John Brandt and Mary Dolan are working on issues related to getting usage statistics into ALMA, including
- whether/how to migrate current and historical usage data stored in USTAT into ALMA Analytics
- ALMA support for COUNTER reports
- availability of usage statistics during Test Phase (June 2016 - May 2017)
- migrating/re-establishing SUSHI connections
- Plans for non-COUNTER compliant usage data
- ProQuest Intota subscribers
As of 4/1/16, we know:
Brandon asked Ex Libris for an update on their plans in as much detail as they can currently provide. Ex Libris and ProQuest are currently reviewing their 3 statistical packages (UStat, Alma Analytics and Intota) and determining what they want to do with them in a merged Ex Libris/ProQuest environment.
Ex Libris is contractually obligated to support all COUNTER reports by June 2017, and Brandon and David will get a development update from Ex Libris soon. Currently, UStat supports COUNTER reports JR1 (with manual or SUSHI upload) and DB1 (manual upload only.) Ex Libris announced in Feb 2016 that the ALMA roadmap for 2016 Q3 includes uploading and SUSHI retrieval of COUNTER usage data moving from UStat to ALMA. As part of this transition, UStat will no longer be available to ALMA customers. We are waiting to learn whether this applies to CSU libraries since we will only have a test instance at that time.
Brandon has asked Ex Libris for their best practice in terms of migrating usage data and SUSHI connections. He confirms that Ex LIbris is currently planning to merge/bring UStat into ALMA, but has not yet addressed what that means for data currently hosted within UStat.
Any usage data or SUSHI configurations setup in the test instance will be overwritten during the final load in Spring 2017
Brandon has asked Ex Libris about the possibility of a data loading service being part of the new ALMA Analytics platform, and is awaiting a response. He pointed out that Ex Libris and ProQuest may not yet have determined the feasibility of bringing this functionality into ALMA. He assumes that the current ALMA Analytics functionality for data loading strongly resembles UStat.
In response to a query about providing a subscription to Intota for all campuses, Brandon mentioned that there are limited funds at the Chancellor's Office at this time and this request would be competing with other needs put forth by the libraries. He also cautions about adopting a third-party system that isn't integrated with ALMA since such a configuration defeats the purpose of a unified system. That being said, he completely understands the desire for a data loading service, and hopes we can provide Ex Libris with some impetus towards bringing the best of Intota Assessment into ALMA.