wrangling cats: a case study of a library consortium migration
TRANSCRIPT
Wrangling Cats: A Case Study of a Library
Consortium Migration
NASIGMay 28, 2015
Steve ShadleUniversity of Washington Libraries
37 Members
Private & Public Colleges, Universities, Community Colleges in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho
275,000 Students
Supports 280
Colleges, universities, archives, museums in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah
Non-profit corporation
10 staffNo central funding
Alliance Programs
• Shared Alliance Collection
• Direct Patron Borrowing
• Electronic Resources Purchasing
• Courier Service
• Northwest Digital Archives & Digital Services
• Collaborative Collection Development
• Collaborative Technical Services
C to C
Collaborate
to
Customize
Do things together where we are substantially the same
Free up resources so members can fully realize their unique qualities
=
=
Work SmartWork and partner at the appropriate scale: local, regional, national, international…
Design for EngagementCollect wisely, share freely, and enhance the teaching, learning, and research environment…
Innovate to TransformPush boundaries, change the landscape, and inspire the profession…
Strategic AgendaDo things onceDo things the sameDo things together
Unique collectionsReduce barriers to accessNew models of publication,
data curation, & pedagogy
Develop new servicesReimagine shared systemsAdvocate for change
Migrated 37 colleges, universities, and community colleges to Ex Libris Alma (ILS) and Primo (discovery).
Along the way, replaced
• Integrated library systems• Discovery systems • Electronic resource management systems• Link resolvers/knowledgebases• Standalone proxy servers • Local servers … going to the cloud
What We Did
Why Did We Do This?
… because of the pastOld systems
Based on limited bandwidth, storage, lack of standards
Lagging functionality
Hard to • Innovate• Integrate• Extract data
Total cost of ownership: Maintenance, Servers, Discovery, ERM, open
URL resolvers, etc. etc.
Why Did We Do This?
… because of the futureBetter services for students, faculty, staff
Improved resource sharing … a better Summit
Improved staff tools
Enabling
• Collaborative Technical Services
• Vision of “one collection”
New vendor optionsAlma, Intota, Sierra, WMS, etc.
Legacy Next Generation
37 1
Shared Discovery
Collaborative Technical Services
Four Big Projects at Once!
Timeline
2008-10 Investigating options and models
2010 Total cost of operation study
2011 Request for Information, writing RFP
2012 Jan – July RFP, demos, negotiation, cost models, council vote
2012 Aug – Dec Contract with Ex Libris signed, cohorts finalized,
temporary project manager hired
2013 January Kick Off Meeting
2013 June Project Manager hired
2013 July Cohort 1 went live! 6 members … including our largest
2014 January Cohort 2 went live! 11 members
2014 July Cohort 3 went live! 10 members
2015 January Cohort 4 went live! 10 members
New Summit went live! All 37 members!
We are done!
Project Management
• Divided between Ex Libris and the Alliance
• Alliance taking increasing responsibility in later cohorts
Selected Ex Libris Responsibilities
• Overall project management
• Training and consulting support
• Create initial system configurations
• Perform data migration work
Selected Alliance Responsibilities
• Alliance-level project management
• Configuration decisions
• Data extracts from non-ExL systems
• Review configuration and data
• Training support
I Team
Discovery Working Group
Normalization Rules Working
Group
User Experience Working Gorup
Cataloging WGCirculation &
Resource Sharing WG
Training WG Systems WG Acquisitions WG Serials/ERM WG
https://www.orbiscascade.org/shared-ils-committee/
Team Structure
Implementation Team
• 8 members consisting of working group chairs and Alliance project manager
• Met weekly with ExLibris
• Coordinated overall operation and implementation
Working Groups
• 6-10 members from across cohorts + 1 Alliance staff member
• Met weekly/biweekly using web conference service
• Designated institutional contact was on email distribution
• As migration proceeded, contacts attended meetings
Focus on Training
• Strategically critical to project success
• Context: Very modest ExL product use
• ExL-led training: Alma and Primo
certification
Focus on Training
• Alma Functional Workshop: Workflow-
specific instruction in use of Alma
• Alliance trainers led most of this training in
last two cohorts
• Sessions were recorded
Lessons Learned
• Cohort based migration not ideal• Required due to system limitations and development• Burden on earlier cohorts• Extra effort to support longer transition
• Too many working groups• Communication/coordination issues• Burnout and turnover
• Understand the underlying data structures and dependencies
• Let it go!• Embrace change and ambiguity
Lessons Learned
• Collaboration results in good things• Better shared understanding (training, hackfest,
unconference, customizations)
• Unified voice in working with ExLibris
• Understanding that Alliance work is part of someone’s job, not an extra assignment
• Distributed work is possible
• Consortial work is hard• Consortial vs. Institutional (policies)
• Installation vs. Institutional (system)
• We’re not as similar as we thought
Thanks and References
Thanks to Alliance ColleaguesJennifer Ward
Megan Drake
Al Cornish
John Helmer
For more informationOrbis Cascade Alliance Shared ILS Program
https://www.orbiscascade.org/shared-ils-1
Cornish, Alan, Jost, Richard, & Arch, Xan. (2013). Selecting a shared 21st century management system. Collaborative Librarianship, 5(1), 16.
Sapon-White, Richard. Know Your Data: A Structured Approach to Migration Preparation, Post-Migration Clean-up, and Ongoing Metadata Maintenance. ELUNA 2015 presentation. Forthcoming.