A power outage has affected library services throughout Otago
during the past two days.
Dunedin City Council library services manager Bernie Hawke
said the outage, in Invercargill on Tuesday morning, affected
the servers which run the Symphony library computer system
used by Central Otago, Queenstown-Lakes and the greater
Dunedin area libraries in Dunedin and at Mosgiel, Port
Chalmers, Waikouaiti, Blueskin Bay and book bus services.
"The servers that run the system are based in Invercargill
and we're connected with an internet link between Dunedin and
Invercargill," he said.
"By cutting that internet link, it's affected our ability to
access information on the system. So we've been recording
loans in our back-up, off-line system which allows us to
issue books, but not to check them back in. But because the
books can't be returned in the system, they haven't been
available to people."
The central library had a backlog of more than 3300 items
yesterday, which was what it issued most days.
"It's been frustrating, but we've been making the best of
it."
About half the books taken out were issued through the
library's self-checkout machines, Mr Hawke said.
"We've had to backlog everything and, as soon as the
connection with the server is re-established, it will all be
reconciled."
PowerNet network operations general manager Gary Pritchard
said yesterday afternoon the outage problem had been
resolved.
However, server access to the library computer system had not
been restored last night.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.