[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Data migration – Best practices

[Martha Driscoll]

Hi Don,
I have two pieces of advice:

1. Migrate early and often.

Prior to our migration I did several full data loads on our production 
hardware.  After each I would empty the database and do it again.  Each 
time I learned something new or found a better way to migrate the data. 
  I also got a sense for how long it was going to take to do the 
migration for real.

2. Use staging tables.

I created staging tables in Evergreen for copies, patrons, transactions, 
and holds.  These tables were created to hold data from our old system 
using the old system field names.  Staging tables allow you to look at 
the data, learn about it, and do some cleanup.  Staging tables also 
allow you to preserve and archive the original data.  For example if you 
decide to condense DVD, FAC-MED, and ARC-MED to dvd, but then discover 3 
weeks after migration that there was a flaw in that logic, you can 
identify the original records and update accordingly.  With the 
exception of the bib record load, all our migration scripts worked off 
of staging tables.

Updating data in Evergreen after migration is certainly possible, but 
doing practice loads will allow everyone to see how the data is going to 
look and confirm or rethink migration decisions before you go live.

Martha Driscoll
Systems Manager
North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers, Massachusetts
www.noblenet.org

On 3/8/2013 8:52 AM, Donald Butterworth wrote:
> Colleagues,
>
>
> We are approaching the point of migrating records from our Symphony
> system into Evergreen, and we are unsure what the best method is to
> accomplish this.
>
>
> Based on insights from the listserv and some serious cogitation, we have
> created hierarchies, parameters, and values that we hope will take
> advantage of Evergreen’s architecture. All along my expectation has been
> that we would export records from Symphony, take the data found in the
> 999 tag and massage it until it matches the values of our new Evergreen
> structures, and then do an import. However, recently it has been
> suggested that a better method would be to take the structures and
> values we currently have in Symphony and duplicate them (as much as
> possible) in Evergreen. Then once, the data is in Evergreen, change the
> values into what we really want them to be.
>
>
> I have to say that method number two make me very nervous because I
> remember that making global changes in our former “Horizon” system was
> virtually impossible. Here are some of the questions we are confronting:
>
> ·* What is the best way to simply re-label an Org Unit? For example
> changing the value ATSFLA to ATS-DCL?
>
> ·* What about circulation modifiers? What is the best approach to
> changing the values DVD to dvd, FAC-MED to dvd, and ARC-MED to dvd?
>
> ·* In Symphony we currently have two “Libraries” one for the main campus
> and one for a branch. But in Evergreen we want to take advantage of the
> “sub-library” option for our Archives and two other satellite
> collections. The Symphony “match points” that can be used to identify
> these sub-libraries are called “Home Location” and “Current Location”.
> What would be the best way to approach this problem, short of a light
> gun and a laptop?
>
> ·       * Is it true that all bibliographic records must have attached
> item/copy records in order for the bib record to appear in the public
> PAC? We have several thousand “analytic” records that have no attached
> item/copy records.
>
>   Any insights will be greatly appreciated!
>
>
> Don
>
> --
> Don Butterworth
> Faculty Associate / Librarian III
> B.L. Fisher Library
> Asbury Theological Seminary
> don.butterworth at asburyseminary.edu
> <mailto:don.butterworth at asburyseminary.edu>
> (859) 858-2227