Year 2000 Date Processing

This statement is a Year 2000 disclosure statement for the purpose of the Year 2000 Information Disclosure Act 1999. A person may be protected by that Act from liability for this statement in certain circumstances. This statement is authorised by the National Library of Australia (the "Library").

1. Introduction

The National Library of Australia is using all reasonable efforts to ensure that all its computer based systems will be operational in the Year 2000. To achieve this a Year 2000 Project was established in April 1997 to identify, assess and to make all reasonable efforts to rectify those Library's services which are vulnerable to the Year 2000 date problem.

The Library relies on its suppliers to provide Year 2000 compliant products and has made appropriate enquiries of its existing suppliers. The Library has a program to independently test vendor compliance statements in the context of the Library’s services.

The purpose of this statement is to inform Library customers of the Library’s approach to management of the Year 2000 issue, to relay the views of the Library’s suppliers as to the Year 2000 compliance of their products and to report on progress with independent testing. It is not intended as, and should not be interpreted as, a representation that the services used by the Library customers are Year 2000 compliant and will not be affected by a change in date to the Year 2000 and beyond. The Library has no control over systems, services, statements and data provided to us by third parties, and other factors that may result in our inability to provide services.

2. Library Services

2.1 Kinetica Service

The Kinetica Search & Cataloguing Service is based on the AMICUS software developed and used by the National Library of Canada. The system is being supplied to the Library by IBM Global Services Australia who has warranted that it is Year 2000 compliant. The current release (version 3.1) and the next release (version 3.2) of the AMICUS software have passed the independent tests conducted by the Library.

The Kinetica Downline Loading Service is based on the Remote TPSDLL software, developed by the Library. The Library is unaware of any date dependencies in this software. However, the Library cannot guarantee the Year 2000 compliance of this product operating on the large number of different library management systems used by Kinetica Customer Libraries, as the Library has no control over code changes made by the vendors of these systems vendors when installing the product. If more information is required by a recipient of this statement, it should be sought from the appropriate vendor. Customers should also note that this product provides a two digit year date in the header record so any end user developed software which reports on this information should be checked for compliance.

The Kinetica Document Delivery Service is based on the VDX software supplied and configured by Fretwell-Downing Informatics Limited. The supplier has warranted that the software will correctly provide full operation and full functions during the year 1999, the Year 2000 and after the Year 2000. The current release of this software has passed the Library's independent tests.

The Ariel Document Delivery software will be retained and integrated into the Kinetica service for use with the ILL sub-system. The developers of Ariel, Research Libraries Group (RLG) released a new version which RLG has certified is Year 2000 compliant and this was made available to Kinetica customers during 1999. RLG’s Year 2000 compliance statement for Ariel can be obtained from http://www.rlg.org/ariel/index.html.

While this statement provides a high level of confidence that Kinetica will function correctly on and after 1 January 2000, it does not guarantee compliance. The Library is committed to operating the full range of bibliographic services and if problems associated with date processing do occur, the Library will endeavour to minimise any disruption to customers.

2.2 National Chinese, Japanese and Korean (NCJK) System

This service is based on the Innopac Library Management System (LMS) supplied and maintained by Innovative Information Inc. (III). Both the Innopac LMS and the Digital Unix operating system on which it runs have been upgraded to versions which have been certified as Year 2000 capable by their suppliers.

As the NCJK system is fully managed by III, the Library will be relying on that company to ensure continuity of the service in the Year 2000. The Library’s Year 2000 testing in relation to the NCJK system was limited to testing the import and export of data, and those tests were successfully completed.

The WINMASS software used in conjunction with NCJK has been declared Year 2000 compliant by its developers. They have however highlighted that a problem exists with the code that controls the product licence and they will be providing a correction for this in a future upgrade.

2.3 National Library Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)

All components of this service have been certified Year 2000 compliant by the vendors. The Library has undertaken integration testing of this service, and those tests were successfully completed.

2.4 National Library World Wide Web Services (IMAGES 1, ILRS Directory, PANDORA, Australian Libraries Gateway, RAAM, PADI)

All the Library’s World Wide Web services passed the Library’s tests for operation in the Year 2000.

2.5 National Library Financial Services

The efficient and effective financial management of the Library is dependent on the Library's Financial Management System which uses a product known as Finance One. This product has been certified as Year 2000 compliant by the software developer - Technology One. The current release of Finance One has passed the tests conducted by the Library.

2.6 Integration Testing of Commercial Products

The Library has undertaken integration testing of commercial products which have been certified by their developers as Year 2000 capable. This involved testing that the implementation of these products at the Library operates correctly with the National Library of Australia’s computer equipment, systems software, other software with which they are required to operate and any customisation of the products. None of these tests revealed any Year 2000 issues.

3. Contingency Planning

The Library has developed a contingency plan, relating to Year 2000 capability, for each business critical system. The Library is satisfied that these plans will address the forseeable Year 2000 issues in relation to these systems.

4. Further Information

The Year 2000 Co-ordinator at the National Library of Australia is the Assistant Director-General, Information Technology, Dr Warwick Cathro.

Phone: (02) 6262 1358
Fax: (02) 6273 3648
Email: wcathro@nla.gov.au

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