Response Time Problems

["McClellan Jr., Michael C." <MMcClellan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Our 14 community libraries all open at 1:00 on Monday and Thursday (due to
recent budget cuts).  Our response time drops dramatically and the number of
unprocessed transactions sky rockets.  It then can take several hours for
things to get back to normal.  III is looking at our configuration to see if
we are undersized otherwise has no answer to this problem which has been
going on for months.  In the meantime I need to get a sense of which of the
following have an impact and should be done latter in the day.

Create Lists -- we have an ongoing debate about whether or not creating a
list has an impact or simply reflects the slow system.

Millennium -- since circulation was the first millennium module at MPL, I
have gotten the blame for the poor response time.  Does the number of
sessions logged in have an impact regardless of whether or not they actually
are being used?  Is there a difference between Telnet and Millennium on the
system?

Back dated check in -- all of these agencies are processing their bookdrop.
Would this specific function have an impact?  Or is it just the volume and
high rate of material being scanned?

Printing paging slips -- I have always assumed that printing circulation
notices (overdues, holds, bills) has an impact and we schedule these for
early in the morning.  But what about paging slips?  Each agency is
responsible for printing their own.  

We are on release 2002, phase 1.  Any hopes that phase 2 has any
improvements?  Anything else come to mind as system hogs?  A top ten list of
things not to do when it's slow/busy would certainly be helpful!

Michael McClellan
Circulation Department Supervisor
Minneapolis Public Library
250 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, MN  55401
612-630-6042