[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Winnebago Spectrum to Open-ILS - How?

[Kevin Landers]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:25:44 -0400, Edward Corrado <corrado at tcnj.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Kevin Landers said the following on 09/24/2007 4:31 PM:
>> On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:35:20 -0400, "Dan Scott" <denials at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>>> On 24/09/2007, Kevin Landers <support at bezaleel.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>
>>>>  I have several schools in South Carolina that are currently utilizing
>>>> Winnebago Spectrum for their library administration system. After
>>>>
>>> performing
>>>
>>>> the latest 5.X update, I was informed that there would be no more
>>>>
>>> updates to
>>>
>>>> Spectrum. As an option, I would like to offer them the opportunity to
>>>>
>>> move
>>>
>>>> toward Open-ILS.
>>>>
>>>>  Has anyone ever attempted such a migration? Does anyone have any
>>>>
>>> advice,
>>>
>>>> direction, etc?
>>>>
>>>>  I am planning to grab a copy of the latest data and install of
> Spectrum
>>>>
>>> and
>>>
>>>> Open-ILS and attempt the migration. I just have no clue where to
> really
>>>> begin.
>>>>
>>>>  Thanks in advance,
>>>>  Kevin L.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Hi Kevin:
>>>
>>> Does Winnebago Spectrum support the export of MARC bibliographic
>>> records, holdings, and patron data in some format? That would be a
>>> very good place to begin. From there, you could start working towards
>>> importing that data into Evergreen (aka Open-ILS).
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dan Scott
>>> Laurentian University
>>>
>>
>> Dan,
>>
>> I am not sure what export capabilities Spectrum supports. I will try to
> do a bit of research today via the web.
>>
>> I am currently grabbing a database dumb from one of our schools and will
> be grabbing Spectrum install files tonight as well. That will probably
> take a while.
>>
>> I will also attempt to contact Winnebago tomorrow for information
> related to exporting.
>>
>> Also, sorry for the multiple postings. My connection is having issues
> with sending out mail at the moment. My apologies.
>>
>> Thanks again,
>> Kevin L.
>>
>>
> Hi Kevin,
> 
> As Dan said, the big trick would be getting the data out in an easy
> manner. Patron data is often the hardest, and I know libraries that have
> migrated to other (non-OSS) ILS's that just decide it isn't worth it and
> start with a clean patron file, so that might be an option.
> 
> Incidentally, I didn't here anything about Winnebago Spectrum not being
> updated anymore. Was there an official announcement about this? A quick
> internet search didn't find anything. Are they pushing you towards
> Athena, something else, or are they giving up on marketting an ILS
> altogether?
> 
> Edward
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Edward M. Corrado
> http://www.tcnj.edu/~corrado/
> Systems Librarian
> The College of New Jersey
> 403E TCNJ Library
> PO Box 7718 Ewing, NJ 08628-0718
> Tel: 609.771.3337  Fax: 609.637.5177
> Email: corrado at tcnj.edu

Hello Edward,

A few months ago we had to put in new hardware for a middle school library. They were running version 5.2 of Spectrum. I called technical support for access to the latest files, etc. At that time I was informed that their 5.3 release would be their last. They said that they would be encouraging all their customers to go to Athena. If you visit the download section of their support pages, you will see that the download for 5.3 was released on October 2003. So between the technicians statements and the date of their last release, I assume that the move is now toward Athena.

I figured that if our librarians would eventually have to learn something new, why not give something in the OSS space a try.

As for the export of data, I did get it out in a MARC 21 format. The patron data all came out as a CSV file. The patron file does appear to be a bit hideous, but I will give it a shot once I get Evergreen up and running. Currently against a wall with ejabberd. 

One question though, will all holds and patron holdings have to be entered manually? Forgive me if I do not know the exact language. If Student A has Book X, will we need to go in and input that manually at first? I haven't taken a real good look at my CSV patron data, perhaps it is in there.

Sorry for my ramblings. :)

Kevin L.