One-Step Record Loading: Creating a Single Aleph Service to Load Electronic Books

Abstract

This presentation will explain how we created a single custom service in Aleph that prepares and loads new files of electronic book records having different loading conditions and from a variety of vendors. Prior to this, our staff performed a couple dozen steps and ran numerous individual Aleph services in order to prepare and load one record file, which sometimes took hours to complete. Over time the backlog of electronic book files grew larger as our e-book purchasing expanded, since the record loading could not keep pace. I will briefly cover the various steps that our staff followed for loading e-books into Aleph, then explain in detail how the new loader incorporates the various steps in a flexible, much more efficient manner. Features highlighted will include the use of system variables, different fix routines based on the presence of a call number, whether or not to run character conversion on the records, whether to perform global updates, file renaming and archiving, etc. This presentation will be formatted as a "how to" guide that explains how each step in the loader works and the rationale for configuring it the way we did.