All –
Today’s email will cover the current status of the final load, next milestones to keep an eye out for, as well as updates on discovery and resource sharing.
* Project Status *
As of yesterday, all institutional data is in the hands of Ex Libris migration staff, who will be testing and loading your data over the next couple of weeks. All groups are in technical freeze at this point awaiting delivery of migrated data into your production Alma environments. This freeze includes all SFX resource modifications, which should be made in Alma after Go-Live.
Primo data will be scrubbed on June 1 and preparations for the production sync between Alma and Primo will occur during your Alma environment delivery/Go-Live weeks.
* Speaking of Freeze…. *
The Freeze is on, and so are the revelries celebrating moving ahead to the next stages of implementation. Here are some ways your fellows are celebrating the start of the Technical Freeze period (attached)
* Next Steps *
Below are the next few steps remaining between now and your library’s Go-Live date. If you have specific questions about any of these steps, please ask your Project Manager.
Next steps, in order – including dates (Group 1,Group 2, Group 3)
- Receive and test Alma data in production server (6/5, 6/12, 6/19)
- NOTE: These are estimated dates – you may receive your date earlier than your listed date
- campuses should consult the testing guides on CKC: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides/Testing_Migrated_Data
- Issues will be reported directly to ExL through SalesForce
- Accept Alma data (6/7, 6/14, 6/21)
- What constitutes acceptance? * Any written communication indicating either that the data is fully accepted or that it is accepted conditionally (with a list of priority issues).
- Extract final patron/loan/request (circ) data and FTP to Ex Libris (6/11, 6/18, 6/25)
- This begins the Fulfillment freeze
- Campuses should use offline circ client if circulating during this time
- Verify Primo data (6/11, 6/18, 6/25)
- Accept Alma/Primo environment & load offline circ data (6/12, 6/19, 6/26)
- Go-Live: Move to production and start use of system as main/current ILS (6/13, 6/20, 6/27)
* Discovery update *
The second round of central package and configuration changes for Primo are now live on the production system. Please see the email to the discovery listserv from last Friday for follow-up tasks for specific campuses.
This week, we will be putting in place several Primo changes including:
- Data normalization changes on Primo. These are largely aimed at suppressing various subject and note fields from the OCLC master record, as well as removing the large number of duplicate records introduced during the last re-index.
- Minor configuration changes around the display of data in the full record. More information on this forth-coming on the discovery listserv.
- Implement the new OneSearch logo in the Primo interface. We met last week to discuss issues around the placement of the logo in relationship to local campus branding concerns, and we will be doing our best to accommodate both within the limited real estate of the screen.
This will be the last set of data normalization changes we make to Primo prior to the complete re-harvest and re-index of data from Alma that accompanies the final migration. Campus should begin to wrap-up their work on Primo views and other customizations ahead of the final cut-over to production, just to make sure your Primo instance is stable for go-live. We will, of course, continue to make data normalization and configuration changes throughout the summer after go-live.
* Resource Sharing update *
CSU+ training for Group 1 (East Bay, Humboldt, Chico, Bakersfield, Dominguez, Northridge, Fresno)
Join the GTF team on June 15 at 10am and or at 2pm for a refresher on CSU+.
In this session we will be placing requests that will actually go through the courier system and to be completed later. (Step by step processing. )
Anyone is welcome to join the meeting but we will be focusing on group one.
Zoom invitations coming soon - Save the Date and Time
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Group 2's training will take place on June 22 at 10am & 2pm. All are welcome.
Group 3's training will take place on June 29 at 10am & 2pm. All are welcome.
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Starting the first week of July all campuses should be participating in dry runs of CSU+ so that go live on July 10 will go as smoothly as possible.
Take care,
Brandon
All –
This message contains updates on Resource Sharing as well as a project update.
* Project Status *
This is the last week for final data uploads. A big thank you for those of you who are working or did work on producing the final data exports!
Group 1: East Bay, Humboldt, Chico, Bakersfield, Dominguez Hills, Northridge, Fresno
Final data export uploaded & Technical Freeze begun: 5/13
Next deadline: Data test/acceptance: 6/7
Group 2: Monterey Bay, Maritime, Sonoma, Fullerton, Channel Islands, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pomona
Final data export uploaded & Technical Freeze begun: 5/20
Next deadline: Data test/acceptance: 6/14
Group 3: San Jose, Stanislaus, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Moss Landing, San Diego, San Francisco
Final data export uploaded & Technical Freeze start due: 5/27
Next deadline: Data test/acceptance: 6/21
Alma Campuses: Sacramento, San Marcos
Work begins: June 7
Work complete: June 13
* Please see your Project Manager (Stacie or Ian) if you have any questions about how the Alma-to-Alma migration will affect you *
As a reminder, while in technical freeze you should cease adding, deleting or modifying bib, order, resource and other non-circ related records throughout the duration of the freeze. Changes to these records will not be carried over to Alma after the date above.
* Resource Sharing Update *
New enhancements to CleanSlips and to the Printing Templates
New versions have been added to the I-SPIE website you are strongly encouraged to delete your previous CleanSlips and Template files and replace them with the new versions. These enhancements make the document clearer for both the borrower and lender, and address problems in formatting.
CleanSlips enhancements:
- Limits the amount of characters displaying in the book title to 40 characters. This displays enough of the book title to identify the book, especially when coupled with the call number. By limiting the characters, long titles won’t push needed information out of the sticker templates.
- Alphabetized the call number area as best as possible. Sadly there is a good deal of information before the call number that we are stuck with that could interfere with true alphabetization. With this enhancement items will print out grouped to the same location and then alphabetized. This might make sorting easier before searching the shelves.
Template enhancements:
- Added a place for people to add the name of the lending school and OCLC symbol. This will require you to open the document, type in the information, and save the doc because everyone would put different info. Thankfully you will only need to do this once. Previously only the borrowing school’s name was on the slip, and that’s great for making sure it goes to the right borrower, but without the lending library on the slip it would be hard to send it back to the correct lender.
- Changed location text to red to make it stand out for the people who pull the book from the shelf.
- Added a place for volume. In most cases nothing will show up in this spot, but in cases where a specific volume was requested the field will populate the information from the excel sheet.
- Minor formatting changes to help everything fit, look nice, etc.
The new file package can be downloaded here: https://ispiecsu.wordpress.com/csu/alma-printing/.
To allow us to print multiple pull slips, book bands, and stickers on a single sheet of paper the GTF created Book Bands and Sticker templates that work with the Lending Print Slip Report to genera… |
Thanks,
Brandon
All –
Now that we are in the final phases of ULMS implementation, these update emails will be sent out weekly every Tuesday. The aim is for everybody to understand where we are in the implementation process and to know what the next steps will be for your library. As always, your local Project Manager is your best friend for details or questions, but you may also reach out to me as well.
This message contains updates on Resource Sharing, Discovery and Alma Authentication as well as a project update.
* Project Status *
Group 1: East Bay, Humboldt, Chico, Bakersfield, Dominguez Hills, Northridge, Fresno
Final data export uploaded & Technical Freeze begun: 5/13
Next deadline: Data test/acceptance: 6/7
Group 2: Monterey Bay, Maritime, Sonoma, Fullerton, Channel Islands, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pomona
Final data export uploaded & Technical freeze start due: 5/20
Next deadline: Data test/acceptance: 6/14
Group 3: San Jose, Stanislaus, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Moss Landing, San Diego, San Francisco
Final data export uploaded & Technical Freeze start due: 5/27
Next deadline: Data test/acceptance: 6/21
As a reminder, while in technical freeze you should cease adding, deleting or modifying bib, order, resource and other non-circ related records throughout the duration of the freeze. Changes to these records will not be carried over to Alma after the date above.
* Resource Sharing Update *
The GTF has been very busy adding CSU+ resources to the I-SPIE website! The main CSU+ page on the I-SPIE website has been updated with more information and an easier to navigate format. Information available on the site includes:
- Alma Institution Codes
- Alma Printing
- Edit Resource Sharing Form
- Questions
- Recorded Testing Sessions
- Testing Workflow
The Alma Printing page also has updated templates to download for the book bands or stickers. These new templates include the CSU+ logo and are available in red or black. Simply download the new TEMPLATE.doc file of your choice and save it over your old template to use the new design.
* Discovery *
David is preparing the second round of Central Package and configuration changes, which will be installed on the Primo sandbox this week, and pushed to production on Friday.
That will include all of the ‘planned’ changes on the page below, as well as the removal of the old browse and a-z options that previously pointed to the old UI.
https://calstate.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=79903030
A couple of things for you to consider:
1. Please let David know if you have any changes on production that need to first be exported to sandbox before he makes those changes. Otherwise, I’ll be making the necessary changes and migrating all configurations from sandbox to production for all instances.
2. If you previously customized the Get It Links table so that the OpenURL link opens in the full record instead of its own window (Rec. #6 in the page above), you can now drop that customization, as that is now the default. Let David know if you’d like to ‘revert’ that table back to the default.
* Alma Shibboleth *
The documentation for Alma-Shibboleth authentication ready for distribution. You can access it here:
https://calstate.atlassian.net/wiki/display/ULMSS/Authentication
Please feel free to send this to your campus Shibboleth administrators. This should be a relatively simple change on the Shibboleth side to add Alma to the existing Primo configuration.
David put in place the necessary configuration settings in Alma a few weeks back in anticipation of the freeze. So the Alma side of things should be ready to go. We just need campus IT to update Shibboleth, and then you should be able to test it out.
Thanks,
Brandon