Upgrading Orbis to Voyager 6.1

The upgrade to Orbis 6.1 is now complete. The process took 1 day to complete thanks to our upgraded ILS hardware!

The ILS is up and running and all offline circulation transactions have been uploaded to our database. Staff in Circulation departments have now started to discharge materials brought in while Orbis was down.

New 13 Digit ISBN record load profiles have been added to 6.1 System Administration and are ready to be used.

A backup of our system is being run tonight, Friday Dec 29, 2006, and will allow for our regular 24-hour OPAC to be in place Saturday evening, Dec 30, 2006.

Patrons may now place requests via the OPAC, and use all standard patron empowerment features.

Highlights of the 6.1 Release:

1. Support for 13 digit ISBN: This is the reason for the new release. Effective January 1, 2007, the ISBN will be expanded to 13 digits. Orbis 6.1 will be modified to include separate and composite indexes to ensure appropriate indexing of these numbers for searching and de-duplication of records. To read more about 13 digit ISBN transition please view the ISBN Organization's web page.
2. Support for OCLC 9 Digit Control Numbers: OCLC is approaching their 100 millionth record and is running out of 8 digit numbers. Around mid-Novemebr 2006, 9 digit OCLC control numbers will be put to use. To read about the new number support, look through OCLC Technical Bulletin 253 It also has information about OCLC adoption of 13 digit ISBNs.

For the complete details, including several new features View the 6.1 Orbis Upgrade PowerPoint presentation

Orbis OPAC Test Script

Endeavor sites already on 6.1:

• Colorado School of Mines
• Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois
• Library of Congress
• National Library of Medicine
• NorQuest College
• Princeton University
• University of California Los Angeles
• University of Edinburgh
• University System of Georgia
• Whitney Museum of American Art