Project Update 4/27/16

Created by brandon dudley (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 24, 2018 by David Walker
3 min read

This week’s project update contains information about the following:


  • CO staff out next week
  • Test load status
  • COLD meeting April 28-29
  • Serial Solutions ERM developer partnership
  • Ex Libris Executive meeting
  • Functional training scheduled August 8-10


==ELUNA next week==

 

Much of the Chancellor's Office ULMS Team will be out of the office over the next several weeks as we attend the COLD meeting and ELUNA Conference. We'll be online that whole time, but may be a bit delayed in getting back to you. Bear with us!

 

==Test load has begun==

 

Ex Libris has now started loading records into the new Alma environment as part of the test load phase of the project. You may be hearing from Ex Libris if they run into any issues with your data. We expect that the loading and testing of data by Ex Libris will continue well into May, with the Alma instances made available for testing in June. A special thanks to everyone who had played a role in data clean-up, form configuration, and other tasks in preparation for the test load. You've done a great job!

 

The project now moves away from our data and towards how each instance of Alma should be initially configured. Ex Libris has made available the Alma configuration form to all campuses. Sarina recently sent out an annotated version of that form and the Vanguard campuses held a webinar last week to discuss their experience in filling out the forms last winter. An Ex Libris-led review of the form is scheduled for tomorrow, April 27, with a Vanguard-led follow-up Q&A session to be held on Friday, April 29.

 

==COLD meeting this week==

 

The ULMS project figures prominently on the COLD agenda this week in San Francisco, with resource sharing, in-person training, and the go-live schedule up for discussion. Look for more on these discussions in the next project update.

 

==Serials Solutions ERM data to Alma==

 

San Luis Obispo and San Diego will be serving as development partners with Ex Libris in the creation of a new, automated process to migrate Serials Solutions ERM data from 360 Resource Manager into Alma. This project will be taking place in parallel to the test load, with initial planning starting soon and testing later in the Summer and Fall.

 

This is one of several development partnerships Ex Libris has undertaken at our request. We have also worked with them over the past few months on an improved process for migrating consortial SFX data to Alma, which we will be part of the test load. They have also deployed a streamlined process for setting up Shibboleth authentication with Primo. We've been quite happy with Ex Libris' flexibility and responsiveness in these areas.

 

==Meeting with Ex Libris executives==

 

Some of you have noted that ELUNA has opened up voting on enhancement requests for Alma and other Ex Libris products for this year. Although any CSU with its own ELUNA institutional membership may vote in this process, we’ve started putting together a plan for a more formal, systemwide approach to enhancement gathering and voting starting next year, when all of us will have a better idea of what enhancements we’d like to see in Alma and Primo. We’ll be bringing a proposal to the Council of Library Deans (COLD) along those lines in the Fall.

 

In the meantime, we have been pushing specific enhancement requests – mostly related to the migration and implementation process as mentioned above –- directly to Ex Libris. We will be meeting with Ex Libris executives in mid-June to get a status update on development work specifically mentioned in our contract.

 

We’re also meeting with representatives from Orbis Cascade, the University of Wisconsin system, and the University System of Georgia at ELUNA in a couple weeks to determine how best we can leverage our collective clout to press Ex Libris for enhancements on consortial feature and functionality specifically.

 

We’ll be bringing you news on all of those fronts in the coming months, most likely through email updates and Office Hours webinars.

 

==In-person workshops August 8-10==

 

The first of two in-person workshops related to fulfillment, acquisitions and resource management will be held August 8-10. The location and participants are yet to be determined, but you may want to block out those dates now in anticipation of attending.