Bye Bye Aleph & Mango, Hello Alma & Primo: Home

Welcome to your one stop shop for our Alma and Primo VE implementation.

Earth shattering revelations and important to-do's will live on this tab. For a more thorough update see the Good to Know box below this one.

August To-Do's:

• Our migration checks are done and you are free to begin all normal Aleph activities in Alma.
• Found an error? If you see something, say something.
• By August 16th -12 premium TEST environments available (data of 12 of the 40 institutions)
• August 16th - First day of classes
• August 27th - Working Groups, Implementation Team, & Steering Committee will be disbanded.

June 2021 To-Do's: Wheeee! Only 2 weeks left to test & configure EVERYTHING! Play in Alma & Primo VE! Figure it out how to do "it" now, BEFORE June 15th. June 10th (noon meeting) - Got a question, error, suggestion? Last chance to hash it out with the team! June 14th - Last day to make any configuration changes. These settings will remain at go live. June 15th - @6PM Alma/Primo test instances no longer available. Do NOT access our sites again until 7/13/21.  June 28th - All automated processes in Aleph cease - except circ.

May 2021 To-Do's:

• We're at the top of the rollercoaster - hold on to your hats!
• May 1st - UBorrow Requests & renewals stopped.
• May 7th - Primo webinar with Ex Libris.
• May 28th AM - Tech Services Freeze - Use new Aleph passwords; ALL individual Aleph logins will be invalid. 
• Spring Workshops- Complete & retake any needed workshops.
• Got a question? Found an error in Alma/Primo? Suggestion for Primo? Add it to our sheet in PIE: http://bit.ly/AlmaQuestions 

April 2021 To-Do's:

• Spring Workshops- Complete any remaining workshops. Repeats are now allowed for those that want MORE. 
• Play in Alma & Primo VE! Time to go crazy & try to break it!

   

March 2021 To-Do's:

• Breathe in the good air, breathe out the bad. In with the good....
• Spring Workshops- View the intro session (& others if you wish) from Week 2 on the "Workshop Recordings" tab above.
• Play in Primo! Newspaper Search was turned on this week by FALSC. Play with it & decide if you like it. 

February 2021 To-Do's:

• Complete Alma Essentials OR the NEW Alma Essentials by Valentines Day ♥ Week: 2/15/21 - 2/19/21.
• Attend/review 2/4/21 FALSC Spring Workshops Informational Webinar:
  • Slides from 2/4 Webinar: https://bit.ly/3oUID3d 
  • NEW recording of 2/4 webinar content: https://bit.ly/3jkT2Eb
  • Sign up link for Alma Workshops: http://bit.ly/3q1CZ0F 
• 2/9 - Full 40 test load meeting for local implementation team - see email from 2/5 from SS for new link.  
• 2/10/21-2/17/21 - Test your access to our instance of Alma using SSO.
• Look for potential migration errors in Alma. 

January 2021 To-Do's:

• Play a bit in Alma Essentials. The goal is to have this completed by the end of February.
• Review FALSC's eresources webinar or at least skim the slides (Links in December notes & "The Reference Section" box).
• Accept the calendar invite (sent 1/22/21) for the FALSC Spring Workshops Informational Webinar on 2/4/21 at 9AM. 

Project Presentations

Below is a list of recordings for all major meetings and/or presentations related to the ILS Implementation Project. Many of these sessions were open and available to all library staff and cover topics that touch on all aspects of the project. Click on the corresponding link to view the presentation. Slides and other information may also be available.

Last updated Aug 18, 2021 - Table mostly taken from FALSC Next Gen ILS Implementation LibGuide 

The content below is duplicated from the official FALSC website solely for your convenience - one stop shop.

Only the recordings from week 2 will live here. The remainder will (most likely) be posted on a date in the near future here: https://falsc.libguides.com/ILS-Implementation/spring_ws_recordings 

Spring Workshop Recordings

FALSC have made the recordings of each session of the workshops available for staff to watch. The recordings listed below are from the Week 2 workshop held March 8-11, 2021. The presenter for all sessions was Pam Tejes from Ex Libris.

Please use these recordings as a refresher or to catch up on a session that you could not attend. However, they are not a substitute for the for the live, interactive sessions that are currently being offered each week until May 6th.  

Also, it is imperative that if you cannot attend the Introductory session offered each Monday morning from 9:30-10:30am, but you are attending other sessions later in the week, that you watch the recording of the Introductory session. For instance, if you registered to attend one or more sessions on Fulfillment (Circulation) which are offered on Wednesday and Thursday, you should either attend the Monday morning session or watch the recording listed on this page. Information given in the Introduction session will not be repeated explicitly in other sessions.

[Note: There were two technical issues during the workshop that temporarily halted the session and stopped the recording. Because of this, the first part of session 3 and the second part of session 8 have multiple recordings.]

Fall Workshop Recordings (September 2021):

All of the FLVC / Ex Libris Fall Workshop recordings will be available here: https://falsc.libguides.com/ILS-Implementation/fallworkshoprecordings  

FLVC is posting the recordings the week following the live workshops.

Switch to Go Live Timeline

All institutions will go live on Alma/Primo VE on Tuesday, July 13, 2021.

In order to successfully transition all data from Aleph to Alma, it will be necessary to pause various system processes and services currently available to library staff and patrons. Below is a timeline that details when these processes and services will be affected. Please be assured that the dates listed were not made arbitrarily, but rather after numerous discussions between FALSC and Ex Libris; both keeping in mind the amount of time needed to successfully convert the data and the desire to allow the least amount of disruption to library services as possible.

March 1, 2021 - May 7, 2021 - Ex Libris Spring Workshops

March 10, 2021 - Functionality Testing Officially Begins

FALSC New ILS Implementation Timeline (All Phases): https://falsc.libguides.com/ILS-Implementation/timeline 

Eight Working Groups:

1. Acquisitions/Serials
2. Cataloging Authorities
3. Circulation/Resource Sharing
4. Discovery
5. E-Resources Management
6. Joint Use
7. Systems/Reports
8. Training

They want YOU !

To facilitate this broad participation, FALSC has set up eight discussion lists, one for each working group, where any library staff can subscribe. Each working group is obligated to post notes from each of their meetings to their respective discussion list and monitor all messages posted to it. The working groups are also encouraged to post questions to the list asking for input. They may also sponsor open web meetings from time to time to invite discussion on a particular topic. These lists are a wonderful way to stay informed and contribute to the project.

Feel free to subscribe to as many of these lists as you want. Joining a list is pretty straightforward, and instructions are listed below.

How to join an Alma/Primo VE Implementation Discussion List

1. Use the links below to join one of our ILS Implementation Discussion Lists:

ILS-ACQ-SER-DISCUSSION https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-ACQ-SER-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-CAT-AUTH-DISCUSSION  https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-CAT-AUTH-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-CIRC-RS-DISCUSSION   https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-CIRC-RS-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-DISCOVERY-DISCUSSION  https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-DISCOVERY-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-ERM-DISCUSSION  https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-ERM-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-JOINT-USE-DISCUSSION   https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-JOINT-USE-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-SYS-REP-DISCUSSION   https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-SYS-REP-DISCUSSION&A=1

ILS-TRAINING-DISCUSSION   https://listserv.flvc.org/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ILS-TRAINING-DISCUSSION&A=1

2. In the form that appears, enter your name and Email address.

3. Click Subscribe to sign on to the list. 

4. You will receive a confirmation email from LISTSERV.  Click the verification link to complete your subscription. 

ILS Implementation Project Update:

Members of the Executive Committee of the MCLS approved to sunset the Organizational Framework for the ILS Implementation Project effective August 27, 2021. This means that the 8 Working Groups, the Implementation Team, and the Steering Committee will be disbanded after this date. 

• Respective standing committees will assume the work from the working groups. Library staff wishing to assist with the development of the various  areas of the system (technical services, discovery, fulfillment, etc.) are encouraged to work with these committees in the future. A call for applications for committee membership occurs when there is a vacancy, and the Members Council encourages all staff to apply.
• Library staff who subscribed to any one of the Discussion Groups will be automatically added to an appropriate listserv. For instance, those who signed up to the ILS-DISCOVERY-DISCUSSION list will automatically added to the new FLVC-PRIMO list where library staff can share ideas on how to use Primo VE more effectively or ask questions about a specific feature. A separate notice will go out soon on the availability of these new lists. Instructions will also be provided on how to unsubscribe for anyone who doesn’t want to receive messages from any list.
• ILS Coordinators will remain in place for now to act as a contact person and a liaison to help disseminate information about our new system. While this group may not meet on a regular basis after August, the mailing list will remain.

DARA Recommendations:

Many of you have noticed a new icon in Alma now that we’re live. It’s the middle one shown below, a face with  a number in a blue circle. This icon is DARA, Ex Libris’ Data Analysis Recommendation Service.

Some key points about DARA recommendations:

• The recommendations are based upon user roles, so staff at each institution will see different recommendations when they login.  
• Recommendations are suggested once for your entire institution
• Recommendations can be dismissed, but if you dismiss a recommendation, you dismiss it for everyone at your institution with that role
• DARA generates up to 30 recommendations of each type.

These are just recommendations and not tasks that must be done. For example, many recommendations appearing for staff with eresources and cataloging roles have to do with linking standalone bibs to activated collections. This can be done now, later, or not at all. These are appearing in Alma as recommendations because Ex Libris’ model is to activate eresource collections from the Community Zone (CZ) to take advantage of global updates at the collection level and to not have a lot of standalone bibs.

Google Scholar:

One of the tasks each institution should do post-go live is to make sure their Alma/Primo Google Scholar registration and holdings have been successfully harvested by Google. The Google Scholar registrations were completed in Alma before cutover and the Google Scholar holdings files have been running weekly for a couple of weeks now. We don’t know Google’s schedule for crawling the registrations and the holdings files, and it can take 4-6 weeks. However, we heard from Santa Fe College that Google Scholar now shows their Alma/Primo options. The new links might be available for others now as well. Please verify that your Alma/Primo links are available. You might need to refer to these instructions at Google to verify your new links are in place: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_settings#2. If you don’t see that the links are now going to Alma/Primo, please report that information to the FLVC Help Desk.

FLVC will contact EBSCO to turn off the holdings export from Full Text Finder by the end of August. The Full Text Finder subscription ends at the end of September, but we need to make sure that Google processes the EBSCO Full Text Finder registration cancellations before then.

Actual ILS Implementation Project – continues for the next month. After that we go into regular maintenance mode with ExLibris.

Posing questions like everyone else.

Future of ILS Coordinators & Implementation - Working groups & Implementation team – Items will pass to the FLVC standing committees in September. The ILS Coordinators will remain

• FLVC likes having one person per institution to disseminate information to each of the 40.
• No future monthly meetings scheduled but communication via the listserv will continue.
• Let FLVC know if the coordinator will be swapping out.

Proposal for an e-resources standing committee – Bonita & Tina Buck will be writing the charge to go with that proposal. – “Alma has the great potential to truly integrate Acq, Cata and ERM together”

Resource sharing upcoming enhancements – Wendy spoke about some of these during the first 10 minutes of the meeting.

• Option to use just the request slip – Many people prefer using the request slip & don’t bother with shipping slip
• Add institution library & locations you DON’T want sending uborrow items (ebooks)
• These enhancements should be done by the end of August. The FALSC ILS Implementation LibGuide is continually being updated to reflect changes made.

Sandboxes – FLVC got the new 12 test environments (info and passwords were sent to library staff via email on 8/17/21. The 3 play areas we had for the last year are no longer available now.

• Monthly changes – releases – show up in the environment 2 weeks prior to our live  environments
• 2^nd to last Sunday of each month is when those test areas should be updated.
• February 2022 is the full refresh of the test environments

*Additional Alma/Primo VE training

5 upcoming workshops - TBA

1. ERM – including acquisitions
2. Analytics – Will be a very broad training, from running reports to the more complicated designing of reports
3. Cataloging topics – workflows, etc…
4. Primo VE
5. Searching creating sets, running jobs, & deletes?? 14:00

*FLVC MIGHT post some of the other initial training workshops (Only 2 of the 10 were posted).

Updating library hours in Alma – Webinar held this week 8/18 – 33 minutes long including Q&A. 

• Library hours can impact the generation of due dates, how fines are calculated, & the schedule for our overdue notices
• Hours in Alma DO NOT necessarily need to reflect our actual hours of operation
• FLVC is currently maintaining our hours. The Circulation desk manager role can be configured to allow users to update hours at the library level.  If we choose to maintain the hours ourselves, we need to contact FLVC to opt in by 8/25.

Notes from various sources since 8/19:

Alma/Primo VE Resource LibGuide: https://falsc.libguides.com/AlmaPrimoVE 

This new website provides library staff with:

• Information and announcements about our new Alma and Primo VE services
• Instructions on how to perform various functions or set up new services
• Links to documentation and some of the many online training sessions that are available from Ex Libris, FLVC, or other institutions currently using Alma and Primo VE.

Much of the content from the ILS Implementation Libguide has been copied or duplicated to this new Libguide. While the ILS Implementation Libguide is still active, it is anticipated that when the project is officially complete in September, FLVC will retire the ILS Implementation Libguide and post information only to the new Alma/Primo VE Resource Libguide.

The site is organized with links to general content about Alma and Primo VE on the main page. For each functional section of Alma (Fulfillment, Analytics, E-resources, etc.) and for Primo VE, there is a link to a separate guide with information and policies specific to that area. This should allow users to easily pinpoint content that is specific to their job duties. Each guide will also contain a FAQ page. FLVC staff have been adding to the FAQs as staff have been submitting questions to the Help Desk or from some of the Open Office Hour sessions that have been held since we’ve gone live.

While this new Libguide contains much information, it is far from complete. We realize there is important content missing from the site. FLVC staff will be adding to the Libguide over the next several months and then updating the information as the system and our policies change. We feel that the guide is far enough along now to release it, and we will continue to add content as time goes by. So, please bear with us as we work to make this site better in the near future.

Some early notes for July, from various sources. 

Premium Sandboxes:

FLVC has always had a test environment for all institutions with Aleph. However, with a cloud-based service, it is typical for the vendor to not provide a sandbox for every institution. Ex Libris does allow for two types of test environments: ones that are shared with all institutions and ones that are restricted to only users from a particular institution. Shared test instances have anonymized patron data so that specific personal information is not accessible to library staff outside of that institution.

The institutions in the test environment may be changed once per year, as needed.

Shared Test Environment (All users can access; patron data anonymized)

• Miami Dade College

• Pasco-Hernando State College

• University of West Florida

Dedicated Test Environment (Only users from the institution can access)

• Florida Gulf Coast University

• Florida International University

• Florida State University

• Santa Fe College

• University of Central Florida

• University of Florida

• University of North Florida

• University of South Florida

• Valencia College

All test environments are refreshed twice a year in August and February. FLVC can request to swap out institutions (add one and remove another) annually during the summer. In the future, FLVC will have a procedure in place for institutions to request to be included as one of the test environment libraries due to specific project or other need. This process will be reviewed over the next year.

ILC Coordinators meeting:  July 14^th

“Either our crew is suffering in silence, or everything is great!”

FALSC is continuing to work on various configurations & issues

Highest concern- Downtimes:

Day 1- 2 downtimes – authentication server crashed twice.

Day 2 – Ex Libris Cloud Server crashed – still looking for the root cause. 

            You can check the Ex Libris System Status page: Our Alma and Primo VE instances are hosted on NA07

99.5% uptime for Alma – IN OUR CONTRACT 

Webinars - UBorrow – 1-2, Office Hours Session Q&A - 2-4, Next Tuesday – joint use session (we’re not joint use) – Ex Libris 9-10:30am  -  Walk through some of the enhanced features Ex Libris added.

FALSC LibGuides - Go live known issues & Go live resources

Adding additional sections as well

Test environments (Premium sandboxes)– see email Should receive with the refresh in August.

            2 choices – shared vs closed (just for 1 certain institution)

We have 3 shared & 9 closed FLVC has access to all of them.

3 shared - Open to everyone with anonymized patron records: UWF, PHSC, MDC

Monthly releases of new Alma enhancements – New enhancements hit the test environments 2 months early. 

2021 Release Schedule: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/campusM/Release_Notes/2021/2021_Release_Schedule

Migration error reports - posted under the go live resources 

Admin roles – many things require so many changes … Many privileges allow people with various roles to change things that can alter things for ALL institutions. Note:A fulfillment admin role accidentally given to 1 institution – broke the entire UBorrow setup

Printer setup? Can email the help desk for that admin role….? Printing seems to work fine for us.

Helpdesk Backlog - Help desk was inundated with requests to add staff roles & they weren’t able to add any until 7/13

Day 1 - 4:30pm  190 requests to the helpdesk

Significant Known Issues:

Gale Academic OneFile was inadvertently removed from the CZ - not activated.  Solution - Activate manually when notified.

Open Athens linking failure with migrated bibs that require encoded URLs - Vendors affected include Films on Demand and Ovid. Activated collections do not have this problem.  Solution TBD

Ex Libris recommends that you do not work with Alma, or Alma related products like Primo, in multiple tabs of the same browser.  Correction made 7/15 – CAN have Alma & Primo VE open in the same browser. Do NOT have two instances of Alma open in the same browser.To work with Alma in multiple tabs, open each tab in a different browser (e.g., one tab in Chrome and the other in Firefox). 

*** Reminder: As of May 2021- Primo VE no longer supports Internet Explorer

Some early notes for June, from various sources. 

UBorrow webinar - 6/2/21

• Recording & slides are on the FALSC &/ or Ex Libris Presentations Tab (I recommend revewing the slides)

• Our UBorrow folks that did not attend the live event should watch the recording as we need to begin testing while we still can.

Notes from the meeting:

FALSC Update:

• FALSC is now trying to beat the clock!
• There has been a flurry of UBorrow activity during these last few weeks of testing
• UBorrow office hours with Wendy – today and next week
• There have been many presentations this month. Recordings are available (FALSC &/or Ex Libris Presentations tab above)
• Staff at FALSC - Working on LlibGuides to document day-to-day processes.
• 3^rd party integrations currently supported in Mange ARE working in Primo VE

Make sure to load & test Alma offline circulation if using after freeze (We will NOT be using this. Use our internal “Manual Checkout Form” instead. A link to this form will be emailed by SS as a reminder during the first week of July.)

Timeline reminders:

• Aleph read-only begins 7/9 & continues for about 12 months
• Mango read-only begins 7/9 & continues until Sept. 30
• Aleph format of patron loads discontinued 7/2, Alma patron record loads begin 7/13
• FALSC will have office hours posted AFTER go live for questions

Someone asked if Alma training documentation could be shared in draft mode, so staff could use for training before test load environment is gone (possibly?)

Current Primo customizations will carry over to go live, but save files for backup in case something goes wrong.

All LINCC reports & error reports WILL still be available to reference following go live.

Circ Staff in particular will want to know this (from the FALSC LibGuide):

There is also info on "Prining in Alma" on the FALSC LibGuide

From Office Hours meeting:

Programmers @ FALSC - New solution for Mango Permalinks

• Aleph system # will be searchable in Primo (most likely will only available temporarily)
• Will add code to the Mango server (on the morning of July 13^th)  to recognize the Aleph system #
  • IF it recognizes the number it will search for it in Primo
  • If not – Link to Mango will redirect to the Primo homepage

EDS, Full text finder, curriculum builder – ENDS Sept 30^th - Redirect on Mango for all 40.

For those wanting embedded search boxes on library web pages - ExLibris has documentation (code) to accomplish this that we could use.

***Proof-of-Concept Service – Primo is not integrating well with the SSO for some of the colleges.

• Issues locally with the SSO
• Developers at FALSC are working on creating special links where SSO will be forced to work. (We sadly are the main reason for this. So greatful FALSC has been been proactive in developing a Plan B for our users getting the "Oops" error.)

Some early notes for May, from various sources. 

Alma-Generic sign in: FALSC deactivated the generic sign in accounts as of May 1, 2021. They were only meant to be a temporary solution for those w/o functioning staff accounts.  

Resource Sharing: Pick Up Locations for hold requests has been completed.  Pick Up Locations for Resource Sharing requests are still in progress.

End of Aleph - FALSC needs to focus on Alma/Primo VE going forward. If there's a change we would like in Aleph, first consider if it's something we can wait to do in Alma instead. 

Letters - FALSC requested ONE email address from each institution, where patrons can respond if they need to follow up. For Go-Live, our address will be the generic library email for WH. After the transition to Alma, we will be able to "set up email addresses tied to specific locations" and add the LK email.

Use of Mango After Go-Live – One institution asked about this possibility, and about having a special banner with their own wording. After July 8^th, Mango will be available until September 30^th in a read-only mode. This means that the data in Mango will not be updated. In fact, loading new or edited records will cease on May 27^th when the database freeze happens in Aleph.  Patron empowerment features such as UBorrow and hold requests will not be available to users. (UBorrow was disabled May 1^st and hold requests will be turned off on July 8^th.) After July 8^th, the availability information (on Shelf, checked out, etc.) will not display since it will be inaccurate. Even the My Account information will not be truly accurate after Go-Live since all current circulation records will be kept in Alma and available in Primo VE. The main reason that Mango will still be available is for the many permalinks that will still exist in libraries’ Libguides and learning management systems. Therefore, FALSC doesn’t recommend that any institution continue to use it as a public facing tool after Go-Live.

Notes from meeting:

FALSC Update:

• Configuration & customization of letters or notices. Some need customization. Send helpdesk case if there is a day 1 patron facing immediate notice we need.
• Doing lots of testing on scheduled jobs. Many have a letter as a component.
• Some discussion regarding items for SUS schools (Load profiles, EDI, ect…) - not us.
• Configuration Progress tab was added to the FALSC LibGuide

May 24^th & 25^th – ExLibris will send new config forms to FALSC – we will need to resubmit… no date provided for when we will receive them or when they will be due.

May 28^th – special Aleph user accounts for Circ

• Aleph logins – will be distributed a few days prior to technical services freeze
• Calling them – “Student level” & “manager level”

June 15 – Functional testing ends / configuration freeze - The 2 default sandboxes will be available from

June 15^th until Go live (sign in info & links on our training checklist

July 8^th – 12^th – We made the decision to NOT use Alma’s offline circ & will be tracking circ using a spreadsheet.

Workshops: Now over, but recordings from Two weeks are still available.

• 704 different people at the 40 institutions took at least one workshop.
• 25% signed up, but didn’t attend.
• All institutions received a report of who attended – some institutions give some type of continuing education credit
• Best turnout - The catalogers almost always showed up.

Mango will still be available for the many permalinks that will still exist in libraries’ Libguides and learning management systems. FALSC doesn’t recommend that any institution continue to use it as a public facing tool after Go-Live.

Some early notes for April, from various sources. 

Item Process Statuses:

In Aleph, Item Process Statuses were usually used to designate items as undergoing a "behind the scenes" process in cataloging, acquisitions, or circulation. Adding an IPS to an item made it easy to find them using Aleph's reports.

Alma does not use Item Process Statuses and instead uses Work Orders and Work Order Statuses to keep track of items requiring processing. In Alma, instead of running a report to find items that require work, they are available in a list and can be retrieved with just a few clicks.

The following are the Item Process Status Codes for our Institution:

A printable version of this list as well as related cleanup instructions for Aleph/Alma can be found in PIE: HERE 

Digital Functionality in Alma Webinar - Ex Libris webinar held April 5th

• Possibility for controlled digital lending – CDL
  • Settings – can specify pretty much whatever we want – Que not currently available – should be added this Summer
  • Q&A - It could also potentially replace Islandora BUT also said it is NOT a full preservation system
• Note: Session was NOT recorded - presenter will share some other recordings/info with FALSC???
• Documentation - Working with Digital Resources Overview:  https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Digital_Resource_Management/010_Working_with_Digital_Resources_-_Overview

Monthly status report from Ex Libris:

• Everyone is learning more every day
• FALSC staff have been attending additional training, but NOT Not receiving extensive training

• Tested for all 40:
  • SSO, Patron loads – getting closer - & Loading bib records (started)
  • 3^rd party – started testing: a bunch of acquisitions related items, SMS – (successfully testing so far), importing Connexion records, Z39.50, loading EOD records, self-checkout, patron photos, functionality with FLAIR, HathiTrust in Primo, mapping of stack images in Primo
  • I can happily report Laura tested our scanners & they DO work!
  • Post Go Live items – listed on the switch to Go Live Timeline

LIVE FALSC webinars from last week:

Simplified Alma Acquisitions Webinar – Not sure if any of the content presented will be useful for us…. some fund info, lots of serials workflows, some creation of skeleton records being created & tracked by acquisitions (w/o really using real money) 

Switch from Aleph to Alma - June & July

• The Switch to Go Live Timeline has been revised a bit… not much
• Most interesting - May 28^th – ALL Logins for Aleph will change
  • Circ staff will have their own login  - FALSC will distribute that to us
  • Everyone can use the circ staff login IF everyone does circ
  • This was the only option that would allow everyone to still VIEW record

Spring Workshop Updates

• ONLY a few weeks remaining of workshops – coincides with the end of our Spring Term Classes
• Recordings for Weeks 2 & 6 are currently online.
• The workshops DO BUILD on each other – do them in order & preferably during the same week.
  • In sessions I attended - MOST presenters assume you were in their previous sessions
    • Q & A sessions are hit or miss - ask questions - they will happily show you just about anything (but be prepared for them to go pretty fast)
  • Procrastinators – you want to do these workshops next week and try applying what you learned.
    • Can you look up a user and do the most common things:
      • View books checked out by a patron
      • Renew an item
      • Anything you regularly do – see if you can do it
    • You want to understand the basic structure of Alma and get a grasp on the jargon
      • Have a question – jot it down & register for the Q&A week 10
  • Realize it takes a village to learn Alma – this is new to everyone – INCLUDING FALSC!
    • There is an online knowledgebase.
    • We do NOT & will NOT have a quick reference cheat sheet at go live.
    • Take advantage of being able to ask questions to ExLibris NOW!

Things learned via random webinars & emailing FALSC over the past month:

Patron letters – The creation of or turning on/off of the many Letter options will be managed by FLVC. A document/survey will be sent to us soon to solicit the information needed to set up notifications. (After Go Live we will have the option to manage them ourselves. IF we choose to do so, there will be some type of training provided by FALSC) I am also assuming this survey will ask which emails we would like to have activated to test this functionality. (Currently we are unable to add functioning emails). 

Some early notes for March, from various sources. Additional notes will be added to the March tab through 3/20/21

• Alma workshops have begun. Recordings have not been posted yet to my knowledge.
• Functionality testing will begin Wednesday, 3/10/21.
• Primo VE seems to be the focus for bonus Friday webinars from FLVC this month. 
• Primo sign in (SSO OR Alma) Alma option is for FALSC employees
• Alma Analytics Overview – ALL Staff Teams Event - Tue 3/9 1-2:30PM - recording is now posted

Primo customizations – We can do our own (to a point) or have FALSC do it for us – After playing around a bit, we opted to go with the FALSC version using our branded colors & it’s now on our live site.  

Analytics webinar – hopefully staff all understand what needs to be created & what already exists, etc.

FALSC- Working on 3^rd party integrations.

• SSO is working well so far – yea!
• IT staff is now testing patron loads – 7-8 institutions have passed & are done.
  • Nothing received from 12-13 Half of these conveyed they wouldn’t get around to this till late May
  • Other half – 6-7 institutions haven’t heard anything from their IT dept at all!
  • If you are one of these, get with your IT dept (We are not - Ours was submitted on time :-)
  • None of the submissions were perfect the first time – don’t want to delay too long.
  • FALSC will be making an edited version of their tracking spreadsheet so we will be able to see when our patron load passes.

Latest Timeline

• Built from go-live going backwards (FALSC & ExLibris have their own timeline – very detailed to coordinate tasks)
• Full timeline has been in our February folder in PIE (printer friendly) – now duplicated in full on the “Implementation Timeline” tab in box above (old overview timeline is on the archived 2020 page in this LibGuide).

May 1^st - UBorrow is suspended (UBorrow demo for Alma – beginning of April – You should have received an email invite from me on 3/11 to register for this)

May 27^th COB – Tech Services Freeze Begins – (6-week freeze) this is as tight as they could make the timeline.

• No Adding, Modifying, or Delete of ANY RECORDS in Aleph for the 6 weeks till Go Live.

• Some FALSC staff are scheduled after this point with tasks to accomplish by the hour.

May 28^th – FALSC copies EVERYTHING from Aleph Production Server

• Do not add/modify/change ANY RECORDS.
• FALSC can’t technically FREEZE or lock down cataloging or course reserves w/o also freezing circ. Any changes made in Aleph after May 27th will NOT be reflected in Alma…  (Just don’t – could potentially cause a circ problem or other issues.)

June 15^th – Alma Configuration Freeze

• Can continue making changes up till the 15^th – then that’s it.

June 28^th – Automated processes cease in Aleph  - EXCEPT those directly affecting circulation

July 2^nd – Patron loads stop

July 8^th COB - Fulfillment (circulation) freeze Friday 9^th – 12^th

Use offline circ program or something else… FALSC will host a How to use Alma offline circ software special webinar – details much later

July 9^th – Aleph placed into “read only” mode till July 2022 (1 year)

July 13^th - A BRAND NEW DAY

• Download & upload circ from Alma offline circ at beginning of the day
• Most things will start back up in Alma
• Patron file loads can begin
• Mango – “read only” mode w/ banners until Sept 30th

Q&A - The was some discussion and concerns about vendor records, acquisitions,.. – not us!

Love timelines and want to know more?

FALSC added a new tab on their implementation timeline page for the “Go-Live Phase” (An overview of their To-Do’s for those that are interested) - https://falsc.libguides.com/ILS-Implementation/timeline

Spring workshops – 10 weeks of training. There are 9 sessions & the first session is an intro session.

• Can sign up for only specific sessions BUT – should attend an introductory session prior to any of the other sessions. The recording for the intro session held during week 2 is below.
• Note: A recording is NOT as good as attending live. Nice to be able to ask questions, interact with Ex Libris trainer.

• There are FALSC staff at each session that are subject specialists for those specific sessions. Ex/Acquisitions – Jay, Circulation - Chrissy or Clayton
• They help the trainer get the training across – for us (related to how we are already set up).

Survey Update

• ILL – 28 institutions responded – need to hear from the others.
  • Results are being compiled by Chrissy.
  • Will be deciding how to replicate that functionality in Alma.
• Patron Loads (coming soon) – need to set up the routine.             
  • Ex Libris has parameters during which patron uploads can occur.
  • Will need to be more specifically defined for each institution.
  • How often do we (can we) provide a file? Get with Dean/Director/IT staff.

Q&A:

Potential training for after Go Live - Link ebooks to ERM

OMG - So many important meetings for February - many of which you will probably want to watch or at least view the slides for. 

Where are these slides & recordings? 

So glad you asked! Why, they are now in the box above this one on the "FALSC &/or Ex Libris Presentations". FALSC just added a similar table to their LibGuide today & I totally stole it! (With Daves' permission of course - got it in writing!) 

Biggest takeaways from the multiple February meetings so far:

*We received one of our two BIG Valentine’s Day gifts from FALSC late Tuesday 2/9/21 afternoon - Our instance of Alma (replacing - Aleph) 

We will get our instance of Primo VE (replacing - Mango) sometime next week

There are 2 links to our Alma instance & 1 to the Network Zone. All three links and their explanations are in the “It’s Finally Here” box on this page, as well as at the top of the Play Zones tab in our Alma/Primo VE training checklist.

Next 3 weeks: Get comfortable searching & verify our data migrated “correctly.”

We were instructed NOT to Change ANY data until the end of the month (when functional/workflow testing will begin.

•             Remember – The Data was frozen as of October 31^st
•             Anything we’ve changed in Aleph since 10/2020 will not be in Alma 
•             See an issue with a record – look for more records with the same issue. Can you find a pattern? (take screenshots if possible)
• Also make note of any slowness in Alma – document day, time, browser, where were you in Alma, what were you trying to do, etc… (this was an issue with the Vanguard libraries, but should be fixed).

A few things to spot check:

Data:

• Did all the data we wanted to migrate actually migrate?
• Check record counts – migration stats report, Alma search results vs Aleph totals
• Check records – data in the correct place, errors
• Any rejections (on statistics tab)
• Identify cleanup we may want to do before &/or after migration

Users:

• Correct user groups
  • External – Updated by the external system – patron upload. Anyone marked INTERNAL will NOT be updated
• Check the fields – is the phone #, address, etc… in the correct field 
• Note– emails were scrubbed so we don’t accidentally spam all our users during the testing period :-)

*We were also gifted with multiple documents that initially appeared torturous, but now seem much less so. FALSC (with the help of Aleph) has prepopulated most of the answers! We basically need to double check them and see if anything needs to be changed.  Copies of all those documents are in the “February FALSC Alma Documents” folder in PIE. This link also lives at the top of the Play Zones tab in our Alma/Primo VE training checklist. (Things that do not pertain to us (ex/ Acquisitions) should be left blank).

Remember - We need you!

• If you find something that may be an error or a cause for concern, add it to our shared Got a Question/Comment document that lives on the LibGuide at the bottom of the current month’s to-do list. That new tab is called “Uh Oh… Alma Instance Issues”. 
• Try to look for patterns before adding a single isolated issue. Then we can each look for additional issues before reporting them to FALSC. *Try to take screenshots and document the issues as best you can. After being reported, it will most likely head to the Full 40 “Known Issues” spreadsheet, which lives here: http://bit.ly/3791Qbs along with various other fun things....

Next Friday – “Open hours” meeting – Topic: NEW eresource activation worksheets… linking parameters (looking forward to cutover) – Jarrod & Shannon will attend.

UBorrow - Stop date before cutover - Tentatively 5/1/21. There will be additional information about this later.

March – May: Functional testing, & workshops, & setting up of 3rd party integration, Oh my!

Overview/Status of the Alma Implementation (as of 1/13/21)

• FALSC has been busy focusing on our Primo configuration worksheets
• Working groups will start getting together again this month
• On schedule for full test load phase - February 9th
• Update on Alma Essentials Training: 
  • Now called “New Alma Essentials Training” 
  • Same content but updated images of the new user interface

Webinars / Workshops / Trainings

• Spring “workshops” (not “trainings”) – Renegotiated between FALSC & Ex Libris, since they will be virtual
  • There will be a total of Ten – 4 or 5 day virtual workshops + Five additional follow up workshops after go live
  • Virtual workshops will be capped at approximately50- 60 attendees. Training sessions will be limited to make it easier for attendees to ask questions. There will be a sign up form (not created yet)
  • 1^st workshop will include working group members & FALSC staff and possibly (more than likely not) ILS coordinators. (A couple ILS coordinators expressed a strong interest in their teams being able to attend the same workshops.)
  • Other 9 workshops – all other interested library staff
    • Format: 2 – 2.5 hours in the morning and 2 – 2.5 hours in the afternoon – topics to be covered will be communicated - individuals will be able sign up for the entire course OR just a given session 
    • Tentatively - 1^st week of March – 1^st week of May
  • The Training Working Group is working on a webinar detailing pertinent workshop info including details about the sign-up form, dates, etc… - Webinar should be sometime in the next month. 
  • NEW INFO as of 1/25/21: The first workshop open to all library staff will be March 8-11 (the last May 3-6 which is also the final week of Spring Term at Polk).The main focus of the workshops are to go through and explain workflow issues with Alma. They are not intended to give staff step-by-step instructions how to do a particular function. Therefore, it is imperative that staff who attend these workshops have some knowledge of Alma. Library staff should have completed the Alma Essentials online training modules. FALSC is working on a couple of open sessions regarding Primo VE. These will be scheduled separately and will be later this spring (April – May). I know many ILS coordinators want their teams to attend during the same week, but I think we need to addend different weeks to maintain adequate coverage on AAL. This is assuming we are all planning to take advantage of the training.
• Other Webinars:
  • Recording: eresource webinar on December 9^th included good info – link on FALSC website reported as not working – FALSC will fix
  • Upcoming
    • February 9^th - Webinar for Local Implementation teams for full test load phase – invite will go out next week

• • • February 16^th - Primo first look webinar
    • March 9^th – Ex Libris Webinar Alma Analytics

Reports subgroup of the Systems-Reports Working Group

• Asked the other Working Groups to compile lists of reports necessary for Day One of the new system, as well as those reports that would be ‘nice to have’.
• Out of the Box reports from Alma Analytics: http://bit.ly/3oKxfrn
• Aside – we will be tweaking reports for months to come….

End of February – timeline for the freeze for “cutover” will be finalized. (cataloging, circ)

• Related – Uborrow – how soon should we shut down the lending service on Aleph to come up live on Alma – this will need to be done earlier… materials need to get back to their home library. None of the requests or items in transit in Aleph ILL will be transferred over. Only the loans will transfer over. You’ll have to refer back to the original Aleph if that info is needed.
• Shut down other ILL systems as well? (USF uses Illiad….)

Updates on Work by ILS Coordinators

• Primo VE Forms – received about 30 forms 
  • FALSC sent in default settings for any institution that did not submit a form 
  • FALSC was surprised more institutions did NOT ask for a digital collection to be uploaded. Training session in mid feb/march – how to add additional digital collections
  • DISC – resource type settings for any digital collections for FALSC, in the hope the digital collections will be correct. That meeting is overlapping with this meeting. They are working on it!
• User Role Forms 
  • Received 22 forms so far
  • Can put “All” for staff doing work for multiple branches
  • Shift in previous instructions - If staff will not be doing “testing” no need to add them… If you have the time, go ahead & set them up. We will keep our members listed (I think the shift in guidance is because FALSC wants to make sure they get something submitted for every institution, instead of having an all or nothing situation.)
  • There will be some generic accounts for testing purposes – not planning to use those accounts after go live
  • With Alma we will want to get rid of accounts where staff have left. If staff do not appear in the patron/staff load in the future, that staff account will be dropped
  • After go live institutions will have the option to manage their own accounts

Other & Future Topics:

• EDS 
• Overlap period for EDS – ebsco discovery services – the licensing agreement for EBSCO EDS is ending soon - FALSC is making plans to talk to EBSCO – looking at an “overlap period with EDS”. FALSC has begun talking with EBSCO. FALSC knows where they stand with EBSCO & want to see what other things they can negotiate… As soon as there is something solid they will let us know. 
• EDS going away or potentially going away? – FALSC confirmed “Research Starters” will NOT be a part of Primo VE. There might be something similar in PrimoVE.
  • Found these points in the “Discovery Working Group Minutes” for December 9^th: 
    • EBSCO & Central Discovery Index (CDI) differences
      • Pulls in metadata from many vendors to the CDI and it is available for searching. You will not get the metadata from EBSCO databases in CDI in Primo VE. Will turn on access to EBSCO databases in ERM, but that does not control what you are searching but what you can link to. CDI has access to more vendors’ metadata than EDS.
      • A webinar on Primo VE for February to discuss how CDI and Primo VE works? Yes, very helpful for all staff. Perhaps multiple sessions can help for other topics too. Maybe a broad overview open to everyone without getting too much in the weeds would help. Cherie will come up with some possible topics and share with us to see what we want to offer. Limit to one hour at a time. Will plan them in January.
      • UBorrow/ILL was not set-up for Vanguard phase. It will be developed during the all 40 test load phase.

• Data review (starting in February):
  • ExLibris will give us tips on reviewing our data in the upcoming webinar
  • Report issues that are not on the “known issues list” to the help desk.
  • Ideas from other institutions: 
    • Create spreadsheet of what people regularly do – to make sure everything gets tested.
    • Create a known issues list for their college. Review the issues internally first, then have one person report verified issues to FALSC