Catalog Status: January 5, 2004 update
Response time using the online catalog has improved. This change for the better is a result of a series of changes we've made over the fall term. The change now also may be, at least partially, the result of decreased use of the catalog system at the end of the semester.
Library systems staff will continue to monitor catalog response time and we invite you to let us know of any response time problems you experience. Please send mail to the Web2 Task Group.
The other options we have pointed to in the past weeks remain available:
1) You may search the catalog using the older version of the web catalog software: http://library.unc.edu/htbin/webcat.
2) You may search using the telnet version of the catalog: telnet://library.unc.edu.
Neither of these two search interfaces is experiencing the same response time problems. Please be aware, however, that not all of the features of the current version are available in these older versions.
On December 2, we implemented changes to the display code as suggested by the software vendor which have helped to decrease the amount of time it takes to display initial search results. On December 8, our new server came online. Each of these changes, as well as others we have made in the last month, has produced incremental improvement in response time. We remain hopeful that taken together they can produce acceptable results for users of the library's catalog.
We have worked diligently with the library software vendor to resolve these problems:
In the long term, the campus libraries have selected new library software to replace the system we currently use. The UNC-Chapel Hill libraries have contracted with Innovative Interfaces for the purchase of a new Integrated Library System (ILS). The planned implementation date is January 2005. The new system is used by a significant number of other research universities such as Georgetown University, the Ohio State University, the University of Arizona, the University of California - San Diego, the University of Colorado, the University of Missouri, and the University of Washington.
The next scheduled catalog update will be posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004.
