Tip of the Week

Tip for: 01.12.2004

Peace of Mind with the Safe Seven

Summary: Here's a New Year's Resolution that can bring you peace of mind: the Safe Seven. Computer problems can arise from physical breakdown, electrical irregularities or outages, hardware design, operating system, software or other programs running, or even user-error. These simple safety precautions can protect your data and save you time and heartache.

1. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!
2. Perform standard machine maintenance.
3. Perform Alexandria maintenance.
4. Have a UPS (uninterruptable power supply or battery backup) on the Data Station and test it.
5. Enable Security.
6. Watch your screen at all times.
7. When in doubt, contact technical support.

1. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!
COMPanion recommends a minimum of FIVE backups. Backups are complete copies of your Alexandria Data folder to some external medium. They could be on Zip disk, SuperDisk, Jazz disk, another Hard Drive, a FileServer, or a tape. You should keep at least one backup per day of the week. Keeping more backups will never be discouraged. You do not need to backup the software. COMPanion can replace the software if your library is current on its support subscription. COMPanion cannot replace your data so BACK IT UP. It is also highly recommended that at least one copy of your data be kept off-site (i.e. take the Friday backup home). Libraries have been burglarized and all computer equipment, including the backups, have been stolen. Libraries have also burned down and the backup has been instrumental in obtaining a quick and acceptable settlement with the insurance company.

2. Perform standard machine maintenance.
Ideally every machine should be scanned monthly for viruses and for file damage. Run either Norton Disk Doctor (Macintosh) or Scandisk (PC) on a frequent basis. Alexandria cannot be expected to run correctly when the operating system or file structure is damaged.

3. Perform Alexandria maintenance.
Every month you should run Rebuild on your database. It can only be run from the Data Station and can take hours to days to run depending on the strength of your machine and the size of your collection. Rebuild checks that the indexes used for sorting, browsing, and selecting match the data, that the records are keyworded appropriately, and that the status counters are correct. Always backup before running a Rebuild or any other major utility or import. REMEMBER: If it will take longer to correct a problem caused by a bad import or running a utility incorrectly than it will take to back up, you should back up before doing it. To run Rebuild, choose File, Utilities, Database, Rebuild, and click on Run.

4. Have a UPS (uninterruptable power supply or battery backup) on the Data Station and test it.
Alexandria 5 uses client/server technology for its communication and operation procedures. The server program, called the Data Station, must be running in order for any clients, called Alexandria Librarians or Alexandria Researchers, to search, circulate, run reports, etc. If the Data Station program is not running, NO ONE can view or change the data. In addition, the Data Station does all the work with the data; the clients just ask the Data Station to perform procedures. As such the Data Station should be on the best machine available. Since the Data Station does all the work, it has the ability to prioritize requests from the clients. Some procedures will be postponed temporarily while other more pressing procedures are addressed. The Data Station will, therefore, hold some things in memory to take care of when it is not so busy. If there is a power brown out or a power outage, your data can become corrupt if you do not have a UPS to protect it. A UPS is an Uninterruptable Power Supply and is only meant to give you enough time to get to the Data Station, quit it, and shutdown the machine appropriately. Do not connect unnecessary machines or appliances to a UPS since they will drain critical energy from the UPS in your time of need.

5. Enable Security.
The Alexandria program comes without any security turned on. As such, unless you install an additional security program or enable security within Alexandria, anyone can launch Alexandria and have full privileges that would allow them to add, remove, and change patrons, items, orders, budgets, vendors, subscriptions or routes or to check items in and out, assign and forgive fines, etc. It is strongly recommended that you enable security within your Alexandria preferences.

6. Watch your screen at all times.
Although Alexandria does have audio clues to alert you to special circulation and program messages, those audio clues do not help if the speakers are turned off, the volume is turned down, sounds are disabled in the program, sound is disabled in the operating system, or if headphones are plugged in. Alexandria is also streamlined for certain procedures based upon assumptions that are often made in the library environment. Those assumptions may differ from what you desire. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS watch your screen. Verify that you have fully read the messages and that what you thought you did was exactly what the program claims you did.

7. When in doubt, contact technical support.
If your library is current on its support subscription, when you have a problem or a question, please contact our friendly technical support team. You can call technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 (or 366) days a year. Questions regarding passwords and registration codes may need to be postponed until business hours. During the busy time of the year (beginning of school, beginning of the calendar year, and inventory season), you may get the receptionist if technical support is currently helping other customers. The receptionist will take the name of your library, its telephone number, your name and the state you are calling from and send that information to technical support in an email. They will contact you as soon as they are available. Or you can email technical support directly from Alexandria 5. Emailing from the program not only sends your message or question to technical support, but also information on your machine, its hardware, memory, your data and the version you are running. To email technical support on Macintosh, choose Tech Support under the Apple menu. For those on OSX, it is under the Alexandria menu. To email technical support on Windows, choose Tech Support under the Help menu. New to v5.44 is a Support tab that you can click on to bring up the Tech Support options.
(Note: You cannot email technical support if you do not have a return email specified in your Library Information preferences and if you do not have an internet connection.)