Collaborate to Customize: A Consortium’s Journey Anya N. Arnold

Collaborate to Customize:

A Consortium’s Journey

Anya N. Arnold

Overview

• Location• Orbis Cascade Alliance• Past Direction • Change • Partnerships

• Current State of Affairs • New Strategic Agenda• Lessons Learned • Questions

Orbis Cascade Alliance

37 Members…Private & Public Colleges, Universities, Community Colleges in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho

Central Oregon Comm. College

Central Washington University

Chemeketa Community College

Clark College

Concordia University

Eastern Oregon University

Eastern Washington University

George Fox University

Lane Community College

Lewis & Clark College

Linfield College

Mt. Hood Community College

Oregon State University

Oregon Health & Science Univ.

Oregon Institute of Technology

Oregon State University

Pacific University

Portland Community College

Portland State University

Reed College

Saint Martin’s University

Seattle Pacific University

Seattle University

Southern Oregon University

The Evergreen State College

University of Idaho

University of Oregon

University of Portland

University of Puget Sound

University of Washington

Walla Walla College

Warner Pacific College

Washington State University

Western Oregon University

Western Washington University

Whitman College

Willamette University

Orbis Cascade Alliance

Serving 280… Colleges, universities, archives, museums in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah

Resource Sharing: 253,000 items a yearCourier: 305,000 packages a year Jointly Owned Ebooks: 17,000E-Journals Subscriptions: 3,910Databases: 135Guides to Archival Collections: 23,000Consortial Assessment ActivitesConferences and Workshops ……so much more….

Orbis Cascade Alliance

Non-profit corporation…9 staff, no central funding, 21 years old.

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda1. Cooperative Collection Development

“As an Alliance, we consider the combined collections of member institutions as one collection. While member institutions continue to acquire their own material, the Alliance is committed to cooperative collection development to leverage member institutions' resources to better serve our users.”

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda1. Cooperative Collection Development

• Ebook Program• WEST• Duplication Threshold

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda1. Cooperative Collection Development

• Development of a Shared-Monograph

Purchasing Plan • Explored Consortial Acquisitions

Workflows• Explored Subject selectors for a shared

collection

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda2. Collaborative Technical Services

“We have identified shared staff as a key area for collaboration and technical services as a promising area of initial investigation, with other initiatives to follow.”

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda2. Collaborative Technical Services

• Cataloging ACJK items• Cataloging Joint Ebooks• Collaborative Technical Services

Symposium

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda3. Digital Initiatives

• Digital Services Day• Digital Asset Management • Digital Preservation Readiness• Code4Lib NorthWest

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda3. Digital Initiatives

Pilots:• Cloud Sandbox Service• Offline Storage• IRs

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda3. Digital Initiatives

Grants:• IMLS Grant for Cross-Search and

Context Utilities

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda4. Discovery

WorldCat:• WC Usability Studies• WC Discovery Day• WC Purchase

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda4. Discovery

Other Discovery Systems:• Market place analysis

Investigating just what is a “Next Generation Discovery Platform”

Past Direction 2011-2013 Strategic Agenda5. Future of Integrated Library Systems

Investigate and recommend a course of action that will benefit all member libraries.

Overview

• Location• Orbis Cascade Alliance• Past Direction • Change • Partnerships

• Current State of Affairs • New Strategic Agenda• Lessons Learned • Questions

ChangeFuture of Integrated Library Systems

RFI, Demos, Recommendations

RFP, Demos, Recommendations

Votes

Change

In July 2012 Council voted to enter in to a contract with Ex Libris for a consortial implementation of Alma and Primo.

What does that mean?

We are be replacing – Integrated Library System– Discovery Systems – Link resolvers/knowledgebases– Standalone proxy servers – Electronic Resource Management systems – Local servers…to the could – Resource Sharing System

Three BIG projects at ONCE!

Legacy > Next generation

37 > 1

Acting as 1

WHY?

Not an end in itself

...because of the past

…because of the future

The past …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.

The future … Better services for students, faculty, staff

Improved resource sharing

Improved staff tools

New opportunities, • Collaborative Technical Services• Vision of “one collection”

New optionsAlma, Intota, Sierra, WMS, etc.

Partnerships

Internal • Member Library Staff

• Communication• Commitment • Change Management• Campus relations

Partnerships

Internal • Member to Member

• Mentors• Comradery • New colleagues• Train the Trainer

Partnerships

External • Vendors and Service Providers

• Migration off services• Re-establishing trust • Migration onto new services• Building trust • Development partner

Timeline Sept 2012 Project manager begins

Appointments to Working Groups madeContract with Ex Libris signed

Oct-Dec 2012 Shared ILS Team begins workCohorts finalizedPre-Implementation planning with Ex Libris begins

Jan-June 2013 Kick Off MeetingData migrationSystem configurationTraining

July 2013 Cohort 1 went live (Alma, Primo, NRE, WC)

Jan 2014 Cohort 2 went live (Alma, Primo, NRE, WC)

July 2014 Cohort 3 went live (Alma, Primo, NRE, WC)

Jan 2015 Cohort 4 WILL go live (Alma, Primo)

Jan 2015 Cohort 1-4 WILL migrate off of NRE and WC- and Start Using:

Alma Resource Sharing

Overview

• Location• Orbis Cascade Alliance• Past Direction • Change • Partnerships

• Current State of Affairs • New Strategic Agenda• Lessons Learned • Questions

Strategic Agenda 2014-1. Work Smart

Work and partner at the appropriate scale: local, regional, national, international

• Maximize impact     Do things once     Do things the same     Do things together

• Invest in staff training, development, and expertise• Leverage financial resources

Strategic Agenda 2014-2. Design for Engagement

Collect wisely, share freely, and enhance the teaching, learning, and research environment

• Investigate, create, and implement discovery and resource sharing tools

• Expose and preserve unique collections• Improve usability and reduce barriers to access

Strategic Agenda 2014-2. Design for Engagement

Collect wisely, share freely, and enhance the teaching, learning, and research environment

• Collaborate for shared access and shared collections• Create and promote new models of publication and data

curation• Explore new models of pedagogy to advance learning

and scholarship

Strategic Agenda 2014-3. Innovate to Transform

Push boundaries, change the landscape, and inspire the profession

• Demonstrate the broader contributions of libraries in higher education

• Pursue research• Develop groundbreaking services• Reimagine shared systems• Advocate for change

Lessons !!!• If you dream it you can do it

• Little steps adds up to HUGE advances

• Communication is never enough

• Schedule breaks

Lessons !!!• Anticipation is worse than reality

• Everyone is stressed so tread with kindness

• We all want this to work, and to work extremely well

Overall

Anya N. Arnold

Resource Sharing & Courier Program Manager

Orbis Cascade Alliance

AnyaA@OrbisCascade.org

@AnyaNArnold