DS Galaxy 2000 at Birmingham
| Date | 01 February 1999 |
| Published date | 01 February 1999 |
| Pages | 18-23 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040715 |
| Author | Mandy Neary |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
DS Galaxy 2000 at
Birmingham
by Mandy Neary, Applications Support
Officer, Birmingham Library Service
A
review
of
Birmingham Public
Libraries'
installation
of DS
Galaxy
2000.
Background
Birmingham Library Service is the biggest metro-
politan library authority in the UK, with 40
Community Libraries and the busiest Central
Reference and Lending Library in Europe. The
residential population of Birmingham
is
just over
one million, swelled by inward commuting and
extensive business use from across the region. The
Libraries budget is £17.5m per annum, with a
bookfund of £2m, spent on a huge range of
diverse library stock. Issues per annum total some
5,700,000 and enquiries 1,430,000.
In November 1994 Birmingham Library Service
installed the Galaxy 2000 Library Management
System supplied by DS Limited. Galaxy 2000
offers a full circulation facility, MARC catalogu-
ing, acquisitions package and ViewPoint, the
OPAC module.
In June of this year this system was upgraded to
Galaxy 2000 Version 4. Version 4 not only pro-
vides additional enhancements to existing
functions but also offers new facilities such as an
Inter Library Loans module and a separate issuing
function for use of the Housebound Service. (See
Figure 1) This article outlines the preparation
Birmingham had to make in order to enable the
installation and some of the new facilities that
Version 4 has to offer, and identifies some of the
key features of Galaxy 2000.
Preparation
In order to install Version 4 it was necessary to
upgrade the existing hardware and software, which
housed Galaxy 2000. Galaxy 2000 runs under
Open Ingress database software. The Operating
System is Solaris v2.6. The hardware and software
required for the upgrade includes: -
• Sun Enterprise 450 Server Base
400-MHz UltraSPARC -II CPU Module
• 256-MB Expansion Memory Module
• 4.2GB Expansion Disk.
• SunSwift PCI Interface Card
PCI Dual ChannelUltraSCSI Diff Interface
50Gb StorEdge D1000 Array with
12 x 4.2GB 10000 rpm disks.
• Solaris 2.6 Server Media Kit
• Sun StorEdge Volume Manager 2.6
• Sun StorEdge Volume Manager 2.6
This provided a minimum sized array for the
database, with disk storage for other functions.
Adding additional disk drives will allow for 100%
increase in database size and will support higher
disk throughput if there is significant future termi-
nal expansion. The existing Enterprise 10S system
was adequate as a front end for the current termi-
nal population and transaction load. A second
front end will probably need to be added if the
system expands significantly.
Except for two service points, all of Birmingham
Library Service has been automated since 1989. As
a result of this the database had grown consider-
ably containing almost 2,000,000 item records,
1,300,000
catalogue records and 580,000 borrower
records. Before being able to move to Version 4 it
was necessary to ensure that this database was as
current as possible. Therefore prior to the installa-
tion utilities were run in order to delete any old or
redundant records.
At the beginning of
May,
DS Limited delivered a
training database containing a small amount of
data. This database was designed for pre-installa-
tion training and system testing. The training
database was accessible only via sites connected to
the City's Wide Area Network.
Staff training was geared more towards demonstra-
tions of Version 4 than one to one. This was due to
the limited access of the training database and the
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