Project Update 1/29/16

Created by brandon dudley (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 06, 2016 by David Walker
3 min read

All -

Happy Friday! This ULMS project update covers the following:

  • Vanguard phase update
  • New sandbox environment
  • Test Phase Schedule
  • Primo Central integration update
  • ELUNA 2016 general information

Vanguard Phase Update

The three Vanguard campuses received access to their Alma instances on Tuesday, Jan 26. We plan to give them two weeks to test their data and ensure that records migrated as expected and that the configuration of Alma meets expectations. Once testing is complete, we will open access to these instances to the rest of the campuses – I will send an announcement as well as access information once these are available, estimated to be Feb 15.

The Vanguard campuses should receive access to Primo in early February. We imagine access to the public view can be made available to all campuses at this time, with Back Office access made available in early March. We will work directly with the Discovery Working Group to manage the handoff and ensure that everyone can see what the Primo interface looks like, so more later.

New Sandbox Environment

As reported by me earlier in the week, the CSU sandbox has been unavailable to us while Ex Libris is replacing the server with an environment that should be more helpful to our consortial needs. This new environment should be available to use by mid next week and consists of:

 1 Network + 2 member institutions. One of the members will be standard Alma sandbox content (same users, same vendors, same fund structure). Second member will be a smaller member will be a newly built environment with about 10k bibs + inventory. Approx 120 users. Overall, these two environments are generally unique.

We will share the access credentials with all of you once received from Ex Libris.

Test Phase Schedule

I have attached the high level schedule planned for the next ULMS project phase, where 21 campuses (24 institutions) will be completing migration forms and submitting their ILS data for testing. We plan to kick this phase off internally in early March with a webinar led by our Vanguard institutions that aims to provide an overview of the forms from the perspective of those who have completed the process. Ex Libris will provide more details about the schedule at the March kickoff meeting, followed closely by their own review of the forms required for a successful data migration. Forms will be due in early/mid April, along with the export of your ILS data, followed by several weeks of data massaging by Ex Libris before the load into your Alma instances, which are scheduled to be available for your testing and use by early June.

There will be weekly project meetings as well as functional training calls throughout April and May, and folks from the Vanguard campuses as well as the CO ULMS team will be available to assist in any way we can during the course of the test phase. This will be a very busy and critical time for the project so please plan your time accordingly.

There will be much (MUCH) more detail about each of the dates listed on the schedule, but I am happy to answer what questions I can in advance of the March timeframe.

Xerxes Primo Central Integration

Ex Libris has recently opened the Primo Central API to us and completed harvesting of our SFX holdings to support our work for integrating Primo Central article results into Xerxes.  David is now busily working on that integration and will have test systems to show to you all in February.

Some firewall and server issues from the data center move in late-December and early-January have delayed us here, but we have more than enough time to test and configure the new set-up before we go live this Summer.

ELUNA 2016

Information regarding this year’s Ex Libris user’s group meeting, taking place in Oklahoma City in May, is being made available through the ELUNA-Announce mailing list. I have attached the latest announcement here for your information and planning. 


Take care,

Brandon