Papakura Integration Project (ePIP)

As recently published in the eLGAR newsletter, Papakura is all set to become the sixth partner of eLGAR Consortium.

Codenamed ePIP, The Papakura Integration Project was officially launched last week to integrate Papakura Library Services into the eLGAR Consortium.

The project will involve implementating eLGAR's Millennium solution for the Sir Edmund Hillary Library and integrating it into eLGAR from a Governance and Operational perspective .

New Manager for Rodney Libraries

Marion Read has been appointed to the position of Rodney Libraries Manager.

Marion has extensive experience as a library manager at Whangarei District Council, Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic. She has a special interest in web 2.0 technology.

Marion will be joining Rodney Libraries on 4 May.

Millennium Server Replacement Feedback

Thanks to all those who battled through last Saturday off-line.


Our team worked very hard to try to make the transition smooth, and the first library (Glenfield) came back on-line soon after 2pm on Saturday. The new server is now well bedded in with only a few minor issues to deal with. The feedback we've received has been positive so far, but in order to capture a snapshot of the user experience we are running an online survey at www.tinyurl.com/millsurvey .


It would be very helpful for us to gather this data while the experience of the pre-upgrade is still fresh in your minds. It will also help us to isolate any areas requiring further attention. The survey is limited to 100 responses so please make one of them yours.

1000th transaction served

Pay Online has crossed the 1000 transaction mark (eLGAR wide).

Millennium Server Replacement - 21st February

All the critical components for the new server array are now on-site, and work is beginning on the installation and configuration of the new hardware ready for the software installation and migration of data to the new server.


The migration is scheduled for the 21st February.


Millennium will be unavailable for the duration of the migration, so all libraries will have to use off-line circulation on Saturday 21st. SelfChecks will also not be working.

No other Millennium functions (OPAC, Cataloguing, Aquisitions, etc) will be available for that day.


The current server has been working continuously since Millennium go-live in 2005, so this is the first replacement, and the first shut-down of this magnitude since then. The server is connected to five different networks, connecting to 57 different sites and also serving about 150,000 web visitors and 1,500,000 pages per month.

We will be communicating with more specific information a little closer to the date.

Customer communication:

Ever had a customer want their notices emailed to more than one address?

• When a teenage customer wishes to receive their own email messages (the business rule states that a parent/guardian’s email address should be used for all under 18 customers).
• When a customer would like to receive email messages at work as well as at home.
• If a customer has more than one email address they access regularly.

this is easy to do! the Millennium record can store multiple addresses for each customer and send email notices to all of them, providing the format is correct. Here's how:

Enter the email addresses into one email (z) field, separated by a comma but with no spaces. If there is already an email address entered you just need to enter a comma immediately after the last letter and then type the next email address. You can do this by typing straight into the existing (z) field, or by using the Edit > Edit field option.

At present, additional email addresses can only be added to patron’s record in Millennium (the OPAC on-line form will not allow more than one email address)

Talk with your circulation trainer for more information.

New Hardware on its Way

Welcome back, hope everyone is rested and ready for 2009.

I know that those who were trying to keep service going with an under-performing Millennium system over the past couple of weeks are probably not rested!

Some further config changes were made to our servers last week which seem to have improved Millennium performance more than any of the numerous other changes made.

We are seeing improved performance numbers now. Last week's changes were a work-around while we await delivery of our new hardware to replace the current server.

I'm expecting this to take a few weeks, and will be letting you know the expected dates etc for the new hardware as soon as we have them to hand.