Wrangling Cats: A Case Study of a Library

Consortium Migration

NASIGMay 28, 2015

Steve ShadleUniversity of Washington Libraries

Outline

Consortia Overview

Shared ILS Rationale

Implementation

Lessons Learned

Next Steps

http://blog.karmona.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/herding-cats.jpg

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

Diversity!

Student FTE

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

Shared Integrated

Library System

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

• Start data cleanup NOW!

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

Next Steps

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.