2021-04-01 Meeting notes

Date

Apr 1, 2021 2-3:30 pm

Attendees

  • @Tom Bustos , co-chair

  • @Carlo Medina (Unlicensed) , co-chair

  • @Lakshmi Arunachalam, out

  • @Ramon Barcia

  • @Susan Boone

  • @Greg Ferguson

  • @Jackie Gosselar

  • @Lynne E. Grigsby

  • @Robin Gustafson

  • @Jeremy Hobbs

  • @Gillian Keleher

  • @Sarah Lindsey

  • @Caitlin Nelson , on leave

  • @Alison Ray (CDL), out

  • @Lena Zentall (Unlicensed) , PM

Discussion items

Item

Desired Outcome

Time

Who

Notes

Decisions

Actions

Item

Desired Outcome

Time

Who

Notes

Decisions

Actions

1

Check-in / Logistics / Any issues with testing?

Report any major changes in availability / circumstances

Anything to report on the test load?

10

Carlo

  • One campus got good candid responses to his temperature check about how things are going at his campus. Some challenges with working remotely as effectively as in person; some issues with answers from ExL. Cataloging will be more challenging in Alma. Feedback from circ. staff who are overwhelmed by the videos and documentation. Looking forward to the upcoming training.

  • At another campus, one or two groups are feeling stressed and one group is feeling confident.

  • At already-Alma campuses, it’s hard to get staff to care and feel urgency. They went through the same struggles and fears and came out the other side successfully. And, it often made work a little more interesting by learning something new.

  • Prioritizing work and saying no to additional work at the AUL/UL level. Campuses are feeling overwhelmed. Especially in light of COVID and campus reopenings and voluntary separations which have added substantial work. Encourage staff to speak up when they are overwhelmed with work. The reward for good work is more work.

  • UCM just went live with Oracle Financials and may be able to assist UCSD.

 

 

2

ILS Data cleanup / Patron Data groups / PPC

  • ILS Data Cleanup (Tom): co-chairs visit on 3rd Thursdays. TJ Kao and/or Catherine Busselen will join on 4/15.

  • Patron Data (Carlo)

  • PPC: Review final decisions (as needed)

  • SILS Chairs/Coordinators meeting update & actions

10

Carlo, Tom

  • Nothing on ILSDC at this time.

  • SILS chairs 3/24 Action for ICs: ICs will ask their campuses to do testing for CDI and to review the CDI Collection List for Alma Customers on the ExL website to see if it’s the collections you want or whether they should be turned off. [not a good use of ICs time to do this.]

  • CDI issue is being interpreted differently by campuses and there’s significant confusion.

  • UCB asked their team to look at the list in one area.

  • CDI is proving to be a contentious issue and figuring out who owns various pieces of testing it has been complicated.

No, ICs believe this action is not worthwhile. “ICs will ask their campuses to do testing for CDI and to review the CDI Collection List for Alma Customers on the ExL website to see if it’s the collections you want or whether they should be turned off.”

 

3

Timeline review / PM update

Stay up to date on timeline / deadlines

 

5

Lena

  • Cutover Plan Status: Marci/Laurie still working with Migration/AMO on initial planning (migration-related tasks).

  • Any topics that are not currently scheduled that need to be covered? See Basecamp Project Meetings. Feel free to propose special meeting topics.

  • Special meetings, NEW!

  • Ad Hoc meetings:

    • 4/6: RLF Fulfillment Meeting with ExL senior product manager

    • 4/9: Inventory/authentication management groups and campus configurations for UCB/LBL.  

  • Any questions on the timeline?

Yes to the pre-meeting Q&A with ICs before Cutover Plan Review is rolled out.

 

4

Update and questions from Alma Accounts Task Force

 

Lynne, Gillian

  • Feedback on questions to get a more accurate number of needed named users from each campus

  • Ask to have completed by April 23

    • Validate campus responses to most recent survey to better understand source of data supporting the campus response with the goal of identifying if UC libraries can meet user account needs through the already licensed accounts

      1. Draft survey questions

        1. Quantitative questions

          1. Active staff users (please use most relevant metric for your campus and be accurate)

          2. Number of student employees who would have an account in the ILS

          3. Number of circulation desks

        2. Qualitative questions

          1. If we recommended the use of shared accounts what ideas would you have?

          2. If we recommended the use of shared accounts what concerns would you have?

          3. Do you have emerging workflow ideas that might impact how you use user accounts in the future?

  • Can taskforce join our 4/15 meeting to get more feedback on what we’ve come up with so far at that point?

 

 

5

Questions from slack

  1. We are curious if any campuses were not using EDIs (Electronic Data Interchange) previously and are planning on implementing them now?

    • UCSC decreased number of EDIs when they moved to Alma. Uses for EBSCO, not for YBP (using import profiles instead).

    • UCSB uses it and loves it.

    • UCR uses EDI. EDI is tied to the vendor record. A job runs to turn them into invoices.

    • UCD is checking with Lisa S. and will let Jackie know when she hears back.

  2. Were there any other 3rd party integrations "gotchas"?

    • No comments from anyone.

  3. Also wondering if anyone blocks students due to money owed with campus registrar -- what is their criteria and how do they export the info from Alma?

    • No.

  4. Unrelated to integrations, how are local communications going, what's working, if there are bottlenecks, how are issues being addressed?

    • weekly meeting with local imp team; share updates from each group on the team which is helpful. Sometimes people are afraid to bring up concerns about Alma - that’s about the biggest issue.

    • Weekly sharing at team meetings; some meeting overload but it’s a good way to stay on top of things.

    • Ours is really split into 3 categories. Those in the project: comms is good, those that are interested in joining/doing the testing: comms is adequate, and then there's the small group who are going to be shocked when Voyager goes away on July 27

    • Trying to break down the siloing – sometimes doesn’t get to the depth needed in convos.

  5. Are we concerned that we don't have 24x7 coverage until we move to next phase?  Assume that is what other migrations experienced, how did it go?

    • We do have down system support.

    • One campus has experience with this and it was good – ExL contacted immediately.

    • Another campus had system down and was back up in 2 hours.

  6. Any further information from CDL if ExL can duplicate the Test Load environment into Sandbox for June/July?

    • Gem is tasked with asking ExL about this.

 

 

 

 

 

6

Other / Homework

 

0

Tom

  • From 3/18: Lynne will create a ticket on BC about the slowness issue some campuses are experiencing in NA07. Others will chime in.

    • As of 3/25: No update from ExL on this.

    • Discussion from 4/1 meeting: The Basecamp issue has not been answered. ExL doesn’t seem willing to discuss what the speed will be or to reassure us that it will be faster. Ask ExL if we can get our resources upgraded now/fully provisioned? Or, could we get our resources upgraded at some amount of time before cutover for testing? Ask other consortia if they had the same experience (slowness in test load) and how their experience is now in production. This was the case for the already-Alma campuses. Do we request a special meeting on this topic? Performance/load testing and reviewing expected speeds per SLA.

 

 

Ask other consortia if they had the same slowness experience in test load and how their experience is now in production. How did they do performance/load testing?
7

Q&A (recurring)

 

Q&A during the IC meeting as a first stop before asking a question on Basecamp.

If it’s time-sensitive, post to slack (IC channel, SILS Chairs are good options)

Any issues that we want to seek broader input from other consortia?

TBD

Carlo

 

 

 

8

Questions for Ex Libris PM (recurring)

Post questions in Basecamp as they come up. It’s open 24/7!

Note: We lose in efficiency and we may lose in translation when questions go through the PMs. When topics come up that should logically go to Basecamp to the Ex Libris consultants, invite an IC (or appropriate person) to take point on that issue.

0

Lena

Answers from Marci 3/25:

Slow response on Basecamp

Q: When will ExL be answering questions posted to Basecamp on the integrations list? Alison posted a question quite a while ago.

A: Marci reviews outstanding tasks on Fridays with the team. ExL is attentive to the integrations list for questions. If you are not getting any response, post to the original question as a poke to get ExL’s attention.

Primo VE instance for Workshop

  • Q: What is the deadline for deciding which Primo VE instance will be used?

    • A: I would suggest 2 weeks prior to the Workshop start (by April 30)

  • Q: Will ExL make live config changes during training? (this may influence who volunteers)

    • A: Yes - but they don't have to be permanently saved (they can be reverted back on the spot)

    • A: You also have the option of us using the sandbox environment.

    • A: There’s an advantage to being the demo since ExL can make desired changes for you as they are working.

UCD Escalation (3/17)

Status as of 3/25: “The Migration team was working on copying their live environment to the AMO's implementation environment over this past week - so they can work on it and test proposed fixes to it. We expect additional updates on their progress and next steps next week.”

 

 

9

Parking lot

 

0

 

  • 4/15: Alma Accounts TF to join IC meeting.

  • (From 3/18 meeting with ILSDC) For post-go-live data cleanup work, create a plan (with estimates of the scale of work, timeline). Ask ExL to review it. Ask if ExL can do a scheduled job in our instance for us? (if that’s desired) Suggestion to setup a special meeting with ExL to discuss the SCP records. Catherine will provide the data/numbers and reach out to Tom & Carlo for next steps

  • Primo VE workshop (week of May 17): which environment to use for training?

    • Will they make live config changes during training? Yes - but they don't have to be permanently saved (they can be reverted back on the spot.)

    • Marci suggests we decide by 2 weeks prior to the Workshop start (by April 30)

  • (If needed) Best practices/guidelines for APIs.

  • TBD: Buddy system (Adrian Petrisor, Com Leads) Timing: after spring workshops, if there’s interest

 

 

10

 

TOTAL

50/90

 

Review decisions and actions.

 

 

 

 

20

The SILS mission is to transform library services and operations through innovation and collaboration. The future is shared!

Question? Contact AskSILS-L@ucop.edu