Barman - better make that six!

2. Barman - better make that six! Dave Little Euug Conference Scandinavia, 6th September 2001

3. Contents 1 Separation 2 FOILS 3 Unicorn Separation 4 Digitisation Project 5 The Future

4. Separation Section 1

5. Why? • No longer a Government Department • Need to be seen to be fair and equal treatment • Security implications

6. How? • RASP (Records Audit & Separation Process) • An auditable process to identify every record and report and decide whether it should be held by QinetiQ • Remove all those that should not be held • Update the Unicorn entries for that stock

7. IR’s Divorce • IR divided between the two organisations (50 + 90) • Porton Down and DRIC remained with R-DERA (now renamed “dstl Knowledge Services”) • Farnborough, Malvern et al moved to NewDERA (now renamed “QinetiQ IR”) • Unicorn system split and synchronisation process developed to enable both sides to “see” and “share” each others stock • Stock untouched (so far) by split

8. New Trading Relationship • As a result of the way the organisation was split, most sites contain staff working for both organisations. Therefore, QinetiQ IR has been tasked with providing library services to dstl staff at sites other than Porton Down and Glasgow. • This includes, not only traditional library services, e.g. book loans, provision of journal articles, but also access to the Internet, sharing of internal electronic services such as Jane’s, and sharing of access to e-journals on the Web. • All defined by a Service Level Agreement.

10. FOILS Section 2

11. A little bit of history • FOILS actually originated well before the PPP separation. It came about as a reaction to customer feedback on how they wished to see library services develop in the 21st Century. • “Customers” included stakeholders as well as actual “users”. • Overwhelming wish to see a move to much more information available electronically from user’s desktops (at no increase in cost, of course). • Some customers continued to have concern for traditional library services such as browsing.

12. Main Objectives • Set up a new store (IW) in a central location with high density storage and fast turnaround on requests • Weed bookstock to remove items not “used” in past 10 years • Move bookstock last “used” 5-10 years ago to the IW • Move older journals (over 3 years) to the IW • Move a copy of every report held to the IW • Amend Unicorn catalogue to reflect what we actually hold • Supply information electronically as first preference

13. But, what about? • Skips full of books • Large card catalogues (very large!) • Beautiful bound journals • Lots of extra copies of reports • Unicorn entries for stuff we ain’t got • All those “Individually” catalogued bibliographic entries

14. Staff Changes • Introduction of Information Specialists to work in tandem with our Knowledge Agents - going out and talking to customers, rather than sitting cataloguing • Minimisation of administrative processes at the counter • Ask A Librarian • Electronic Information Team • Reduced Management Cell

16. Unicorn Separation Section 3

17. Unicorn - The way forward • It was agreed that both QinetiQ IR and dstl KS would continue to use Sirsi Unicorn for the foreseeable future • Also agreed that we would share data where this was permissible and possible • We would continue to have joint representation on the USUG • We would minimise the devolution to non-compatible processes

18. 3 Systems X 2 • To create these objectives, we needed to double our systems: • QinetiQ IR would purchase three new servers & systems; • Restricted System - Thailand • xxx System - Cambodia • Test System - Vietnam • QinetiQ IR would also have to recruit its own Systems Administrators (and get them security-cleared)

19. Synchron City - CornSynch • Although the new systems would start with identical data to the current systems, each system would only be accessible by the appropriate staff. • Therefore, a need not only to synchronise between Restricted and xxx systems, but also between the QinetiQ Restricted system and the dstl Restricted system.

21. “Oh to be a cataloguer” • As part of the synchronisation process, there was a need to define the sharing characteristics of a record - the Cat 1 field; • CORNET, CORN-DRAFT, CORN-RELSD, S-CORNET, CORN-COPY, SEC-DRAFT, RELEASED, S-RELEASED, TRANSFERED, S-TRANSFRD, SEC-COPY, S-SEC-COPY, X-CORNREL, X-CORN-CPY, X-RELEASED & X-SEC-COPY • 16 in total

22. “Sorry, I can’t see what you put in.” • As Cornsynch was not expected to be run every day, this meant that certain data might be out of date, e.g. loan details. Therefore, the need for “Ask-IC” as a location. • As QinetiQ IR staff and dstl KS staff are not allowed to directly access each others systems. They are unable to see what a customer from the other organisation has entered. • As QinetiQ and dstl networks are not allowed in the same room - WebCat loses a tail and crosses its legs.

23. Then there was the data that shouldn’t exist….

25. Digitisation Section 4

26. Meanwhile back at the ranch... • As part of the FOILS project, it was decided that where possible we would deliver reports to our customers electronically. • This meant embarking on a project to proactively digitise over half a million reports, whilst also continuing to reactively deliver to the customer upon request. • Service aiming to deliver urgent requests within 2 hours.

27. tiffs, pdfs, gifs and all that stuff • We had security implications • We had network delivery implications • We had resourcing implications • So we chose a company that didn’t look phased out by our briefings (and came up with radical solutions) and told them to come back with a practicable solution. • We also wanted to see the solution working before we handed over the dosh.

28. You put it in here and click the button • The solution comprised a surprisingly small, but very fast scanner attached to a PC with some clever software attached • Barcodes used to separate reports during processing, to provide the Unicorn identifier and to identify pages containing abstracts and pages with tables of contents • The data is then taken to a Cornet PC for uploading into Unicorn

29. Unicorn entries • Every report title would have a barcode entered onto the Unicorn system • Where no entry pre-exists, a very basic record is entered • Scan data fields provide; barcode, tiff image of report, pdf of abstract & TOC, scan date, scanner, number of pages, details of colour or B&W and the size of the image file • When all report stock has been barcoded, the items on Unicorn which are not barcoded and not out on loan, will be presumed not to exist and will be removed from the system

30. Don’t forget the guillotine

32. The Future Section 5

33. Knowledge Store • Knowledge Management initiative • To be managed by IR • Brings together several different sources of corporate data, including Unicorn • Opportunity for QinetiQ staff to enter their own metadata regarding research results • Opportunity for IR to move into the central stream of the organisation • Trial starts in September

34. Internet access from the desktop • Initially will be a link through from Cornet desktops to a specific number of Internet locations • Move from a restricted network to an open network • Need to partition records and customers within Unicorn • Opportunity to have outside links from 856 field • Trial starts in Autumn with plans to be operational in the Spring

35. Hyperion & iBistro • Our aim is to offer the customer as much of a one-stop shop as we can • Hyperion may become the preferred storage and delivery mechanism for electronic data, if we ever get any money • iBistro represents the concept that we are working towards - a personalised zone which brings together all the information needs of our customers

36. Push, pull and browsing • We are attempting to please a wide range of different customers, including users and stakeholders • these include the traditional users who wish to have browse facilities to aid serendipity • they also include users who want a personalised service which supplies them with only the information they require • and it must also include the customers who just need to dip in occasionally and pull out what they need

37. Thank you for listeningNow for some more technical detail from Liane