will exist until the next TRELLIS upgrade, which will be next spring at the earliest. A new software release, 7.3 MR 2, is available but there is nothing critical so we will wait to install it.
      • New audit reports/cube for Cognos server use: These are useful reports, but concerns were raised about the inclusion of personal information. It is possible to remove names from the cube for public view, but have them available for drill through capability only for system administrators. Agreement that this would be a good solution; Gail and Bill will work on implementing it.
      • Cuberunner testimonial: Linda and Gail rewrote this and gave it back to Cuberunner, but haven’t heard back from them yet about the possibility of a discount.
      • Library Journal data mining article: this article was published in August. Linda and Gail were both quoted.
      • ERM data: UG use stats have stopped being written to the UW server; there is still no information for Laurier. Joanne and Bill will follow up at Laurier and Guelph.
        
        
4. Testing Procedures for New Cognos Releases
   A major bug was discovered at the last minute in the recent upgrade. Agreement that it would be useful to have more formalized, rigorous testing in future. A test group will be identified—likely TSR and the Training Team, plus select frequent users. We will ask for some volunteers. Gail, Bill and the test group will work on identifying test procedures and implement them before the next upgrade.
   
   
5. WLU person to add/update accounts
   Laurier does not currently have anyone who can add/update user accounts but could have. The administrator will need the Cognos Access Manager-Administration module installed. Joanne/Vera will follow up.
   
   
6. Cognos Technical Forum
   Bill attended the Cognos Tech Forum in Orlando this summer as well as a September User Day in Toronto and found both useful. Topics and sessions included:
   • features, enhancements, and architecture of the upcoming release
   • migration/conversion issues with ReportNet
   • maintaining an environment for web reports (backup, documentation, enhancing performance)
   Bill gave a summary of what he learned, distributed notes from the sessions he attended, and will follow up with more detailed discussions with Gail.
   
   
7. Chair and Recorder
   Linda volunteered to remain as chair for 2005/06 given the membership changes. Recorder duties will be discussed at the next meeting.
   
   
8. Next meeting
   Linda will send out possible times for a meeting in early November. Location: Guelph.