Alma Implementation

Alma progress report (October 2019)

Last month was a hectic one!

Five working groups and the Communications Committee met in October 2019.

• The Training Working Group met on Thursday, October 10, 2019.
  • The group discussed the issue of coordinating training opportunities with other working groups. They decided that those members in the WG who are already members of other working groups will serve as liaisons.
  • Members of the group agreed that an Alma Training LibGuide is in order. One has been drafted and will be used by this group and the others to collate and present training material based on functional area.
  • The group reviewed the survey of Alma training needs and agreed on some revisions. (It was distributed via the Communications Committee mailing list on Monday, October 28, 2019.)
  • Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/Training
• The Systems Working Group met on Thursday, October 17, 2019.
  • The group didn’t have enough agenda items for an in-person meeting so they met virtually for a brief update.
  • Patron data loading was the major topic of discussion.
  • Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/Systems
• The Access Services & Resource Sharing Working Group met on Friday, October 18, 2019.
  • Two members of the group reported on their October 11, 2019, visit to SUNY Optometry, who has been live on Alma for 3 months at that point. They described SUNY’s having to adjust to the new Alma terminology and their problems with printing and staff learning how to use the new Resource Sharing options as the biggest obstacles.
  • The group was asked to create a list of the reports that they are currently using in Aleph with the hope that these reports can be replicated in Alma. The heavily used reports would be replicated first with the lesser used reports replicated later.
  • It was shared that some libraries are yet to submit their collection/circulation loan policy updates for transfer to Alma. Members of the group agreed to send a note regarding this inaction to the Communications Committee in hopes of stressing the importance of this task.
  • Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/AccessServices
• The Communications Committee met on Wednesday, October 23, 2019.
  • The committee members had a lively discussion about Alma training and what that will look like, concerns about Alma fatigue at the campus libraries, worries about staff turnover, etc. Folks shared their local practices for discussing the Alma implementation.
  • During a discussion of whether any information about Alma needs to be shared beyond the library, concerns were raised about the impending migration away from the CUNY Catalog and the total reliance on CUNY OneSearch for discovery of and access to local resources. Committee members noted that some faculty members (outside the libraries) refuse to use OneSearch. Others mentioned that schisms are forming in their libraries between those who use and teach OneSearch and those who cannot get OneSearch to return the kinds of results they are seeking.
  • The committee is conducting a landscape scan of hands-on training-friendly facilities at the libraries on behalf of the Training Working Group. This will help their colleagues on the Training WG coordinate room booking for training opportunities.
  • Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/CommunicationsCommittee
• The Metadata Standards & Policies Working Group met on Thursday, October 31, 2019.
  • Group members reviewed some existing training material and recommended videos and other material for the standing Cataloging Committee members and others in technical services at CUNY to consider.
  • Three members volunteered to be the core trainers for cataloging in Alma.
  • The group made its first policy. It pertains to electronic resources and states that content that can be obtained from the Alma Community Zone or the forthcoming Central Discovery Index shall not be loaded nor maintained in Aleph/Alma.
  • Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/Metadata
• The Resource Access Working Group met on Tuesday, September 24, 2019.
  • Concerns around privacy were raised about using Alma for funding and budget lines. However, our contract with Ex Libris explicitly states that the vendor does not have access to these details. Furthermore, CUNY does not sign licenses with non-disclosure items. The goal is to use Alma as our electronic resource management system, something we have never had at CUNY.
  • Members of the group addressed a concern raised during a recent meeting of the Public Services Committee, wherein a member of that committee wondered why we were only migrating SFX data and not Serials Solutions data. It ultimately comes down to the fact that Alma will more easily accept SFX data and, at a time when the libraries are already busy cleaning up and optimizing data, it does not make sense to also ask them to massage their SerSol data into a format that Alma will accept. Instead, campus librarians will have to activate any titles/packages not available via SFX in Alma and OCLC WorldShare Collection manager after go-live.
  • Members were also reminded that SFX needs to be clean before it's migrated, though no timeline was given.
  • The group discussed training needs and started a "sandbox" LibGuide where they will store information that can then be mined for the larger Alma Training LibGuide that the Training WG is creating.
  • Complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/ResourceAccess

The Office of Library Services hosted an Alma Demo Day at John Jay College on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, that was exceptionally well-attended. We had 95 in-person attendees and at least another 50 via the livestream. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, those joining the event remotely had a difficult time following the presentation. This also means that the recording is imperfect and incomplete. However, it is still available to view on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/Recordings

As a follow-up to the Demo Day event, OLS held an Alma Q&A webinar session on Thursday, September 19, 2019. The recording of this event can be found on the Alma Implementation LibGuide: https://guides.cuny.edu/LSPImplementation/Recordings

Additionally, the implementation team at OLS met with the Ex Libris implementation team twice:

• The meeting on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, revolved around the collaborative structure of Alma and how CUNY data fits into such an environment.
• The call held on Tuesday, October 22, 2019, was an introduction to the implementation stage of our project, which included reviewing procedures and timelines.

The CUNY Libraries are on track for a smooth transition to Alma! Thank you to everyone working on the Aleph clean-up projects, attending the Q&A sessions, and serving on the implementation committees and working groups.