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General Rapido Questions

• There's been plenty of mentions of the goals of Rapido. Do you think it succeeds in these goals?

  • For the most part Rapido succeeds at its goals. The workflow isn’t overly complicated, it provides additional benefits to patrons, and it’s fast. However the product is still in development and some features have yet to fully materialize.

• Are all CSU libraries considering this?  We have never been a Rapid library so wondering if this is something COLD is wanting us to be part of?

  • All CSU libraries will have the opportunity to decide to sign on as a Rapido customer.

• Is there a timeline for when it will be ready?

  • It is difficult to say due to the pandemic, but current estimates are for late 2021.

Cost and Budget

• Do we know what the pricing model might be like?

  • Members of the Council Of Library Deans (COLD) have received a price quote for joining Rapido as development partners. This price is will eventually expire, at which point the price will go up substantially. Joining as a development partner locks in the lower price for future subscription renewals.

• Sounds like this will rely on student assistants. Our budget has been cut severely and this is a concern.

  • Consolidating resource sharing services into Alma/Rapido will automate workflows, much like we saw with CSU+. With this automation and then a system that is familiar it could be an opportunity to have the work supported by student staff or less specialized staff. As more libraries join Rapido we should our volume of requests consolidate into Rapido, using any other system less and less.

• Is it anticipated that this will impact the cost of electronic journal subscriptions and digital book pricing?

  • We are not anticipating a change in costs for subscriptions and digital books because we already participate in resource sharing. Rapido should help us streamline workflows for patrons and staff as they submit and fill resource sharing requests.

Configuration and Workflows

Workflows

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Q: Can we see how patrons would request an article in Primo?

A:

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How does shipping label creation compare to ILLiad? Are they as easily customizable? do multiple labels print on one page?

• Shipping labels follow the same procedures for printing as everything else in Alma, it uses Alma Letters to print. Customizing shipping labels is the same process as customizing Alma letters. 

• Unfortunately, this means multiple items cannot be printed on a single page without using an API or something similar to CleanSlips.

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Will there be more blank forms beyond “Book” and “Article”?

• Yes, Ex Libris has discussed having more types of blank forms and you can edit the fields on the forms.

Q: I see the patron benefits but do staff benefit? Right now at my library we have to process books multiple ways using multiple systems.

A: With a more automated workflow and a consolidated use of our systems, Rapido could be expected to make the work easier and less time consuming for staff. Additionally, with pods being managed by Ex Libris staff will no longer have to annually (or however often it was done) evaluate their lending strings and the impacts of the choices of the lenders used. As more libraries join Rapido we will rely less and less on other systems to share materials and this could then mean less systems to manage, upkeep, and learn. Eventually we hope to move all resource sharing to Alma significantly reducing the different workflows needed.

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Printing and Letters

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Q: Does the due date show on the print out? Or a place to stamp the due date?

A: We can edit the letters, which are the print outs,  to have various fields. We could fo example have either the due date itself or a field for writing it in.

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Q: How does shipping label creation compare to ILLiad? Are they as easily customizable? do multiple labels print on one page?

A: The are customizable as Alma letters. The CSU Rapido Team has customized letters to print 6 to a page with all the addresses clearly visible.

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Q: Will the existing label printing program - which uses downloaded Excel sheets of requests - function with Rapido?

A: Cleanslips is difficult to maintain. It doesn’t work well for sharing beyond the CSU. By using Alma letters we have pull slips, book-bands, and shipping labels.

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Articles and RapidILL

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Q: What if you want to fill a chapter or article from your own collection?

A: If you mean for your own patrons, then if your rules are set up to flag it to fill for your own patron it will live in your lending requests and if you can’t fill it then you can bump it to the next library. 

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Q: Does Rapido serve as a full replacement for RapidILL?

A: RapidILL for articles is essentially embedded within Rapido. We’ll be using this interface instead of ILLiad to take care of these requests. 

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Q: Will we be able to pull in articles received through ILLiad? So that users can have all of their requested items in the same place?

A: We anticipate that many or most articles will filled by Rapido so they’ll all be in the patron library card. Any requests that do go out to ILLiad will be in their ILLiad accounts.

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Q: How quickly are large articles downloaded?

A: It seems to download quickly during testing.

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Q: Does this mean RapidILL will not exist in ILLiad anymore?

A: We can anticipate the majority of our requests being filled within Rapido including RapidILL. We anticipate using ILLiad as a partner of last resort. 

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Q: Is the recommendation to disable the RapidILL Service in Illiad?

A: Yes, at go live. Not prior.

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Rapido and Other Systems

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Q: Will it

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replace CSU+ since the CSUs could be the first pod?

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A: CSU+ will be the first pod

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Is this replacing the current RapidILL or is the current RapidILL going to be in existence?

• Current RapidILL will continue to exist outside of Alma.

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Will this affect how III ILL services (such as Link+) operate? 

• We don’t yet know how Ex Libris’s purchase of III will affect INNreach integration. Ex Libris hasn’t shared any plans on the topic.

but can continue to use the CSU+ name and marketing. Rapido puts the “+” in CSU+ by expanding the services to include libraries outside the CSU.

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Q: Could the items get deflected over to Rapido or ILLiad automatically when requested?

A: If materials are not held by any Rapido institutions then they can be deflected to ILLiad as a partner of last resort. As Rapido grows this should happen less and less. Due to the workflow, items from ILLiad would not deflect to Rapido.

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