2021-10-07 Resource Access Meeting Notes

Angela Zoss from Duke University Libraries, convener of the Reporting SIG and leader of the Reporting SIG sub team working on queries for Resource Access (RA) and User Management (UM) functional areas visited the meeting for a discussion of reporting.

Angela gave a quick intro for folks who may be new to the group -- The reporting SIG is helping to build queries that run against a database called the library data platform (LDP), which is being developed by Index Data for FOLIO and ReShare.

The Library Data Platform (LDP) is a reporting database that stores and transforms the FOLIO data and allows queries to run without having to send a request to the FOLIO apps directly

Institutions don't have to install the LDP along with FOLIO. They could use FOLIO without the LDP, but it does allow more complex queries.

The LDP connects to the LDP (query builder) app. By installing the LDP app, you can pull data out of your LDP database directly through the browser, just like another FOLIO app.

These tools are being developed and are supported by the Reporting SIG, which is giving feedback on how the tools should be designed. The reporting SIG is also building queries, so that institutions can get up and running with standard reports.

The next generation of the LDP, which is called Metadb, is currently in active development and has been deployed for ReShare and is being tested by Index Data institutions, before it gets a public release, which is expected soon.

Angela gave the group a demo using a tool called DBeaver, which has an open-source community edition and is a generic database connection software tool that Reporting SIG members tend to use to write queries (SQL or Structured Query Language) and execute them.

There was a discussion of the difference between LDP and Metadb.

Metadb offers real-time data streaming, data integration, and data versioning.

Another tool discussed was LD Lite. This was released a couple of weeks ago by Nassib Nassar (product owner and primary developer for these tools).

Erin Nettifee gave an update on the documentation group

https://docs.FOLIO.org/ click on Go to the Docs. This takes you to the main documentation page

Users isn't here yet, but Christine was able to finish her drafted documentation. So Users will be here soon.

Resource Management (Acquisitions) https://docs.FOLIO.org/docs/acquisitions/ Julie Brandon at Duke has made this a good resource if you're trying to learn more about orders or organizations or acquisitions-type stuff.

Glossary -- https://docs.FOLIO.org/docs/glossary/ -- is now public -- Documentation and definitions that were built out by the different members of the documentation working group. Erin encourages people to reference and use it.

Question 1 about whether there will be a sub-glossary, but Erin thinks probably just want to have one glossary want to have a central glossary and have the search engine to point to where you want to go.

Erin says she will bring that up with the documentation groups to see what others think.

Question 2 about whether there are any recommended first steps guide for implementation. For example, first I have to think about the locations, and the second would be ?

Erin said that Marcia has been working with some instructional technologists and instructional design interns who are working on a video intro to FOLIO.

Because Chicago is looking at December Go Live, they are currently working on a video series for local training.

Erin reminded the group about Community Contributed Resources page

https://wiki.FOLIO.org/display/FOLIOtips/Community+Contributed+Resources

There’s also an Information and User guides for FOLIO apps -- https://wiki.FOLIO.org/display/FOLIOtips/Individual+Apps%3A+Information%2C+Tips%2C+and+Tricks

With a section on reporting -- https://wiki.FOLIO.org/display/FOLIOtips/Reporting+in+FOLIO

A Tips for Implementer and Explorers -- https://wiki.FOLIO.org/display/FOLIOtips/Tips+for+Implementers+and+Explorers

And a Deep dive section -- https://wiki.FOLIO.org/display/FOLIOtips/Dive+Deeper

Cornell University has created some training content for their workers and Erin mentioned this could be a topic of an upcoming meeting.