Alma at Strathclyde

How we prepared … Business improvement analysis: where is the waste? Circulation policy review, involving our users, especially around loan lengths, return times and days and fines Both of these areas of work identified issues that our pre-Alma systems were unable to help us resolve. Know your business

How we prepared … Know what you want to improve Streamline purchase to shelf workflow Remove duplication of ebook records (SFX and local catalogue) Put bulk record loads (ebook sets) in the hands of cataloguing Improve management information to support purchase and deselection decisions Improve the end user experience when obtaining material (we already had Primo, so the discovery element of the user experience was not a priority area for us)

The project team Board/Sponsor Champions and trainers Board/Sponsor Governance and high level policy change approval Team Core project team, delivery of milestones, oversight and workflow decisions (10) Champions and trainers Getting to know Alma in depth, testing data migration, testing new workflows, training staff (10) Library staff Read documentation, watch Ex Libris training material, attend Strathclyde training sessions (50) Champions and trainers Project Team

Critical to success Large proportion of users involved throughout the project Library staff have ownership of Alma Library staff have learned how to explore the system and find ways to suit their processes This will continue as Alma has monthly releases and it is the ongoing role of champions and trainers to review new features and implement them where appropriate Training at lots of levels – certification training; functional calls; on site workshop; Strathclyde led training

Impact of Alma E and P managed in the same workflow Improved integration with suppliers Loading of ebook record sets can now be done by non-technical staff Automatic renewal of material is having a positive impact for users However, the consequence is an increase in ‘recalls’ which some users view negatively Management information : much better tools for non-systems staff

Configuration and data challenges Difficult to make configuration decisions without really understanding how the system works How to simplify circulation policies No data change or clean up as part of migration – if this is required you need to do it prior to going live.

Working with Ex Libris Training Implementation consultants Online training and functional calls Workshop Strathclyde led training Certification Training Implementation consultants Don’t wait for all the answers to come to you, you will need to seek them out Don’t try to be different!