the failure of software: aleph500 cataloging program
DESCRIPTION
The FAILURE of software: Aleph500 cataloging program. Outline. The importance of software Software failure Library software Brooklyn College software specific functions Aleph500 Aleph500 software failure. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOFTWARE TO THE BROOKLYN COLLEGE LIBRARY. Volume of books - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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The The FAILUREFAILURE of software: of software: Aleph500 cataloging programAleph500 cataloging program
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OutlineOutline
The importance of softwareSoftware failureLibrary softwareBrooklyn College software
specific functionsAleph500Aleph500 software failure
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THE IMPORTANCETHE IMPORTANCE OF OF SOFTWARE TO THE SOFTWARE TO THE
BROOKLYN COLLEGE BROOKLYN COLLEGE LIBRARYLIBRARY
• Volume of books• Retrieval time• Unavoidable• Automation
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SOFTWARE FAILURESOFTWARE FAILURE
Introduction Bugs Organization specific Vs. User
specific software failure Common reasons for software failure Some historical cases of software
failure Relation to our presentation
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IntroductionIntroduction
Hundreds of thousands of software projects fail everyday
Software companies, not eager to share disaster stories
Reducing the number of software failures is one of the most challenging problems of software production.
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BugsBugs
Murphy’s Law Cost to U.S. economy “Death March mentality” Unachievable deadlines Too few programmers All-nighter credo of college-age jockeys Shrinking budgets Automotive aerospace industry study
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specific versus User specific versus User specific software failurespecific software failure
What an organization needs might not be what a user needs
What a section of an organization might need might not be what the organization as whole might need
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Common reasons for Common reasons for software failuresoftware failure
Software aging Data corruptionNumerical error accumulationExhaustion of system resourcesProgrammer does not
understand the project requirements
Microsoft o/s XP
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Some historical cases of Some historical cases of software failuresoftware failure
Knight Trading Group Inc FFASTFILL GET FURNITURELAND African Renaissance USMC Osprey crash Air-Traffic “glitch” INTIUT’s tax software Ebay
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Historical cases of software Historical cases of software failure cont’dfailure cont’d
London Stock exchange (Taurus)- book reviews
London Ambulance Service dispatch project -book reviews
Integrated reservation system -book reviews The Performing Rights Society -book reviews NASAs’ 1999 mission to launch craft into
orbit of mars, $125 million YEAR 2K SATURDAY’S JAPANESE AIR TRAFFIC
SUSPENDED 30 MINUTES SOFTWARE FAILURE TV GET PAPER
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Relation to our presentationRelation to our presentation
Software failure is a fact of life Automation exists due to software As a result software failure is imminent The library employs automation Therefore software failure should not be
a surprise Rather, it should be a REALITY
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LIBRARY SOFTWARELIBRARY SOFTWARE
The good old days 3”x5” card catalogs- no more What would we do without automation? No more Automation can help locate books,
journals etc, at light speeds. The electron travels fast.
Library staff can efficiently manage their collections and better point students in the right direction
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The history of cataloging at The history of cataloging at Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College
Card catalog used until 19801980 Microfiche1988 first online system / NOTICE from
Northwest universityTechnical service end of the programCUNY + student end of the cataloging toolAleph500 January 2002
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BROOKLYN COLLEGE BROOKLYN COLLEGE SOFTWARE SPECIFIC SOFTWARE SPECIFIC
FUNCTIONSFUNCTIONS Cataloging Circulation Etc.
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Library structure and needsLibrary structure and needs
Brooklyn college library structure
Technical services functionTechnical services old softwareTechnical services New
software
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Brooklyn college library Brooklyn college library structurestructure
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Technical services functionTechnical services function
Cataloging, Cataloging, and more cataloging
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Technical services old Technical services old softwaresoftware
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Technical services New Technical services New softwaresoftware
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Technical services function Technical services function and structureand structure
Cataloging R usUser, PC, dot-matrix printer,
Aleph500, Operating system Let’s get going
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Technical services pictureTechnical services picture
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Technical services New Technical services New softwaresoftware
Some companies that offer automated library software
Aleph500
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Some companies that offer Some companies that offer automated library softwareautomated library software
Checkpoint MARC cataloging software Athena version 7.1 Winnebago Spectrum 4.0 All above are SydneyPLUS Horizon cataloging software Follet software ITS International Voyager MANDARIN M3 Version 1.5
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Some more companiesSome more companies
Via Surpass ILLiad Precision One “Impact”/ONLINE HomeMade software D – Wisconsin
based school librarian Nels Akre MARCit inexpensive tool $50.00 for
cataloging websites
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ALEPH500ALEPH500
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ALEPH500 IntroductionALEPH500 Introduction
Historical background Self advertisement Partnerships Organizations that chose Aleph500 Organization specific functionality Brooklyn College specific functionality
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Historical backgroundHistorical background
1980: Created 1991: UNIX migration , 1st library
software 1996: Outside U.S. presence 1998: Notre Dame Library, Michiana
Academic Library Consortium Chicago, Ex Libris Summer 2000 Boston office
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Self advertisementSelf advertisement
Manages all aspects of the library, for staff and patrons (cataloging?)
Flexible Open Scalable Expandable Trustworthy Multilingual Client/Server Cataloging with extensive control Customer support Internet Live sessions
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PartnershipsPartnerships
SF-Systems : library bindingSFX provides reference linking
services among electronic vendors even if they are from different vendors
Sweet Blackwell : serial invoicing
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Organizations that chose Organizations that chose Aleph500Aleph500
London University of East Anglia Summer 2002
PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of India)
DELCAT SUNY CUNY University of London Universidad Nacional de Columbia (UNAL) Brandeis University, MA The Universidad Russian state university
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Some more organizationsSome more organizations
Biblioteca Nacional de chile (BN) Mcgill University Notre Dame University Sorbonne Nouvelle Univesity (Paris) University of East Anglia (London) Univesity of Iowa Brandon University Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany Center for Advanced European Studies
and Research (Bonn)
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And some more And some more organizationsorganizations
Harvard University MIT University of California UNILINC LTD. CA digial University of Delaware CO CONSORTIA
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Brooklyn College specific Brooklyn College specific functionalityfunctionality
Cataloging tool Automation makes it easy, or does it? Label dispensing
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A cataloging tool, what is it?A cataloging tool, what is it?
Automated system for creating and editing complex records in MARC format
Has to have a highly trained individual who knows cataloging practices in general and AACR2 specifically
It must take a significant amount of time to create each record
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Automation makes it easy, Automation makes it easy, or does it?or does it?
Aleph500 promises the ease of use of its system to create labels for our library resources, namely books
DOES IT?
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The ProblemThe Problem
Conversion of Aleph generated script in the form of a Microsoft Word document into two pocket labels and a spine label
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Problem backgroundProblem background
The following is a listing of steps necessary to complete the task
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We start by retrieving record We start by retrieving record by bardcodeby bardcode
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Enter barcodeEnter barcode
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Information is Information is displayed/double click labeldisplayed/double click label
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We get a Microsoft word We get a Microsoft word documentdocument
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Pocket labelPocket label
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Spine labelSpine label
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Combined labelCombined label
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Software Failure TimelineSoftware Failure Timeline Old system rendered not operational and
removed from Technical services office New system rendered operational and fully
implement able with Windows XP XP is installed on almost all machines in
Technical Services office Installation of new Aleph500 cataloging
software takes place Information that was migrated from old system
into new system is present and all seems well
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Users try to print complete labels, but can not.
Users seem to think that it is their inexperience in software that hinders their tries
Head of Technical services contacts Library director for assistance
Library directors assigns associate director to handle the problem.
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Associate director arrives at technical services to apply his knowledge of computers into solving the problem
Associate director discovers that Aleph can only print spine labels and not pocket labels.
Also, the spine labels that Aleph prints are out of order and rendered useless to Brooklyn College format.
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Associate director begins to read the Aleph manual, he soon discovers that through a maco, it might be possible to generate labels
Associate director assigns a software developer to work on the problem
Through the work of the developer it is discovered that printing of labels could not be done in Microsoft XP or Microsoft 2000 platforms, since necessary driver for controllling custom paper size is not supplied by printer manufacturer.
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From initial time of Aleph deployment to discovery that Macro will not work, 3 months have passed
Technical services has become a very slow moving machine.
Users can not use the old system They resort to manually typing cataloging
information
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The last time that regular type writers have been used to type cataloging information was 30 years ago
As a result, books are not returning to shelves quickly enough
Technical services is back to using “stone age” tools
Manpower is lost Technical services, a viable department is
shutdown
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Technical services is to the Brooklyn college library what air traffic control is to an airport
The work of 10 is done to achieve the work of 1
Frustration is in the air Tensions between the library executive branch
and technical services department are rising Resources of other departments are being
exploited and pointed towards fixing a problem that is a result of an outside agency
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In conclusionIn conclusion
The systems office of the library is now involved, a software developer and a technical engineer are working concurrently on the problem of software failure and hardware compatibility
Aleph500 software failure has caused havoc in the flow of information of the library, the core of the library, the controlling unit of the library
Software failure is inevitable and a fact of life, we have witnessed it in this case
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Technical services is an important branch of the company
It was practically shutdown Software was not able to meet needs of
technical services, the chief operator of the software
An alternate software solution needed to be developed
Alternate solution was developed but it was discovered that it could not work due to hardware compatiblity issues
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Even if the Aleph500 software problem could be solved through Aleph implementation, their software does not support fully the Windows XP enviornment.
The windows XP operating system is the only supported platform of the Brooklyn College Library
It looks like older is still better The Brooklyn college library is a technological
achievement, but its software is a technological nightmare
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SummarySummary Software problems are inevitable They exist in every organization, no matter
what the cost of the software Aleph500 was touted as a great cataloging
program It did not provide for the complete needs of
the Brooklyn College Technical Office The office that is the lifeline of the library It was not completely hardware compatible as
it is self advertised and sold
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It did not provide for complete organization specific task management
It caused the effectual slow down of workIt was supposed to be a tool of automation
but it became a tool that is uselessCountless worker hours were lostResources of other departments were
wasted
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The functionality that it provides still does not work
You as a student might be feeling the effects of this failure the next time you approach a librarian and ask the following question
“Where can I find this book?”
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I hope that this presentation has made you understand
The causes for software failureThe reality of software failureAnd the effect of software failure on your
school