I-Share Liaisons Guide

Why Do We Have I-Share Liaisons?

The chief executive officer (that is, dean, director, university librarian) of each CARLI/I-Share member institution's library must appoint an individual from the institution's library staff to serve as the institution's I-Share Liaison. I-Share Liaisons provide the primary point of contact between your institution and CARLI, thus offloading the effort of managing communications and managing institutional accountability in Alma and Primo VE from the library director. Appointing an I-Share Liaison also ensures that more than one person is getting important information. The I-Share Liaison also serves as the “official voice” for decisions made by the institution.

Choosing Your Liaison

Your Liaison should be familiar with the roles at your library and the people within them, as well as when to contact other related departments, such as IT. They should have a broad view of the library’s operational duties. For example, an issue with email letters might involve both the circulation staff and IT. They also should be familiar with Alma and Primo VE. They should handle communications effectively and quickly and be aware of what others need to know.

Responsibilities of I-Share Liaisons

Your Liaison’s tasks fall into two main categories:

• Managing communications between your institution and CARLI
• Maintaining institutional accountability for Alma and Primo VE matters

Managing communications between your institution and CARLI

Communication responsibilities of I-Share Liaisons fall into three areas:

• Receiving communications from the CARLI Office
• Redistributing CARLI information within their institutions
• Serving as a voice for their institutions within CARLI

Receiving communications from the CARLI Office

The I-Share Liaison is the primary point of contact in your library for information from the CARLI office. The Liaison then is responsible for disseminating the information to any interested parties in your library. If CARLI has no idea who to ask, we'll ask the Liaison.

CARLI maintains various email lists to facilitate communication with CARLI Office staff and among CARLI libraries. As CARLI uses these lists to convey important notices related to the use and availability of CARLI online services, each I-Share library must have at least one staff member subscribed to each of the lists named below. CARLI will subscribe Liaisons automatically to all of the following lists to ensure that they (and thereby their libraries) receive all CARLI announcements:

• i-shareliaisons@carli.illinois.edu: Announcements sent to Liaisons
• i-share@carli.illinois.edu: Broadcast announcements to the I-Share community
• announce@carli.illinois.edu: Broadcast announcements to the CARLI community
• ResShare-ig@carli.illinois.edu: News and discussions of interest to access services staff
• PubServ-ig@carli.illinois.edu: News and discussions of interest to public services staff
• TechServ-ig@carli.illinois.edu: News and discussions of interest to technical services staff

Redistributing CARLI information within their institutions

Within each institution's library, the Liaison should be aware of which staff use the various CARLI services on a regular basis. I-Share components include I-Share's public access catalog; e-collections and etitles, circulation system and services related to patron file maintenance, notice production and interlibrary loan; database maintenance tools and OCLC cataloging interfaces. If CARLI announces scheduled downtime for Alma, Liaisons should consider how their libraries will be affected. Liaisons are encouraged to read messages posted to CARLI e-mail lists and to forward them to their colleagues who would be interested in, or affected by, the subject matter. Subscription to most lists is open and Liaisons should encourage staff at their institutions' libraries to subscribe to lists related to their areas of specialty. Visit the CARLI Email lists page for more information on the CARLI lists and to subscribe.

One example of an area of specialty is cataloging. The Liaison must distribute guidelines for cataloging within the Alma Network Zone to appropriate catalogers.

The Liaison might create documentation of local procedures and forward CARLI documentation to interested parties. They are responsible for passing along information when there is turnover at their institution.

In addition to disseminating announcements about CARLI/I-Share systems, Liaisons should make a practice of sharing information about CARLI committee activities, initiatives, and concerns; reviewing CARLI committee activities with their library administrators; and publicizing committee programs and encouraging staff attendance. I-Share Liaisons should strive to make sure that their colleagues are aware of changes being made to CARLI/I-Share services and that they participate in any pre-installation testing that the CARLI Office may request. Also, I-Share Liaisons may be called on to make sure that their institution has reviewed and responded to an information query from the CARLI Office such as a request for local profile or configuration information required to implement a new I-Share service.

Serving as a voice for their institutions within CARLI

I-Share Liaisons should serve as a proactive voice for their institutions in the CARLI Organization. I-Share Liaisons should bring their questions and concerns about CARLI services and activities to the attention of the CARLI Office staff.

Liaisons should also encourage their colleagues to communicate directly with their elected or appointed counterparts on appropriate CARLI committees. Liaisons can also play an active role in CARLI by recruiting capable and interested colleagues for membership on many other committees within CARLI.

Maintaining institutional accountability for I-Share matters

To assure the integrity of CARLI's online services, the CARLI Office must require that some matters related to the local management of CARLI services be handled by contact people who have been granted that authority by their institutions' library management. For example: fulfillment configuration changes. These types of service requests must be submitted by designated contacts. In most I-Share institutions, the Liaison will be such a designated contact. For some of these roles, such as login security, member institutions should assign more than one person to be a designated contact to assure adequate coverage. The chief executive officer of each member institution's library should make sure that there are always individuals on the library staff who are charged with the following responsibilities:

Login Security

Each institution needs to have at least one login security contact. The I-Share Liaison will typically be one of these contacts. The Liaison knows how staff log into Alma and Primo VE and what authentication platform is in use. This person is responsible for creating new logins, disabling logins for former staff, and seeing that the library has ongoing and adequate access to the SFTP directories and Box account used to transmit data from CARLI to member libraries. The Liaison also manages access to the Alma User Manager role, which manages the roles for all other users. For more information, see the documentation on the SSH Secure Shell. The Liaison also knows the login to the Alma Developer Network and can create and distribute API keys to the staff. The Liaison also knows who has access to the Ex Libris Support account.

SIS Loads

The I-Share Liaison needs to know who is responsible for patron SIS loads and how often they are completed.

Problem Reporting Procedures

The I-Share Liaison should see that their library establishes and maintains procedures for reporting system and connectivity problems to CARLI and local network support staff. The I-Share Liaison can be included as an additional contact on Ex Libris support cases and could be assigned the Ex Libris support account for the institution.

CARLI Directory Updates

The CARLI Office maintains a database of CARLI libraries. Each library is profiled with key data for the I-Share community. If there are changes in personnel, telephone numbers, or other information, the Liaison is expected to notify the CARLI Office of these changes in a timely fashion. You can open the Membership Page Updates from by selecting the Update Your Member Page link in your library's CARLI membership page:

Then you can fill out the form with your changes:

Enter your name and your email address, select your institution, and enter the director's email address. You can use the following fields to make changes to information about your library. If you want to change a library staff member in a particular role, select the role from the drop-down list and enter their name, email address, and phone number. If you want to remove the staff member currently in the position, select Yes.

Official CARLI Membership and Participation Agreements

CARLI Membership Agreement

I-Share Participation Agreement

Practical information

Spend some time browsing these sites, they are full of information for your own use and to share.

CARLI office (contact information: phone, fax, emails, address)

Calendar of CARLI events, meetings, etc. (When and where is that meeting?)

I-Share documentation

Latest News on the CARLI web site

Ex Libris’ incident-tracking system (Password protected)

Tasks for you or someone at your library…

Daily:

• Read your email to check for information from lists that should be redistributed within your library.

Regularly:

• Check the latest CARLI news.
• Read the CARLI Newsletter for information that should be redistributed within your library.
• Request and/or retrieve needed reports on Alma activity.
• Patron SIS Loads (schedule according to your own institutional needs).
• Calendar maintenance–If your library creates new circulation calendars for Alma for each semester, please make sure this work is completed in a timely manner to avoid Fulfillment transaction glitches.
• Check your institution's entry in the CARLI directory; notify the CARLI Office of any changes to the CARLI Member database.

As needed:

• Notify the CARLI office of significant personnel changes at your library (which might affect account suspension, email list subscriptions, directory updates, committee memberships, etc.)

"How to" Information

• Analytics and Reports
• Secure FTP Accounts
• Alma Configuration and Administration
• Box Account – Ask CARLI for access

Get started writing your own reports & statistics

Alma Analytics

For CARLI-generated annual statistics

I-Share Annual Statistical Package for Alma Data

Advice for I-Share liaisons

There is too much Liaison information for you to keep track of in your head. For easy reference, keep all of the Liaison documentation together in an electronic or manual folder.

If you or a staff member needs help, you’re welcome to call or email the CARLI Office, but you may want to take a look at the CARLI web site first. Try one or more of the following:

I-Share Documentation

Site search function

You may also want to conduct a search in Ex Libris’ knowledge base.

Participate—and encourage other staff in your library to participate—in training, meetings, etc. offered through CARLI. These events provide information as well as opportunities to meet new people with different ways of doing things—it may just help your library solve some little (or huge) problem you’ve been grappling with for some time.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Recording of the Role of the I-Share Liaisons Webinar

Slides (Powerpoint)

Slides (PDF)

Transcript