Karen and I were thinking that with the renewed interest and energy on
documentation, it might be a good idea to have us list subscribers
introduce ourselves to each other. I would be particularly be interested
to know what your interest/need in Evergreen documentation is, how you
might like to get involved (or not), and any experience you have with
documentation that might be relevant.
I'll start:
[I can be long-winded at times; your intro can be as brief as you like :-)
]
My name is Paul Weiss, and I am currently working on a project for the
Sage Library System of Eastern Oregon, a 69-member multitype library
consortium covering the rural eastern half of the state. Sage has an LSTA
grant to test out Evergreen with 11 of our member libraries. I am leading
the profiling effort, and my initial need for Evergreen documentation was
some basic system architecture information (system overview, record types,
non-MARC fields and their functionality, how code lists work, indexes,
record linking, etc.), so that I could recommend profiling decisions. I
was frustrated that there wasn't any such documentation, because that
meant profiling has taken much longer to accomplish. On the other hand, I
am excited by the new functionality that the developers are working on,
and don't want to slow them down unduly by having them be pulled away to
document the system. So I communicated with Karen Schneider at Equinox
about documentation issues, and a month later find myself helping to lead
the Evergreen documentation effort.
I worked at Innovative Interfaces 1999-2001, overseeing staff who did
profiling and migration of new III customers, among other tasks. I
initiated a reconceptualization of our profiling process to make it more
user-friendly and efficient, and drafted new documentation. I have written
documentation of one sort or another at every job since library school,
including the 48-p. Conversion Specifications for MeSH from MODEL 204 to
USMARC Authority Format when I was at the US's National Library of
Medicine. The funny thing is I started out as a math major in college
because I hated writing. I found out later that actually I loved some
kinds of writing--technical, procedural, etc.
I have a bit of experience with DocBook and the oXygen XML Editor, from 2
projects last year on ALA's forthcoming RDA and its member handbook.
I am happy to do at least writing, editing, and file markup for DIG.
And who are you?
Paul
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