LM_NET: Library Media Networking
continued...
The decision was made nearly five years ago to use a tape back up system
and it works very well. We have a Syquest 44MB tape drive with three
back up tapes which are rotated daily. It takes less than 10 minutes at
the end of the day to back up the entire system with over 8500 entries
and a circulation log of 5 entries per student.
You now have the choice of buying a "zip" drive which is capapble of
storing 100MB for less than $200. The newest MacZone catalog I have
lists the "zip" for 199.95 with a $50.00 manufacturers rebate. The disks
are listed at 3 for $49.95. When we originally purchased the Syquest,
disks were about $80.00 each.
We removed all borrowers cards and tossed them out as they were first
checked out. Four years later we'll still find a few that the students
love to tear up and toss.
Last spring we decided we could part with the cards and so I started
giving them to teachers for students to use when taking notes.
Good luck,
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Hi Barb - I'm in a K-4 school with Winnebago on Mac (have been for 2 1/2
years now), so we're in the same situation. I used to use a Syquest
external hard drive with Syquest tapes to back up, but it was a nightmare
- it would freeze up during backup and I'd have to reboot the computer,
chancing losing everything! Finally, last year, I got our techie to come
and network my Winnebago server to the school's file server, and it gets
backed up each night, using Retrospect. This won't help you much, unless
your school has a server (we have a Workgroup 80 - Apple) and you are
networked. Let me know if you need anything else... Oh, on the cards - I
never had 'em (don't even have book pockets in books!), so I can't advise
- if you're completely automated now, I'd say dump 'em! ET
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I am using Alexandria check out system with a macintosh. I use a
back up system called a Zip Drive. I got it from Macwarehouse for $199.
All of the librarians in my system use it. It is very easy to operate.
Quit worrying about the cards in the books. What difference does
it make if you throw away the card or the kindergarten student loses it?
Why waste your valuable time removing them if you don't care what happens
to them?
My teachers like me to keep them in the books. When they check
out books for their classroom use, they use the cards to keep up with which
students have the books.
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We use a zip drive and have an automatic time set for it to back things
up on Mon. Wed and Fri afternoons after school. Not too sure how it is
all set up as I was not part of that process. All I do is be sure to
swap cartridges as appropriate.
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Barb, Nice name, by the way. I have A Macintosh system using Alexandria. I
back up on an external drive. As far as the cards, I pull them whenever I see
them and pitch them, I meant recycle! I don't set out as that as my sole task,
because I have more important things to do, but when I see them, I pull them.
It's also a good task for students that want to help and can't shelve books or
those that "owe" time for one reason or another! Good Luck!
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Dear Barb, I left the cards in the books because our teachers don't always
check out when we're there and I think it is the easiest way to give them a
way to take books out anytime. Kids don't lose the cards as much as you
might think. Some slick cards have been a problem, so we used a dab of
rubber cement. Teacher's can still extract if they need to. If we notice,
we replace a lost card as soon as the book is returned. We circulate to
1100 students (65 teachers) so this can't be a problem, or we would have to
change systems! We use the Syquest 130 MB backup systems on our Macs. They
are also coming down in price like the zips which are 100 MB. Be sure to
get the SCSI versions of either. I had a Colorado backup on my MS-DOS and
it didn't last 2 years. Don't think they made them for Mac though. Ellen
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Well, I think a Zip drive and a few cartridges is just the ticket. We use
a Bernouli, but would go Zip if we hadn't already made the move.
You can put together the Zip drive and 5 cartridges for under 200 dollars,
these days. And you just drag the Winnebago folder to the Zip every
afternoon before you go home. Takes 5 minutes. Total security. Rotate 3
cartridges (a daily, a weekly, a monthly) and you will have a fine setup.
My 2 cents,
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First on the check out cards- I took them out as we circulated the books.
(We have only been up and running a yr. and a half.) In a year or so I will
be able to check the shelves and visually see what books have not circulated
as they will have cards in them. This will help me in weeding. We are
cutting up the cards that are half used and using them a scratch cards by the
catalog computers. We are using the old catalog cards as date due cards for
the books. We are putting pockets in our books so we can put date due cards
in.
We back up the database every day. We use a bernoulli drive and disk. We
have not had any problems. Today if I were buying a backup I would buy a zip
drive.
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----I have Winnebago and use a Mac 580. I back up to disks (about 17) every
two weeks and do a daily backup to one disk.
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I would recommend an Iomega Zip Drive. These cost approx. $200, can
work with both MS-Dos & MacIntosh, and each disk holds about 100 MGB
of information. They are also much faster than diskettes. Each disk
costs about $15.00 each.
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Hi, Barb! We have been on Mac/Winnebago for a year now, and regularly back
up the system.
We do a daily backup to a disk. Yes, it can be done, with an additional
piece of software (whose name, unfortunately, I can't remember -- but I
could get it for you from our district, which installed it for us). It
takes about one minute a day.
We have been doing a complete backup from our server drive to our
circulation drive. (I can send you directions if you need them.) However,
we are now in the process of purchasing an Iomega Zip Drive to do this
backup, which will be much easier.
Let me know if you need more information about any of this. Good luck!
Oh, yes -- ditch the book cards -- right into the trash can. You will
never need 'em again. Winnebago is the second automated system we've had,
and during the past eight years I have never missed a single book card.
It's a time-saver to not have to make cards and pockets for new books, too!
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When I became automated 8 years ago I left the cards in the books. The
teachers still needed to sign them and leave me a pile, when they took
books after hours and the computer wasn't on.
Now they know to sign a form [SIN/BIN for Student ID number and Book ID number]
I ran out of book cards last year and decided to do as other librarians in
this district have done--not bother! If the computer is being otherwise
used, or it is after hours, students and teachers know how to fill out the
form on the clipboard.
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I've been using Winnebago for six years now and I would suggeest a zip
drive for your backups. The cartridges hold more data than you probably
have and
they're fast and easy to use. As far as the cards, recycle them. I picked
them up and answered the question, why are these here enough. You could
simply have the students recycle them as they check out. Good luck.
Bev
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I don't know if it will work with Winnebago, but we have used the Iomega Zip
drive to back up our Alexandria records. I know that there are now similar
disks which have greater storage capacity, we've stuck with Zip drives
because they are adequate for our needs and we started with them and want to
have the same thing in each of the elementary schools. Cost of the drive is
about $150 with the refund certificate, disks are under $20.
For us one of the advantages of the Zip drive was that the library assistants
from all of the elementary schools (we have no elementary librarians) could
bring their records to one school to learn to use the system working with
their own records. Until we have real library networking, it will also mean
that each school can have a copy of the holdings of each of the other schools
on a zip drive disk.
In our case the records are also backed up on the network, but we don't want
to have to close down our circulation system when the network goes down. This
way, as long as we have a working Mac we can operate our circulation system.
And yes, we bit the bullet and took those cards out of the books. Havn't
missed them yet -- we can put a temporary bar code in for any item which is
not barcoded yet, the same proceedure we use for periodicals. We have a
series of cards with bar codes on them, and temporarily assign that bar code
to any item which is ready to circulate but does not yet have its own number.
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I don't have a tape backup either...but I have an IBM (the whole school
and rest of library is Mac, go figure...) But I am hoping to switch to
Mac when I can get the catalog program.... Why can't you use disks for
backup? I can on the IBM. A local Mac vendor/guru told me to forget
about buying tape backup... He suggested buying a zip drive to back up
on. Have you looked into that? Zip drives are fairly reasonably priced
in the Mac catalogs.
Most of my books have borrower's cards in them too - I had thought of
stamping the date due on them, but since I"m in a middle school, I'm sure
they'd get lost. I guess I'll just pull them out as the books are
borrowed. I'd be interested in any other ideas you receive.
I'm trying to figure out what to do with the student barcodes. Not all
of our students receive ID cards... plus if they lost the ID cards, that
would be another mess (maybe?) School is too large to rolodex them... so
I'm wondering if I can just print out an alpha list that can go into a
circ desk notebook and just slap the barcodes on there....
That's it *-)
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Barbara Weidner,Librarian
Wright City Elementary School
100 Wildcat Dr. Box 198
Wright City, MO 63390
(314)745-7602
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