[Evergreen-general] Novelist and record harvesting - API vs. holdings uploads

Wed Jun 7 13:46:46 EDT 2023

As I was writing my contact, it occurred to me that I think the changes
that were made were for the real time status update feature of OTS. I think
we still send an extract as well.

On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 1:34 PM Jessica Woolford <jwoolford at biblio.org>
wrote:

> Hi Dan,
>
> Last year, we needed to disable OTS for all libraries using it temporarily
> because it was causing major issues with availability. However, at the
> beginning of the year, we were able to do some testing with EBSCO and they
> rolled out some changes to our implementation that seemed to resolve the
> issue. I had assumed this meant they would be able to make those changes
> for other Evergreen sites. I can check in with the individual we worked
> with there and see if those changes are widely available, and if the
> documentation can be updated if so.
>
> Thanks,
> Jessica
>
> On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 10:06 AM Kathy Lussier via Evergreen-general <
> evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi!
>>
>> I don't have answers to Dan's questions, but to add on to what Lindsay
>> was saying, from the perspective of making Evergreen appealing to new
>> libraries considering a system switch, I think it would be a worthwhile
>> investment for the community to do whatever work is needed to remove notes
>> like these from vendor web sites. There are so many benefits to using
>> Evergreen, but this note could stop a library from even investigating
>> Evergreen as an ILS.
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Kathy
>> --
>> Kathy Lussier
>> https://kmlussier.com
>> 26 days away from having an official reason to weigh in on Evergreen
>> issues
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 8:51 AM Lindsay Stratton via Evergreen-general <
>> evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I think we should be looking very seriously at Evergreen's APIs and
>>> improving the documentation, functionality, performance, etc. More vendors
>>> and services are moving to APIs, not just for holdings, but user and
>>> transaction data as well. Speaking personally, I run holdings uploads for
>>> Novelist and Syndetics (which also now offers API uploads but not for
>>> Evergreen) and would love to shift them over to an API method. We also use
>>> a discovery layer where user data conections needs some improvement. And we
>>> have libraries interested in analytics platforms that would also benefit
>>> hugely from API connections.
>>>
>>> Lindsay
>>>
>>> *Lindsay Stratton*
>>> *Systems Librarian*
>>> Westchester Library System
>>> 570 Taxter Rd., 4th Floor
>>> Elmsford, NY 10523
>>> lstratton at wlsmail.org
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jun 6, 2023 at 6:15 PM Dan Moore via Evergreen-general <
>>> evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Heyo all,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Our collections group is looking to tweak our Novelist implementation
>>>> to make use of On The Shelf functionality, info here:
>>>> https://connect.ebsco.com/s/article/Setting-up-On-The-Shelf?language=en_US
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> There’s a curious (if not perhaps a little rude) note at the bottom of
>>>> the page that states: “There is an Evergreen API that supports automatic
>>>> harvesting of your collection. However, we were unable to obtain a complete
>>>> harvest for any customers during the testing of this functionality, as
>>>> Evergreen’s Web Services API was not built for such a wide-scale
>>>> application. We discourage Evergreen customers from utilizing this feature
>>>> for collection harvesting.”
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Additionally, on their KB page for the feature (
>>>> https://eis1.my.site.com/ebsco/s/article/ILS-Export-for-NoveList-Products-and-Features?language=en_US),
>>>> we can see some handy older screenshots of what I presume to be the old
>>>> non-browser client. Combining that with the statement above about “during
>>>> the testing of this functionality,” I’m presuming this was tested with
>>>> EBSCO/Novelist at some point but that there hasn’t been an update to it
>>>> since the browser client rolled out.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> There’s a slew of questions about this in my mind… the first being if
>>>> what’s written here is accurate about the Evergreen API method of
>>>> harvesting collection information not being robust enough (which generates
>>>> an immediate follow up – what would make it robust enough?). But I’m also
>>>> curious about the collective wisdom of the community about these
>>>> strategies. We’re moving toward a Lean-based purchasing model wherein
>>>> selectors will have a daily cap of titles to order so as not to create a
>>>> wave for shipping/receiving folks to drudge through later. Real-time
>>>> availability of holdings information would be a huge boon in supporting
>>>> both Lean purchasing strategies AND maximizing Novelists’ effectiveness for
>>>> reader’s advisory. However, if uploading holdings records is just the best
>>>> way of doing it due to the performance of the API as-is or the time/money
>>>> needed to extend it, then we’ll go that route instead – whatever delivers
>>>> the best, most accurate information to patrons.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thoughts?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dan Moore
>>>>
>>>> Integrated Library System Administrator
>>>>
>>>> King County Library System
>>>>
>>>> Service Center, Issaquah
>>>>
>>>> (425) 369-3413
>>>>
>>>> dtmoore at kcls.org
>>>>
>>>> <https://kcls.org/>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>> exempted.
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>
>
> --
> Jessica Woolford
> Evergreen Systems Manager
> Bibliomation, Inc.
> 24 Wooster Ave.
> Waterbury, CT 06708
> 203-577-4070 ext. 105
>

-- 
Jessica Woolford
Evergreen Systems Manager
Bibliomation, Inc.
24 Wooster Ave.
Waterbury, CT 06708
203-577-4070 ext. 105
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