Report any major changes in availability / circumstances
Anything to report on the test load?
Any questions or comments on Cutover meeting?
15
Tom
Caitlin Nelson is returning as SSM on May 17. Her focus will be on CDL as operational center. She will be attending the IC, PPC and SILS Chairs meetings as a liaison to CDL as the operational home. She will not be managing the timeline.
UCSC is opening July 1.
Do we cancel our May 20 IC meeting?
Q’s/comments on cutover meeting:
Surprised that SFX will be frozen.
Will new-to-Alma lose access to Primo after the lockout?
Would have liked to see the definition of “what is fulfillment?” on Basecamp to do list.
UCB: Will have to load student patrons so anxious about making sure they get into Alma.
Primo VE campuses ran a delete job on ghost records. Ping still found some of these ghost record artifacts. Want to know if this will have to be repeated at cutover.
Q from Greg: some confusion from a staff member at his campus that they were not allowed to send questions to Basecamp. No, it’s fine to post Q’s to BC. For training, you should definitely start with BC.
Use the sandbox for training after the June 25 lockout.
Who will be part of AFN on July 27? (That should be addressed with FFFG)
Link resolver switchover prior to go-live? Not sure this is going to happen. Prioritize the Top 10s. Do some expectations setting - you may see the UC-eLinks window for a while. UCSC is advising staff to report problems to them (and they will manage it locally).
Cancel May 20 IC meeting due to Primo VE workshop.
@Tom Bustos will cancel the May 20 IC meeting.
2
Progress on integrations work
Round-robin to see how everyone is doing on integrations work. Due date of May 31.
For non-alma campuses, where are you at in the patron update (SIS loader) process?
15
Tom
Integrations:
UCSD is working on issues with Bursar.
UCB is working on paypal integrations for fines. Learning from developer network. Working on exporting invoice payments (exporting as a flat file for now; will move to XML later). Working on HathiTrust data loads; Will be working past May 31 deadline.
Authentication:
UCLA: 5/5 - confirmed auth working for Alma; now moving on to Primo work (EXL/UCLA)
Merced: 5/5 - from Tom - I've tested the integration with the Primo URL and we seem to be good now.
Berkeley: 5/5 - Berkeley/EXL still working on LBL Alma logins - may be an issue with the user identifier. Wei is investigating.
SIS loader:
UCSD is hand in hand with SSO integration. Restrictions on how many requests can be made which is annoying for testing. Test SIS loads have been successful. Waiting for resolution of Millennium part.
UCB tests have been successful. They have done small loads. Dave Rez has been doing testing. Interim solution for go-live that is very manual and then they will improve it post-go-live. Will use Uni ID in the future as the matching point.
UCSF will do a final patron load to Millennium end of May. Testing small batch loads starts tomorrow.
3
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 5/20.
Patron Data (Greg)
PPC: Review final decisions (as needed)
SILS Chairs/Coordinators meeting update & actions
5
Tom
Patron Data: Nothing new.
ILSDC: coming on 5/20
PPC: See below.
SILS Chairs: Good discussion on CDI. PPC will make a final decision on Friday or escalate to WG.
Update on Alma slowness issue: EXL implementation team running tests 5/4 against all 10 campuses on NA07 to assist Development.
Other customers are also experiencing slowness - not based on environment size. May have something to do with the way the environments are provisioned.
Campuses should document issues with slowness in SalesForce. Marci will send a message on Basecamp with the data ExL needs for development.
(Consider, but we don’t need to answer today) How will we coordinate to meet patron expectations that July 27 is the day Alma/Primo go-live? How can we coordinate this to ensure we are all "open for business" at the agreed upon time? This could require weekend work. Are we willing/able to do that?
FYI. Correction: There is no training survey feedback form for already-Alma campuses because the form doesn’t match the training you received. Instead, you are welcome to send your feedback to the PMs (sils-exl-ucs-pm-l@listserv.ucop.edu) or if anything surfaced as a topic that needs to be covered in more details, request a special meeting (or consultant) or talk to PMs. I apologize for the confusion. I thought the form was for everyone.
5
Alma Accounts Task Force
Erik will be sharing the recommendations from the task force.
If your campus received this allocation, could you make it work?
Are there any recommendations you would like included in the “Appendix B” to support your approach to account distribution?
30 mins
3:00-3:30
Erik Mitchell, chair Alma Accounts Task Force
One of the AATF recommendations is to evaluate again before renewal time.
Nothing is set in stone; this is a first consultation before going to WG.
etm@ucsd.edu if you want to reach out directly to Erik with feedback.
Does this allocation work?
UCSB needs 150 accounts (not padded) but they get 130 in this model. For the campuses who are so low, does it make sense to cut them any further? It will mean putting a different infrastructure in place (for shared accounts) for 20 accounts. They do not have a current shared account culture and will need to change it which could take some time.
UCM, UCR, UCSB would like to see the account numbers raised for their campuses.
UCR did have a shared account culture and he finally convinced his campus to go with no shared accounts. Now he’ll have to go back and say “nevermind”. Very stressful. Numbers are really tight. They are getting more scrutiny. Ramon works in the cybersecurity department.
UCM only included career staff using WMS in the survey done prior to the April survey. AATF is using the April data. Tom asked to make OP aware that we will be using shared accounts - not willfully defying OP’s mandate for IS3 but our hands are tied.
UCI: 265 accounts for the current license. 6 shared accounts in use but they have a lot of complaints from fulfillment about those accounts.
Suggest some specific options/directives for managing shared accounts. AATF did not feel this was part of their charge and it would need to be left up to each campus to solve in the best way for them.
Erik would welcome any writeups of suggested plans for how campuses are complying with IS3: virtual box logins, etc. Erik will add it to the appendix.
ULs are the buffer to campus security and they need to understand the situation clearly.
@Lena Zentall (Unlicensed) to verify if accounts will be allocated to each campus for API purposes (or will each campus use up to the total UC 2091 limit and not have a campus limit?)
@Lena Zentall (Unlicensed) will share our notes from AATF discussion with Erik.
6
Load testing/performance
Load and performance testing: Given that we are experiencing slowness already, are we still interested in possibly performing load testing? If so, is there anyone that is willing and able to lead this effort?
What testing did existing Almas do? What have other institutions done? (check on Alma-L or almaconsortial-l).
Comments on Slack, 4/27:
Jeremy: Not opposed to the idea of load testing, but since we don't control the backend system and don't have access to any logs, how can you measure performance consistently?
Lynne: The only testing we have done was really response time testing, which we did by measure various search screen loads and multiple requests. Happy to get more details if there is any interest.
10
Tom
UCSC had a day where NA04 was problematic for about 12 hours. Another time all 3 campuses were doing data loads and it crashed the system.
Consult the CSUs about performance on Primo on day 1 when everyone jumped on it. Any issues? Ask on ACAG list? Did they do testing ahead of time?
As soon as the cutover environment is delivered, we should check primo and see what the speeds are. would at least give us a few days lead time.
Make sure we have the form (or understand what data is needed) for submitting problems if it’s slow.
@Lena Zentall (Unlicensed) and @Lynne E. Grigsby will ask on the ACAG list about load/performance with Primo when they went live. Any issues? Did they do testing ahead of time?
@Lena Zentall (Unlicensed) will check with Marci on how ExL will reassure us they will manage any slowness issues at go-live. What recommendations do they have.
7
Questions from slack
(Jackie, 4/27) Do any of the already-Alma campuses have a digitization workflow in place which limits requests by user group (or some user-based parameter)?
(Carlo, 4/28) Does anyone (esp the already-Alma campuses) use a third party billing platform along with Alma? UCLA's preservation department has some pretty complex use cases (like splitting invoices, using different tax rates depending on where customers are located) along with UCLA Lib's overall need to track money on a per-unit basis for separate reimbursement. Apparently Alma can't handle this complexity. We have a home grown Access based system we'd like to decommission because the person who built it in the early 00s has retired. So we're looking for alternate software solutions.
(Jeremy) Special Collections ordering can get kind of complicated, but Alma can facilitate a lot of weirdness. In regards to splitting invoices and different tax rates, wouldn't it make more sense to ask the vendor to provide multiple invoices? That's what I usually did when I was an acq person (assuming I understand what you are saying above).
(Jeremy, 4/29) Regarding the consortial Browzine (Third Iron Complete) package that we all signed up for, will this be managed locally only or via the NZ, or both?
(Jeremy) good to know that this is written down somewhere, i told my local folks I wouldn't implement this till then anyway. I like the idea of doing combined searching, but having ExL turn a new feature of the UI on to make one integration easier might be overkill...a lot of times these types of things break when Ex Libris does a monthly release.
(Jeremy, 4/30) Is anyone using Alma Cloud Apps? They have some interesting ones, but I haven't wanted to go down this route at my campus. It's my understanding that once you turn on cloud apps per institution, any Alma user can then install cloud apps, even if the apps use high-level APIs (likes Users) that you don't have as an Alma role. So that seems like a big security issue to me, but I might have this wrong.
RE: cloud apps, some good information from a CSU colleague: "Users can only install cloud apps you enable. But you're right, if you enable an app you want to use and it uses high-level APIs, then any user can install that app." One remediating factor is that some high level cloud apps require you to be in certain windows to use them, so if you don't have the right roles you wouldn't able to use the app. But it depends on the app.
(Lisa, 4/30) for Already-Alma campuses: Ex Libris is rolling out a May update (so may be visible as soon as tomorrow), to add fourth and fifth reporting code levels in the POL record. AEFG is asking already-Alma campuses to not develop plans to populate these at this time. AEFG has on its testing plan working with CDL on ways to support e-resources reporting for resources with the same provider (i.e., CDL and Local spending with Publisher X) - and wants to reserve these reporting codes until that practice can be determined. (AEFG is on a work group call at the moment, so wanted to share as soon as it came up - glad to answer any questions.)
(Jeremy, 5/4) For folks on PrimoVE using AEON, how do you manage special collections titles that have no items attached? We have some of these here and the AEON link doesn't appear for these because the AEON GES is managed at the item-level. Is that true of you all as well?
(Jackie, 5/4) Are any other campuses (besides UCLA) opting for a custom domain?
(Lakshmi, 5/5) Question: Will Melvyl still be available to patrons during the freeze period until Go-Live? If current PrimoVE campuses cannot access Primo VE during during technical/fulfillment freeze, then wondering if we can redirect patrons to Melvyl..
LOTS OF DISCUSSION ON THIS TOPIC
(Jeremy, 5/5) For already-Alma campuses, I just put in a question on BC asking if z39.50, SRU, and read-only APIs will still be accessible during the freezes. I just remembered that we have a website that uses SRU to search our collection
(Jeremy, 5/5)
So, I've started creating some import profiles in Test Load. Basically, I'm re-creating current import profiles we already have to use the NZ. There's a few choices in the import profile process that have NZ implications. Has the RMFG or Acquisition group come up with a policy on what these choices should be? Normalization and Validation
Import Local Extensions - Yes/No
Correct the data using: [choose NZ norm rule]. In our current environment this points to some local norm rules, but if you use the NZ in the import profile, you can only pick NZ norm rules.
Match Profile
Upon no match: Add to NZ / Do Not Import / Import to IZ
Answer: (Liz M) Both groups are currently working on those best practices and we're aiming to actually create templates in the NZ that will be shared with the campuses so that those rule choices will be built-in already
10
Tom
#7 Custom domain anyone? UCB is planning to use one. Is anyone else? There is a dependency with CDL for the link resolver. What’s the advantage? For patrons to know that the URL is easily. There’s security certificate maintenance and other things to consider.
8
Other / Homework
0
Tom
Homework: IZ configuration work to support link resolving (See 4/8 IC notes). Who’s done?
See poll on IC slack channel.
Have you completed the IZ configuration work to support link resolving that Alison Ray discussed in April?
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
10
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
from Lynne: Don't we really have till June 25th to complete our integrations? “I understand their reasoning was due to our focus changing, but some of the integration with campus may take longer than end of May and I hope we can work on them until we lose NA07. “ Confirm if ExL staff will be available after end of May.
[Marci]Yes the campuses really do have until June 25th - HOWEVER we have pushed for them being prepared by the end of May since the test load delivery (and even earlier). It’s always best to have a buffer for the just-in-case situations - and not plan for the very last minute.
Q’s from Greg: before the Thursday cutover timeline presentation.
What happens in the event that we sign the data integrity (or whatever it's called) form in order to go-live but then find some major migration issue afterwards? Does it just become our problem to cleanup?
[Marci] It is key to put together a testing plan for Cutover as the turnaround for data testing and acceptance is fast. If you are to find a problem post Go Live, please alert your implementation team immediately so the problem can be reviewed and we can put together a game plan for correction (together).
Re: June 25th thing -- Marci says to wrap up work by end of May "just to be sure" but 3 weeks is a huge amount of time in terms of testing and if we can stretch work out over 7 weeks instead of 4 that'd be great.
[Marci] I think this related to the question / issue that you included for Lynne above. Integrations were only one part of the all that was to be planned to be completed by end of May.
11
Parking lot
0
UCD Escalation (3/17)
(If needed) Best practices/guidelines for APIs.
Awareness that NA04-NA07 servers are being physically moved to a new location over Memorial Day weekend and there will be a scheduled downtime from May 29 8pm PT to May 30 8pm PT.
12
TOTAL
90/90
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