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Alma Data Migration Review Procedures

This document provides an overview of the steps libraries should take to identify example records, review your Alma Test Load, and report any problems found in the migration of your data from Voyager to Alma. 

Identifying Test Cases

Your library’s staff should identify sample records throughout your Voyager database that exemplify both good data and potentially problematic data. You will want simple and complex examples, as well as representatives of any local practices that you know but CARLI or Ex Libris may not be able to spot.

To assist you in identifying examples, CARLI staff have developed a set of Data Migration Review worksheets. The worksheets identify many different record scenarios divided up by the type of data involved. Your library may not have data that meets all the criteria listed. You should be sure to identify anything of interest to your library in the migration.

The following table identifies the dates when library data were extracted from Voyager. Libraries should use these dates to identify examples for testing the migration of data. Any records that are added, changed, or deleted in Voyager after these dates will not appear in Alma when the test environments are delivered. 

For larger institutions it is wise to divide these worksheets among the functional areas that work with the data most frequently, for example you should have your Acquisitions staff look for examples from the Acquisitions client, and your Circulation staff looking for examples relating to Patrons and Circulation transactions.

Data Review and Configuration Review

The Alma Test Load review will occur in two phases. During Phase One from October 23 - November 6, libraries should review the test cases that you identified, perform a general review of your data, and report any problems found to CARLI as soon as possible. Please leave any data and configuration settings exactly how they have migrated. If something looks wrong, Ex Libris will need to be able to replicate the exact problem and look at the examples provided.

In Phase One, all library staff who will access Alma to work on data review and testing will use a single set of credentials to log in to Alma.  These credentials were provided to the Alma Primo VE Contact on October 23 via a letter in Box.

After two weeks of strictly data review, on November 6 the CARLI Office will announce that Phase Two has begun and libraries can begin making data and/or configuration changes in your Alma testing environment.  At that time, CARLI will provide the Alma Primo VE contact with personalized credentials to log into Alma and further instructions on how to set up other staff credentials in Alma.

Libraries should continue to review data and report problems to CARLI throughout the Alma Test Load period, which will run until early Spring 2020. Primo VE environments will be made available the week of November 11 after indexing is complete.

As you review, it will be helpful to have:

  1. Your library's final Migration Form (provided in your library's Box folder; file name: Alma Test Migration Form XXX_FINAL.xlsm)
  2. Your library's final Configuration Form (provided in your library's Box folder; file name: Alma Configuration Form_XXX_FINAL.xlsm)
  3. The Voyager to Alma Migration Guide. Ex Libris strongly recommends reviewing this document in advance and keeping it handy during your testing. This document defines the selections made on your migration form, and also identifies ways that data will be migrated or will not be migrated from Voyager to Alma.
  4. Your library's Data Migration Review worksheets 
  5. Ex Libris' testing scripts. As part of reviewing the migration data, you will also be testing your access to the system and determining whether records are behaving correctly. Ex Libris provides testing scripts that staff can use to check both the data and the functionality of records. These include:

Testing Fulfillment Data Migration to Alma
Testing Resource Management Data Migration to Alma
Testing Acquisitions Data Migration to Alma

  1. Test load reports and stats. As part of the migration process several reports are created and will be provided to assist you in evaluating your data. More details about these reports is available on the Alma Test Load - Reports and Statistics page.
  2. TheAlma Data Migration Review- Alma Searches page. During Open Office Hours on September 19 and September 26, both Ex Libris and CARLI staff demonstrated searches in Alma to help your library review your Voyager to Alma migrated data. This webpage includes the click-paths illustrated in the 9/19 and 9/26 calls.

Additional resources that may be helpful in your review:

Reporting Problems

Each I-Share library has established a single point of contact, the Alma/Primo VE Contact, to communicate with CARLI over the course of the project. As staff at your library work through the various examples and test scripts, they should always keep your library’s Contact in the loop. The Alma/Primo VE Contact is responsible for collecting problem reports from your library, and then communicating those problems to CARLI. 

CARLI will review reported problems and attempt to replicate what library staff found in Alma. In order to do this, having concrete details is critical, not just about the problem found, but about the data being searched, the path to that data, and the results that library staff were expecting. Library staff should also keep track of the Alma user roles in use for their accounts, as this may affect some results.

When reporting a problem to CARLI, please report as many of the following details as possible:

  • Describe the problem that you have found.
  • Include the Alma record identifier for the problem (e.g., MMSID, PO Line #) or create a Set (logical or itemized) in Alma and share the name of the problem set.
  • Include the Voyager record identifier for the original data (e.g., BIB ID, MFHD ID, Patron barcode, etc.).
  • Identify the area of Alma that you are using (e.g., Resource Management, Fulfillment).
  • Identify the location you have selected to work from in Alma.
  • Identify your user login name and user role(s), if known.
  • Describe what you expected to see instead of the problem.
  • Provide the Alma Error number and error reference id, if displayed.

Report these details to . This will establish a CARLI Support ticket that allows all CARLI staff to monitor issues and identify if identical issues are present in other databases.

  • Problems that look similar should not be assumed to have the same source issue, and should be reported separately. 
  • Problems that have already been reported once by your library do not need to be reported again, but library staff may follow-up to the original CARLI Support ticket with additional examples.

After reviewing the problem, CARLI staff will report the problem to Ex Libris via their tracking system, SalesForce, with one case filed per problem reported. The Alma/Primo VE Contact will be copied on each case and may review and respond to follow-up requests from CARLI or Ex Libris by email.

Both CARLI staff and Ex Libris staff will likely be responding to several reports at the same time. You may not receive an immediate response about your report.