Alma Primo VE project dates and deadlines, Email from 5/8/2019

This page's content is from an email Kristine Hammerstrand sent to the I-Share Directors and the Alma/Primo Contacts email lists on 5/8/2019.

I-Share library directors and Alma Primo VE contacts,

I am writing to update you on CARLI’s Alma and Primo VE implementation project and to share some new information about upcoming events, tasks and deadlines for all 91 I-Share libraries. Please share this information with others on your library staff.

You may recall that we have been actively working with the 5 Vanguard libraries since March to rapidly perform a test data migration. This Vanguard phase of the project has allowed us to experience all steps in the Alma Primo VE migration and implementation process before beginning work with all 91 institutions. We are now approaching the final steps in the Vanguard phase.

This week, Ex Libris has provided us a set of deadlines for the second phase of the project which will be a full test migration for all 91 I-Share libraries’ catalog and link resolver data to Alma and Primo VE. Ex Libris has scheduled a mid-October 2019 timeslot for delivery of our test databases. Each I-Share library will receive its own database with its own data. While October sounds somewhat far off now, there are a number of milestone tasks that each I-Share library has to complete by firm deadlines over the next three to four months in order to keep the project on schedule for the consortium.

Before I discuss the tasks and deadlines, please remember that this phase is a TEST migration. While it is helpful to be as well prepared as possible for your test migration, you will have the late fall and winter months to experiment with your test data, conduct training, and setup your integrations with other products and services that you will use with Alma and Primo VE (such as authentication, printing, integration with Student Information Systems, and more.)

Throughout the project, CARLI will be offering a series of recorded webinars, “office hours” call-in timeslots, and some in-person consultation sessions around the state to help you to better understand the various forms and questionnaires that you will be completing about your library and its policies. We plan to bring in Ex Libris staff to offer a series of workshops in the fall and winter, after you all have your Alma and Primo VE test databases.

In the late spring we will all begin the final phase of the project, which is the production migration. You will have an opportunity to update some of the settings and choices you made for the test load for the production load.

Finally, we still anticipate that we will go live on Alma and Primo VE on or close to our scheduled date of June 24, 2020.

Here are some of the events and deadlines to expect for the Test Load phase, all deadlines will be posted on the CARLI website and also announced with frequent reminders to the I-Share directors and CARLI Alma Primo contacts email lists (the lists to which this email message was sent.)

• May 22, 2019: CARLI will post a recorded webinar to our website that gives an overview of the steps and tasks in the Test Load phase. Due to our limit on simultaneous connections to our webinar service, this will not be an interactive webinar, but questions will be welcomed at our usual support@carli.illinois.edu address.
• On or before May 22, 2019: CARLI will provide each Alma Primo contact with information on how to connect to the “Box” file server. Box will be used for much of our distribution of worksheets to and from the I-Share libraries. No special software is required for you to connect to Box.
• On or before May 22, 2019: CARLI will place a file in each I-Share library’s Box folder listing all the current locations your library uses (or has previously used) in Voyager. You will receive instructions on how to work with these files, but essentially you will be indicating which are still in use, and which have been defined as “locations” used on bibliographic records you have added to your catalog for electronic resources.
• June 4, 2019: I-Share libraries return their list of e-resources locations used on bib records in Voyager to CARLI. CARLI will use these to create “P2E” (see below) data files for each I-Share library.
• Early June 2019: CARLI will send a version of Ex Libris’ “Alma Migration Form” to I-Share libraries and we will share information about completing these forms.
• Week of June 10, 2019: CARLI will post a recorded webinar about a process that Ex Libris calls “P2E”. Basically, P2E will identify bib records in your catalog that represent electronic items or collections. This process will ultimately allow you to manage these materials through workflows that are appropriate to electronic materials (e.g., licensing, activation, access terms, etc.) CARLI will run a report that identifies what we believe to be the bib records for e-resources you currently have in Voyager. You will review these files and correct as many errors as you can. (Remember this is a test load, so we don’t expect your responses to be perfect. The time you have to review your test data will help you to refine this data before our production loads in spring 2020.)
• Week of June 10, 2019: CARLI will post a recorded webinar about the Link Resolver worksheets that need to be completed by I-Share libraries that DO NOT use SFX. If you use SFX, CARLI will be able to manage this step for you. This step will be relevant to those of you who use the 360 products from ProQuest, EBSCO’s Full Text Finder, and OCLC’s World Share license manager.
• July 9, 2019: Deadline for all I-Share libraries’ P2E worksheets to be returned to CARLI via Box.
• Mid-July, 2019: CARLI staff (and possibly Ex Libris staff) will hold consultation visits around the state at regional locations to assist libraries with completing their Ex Libris Migration forms and addressing questions.
• July 23, 2019: Deadline for I-Share libraries to return their Migration Worksheets to CARLI.
• Early August 2019: CARLI provides the Ex Libris “Configuration Forms” to I-Share libraries. These worksheets define many of the policies libraries will use for circulation and resource sharing and more. These forms are automatically generated by Ex Libris from your completed Migration Forms, i.e., your locations and other information will be pre-populated.
• September 4, 2019: Deadline for I-Share libraries to return their Configuration Worksheets to CARLI.

As mentioned above, this timeline will be posted to the CARLI website and shared via other means as well, as we understand this is a lot to absorb, and that email is not the best format for this important and complex information.

Ex Libris has several other customers migrating to Alma in this same timeframe and they have allocated their data migration staff to our implementation based on these deadlines. We have built in time for the CARLI staff to work with you on this process, but you will need to make this project a priority for your staff and meet all established deadlines. Again, this is a TEST load, you will have the fall and winter to review, learn, and revise before we do the final production “cutover” migration in spring 2020.

As we have said in our FAQ and other places, Ex Libris has a wealth of online training material for Alma and Primo VE in their online Knowledge Center. You will find it easier to complete some of these worksheets and forms if you have watched their training session videos and read some of their migration guides. A good place to start is with our guide to various Alma and Primo VE learning resources.

Changing a library management system is a major project for any library, and of course, the project is larger and more complex for a consortium of our size. We at CARLI will do everything we can to make this process as successful as possible, but it will be a period of disruption for all of us. Please bear with our staff as we learn Alma and Primo VE along with you, and please don’t hesitate to ask questions. We also greatly appreciate it if you can complete tasks before the established deadlines whenever possible, as most deadlines are followed by our review of your responses before being sent to Ex Libris.

We all look forward to the enhanced workflow options Alma and Primo VE will bring us for managing electronic materials, resource sharing, and consortial workflows that allow us to do some work centrally instead of 91 times. We think this migration from Voyager will be well worth all the effort and disruption this year and look forward to many more years of I-Share collaboration on the new Alma and Primo VE platform.

Thank you for your participation in I-Share! As always, please send your questions and comments to us at support@carli.illinois.edu

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Kristine Hammerstrand
Director, User Services
CARLI, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois
khammer@uillinois.edu
(217)244-7595