[Yulcat-l] Cataloger's Desktop enhancements Wednesday

[Steven Arakawa]

 From the Cataloger's Desktop List. Note that brief service interruption 
early in the morning is anticipated.

--Steven Arakawa

Message-ID:  <s40daecf.031 at loc.gov>
Date:         Tue, 7 Mar 2006 16:03:24 -0500
Reply-To: "Cataloger's Desktop Forum" <DESKTOP at loc.gov>
Sender: "Cataloger's Desktop Forum" <DESKTOP at loc.gov>
From: Bruce C Johnson <bjoh at loc.gov>
Subject: Desktop enhancements roll-out
Comments: To: desktop at loc.gov
To: DESKTOP at sun8.LOC.GOV
Precedence: list

Colleagues:

    I am pleased to report that we are ready to roll out the latest suite 
of enhancements to Cataloger's Desktop. As of now (roughly 4 PM eastern US 
time) we are anticipating that these enhancements will be implemented 
between 7:30 and 8 AM Wednesday morning eastern US time (12-30-1:00 PM 
Greenwich time).  We expect there to be a 1-2 minute interruption as the 
new version is installed.

    The enhancements fall broadly into the following categories:

1.  You will see a new, simplified opening screen.  For those who prefer 
using the status quo, click the "Desktop Classic" link.

NOTE: Most subscribers will want to limit the resources to a subset.  To do 
this either employ pre-selected subsets (type of material or categories) or 
create your own subsets by clicking the "My preferences" link.

2.  Bookmarks and notes (not previously available) have been extensively 
re-engineered so that they will now be stored on the server (rather than 
your PC).  As a consequence they will much more resilliant and can store 
much more information. A downside is that everyone using a single logon 
will have access to the same bookmarks and notes.  This will particularly 
be advantagous however for institutions that wish to share annotations 
enterprise-wide.

3.  The product will be significantly faster than it has been.   Some of 
the improvement in speed will be accomplished by pre-loading various 
graphic images at the time that you log into the product. As a consequence 
you will probably notice that it takes a little longer to log on.

    We will need to revise and enhance the Quick Tips, but this will 
probably take a few weeks to accomplish.  There are some changes to the 
table of contents (TOC) that will also be implemented in a few weeks, but 
these changes mostly involve adding new resources, updating links, and 
removing a few obsolete resources.

    Should you have any difficulties accessing Desktop prior to noon 
eastern time (5 PM Greenwich time) on March 7, please contact 
<desktop-info at loc.gov>.  Please do not send your reports to the Desktop 
discussion list.

    Thanks go to the dozens of testers who provided detailed (and often 
blunt) feedback on their testing experience.  We hope that this addresses 
many of the questions raised in last year's subscriber survey.

Bruce





Bruce Chr. Johnson
President-Elect, Association for Library Collections & Technical Services 
(ALCTS)
a division of the American Library Association

and

Library of Congress
Cataloging Distribution Service
Washington, DC 20540-4911 USA

202-707-1652 (voice)  bjoh at loc.gov
202-707-3959 (fax)

----------------------------------------------------------
Steven Arakawa
Catalog Librarian for Training & Documentation
Catalog Dept. Sterling Memorial Library. Yale University.
P.O. Box 208240 New Haven, CT 06520-8240
(203)432-8286 steven.arakawa at yale.edu