Library software and other stuff

Well it looks like winter is over!  It was 100 degrees a few days ago, 97 degrees F today, so it is has been very HOT.  It is a dry heat so it doesn't feel as hot as it actually is, and gets coolish at night, at least for now.  The good new is that from the weather forecast, it looks like a few slightly cooler days are on the horizon.  It is sunny just about every day, and cloudless, or just a very few wispy clouds at most. Well there is sometimes some haze, like yesterday morning--the Harmattan does stir up some dust at this time of year.  Some of us would actually welcome it to cool the temperature down somewhat. I am definitely wearing my sun hat outside today though, even if I do spend most of my time indoors.

Morning haze

Today was a major victory in trying to figure out how to tweak the software.  I installed the new library software last week without much fanfare, but still have to figure out how to get 61 MB of updates downloaded.  I've tried several times to download the data, but there just isn't enough bandwidth during office hours.  I would get almost half the file downloaded and then be dropped. Now I've declined the download prompts so many times I am no longer being asked if I want the updated material when I boot up the system, so I am going to have to contact the software company and see if I can download the older updates in smaller chunks.



Probably impossible to see but the journal contents are under the "Librarian Comments" bottom right as seen from the Public Access Catalog.

And there have been some cataloging challenges. Journals
were giving me problems as the system didn't allow any descriptive analytics of the articles they contained.  I'm now treating each volume as as separate entity, adding subject headings, along with a copy of the journal's index in the notes field of each item. Although the information won't be completely searchable, at least the assigned subjects will pull up the journal record with the articles listed, which will be a step in the right direction.  The public access catalog is not ready for use yet either, and, in the meantime, I am continually testing that module to see what it will eventually look like.

The above is also a screenshot of the Public Access Catalog. I couldn't

enlarge the screenshot without going over the space allowed (so you could see

it easily) but the tiny print reads:

Dónbeenì Páaníi fĩnle vũahṹ

so the special diacritical marks are working correctly here which is good news as this was not possible before with the previous version of the software.

Although I am still learning the software myself, I trained two people on check-in and check-out today using the new scanner! The Burkinabe here are really impressed with this new piece of equipment. And the they were amazed to see the West African diacritical marks on the few items I have added to the library's collection.  I am just thankful that they seem to be working!

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One of the women that lives with me just received a Christmas package from home shipped Priority Mail on November 29, 2012. It arrived almost two months later. You can see why expats here always ask if someone coming from the US has any extra room in their luggage to bring something...  You might recall the earlier story of me carrying the spare car parts for Stuart a year ago...

Today we also said good-bye to two of four kittens residing in a box outside on the front porch.  When I arrived, a local cat had given birth to a litter of four just days earlier. The mother cat disappeared, and my apartment-mates feared the worst, so they took care of the brood until suitable foster parents could be found. I understand that "Houdini", the white and gray kitten in the foreground, will be staying with us.

BTW, please feel to email me any time!  I use this blog so that I don't have to repeat the same information to everyone ad nauseum, but certainly welcome individual emails.  You can use my regular address:   pmr2 at hotmail.com, as I can access it just about anywhere.