| 1 | Lessons Learned UC | What worked well? didn’t work well? what would you do differently next time (for the test load)? Possible questions: Did you consult the right people (in filling out forms, etc.)? Any big lessons learned with the forms? Did you have enough time? Did you have the resources you needed? Did you end up scaling back your plan? What was the result/impact? Did you learn what you needed to learn in Vanguard? Are you feeling comfortable going into test load? If not, what concerns you?
What trends are we seeing to share with Ex Libris? | | ICs | Lynne UCB: Very glad to have participated in the vanguard. Ask for ExL: more information on the content of the meetings. For example, the 3rd party integrations meeting - Lynne had asked her full staff to be there. She thought it would be an overview of all of the integrations, not a deeper dive into some of them. More communication for us to ask and for Ex Libris to share (what are the goals of the meeting, etc.)
Carlo/UCLA: Ask for ExL: Carve out some time for Ex Libris to work with us -- ExL as the driver’s ed instructor and we’re the student driver. For example: circulation matrices – a couple of patron types that aren’t working well, and Carlo’s having trouble even coming up with how to put it into BC. It would be easier to discuss this directly in a meeting.
Greg/UCSD Glad they started data review and cleanup early. Lots of issues were exposed. SIP provided time to do much of this work. Needed to remember how things are inter-operable. Some bibs and items were not migrated due to assumptions that were made. This showed up in the failed migration report and Greg was able to fix this. Happy to participate in vanguard! “Driving a bumper car with a blindfold.” Would have appreciated more instruction early on – really apparent when doing the migration forms. Ask: We don’t know what we don’t know. You’ve been great about answering the question. If you can anticipate the next question. For example, Greg made a label change but was not told it might take 1-2 days to show up in Primo. Greg spent time spinning his wheels trying to figure out why it wasn’t working.
Susan/UCSF Learned by doing. Grateful for the vanguard experience. Continuing to clean up data. Made some decisions about special collections. Still struggling with eresource management. Appreciate the guidance from colleagues, and looking forward to guidance from Ex Libris. Appreciated Amanda’s training and real answers in real time.
Jeremy/UCSB Appreciated quick response to issues reported. Jeremy noted some FAQs about things that came up to share with other UCs. Are we providing data or not? Thankful that Laurie did it in the end. Ask: Search criteria used would be helpful. Laurie will discuss this during the migration meeting with the existing Alma campuses. Thank you to UCSB – good learning experience for exL to understand how UC works. Laurie will create a separate admin account that won’t be linked with the live Alma.
Alison/CDL Didn’t have to do forms! Yay. Had to figure out how to get data from 3 sources into Alma. Challenging – glad for another test load. Coordinate to ensure extracts don’t run at times that might bring down production systems. Some disappointment with scaling back, e.g., not loading Calisphere records. Trying to do this with Ping. Insecure with the workflows - lots of documents to review and lots of testing. Still having trouble conceptualizing what staff see in their IZs vs. what we see in NZ. Are all the IZ primo’s set differently? Why aren’t records appearing the same?
Tom/UCM | | |
| 2 | Lessons Learned Ex Libris | | | | Marci - acknowledged the vanguard is often a short and painful experience for all institutions but it sets you up for a better test round. vanguard is about learning functionality – it’s not about workflows. As we move into the full project, more people are coming into the project (UCM, UCD Law and others). Alma Essentials is a good place to start to learn. There’s a larger period of time after the test load to start working on integrations and workflows. You’ll be more prepared for the test load after your vanguard experience. Thank you for all the hard work! A special shout out to the existing Alma campuses who offered lots of advice and insight! Lynne welcomed Jackie Gosselar who will be working with Lynne G. and will eventually become the UCB IC. Welcome Jackie!
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