2018-10-19 Meeting Agenda & Notes

Acquisitions & ERM

• Jessica, Wendy, Christine, and I met with Dana from ExLibris over Zoom on Oct.2. She had questions specifically related to NZ acquisitions workflows. We originally thought the scope of the conversation would be broader and would allow discussion for ERM Enhancements in general. We took the opportunity to send her a list we’d prepared of our suggestions for ERM enhancements. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DSZZWZbzjU7ZLPWKqNJ5vcJf1_Mnp7yZEsDTvyYnz04/edit
• Christine Holmes presented at the Sept 28^th Open Forum on the use of HTML tags in Alma for display as Public Notes in Primo.
• Kirstie and Kelly Velasco from CSULB presented at the CSU SoCal Technical Services Meeting. Kirstie gave an overview of PCI and Primo records as they relate to Alma e-collection activations, and discussed some troubleshooting tips.  Kelly gave a demo of CSULB’s Alma-Peoplesoft Finance Integration.
• Christine, Kirstie, and Jessica will present at the Oct 25^th Open Forum. Kirstie and Christine’s discussion will be similar to what Kirstie presented at the SoCal meeting since that presentation wasn’t recorded.  CSU staff expressed interest in this topic at past open forums.  Jessica has been investigating the trial functionality in Alma and will demonstrate her findings.
• At our next Acq/ERM committee meeting (Oct. 24^th), we’re going to discuss setting a deadline for completing our first draft of the “Getting Started” Document we’re working on. Our team members are discussing what to include on a more universal basis (applicable to all campuses) as well as adding examples that show how different CSUs do things locally. Recommended to also link to existing documents or training on Confluence.

Assessment & Analytics

• COLD's SPIRIT (Shared Print Initiative) task force reached out to us with questions regarding the kind of data Alma Analytics could provide in support of a shared print program, and how it compares to OCLC's GreenGlass product.  We were also invited to a Zoom demo of the latest version of GreenGlass.  The general consensus of the group, shared with SPIRIT, is that Alma Analytics, enriched with SRU data, can provide much the same data, more frequently updated, and at a lower cost; however, that approach also has several drawbacks, the most serious being limitation to our own consortium (eliminating SCELC as a partner) and heavy reliance on existing CSU staff.  We supported SPIRIT's consensus that they should go forward with a request for GreenGlass, with the expectation that additional collection data could be derived from Alma as needed.

• The Analytics Collection Development task force is working on a dashboard of the most commonly requested reports.  The focus is on actionable reports that could be run by staff with Analytics roles at the request of selectors and other specialists.  Work is in early stages with task force members soliciting reports from campuses and contributing to a common folder.

• The Data Visualization task force is considering software options, including Tableau licensing, and contacting campuses with noticeable data anomalies before they release the next iteration.

• The Resource Sharing - Analytics joint task force is working on functional reports to support day-to-day resource sharing activities.

• An SRU task group (Lauren Magnuson (CSUSM) and Jeremy Hobbs (CPSLO)) has formed and is looking at how best to support SRU (Search/Retrieve via URL) applications and Analytics query enrichment at all campuses, with the end goal of creating a user-friendly web application.

• The most recent Alma update introduced a serious defect in Analytics and SRU data, causing Group Member data to become unavailable.  This prevented campuses from running reports that captured e-resources managed for them in the NZ.  Ex Libris rapidly resolved the Analytics defect but is still working on the SRU problem.

• Nikki presented an hour of Network Zone Analytics training at the Southern California Technical Services Meeting.  Slides with step-by-step instructions for three report scenarios are available here.

Discovery

User Experience and Development Task Force

• Task force members will continue the work from the prior AY and analyze new UX findings to produce recommendations. Recommendations will be presented at open forums to gather feedback.
• The three projects that the task force is working on are completion of Primo UI Environmental Scan (non-CSU institutions), updates to CSU Survey of Primo UIs, and review of AY 2017-18 UX multi-campus study. Will also review findings of Chico UX study.

Analytics Joint Task Force

• Will meet in the second half of October.

Norm Rules Joint Task Force

• David Walker will form a joint task force to address search results relevance ranking issues.
• David Walker will take this to the other committees and present needs with call for volunteers

Uresolver

• David Walker to discuss project goals with ULMS Fulfillment Functional Committee and ULMS Acquisitions & E-Resource Management and request a call for volunteers.
• Aiming to have volunteers from Fulfillment and ERM by end of October.
• Task force met to discuss project parameters. Next steps is for TF members to explore how we might go about developing a better Uresolver.

An open forum will be scheduled for mid-November.

Fulfillment

• We held our first zoom Open Forum on September 25^th with the following demonstrations. The session was recorded as well.
  • Alma Demo: Kevin Phillips (Fullerton)
    • Alma Shelf Report
    • Custom shelf reading report that gives specific visual representation, making it easy to find and correct items out of order.
  • Analytics Demo: Christine Evans (Fresno) and Mallory DeBartolo (Chancellor’s Office)
    • Patrons who owe over $x.xx  amount after xx/xx/xx date, which is useful in identifying patrons who need holds on their accounts.
    • Shared Report Folder in Analytics: Shared/Community/Reports/Institutions/CalState/Fulfillment
  • Alma Demo: Cathe Olson (SLO)
    • Proxy Borrowers: Configuration and Circulation
• The committee is continuing to compile a list of fulfillment topics and functionality for future training and demos.
• Jaime Serrano from Pomona joined the committee and attended his first meeting on 10/16/18.
• The committee has been working hard on identifying needs and setting goals for the upcoming year. We should be ready to share soon.

Resource Management:

Resource Management Functional Committee identified goals for the upcoming year:

• Reconvene Authorities Task Force to revisit authority work in a consortial environment and explore the use of some of the functionality in Alma in support of authority work (e.g., Link BIB headings).
• Explore potential impact of the upcoming new Alma Metadata Editor to resource management work and workflows.
• Explore and/or request enhancements to functionality in support of workflow efficiencies (e.g., creation of holdings & item records at the point of exporting records from OCLC, etc.)
• In addition, Committee will focus on the completion of the following training resources:
• Resource Management Guide;
• “How-to” articles;
• Presentation on Bibframe.

Committee Members are in the process of creating (1) a number of “How-to” articles to be reviewed and posted online (due on October 29), and (2) drafting and revising Resource Management Guide (due on November 12) for an initial review.

Recent discussions focused on:

1. the encoding of Accession/Shelving Control Numbers in Alma holdings record by strict adherence to MARC21 Holdings Format or allowing some flexibility in the application of our best practices. Best practices will be presented during an upcoming TS Open Forum;
2. how campuses are gathering cataloging statistics (e.g, new titles, items added; levels of cataloging, etc.). Analytics Committee shared SJSU Production Statistics Dashboard used to gather monthly cataloging statistics.
3. reconvening Authorities Task Force soon since the CSU Funnel NACO Training has ended and Task Force can address next steps in this area.

Related Activities:

• TS Open Forum presentations included “Rethinking Technical Services Job Duties” (Suzanna Conrad & Stacie Jensen); “Discovery Relevancy Ranking Task Force” (David Walker); “Using HTML Tags in E-Resources Public Notes” (Christine Holmes); “DVD Personal Copies on Course Reserves” (Israel Yanez);
• CSU SoCal Technical Services Meeting included presentations by and participation of members across Functional Committees.

Resource Sharing:

• The Resource Sharing Functional Committee has been hard at work developing new processes and researching new features and potential workflows. We are finally releasing the Tricor problem reporting system for beta testing (probably today). During the rest of this semester we are using the reporting system to gain insight into how big a problem Tricor errors are.
• We are writing and editing a CSU+ Strategy to help guide the committee as we consider enhancements and create policies for the rest of the year and beyond. These ideas and priorities will help us focus as we consider policies such as walk in patron data sharing, ILLiad cancellations, and potential ROTA changes.
• Lastly we will have an open forum over Zoom next month. We hope to be able to answer question and update the ILL community on what we have been working on.

Suzanna Conrad (Unlicensed)

The I-SPIE steering committee is interested in learning more about the CSU+ rota. This brings up the question about what I-SPIE's role should be in managing and governing CSU+.

Chris notes that there is overlap between the I-SPIE steering committee and the ULMS Resource Sharing functional committee. I-SPIE steering has been less active over the past couple of years due to the focus on ULMS. They are thinking about what their role should be post-ULMS.

General consensus of the ULMS steering committee was that this was a good discussion for I-SPIE to have. Hopefully, the discussion will lead to mutually beneficial synergy between I-SPIE and ULMS RS. ULMS Steering can assist if guidance is needed to build synergy or if COLD has strategic goals for RS that it would like these groups to work on.

For now, the Shared Print plans that COLD is considering are focused on Shared Retention, in which a group of libraries join together and make commitments to keep a certain portion of their collection for 15-20 years. Their commitments are made public via OCLC.

The two options that COLD is currently considering are joining with SCELC, which already has a Shared Print group of 25 libraries, or forming a CSU specific shared print agreement. If we join SCELC, we would have to subscribe to OCLC's GreenGlass for collection analysis. If we do a CSU-only agreement, we may be able to do the analysis with Alma Analytics instead.

The ULMS Analytics Committee was asked to do an analysis of the pros and cons of GreenGlass versus Alma Analytics. Nikki sent the analysis to John via email. He will share with ULMS Steering.

The two main benefits of Alma Analytics are (1) it doesn't require a new subscription and (2) it provides libraries with dynamic up-to-date collections data (unlike GreenGlass, which has static data between uploads). The two main benefits of GreenGlass are (1)  it doesn't require much CSU staff time or expertise and (2) it has access to comparison data from all OCLC libraries, not just CSU.

The committee made other suggestions about what SPIRIT should consider in evaluating Shared Print and determining COLD's goals. 

Rather than generating a central report from Alma, each campus probably has fairly accurate knowledge of how many records they want to include in a Shared Print program.

Christina Mune will replace Rae Ann Stahl on the CSU ULMS Steering Committee effective January 1 and will serve the balance of her term which ends June 30, 2020.

Nicole Lawson  will temporarily replace Suzanna Conrad as the interim At-Large Representative of the CSU ULMS Steering Committee from December 1, 2018 through Spring 2019.