Latest Posts

Nice to meet you, NOBLE!

NOBLE

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself on my first day at NOBLE!

My name is Gabriel Jayroe (he/him) and I am coming on as the new Member Services Support Associate. I’ve worked in the NOBLE Library system for almost 8 years, starting at the Peabody Institute Library Main Branch and making my way to the West Branch Assistant Librarian.

I am incredibly excited to start this position that will let me support libraries and their users. I’ve been a library user since infancy and I hope my work helps to create inclusive and accessible spaces for people of all backgrounds. Some of my library passions are inclusive and diverse materials and ease of access for marginalized communities.

When I’m not at work,  I live in Salem and like to spend time with my partner going to concerts, karaoke, art festivals, and old record shops. In my downtime I write poetry for literature journals, make art, and play video games.

I’m very excited to begin this new chapter in library services and I look forward to supporting all of you!

Summer Training Schedule

Training

We have several training sessions coming up this summer on Evergreen, List Maker, Google Workspace and OverDrive. All are online via Zoom, will be recorded and will be repeated in the fall.

You can see the full list, divided by topic and with registration links, on this document:
NOBLE Training Schedule

If you prefer a chronological view, you can see the training sessions as well as other meetings and events on the Staff Information System Calendar

Upcoming Evergreen 3.12 Upgrade – June 11

Evergreen, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE is pleased to announce the network is upgrading to Evergreen release 3.12 overnight on Tuesday, June 11.

Downtime Information

  • The tentative upgrade window is Tuesday June 11 between 9:00 pm and 12:00 am.
  • We will add messaging to the public catalog 1 week prior to the upgrade.
  • This upgrade will be much smaller than our previous one back in January. Because of the timing and reduced actual database downtime, we will not be building a backup authentication server.
  • During the downtime window, the following will be unavailable:
    • Circulation and other staff functions
    • Web catalog
    • Patron self services like placing holds, renewals and signing up for ecards
    • Authentication via SIP2 (Overdrive, selfcheck, Hoopla, museum pass, EZproxy etc.) will be unavailable for a portion of the upgrade window.

Previewing 3.12

NOBLE staff can log into the training system to get a first-hand look at release 3.12, which we will be using for training and testing the new release. Here’s how to login and set search preferences for the old and new versions of the staff catalog: Logging Into the Training System.

  • Please let us know if there are newer staff who can’t access the training system so we can add their accounts.
  • The training system contains a snapshot of NOBLE data so there are holds, overdue, bills, etc., with all patron information anonymized.
  • Feel free to test things, including adding, editing or removing patron, title or item information. Anything you add or change will be gone the next time we update the snapshot for the training system. Nothing will transfer to the production (live) system.

What’s Coming in Release 3.12 And Beyond (presentation)
Evergreen Release 3.12 Upgrade Session (recording)

 

NOBLE Endorses Joint Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship

Challenged Materials, Executive Board

The NOBLE Executive Board unanimously voted to endorse the Joint Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship issued by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), the Massachusetts Library System (MLS), the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA), and the Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA).

As the statement reads: “Attacks on members of our communities, targeted at marginalized peoples, are more than book challenges. They are acts of intolerance and exclusion intended to silence diverse voices and views, while holding fast to homogenous viewpoints by historically dominant voices. These acts jeopardize everyone’s access to learn from different perspectives and limit the opportunities available for those isolated in their experience to realize they are not alone.”

NOBLE Upgrading to Evergreen 3.10 in January

Evergreen, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE is pleased to announce the network will be upgrading to Evergreen release 3.10 in early January. 

The upgrade will begin the night of Saturday, January 6. The system will be down from 6:00 p.m. Saturday until some time Sunday p.m. The system will be up and ready on Monday morning January 8.

Downtime Information

The extended outage for this upgrade is due to several factors:

  • The postgres database will be upgraded from 9.6 to 10. This involves dumping the entire database to a file, installing the new version, and importing the data back into the database. These steps take 4-5 hours each.
  • The operating system will also be updated which means that new application servers will be built.
  • Database scripts that add new features to the database are standard for most upgrades.

What is affected when Evergreen is down:

  • circulation and other staff functions
  • authentication via SIP2 (Overdrive, selfcheck, Hoopla, museum pass, EZproxy etc.)
  • web catalog
  • patron services like placing holds and signing up for ecards

We had a phone call with MOBIUS, our Evergreen hosting provider, about minimizing the effects of the down time and came up with a few solutions:

  • We will have a copy of the database put on a test system about a week before the upgrade. This can be used by staff to search for materials to get call numbers. We will send the URL to this system out the week before the upgrade.
  • Mobius will point the SIP server to the test system. We will pull the recently added patrons and import them so authentication will be available. Early in the upgrade and late in the upgrade the SIP server will need to be taken down, once to point to the test system and again to upgrade it and point it back to production.
  • Self check machines also use SIP and it will be important to not operate those during the down time. You don’t want transactions recorded on the test system.
  • Offline circ will be available to record circulation transactions. It is important to review Michele’s offline checklist prior to the down time.

Previewing 3.10

NOBLE staff can log into the training system to get a first-hand look at release 3.10, which we will be using for training and testing the new release.  Here’s how to login and set search preferences for the old and new versions of the staff catalog: Logging Into the Training System.