The The FAILUREFAILURE of software: of software: Aleph500 cataloging programAleph500 cataloging program

OutlineOutline

The importance of softwareSoftware failureLibrary softwareBrooklyn College software

specific functionsAleph500Aleph500 software failure

THE IMPORTANCETHE IMPORTANCE OF OF SOFTWARE TO THE SOFTWARE TO THE

BROOKLYN COLLEGE BROOKLYN COLLEGE LIBRARYLIBRARY

• Volume of books• Retrieval time• Unavoidable• Automation

SOFTWARE FAILURESOFTWARE FAILURE

Introduction Bugs Organization specific Vs. User

specific software failure Common reasons for software failure Some historical cases of software

failure Relation to our presentation

IntroductionIntroduction

Hundreds of thousands of software projects fail everyday

Software companies, not eager to share disaster stories

Reducing the number of software failures is one of the most challenging problems of software production.

BugsBugs

Murphy’s Law Cost to U.S. economy “Death March mentality” Unachievable deadlines Too few programmers All-nighter credo of college-age jockeys Shrinking budgets Automotive aerospace industry study

specific versus User specific versus User specific software failurespecific software failure

What an organization needs might not be what a user needs

What a section of an organization might need might not be what the organization as whole might need

Common reasons for Common reasons for software failuresoftware failure

Software aging Data corruptionNumerical error accumulationExhaustion of system resourcesProgrammer does not

understand the project requirements

Microsoft o/s XP

Some historical cases of Some historical cases of software failuresoftware failure

Knight Trading Group Inc FFASTFILL GET FURNITURELAND African Renaissance USMC Osprey crash Air-Traffic “glitch” INTIUT’s tax software Ebay

Historical cases of software Historical cases of software failure cont’dfailure cont’d

London Stock exchange (Taurus)- book reviews

London Ambulance Service dispatch project -book reviews

Integrated reservation system -book reviews The Performing Rights Society -book reviews NASAs’ 1999 mission to launch craft into

orbit of mars, $125 million YEAR 2K SATURDAY’S JAPANESE AIR TRAFFIC

SUSPENDED 30 MINUTES SOFTWARE FAILURE TV GET PAPER

Relation to our presentationRelation to our presentation

Software failure is a fact of life Automation exists due to software As a result software failure is imminent The library employs automation Therefore software failure should not be

a surprise Rather, it should be a REALITY

LIBRARY SOFTWARELIBRARY SOFTWARE

The good old days 3”x5” card catalogs- no more What would we do without automation? No more Automation can help locate books,

journals etc, at light speeds. The electron travels fast.

Library staff can efficiently manage their collections and better point students in the right direction

The history of cataloging at The history of cataloging at Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College

Card catalog used until 19801980 Microfiche1988 first online system / NOTICE from

Northwest universityTechnical service end of the programCUNY + student end of the cataloging toolAleph500 January 2002

BROOKLYN COLLEGE BROOKLYN COLLEGE SOFTWARE SPECIFIC SOFTWARE SPECIFIC

FUNCTIONSFUNCTIONS Cataloging Circulation Etc.

Library structure and needsLibrary structure and needs

Brooklyn college library structure

Technical services functionTechnical services old softwareTechnical services New

software

Brooklyn college library Brooklyn college library structurestructure

Technical services functionTechnical services function

Cataloging, Cataloging, and more cataloging

Technical services old Technical services old softwaresoftware

Technical services New Technical services New softwaresoftware

Technical services function Technical services function and structureand structure

Cataloging R usUser, PC, dot-matrix printer,

Aleph500, Operating system Let’s get going

Technical services pictureTechnical services picture

Technical services New Technical services New softwaresoftware

Some companies that offer automated library software

Aleph500

Some companies that offer Some companies that offer automated library softwareautomated library software

Checkpoint MARC cataloging software Athena version 7.1 Winnebago Spectrum 4.0 All above are SydneyPLUS Horizon cataloging software Follet software ITS International Voyager MANDARIN M3 Version 1.5

Some more companiesSome more companies

Via Surpass ILLiad Precision One “Impact”/ONLINE HomeMade software D – Wisconsin

based school librarian Nels Akre MARCit inexpensive tool $50.00 for

cataloging websites

ALEPH500ALEPH500

ALEPH500 IntroductionALEPH500 Introduction

Historical background Self advertisement Partnerships Organizations that chose Aleph500 Organization specific functionality Brooklyn College specific functionality

Historical backgroundHistorical background

1980: Created 1991: UNIX migration , 1st library

software 1996: Outside U.S. presence 1998: Notre Dame Library, Michiana

Academic Library Consortium Chicago, Ex Libris Summer 2000 Boston office

Self advertisementSelf advertisement

Manages all aspects of the library, for staff and patrons (cataloging?)

Flexible Open Scalable Expandable Trustworthy Multilingual Client/Server Cataloging with extensive control Customer support Internet Live sessions

PartnershipsPartnerships

SF-Systems : library bindingSFX provides reference linking

services among electronic vendors even if they are from different vendors

Sweet Blackwell : serial invoicing

Organizations that chose Organizations that chose Aleph500Aleph500

London University of East Anglia Summer 2002

PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of India)

DELCAT SUNY CUNY University of London Universidad Nacional de Columbia (UNAL) Brandeis University, MA The Universidad Russian state university

Some more organizationsSome more organizations

Biblioteca Nacional de chile (BN) Mcgill University Notre Dame University Sorbonne Nouvelle Univesity (Paris) University of East Anglia (London) Univesity of Iowa Brandon University Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany Center for Advanced European Studies

and Research (Bonn)

And some more And some more organizationsorganizations

Harvard University MIT University of California UNILINC LTD. CA digial University of Delaware CO CONSORTIA

Brooklyn College specific Brooklyn College specific functionalityfunctionality

Cataloging tool Automation makes it easy, or does it? Label dispensing

A cataloging tool, what is it?A cataloging tool, what is it?

Automated system for creating and editing complex records in MARC format

Has to have a highly trained individual who knows cataloging practices in general and AACR2 specifically

It must take a significant amount of time to create each record

Automation makes it easy, Automation makes it easy, or does it?or does it?

Aleph500 promises the ease of use of its system to create labels for our library resources, namely books

DOES IT?

The ProblemThe Problem

Conversion of Aleph generated script in the form of a Microsoft Word document into two pocket labels and a spine label

Problem backgroundProblem background

The following is a listing of steps necessary to complete the task

We start by retrieving record We start by retrieving record by bardcodeby bardcode

Enter barcodeEnter barcode

Information is Information is displayed/double click labeldisplayed/double click label

We get a Microsoft word We get a Microsoft word documentdocument

Pocket labelPocket label

Spine labelSpine label

Combined labelCombined label

Software Failure TimelineSoftware Failure Timeline Old system rendered not operational and

removed from Technical services office New system rendered operational and fully

implement able with Windows XP XP is installed on almost all machines in

Technical Services office Installation of new Aleph500 cataloging

software takes place Information that was migrated from old system

into new system is present and all seems well

Users try to print complete labels, but can not.

Users seem to think that it is their inexperience in software that hinders their tries

Head of Technical services contacts Library director for assistance

Library directors assigns associate director to handle the problem.

Associate director arrives at technical services to apply his knowledge of computers into solving the problem

Associate director discovers that Aleph can only print spine labels and not pocket labels.

Also, the spine labels that Aleph prints are out of order and rendered useless to Brooklyn College format.

Associate director begins to read the Aleph manual, he soon discovers that through a maco, it might be possible to generate labels

Associate director assigns a software developer to work on the problem

Through the work of the developer it is discovered that printing of labels could not be done in Microsoft XP or Microsoft 2000 platforms, since necessary driver for controllling custom paper size is not supplied by printer manufacturer.

From initial time of Aleph deployment to discovery that Macro will not work, 3 months have passed

Technical services has become a very slow moving machine.

Users can not use the old system They resort to manually typing cataloging

information

The last time that regular type writers have been used to type cataloging information was 30 years ago

As a result, books are not returning to shelves quickly enough

Technical services is back to using “stone age” tools

Manpower is lost Technical services, a viable department is

shutdown

Technical services is to the Brooklyn college library what air traffic control is to an airport

The work of 10 is done to achieve the work of 1

Frustration is in the air Tensions between the library executive branch

and technical services department are rising Resources of other departments are being

exploited and pointed towards fixing a problem that is a result of an outside agency

In conclusionIn conclusion

The systems office of the library is now involved, a software developer and a technical engineer are working concurrently on the problem of software failure and hardware compatibility

Aleph500 software failure has caused havoc in the flow of information of the library, the core of the library, the controlling unit of the library

Software failure is inevitable and a fact of life, we have witnessed it in this case

Technical services is an important branch of the company

It was practically shutdown Software was not able to meet needs of

technical services, the chief operator of the software

An alternate software solution needed to be developed

Alternate solution was developed but it was discovered that it could not work due to hardware compatiblity issues

Even if the Aleph500 software problem could be solved through Aleph implementation, their software does not support fully the Windows XP enviornment.

The windows XP operating system is the only supported platform of the Brooklyn College Library

It looks like older is still better The Brooklyn college library is a technological

achievement, but its software is a technological nightmare

SummarySummary Software problems are inevitable They exist in every organization, no matter

what the cost of the software Aleph500 was touted as a great cataloging

program It did not provide for the complete needs of

the Brooklyn College Technical Office The office that is the lifeline of the library It was not completely hardware compatible as

it is self advertised and sold

It did not provide for complete organization specific task management

It caused the effectual slow down of workIt was supposed to be a tool of automation

but it became a tool that is uselessCountless worker hours were lostResources of other departments were

wasted

The functionality that it provides still does not work

You as a student might be feeling the effects of this failure the next time you approach a librarian and ask the following question

“Where can I find this book?”

I hope that this presentation has made you understand

The causes for software failureThe reality of software failureAnd the effect of software failure on your

school