Award Report: OCLC ILLiad Upgrade for Enhanced Consortium Resource Sharing–Long Island Library Resources Council
The Long Island Library Resources Council (LILRC) acts as a consortium to facilitate interlibrary borrowing and lending in our region. The Council has been utilizing a self-hosted instance of OCLC’s ILLiad Resource Sharing Management System version 7.3 for the past several years. OCLC released ILLiad Version 8.0 on December 20, 2010 and announced it would stop supporting Version 7.3 at the end of 2010. As we were two phases outdated, and had recently lost our Systems Administrator due to budget constraints, it was critical that we make this transition. Our goal for this Technology Improvement Award was to upgrade to the newest version of OCLC’s ILLiad Resource Sharing Management System, thus allowing for the continuation and improvement of our ILL process.
In order to achieve this goal, we essentially had to start from scratch, as our current hardware was in very poor condition. This meant using the awarded grant to purchase all new hardware components as well as needed software. Through the work of our hired consultants, Graywulf Technologies, a new server was constructed to meet the specifications for ILLiad 8.0. Graywulf Technologies installed a fresh Windows 2008 server operating system, 2008 MSSQL, and a new installation of ILLiad 7.4 server, which is the latest ILLiad server version available. To complete the migration, our original server database was upgraded and after testing was migrated over to the new ILLiad server (pictured below). Finally, a new tape backup solution was installed and is currently running backups of our new ILLiad server.
LILRC's new ILLiad server, backup device, and computer station for ILL staff.
Since the completion of the upgrade, LILRC has been able to fill loans through OCLC and DOCLINE and has experienced no down-time due to server-related issues. We were able to complete the upgrade outside of our normal hours of operation. In doing so, our users were not significantly affected by the migration. This upgrade was a quick and smooth transition and, much to our surprise, the greatest challenge we faced was the fluctuating prices of the hardware and software components from our initial proposal to the time of purchase.
Christina Rivera
Special Projects Librarian
Long Island Library Resources Council
