I-Share Title and Named Users Overage Announcements

To: I-Share Directors and I-Share Liaisons of 35 I-Share institutions

During the title count reduction project, CARLI staff have discovered an Ex Libris migration data error. Specifically, many I-Share libraries had the Alexander Street Press e-collection Theatre in Video, Supplement activated in their IZ during migration when they should have had Theatre in Video, Volume 1 - North America activated in their IZ instead. Users at these libraries do not have access to the Theatre in Video, Supplement e-collection.

We are writing to you as the library director or I-Share liaison of one of the 35 institutions listed at the bottom of this note* to ask you how you would like to proceed. Please share this information with staff that work with managing electronic resources in Alma.

The 35 libraries* affected by this error should:

1. Activate in your IZ the correct e-collection from the CZ: Theatre in Video, Volume 1 - North America with CZ Electronic Collection ID: 61391926370005816, MMS ID: 9913536078200041
2. Delete the Theatre in Video, Supplement e-collection from your IZ.  For your institution, the report with the Electronic Collection ID to be deleted can now be found in your institution's Box folder (where XXX is your institution's three-letter I-Share code):
   

   XXX > XXX Alma Title Count Reduction Project > XXX_AlexStPress_Theatre_ECollection_to_Delete_from_your_IZ.xlsx

Each I-Share institution must let CARLI know if you will add the correct e-collection and delete the erroneous one, or if you'd like CARLI to do this work for you. Please complete this brief questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by 5pm, December 21, 2021.

If you confirm that you will do this work yourself, please add Theatre in Video, Volume 1 - North America e-collection and delete the Theatre in Video, Supplement e-collection.

• Follow the steps for Activating an Alma Electronic Collection in your Institution Zone.
• Follow the steps for Deleting an Alma Electronic Collection in your Institution Zone.
• Please complete this work by January 31, 2022. If at any time you feel unable to meet this deadline, don't hesitate to contact CARLI and we will be happy to assist.
• If you confirm that CARLI should adjust these e-collections for you, the incorrect e-collection will be deleted and the correct e-collection will be activated by our staff, and you will be notified when this work has been completed your IZ. Please note that there is no cost to your library to have this work done for you.
•  If we do not receive a response to our questionnaire indicating your institution’s preference by December 21, 2021, CARLI staff will adjust these e-collections in your IZ.

If you have any questions, please contact CARLI Support. Thank you!

* The 35 libraries with "Theatre in Video" e-collections to adjust are: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Aurora University, College of DuPage, Concordia University Chicago, Eureka College, Governors State University, Greenville University, Harper College, Illinois College, Illinois State Library, Illinois Valley Community College, Joliet Junior College, Lake Forest College, Lincoln Land Community College, McHenry County College, McKendree University, Millikin University, Moody Bible Institute, Morton College, Newberry Library, North Park University, Parkland College, Quincy University, Roosevelt University, Rush University, Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing, Saint Xavier University, Sauk Valley Community College, South Suburban College, Southeastern Illinois College, Trinity Christian College, Triton College, University of Saint Mary of the Lake Mundelein Seminary, Western Illinois University, Wheaton College

To: I-Share Liaisons and I-Share Directors of 29 I-Share institutions

This message is aimed at I-Share Directors and I-Share Liaisons at institutions that have the "Black Thought and Culture" and "Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000" collections from Alexander Street Press.

The next phase of our Alma Title Count Reduction Project will focus on Alexander Street Press (ASP) e-collections, and in the first round, we begin with e-collections that are no longer fully subsidized by CARLI. Please share this information with staff that work with managing electronic resources in Alma and please respond to our brief questionnaire by November 1, 2021.

In fiscal year 2020, two of the formerly fully CARLI-subsidized Alexander Street Press (ASP) e-collections started to require libraries pay annual access fees:

• Black Thought and Culture
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000

Your institution was informed about this change and, according to our records, did not choose to pay to continue access to these e-collections. However, the bibliographic records for these e-collections are still in your Alma Institution Zone (IZ) and while your library users do not have access to these materials, they are still included in our consortial title count.

We are writing to you as the library director or I-Share liaison to ask you how your institution would like to proceed with the deleting of these two e-collections. If your library has directly purchased access independently of the CARLI brokering system, please email support@carli.illinois.edu by November 1, 2021, so that we can update our records.

For your institution, the report of this round's e-collections to be deleted from your IZ can be found in your institution's Box folder (where XXX is your institution's CARLI three-letter code):

XXX > XXX Alma Title Count Reduction Project > XXX_AlexStreetPress_BTC WSM_ECollections_to_Delete.xlsx

Each I-Share institution must let CARLI know if you will remove these e-collections in your IZ yourself or if you'd like CARLI to remove them for you. Please complete this brief questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by 5pm, November 1, 2021.

• If you confirm that you will do this work yourself, please delete these e-collections by November 8, 2021. Follow the steps for Deleting an Alma Electronic Collection in your Institution Zone.
• If you confirm that CARLI should remove these e-collections for you, these e-collections will be deleted by our staff, and you will be notified when these data have all been deleted from your IZ. Please note that there is no cost to your library to have this work done for you.
• If we do not receive a response to our questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by November 1, 2021, CARLI staff will remove the e-collections.

Please share any questions with CARLI at support@carli.illinois.edu.

To: I-Share Liaisons and I-Share Directors email lists

The next phase of our Alma Title Count Reduction Project is to identify and delete bibliographic records in each Institution Zone (IZ) that do not have any inventory. Bibs without inventory represent a meaningful number of records that can be deleted from Alma to reduce our overall title count.

We are writing to you as the library director or I-Share liaison to ask you how your institution would like to proceed with the deleting of bib records without inventory. Please share this information with staff that work with acquisitions, cataloging, and managing electronic resources, and please respond to our brief questionnaire by October 22.

For your institution, the report(s) of bibliographic records without inventory to be deleted from your IZ can be found in your institution’s Box folder (where XXX is your institution's CARLI three-letter code):
XXX > XXX Alma Title Count Reduction Project >
XXX_Bibliographic_records_in_Institution_with_no_inventory_1.xlsx

Files are limited to 9,999 lines, so if your institution has more bib records without inventory than that, you will have multiple numbered files: _2.xlsx, _3.xlsx, etc.

Please review CARLI's Alma Title Count Reduction Project: IZ Bib Records without Inventory webpage for:

• More information about bibliographic records with no inventory
• How the reports were generated for your IZ
• Cleanup workflows for removing bibs without inventory

Each I-Share institution must let CARLI know if you will delete these bibliographic records without inventory in your IZ yourself or if you'd like CARLI to remove them for you. There is no cost to your institution to have CARLI do this work on your behalf. Please complete this brief questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by 5pm, October 22, 2021.

• If you confirm that your library staff will do this work, please delete the bibliographic records without inventory from your IZ by November 24, 2021. Please review CARLI's Alma Title Count Reduction Project: IZ Bib Records without Inventory webpage where you will find links to instructions on how CARLI recommends deleting these records.
• If you confirm that CARLI should delete these bibs without inventory for you, your institution's bib records will be deleted by our staff, and you will be notified when these data have all been deleted from your IZ. Please note that there is no cost to your library to have this work done for you.
• If we do not receive a response to our questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by October 22, 2021, CARLI staff will delete these bibs without inventory on your behalf.

88 of 89 I-Share institutions have bibliographic records with no inventory in their respective IZs. (TRN does not at this time.)

CARLI staff will also be working on deleting bibliographic records from the Network Zone (NZ) that have no inventory, which will help reduce the overall title count.

To: I-Share Liaison, I-Share Directors, the TechServ-ig email lists

In conjunction with the Alma Title Count Reduction Project, CARLI staff are pleased to announce that they are available for individual consultations this fall with I-Share libraries on how the project may affect your institution. Please coordinate locally with everyone at your library who should attend and then have one person sign up for a meeting for your institution. To schedule, visit the Title Count Reduction Project Meeting Calendly page to select an available time and automatically set up the meeting.

If you need to reschedule or cancel the meeting, there are two links at the bottom of the email that you received from Calendly containing the Zoom connection information.

If CARLI staff need to reschedule for any reason, we will contact you.

To: I-Share Directors and I-Share Liaisons of 35* specific I-Share Libraries

The CARLI staff have nearly completed the work on deleting Free and Open Access collections duplicated in our Alma Institution Zones and Network Zone and we are now starting to look at the second phase of the title reduction project. Please share this information with staff that work with managing electronic resources in Alma and please respond to our brief questionnaire by October 11.

The next phase of our Alma Title Count Reduction Project is to identify and remove e-collections in each Institution Zone (IZ) that are fully funded by CARLI for all I-Share institutions and that duplicate e-collections activated centrally by CARLI in the Network Zone (NZ).  

We are writing to you as the library director or I-Share liaison of one of the 35 institutions listed at the bottom of this note*, to ask you how you would like to proceed with the three collections listed below:

• Harper's Weekly, 1857-1912
• Historical Statistics of the United States (from Cambridge University Press)
• Sage E-Journal 2007 Deep Backfile

This round of the project does not include:

• Mary Ann Liebert Journals (2005-2009 content only) or Springer Medicine ebook Collection 2005-2010. Some I-Share institutions have purchased additional titles beyond the package fully funded by CARLI. Denise Green from the CARLI Office has already reached out to affected institutions to work on options for these e-collections in the IZ.
• CARLI-purchased annual subscriptions for EBSCO resources; those will be deferred to a later round.

For your institution, the report of this round’s duplicate e-collections to be deleted from your IZ can now be found in your institution’s Box folder (where XXX is your institution’s CARLI three-letter code):

XXX > XXX Alma Title Count Reduction Project > XXX_CARLI_Funded_IZ_ECollections_to_Delete.xlsx

Each I-Share institution must let CARLI know if you will remove these duplicate e-collections in your IZ yourself or if you’d like CARLI to remove them for you. There is no cost to your institution to have CARLI do this work on your behalf. Please complete this brief questionnaire indicating your institution’s preference by 5pm, October 11, 2021.

• If you confirm that your library staff will do this work, please delete the duplicate e-collections from your IZ by October 15, 2021.  Follow the steps for Deleting an Alma Electronic Collection in your Institution Zone.
• If you confirm that CARLI should remove these e-collections for you, your institution’s duplicate e-collections will be deleted by our staff, and you will be notified when these data have all been deleted from your IZ. Please note that there is no cost to your library to have this work done for you.
• If we do not receive a response to our questionnaire indicating your institution’s preference by October 11, 2021, CARLI staff will delete these duplicate e-collections on your behalf.

Since these resources are fully funded by CARLI, there should not be any institution-specific acquisitions details associated with the CARLI-funded e-collections in your IZ. For more information, see our Alma Title Count Reduction Project: CARLI Funded E-Collections for all I-Share webpage.

As part of the network configuration of Alma, when an e-collection is activated in the NZ, each institution's default proxy server information is automatically applied to the resource links presented in Primo VE.  As these fully funded e-collections are already active from the NZ, your patrons’ access to these resources will not be interrupted during this transition, and they will likely not notice any change. Similarly, the main difference for staff searching for e-collections in Alma is that the e-collection will now be found in the Network tab rather than the Institution tab.

*The 35 I-Share libraries that have fully funded CARLI Non-EBSCO e-resource collections that are duplicated in the CARLI Alma Network Zone are:

ADL, BEN, BHC, BRA, COD, COL, DOM, ELM, GSU, IIT, IMS, ISU, IWU, KIS, KNX, LCC, LEW, LLC, MHC, MON, NCC, NEI, NIU, NLU, NPU, ONU, PRC, RVC, SIC, TRN, UIC, UIS, UIU, WHE, WRH

To: All I-Share Liaisions and I-Share Directors

This is an update on our project to eliminate duplicate title records in Alma to reduce our overall title count.
 
As described at the Sept. 9, 2021 CARLI I-Share Office Hours, we are working to identify and remove:

• E-collections in each Institution Zone (IZ) that duplicate e-collections activated centrally by CARLI in the Network Zone (NZ)
• Bibliographic records without inventory
• Duplicate Bibliographic records

CARLI’s Alma Title Count Reduction Project home page outlines in greater detail the different types of cleanup that will be addressed with links to pages dedicated to each round of the cleanup.  This page also includes all project announcements to help keep everyone informed, as well as a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the project.
 
Work has already begun to remove the identified duplicate free/open access e-collections from IZs by I-Share libraries who have chosen to delete the identified e-collections themselves, and by CARLI staff and the professional catalogers from the Illinois Heartland Library System’s Catalog Maintenance Center that CARLI has contracted with to help with this cleanup.
 
Our next area of focus will be electronic collections, other than the EBSCO package, that were purchased by CARLI for all members.
 
As we move into the next rounds of this project to clean up different types of e-collections, bibliographic records without inventory, and duplicate bibliographic records, CARLI will notify you about the next group of records that will be addressed and when we need you to indicate whether your library staff will do the described cleanup work, or if you would like CARLI staff to do it on your behalf.  As a reminder, there is no cost to you to have CARLI staff do this work for you. Please watch your email for these future communications, and to make it easier for you to keep up with this multi-faceted project, we are also posting these emails to our website for easy reference at https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/title-count-reduction/announcements

We appreciate your prompt attention and response to these email inquiries so that we can keep the project moving forward.
    
If you have any questions, please contact CARLI Support.

To: I-Share Directors and I-Share Liaisons of 30 specific I-Share Libraries

We are writing to you as the library director or I-Share liaison of one of the 30 institutions listed at the bottom of this note*, to update you on next steps in our project to reduce duplicate title records in Alma. Please share this information with staff that work with managing electronic resources in Alma.

As described at the Sept. 9, 2021 CARLI I-Share Office Hours, the first phase of our Alma Title Count Reduction Project is to identify and remove free and open access e-collections in each Institution Zone (IZ) that duplicate e-collections activated centrally by CARLI in the Network Zone (NZ).

We are pleased to inform you that your institution's IZ does not currently have any Open Access/Free e-collections active that duplicate e-collections activated centrally by CARLI in the NZ.

As we move into future phases of this project, we will be working on cleaning up additional types of e-collections that may require cleanup in your IZ. Please watch your email for future communications!

CARLI staff will be holding individual consultations with each I-Share library on how the Alma Title Count Reduction Project may affect your institution in the coming months. Watch for an announcement soon about how to sign up for a meeting for your institution.

If you have any questions, please contact CARLI Support.

*The 30 I-Share libraries that do not currently have free and open access e-resource collections that are duplicated in the CARLI Alma Network Zone are: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Benedictine University, Black Hawk College, Carl Sandburg College, Greenville University, Harper College, Heartland Community College, Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Illinois Valley Community College, JKM Library Trust, John Wood Community College, Joliet Junior College, Judson University, Kankakee Community College, Kishwaukee College, Knox College, Lewis and Clark Community College, Lincoln Land Community College, McHenry County College, Morton College, North Central College, Northern Seminary, Parkland College, Richland Community College, Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing, Sauk Valley Community College, South Suburban College, Southeastern Illinois College, Southwestern Illinois College, Triton College

To: I-Share Directors and I-Share Liaisons of 59 specific I-Share Libraries

We are writing to you as the library director or I-Share liaison of one of the 59 institutions listed at the bottom of this note*, to update you on next steps in our project to reduce duplicate title records in Alma. Please share this information with staff that work with managing electronic resources in Alma and please respond to our brief questionnaire by September 30.

As described at the Sept. 9, 2021 CARLI I-Share Office Hours, the first phase of our Alma Title Count Reduction Project is to identify and remove free and open access e-collections in each Institution Zone (IZ) that duplicate e-collections activated centrally by CARLI in the Network Zone (NZ). Since these are free resources, there should not be any institution-specific acquisitions or authentication details associated with these e-collections in your IZ. These records can and should be deleted from each IZ.

For your institution, the report of duplicate free/OA e-collections to be deleted from your IZ can now be found in your institution's Box folder (where XXX is your institution’s CARLI three-letter code): XXX > XXX Alma Title Count Reduction Project > XXX_Free_OA_IZ_ECollections_to_Delete.xlsx.

Each I-Share institution must let CARLI know if you will remove these duplicate e-collections in your IZ yourself or if you’d like CARLI to remove them for you. Please complete this brief questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by 5pm, September 30, 2021:

• If you confirm that your library staff will do this work, please delete the duplicate e-collections from your IZ by October 8, 2021. Follow the steps for Deleting an Alma Electronic Collection in your Institution Zone.
• If you confirm that CARLI should remove these e-collections for you, your institution's duplicate e-collections will be deleted by our staff, and you will be notified when these data have all been deleted from your IZ. Please note that there is no cost to your library to have this work done for you.
• If we do not receive a response to our questionnaire indicating your institution's preference by September 30, 2021, CARLI staff will contact you to verify your preference.

As these free and open access e-collections are already active from the NZ, your patrons' access to these resources will not be interrupted during this transition, and they will likely not notice any change. Similarly, the main difference for staff searching for e-collections in Alma is that the e-collection will now be found in the Network tab rather than the Institution tab. This example video demonstrates Primo VE search results and Alma staff search results both before and after a duplicate e-collection has been deleted from an IZ.

CARLI staff will be holding individual consultations with each I-Share library on how the Alma Title Count Reduction Project may affect your institution in the coming months. Watch for an announcement soon about how to sign up for a meeting for your institution.

If you have any questions, please contact CARLI Support.

*The 59 I-Share libraries that have free and open access e-resource collections that are duplicated in the CARLI Alma Network Zone are: Adler University, Augustana College, Aurora University, Bradley University, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago State University, College of DuPage, Columbia College Chicago, Concordia University Chicago, Danville Area Community College, DePaul University, Dominican University, Eastern Illinois University, Elmhurst University, Eureka College, Governors State University, Illinois Central College, Illinois College, Illinois Institute of Technology, Illinois Math and Science Academy, Illinois State Library, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Lake Forest College, Lewis University, Lincoln Christian University, Lincoln College, McKendree University, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Millikin University, Monmouth College, Moody Bible Institute, National Louis University, Newberry Library, North Park University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, Oakton Community College, Olivet Nazarene University, Principia College, Quincy University, Rock Valley College, Roosevelt University, Rush University, Saint Xavier University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Trinity Christian College, Trinity International University, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Springfield, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Saint Mary of the Lake Mundelein Seminary, University of St. Francis, Western Illinois University, Wheaton College

To: I-Share Directors; I-Share Liaisons

As we have recently informed you, we have learned from Ex Libris that CARLI is currently storing more bibliographic titles and named users in Alma than what is covered in our Alma subscription. We are aware that we have a considerable amount of duplication of titles across our 89 Alma institution zones which could be reduced by managing these materials in our Alma network zone. As titles and named users are billing metrics, it is in all members’ best interest to avoid duplication and eliminate unused records. Ex Libris has asked us to address these issues by June 2022.

I am writing today to let you know that CARLI has contracted with the Illinois Heartland Library System's Catalog Maintenance Center to employ three catalogers from September 2021 through June 2022 to assist the CARLI Office staff and I-Share member library staff in identifying duplicate titles and consolidating these records where appropriate. The three cataloging positions are being supported through a University of Illinois System Office internal special funding initiative program. These catalogers will be IHLS employees with a reporting line to CARLI Office staff. When they begin work on September 8, 2021, their first days will be spent in Alma training and doing practice work in our Alma sandbox test environments. Once they are up to speed, the CARLI staff will be providing them with sets of data to work on in our network and institution zones and carefully monitoring their work.

Please note that we are not asking I-Share libraries to limit adding materials to your collections. Our large and broad consortial collection is one of CARLI's greatest assets and its ongoing growth directly benefits our students and faculty. Efforts will focus on consolidating duplicate bibliographic records, primarily for e-resources including open access materials. The CARLI staff has begun to document and share best practices for this work; you will be hearing more from us over the coming months about how your library staff can contribute to this data cleanup effort and avoid creating new duplicates.

IHLS catalogers will have minimal, if any, direct contact with I-Share library staff, at least in the initial weeks of their work. CARLI will remain your primary contact for any questions you may have or assistance you may need in using Alma.

For more information, please see the recording of the September 9 CARLI Open Office Hours session.

To: I-Share Directors; I-Share Liaisons

CARLI has recently learned from Ex Libris that we are currently storing a greater number of bibliographic title records in the Alma cloud than we have contracted for. The title count is one of the Alma pricing metrics, so this overage could lead to cost increases in the Alma annual license fee that CARLI pays Ex Libris. We believe that a substantial portion of the overage is due to duplicate titles in Alma, some of which is an after-effect of our data migration. Ex Libris has allowed us the next year to bring our numbers into contractual compliance. We are asking you to help us put all our best efforts towards Alma data cleanup in fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022).

CARLI staff are actively working with Ex Libris staff to identify how to monitor these numbers and how to address this matter most efficiently. We will, ultimately however, need to involve every I-Share library in the effort of consolidating duplicate records and eliminating records for materials that are no longer in your collections. While this note does not call for your immediate action, it is intended to inform you and your colleagues that this data cleanup work will be a high priority task for all of us in the coming year.

We believe that there are multiple factors that have led to I-Share so quickly having exceeded our contractual title count. One of these factors is the number of duplicative e-resource titles that were migrated into Alma from our multiple Voyager databases, SFX, and other e-resource management systems. Over the years, we had created many duplicates in Voyager by loading the same e-resource collection bibliographic data into each Voyager database to make up for Voyager’s lack of true e-resource management functionality. We also recognize that the pandemic closures created an urgency for libraries to quickly provide more open access resources and temporarily free resources, and that many sites activated these in their Alma Institution Zones. We’re aware now that we need to take better advantage of Alma’s consortial Network Zone and customer-wide Community Zone to centrally manage commonly held e-resource’s metadata to minimize unnecessary duplication.

Along with the cleanup necessitated by our migration of duplicative data, we also need to make sure that our ongoing data management work takes advantage of the features in Alma that are designed for consolidating metadata management.

Over the coming weeks and months, the CARLI staff will be reaching out to I-Share library staff and working with you on this important task in a variety of ways. We will be providing reports to help you to identify and address redundant or obsolete data; we will be developing and refining best practices for managing consortially-purchased and commonly held e-resources, and we will be continuing to work with Ex Libris to address some authentication issues with records managed in the Alma Network Zone.

Additionally, we are also currently exceeding the number of Alma named users (library staff logins) that we have contracted for. Named users is another Alma pricing metric, and CARLI will likewise be more actively reminding I-Share library staff about deleting unused staff logins in Alma and advising you on ways to better manage Alma users.

We know that this information is new to you and that it likely raises many questions and concerns, particularly about your own collection and how many titles and users you should have and how far you might be over those numbers. Our agreement with Ex Libris considers our contracted numbers as consortial totals, not institution by institution, so we cannot provide a definite number like that for each institution.

Again, this is only the first of many messages about this matter, and we are very early in the process of identifying our recommendations and options. We will appreciate your patience and cooperation as we work through this with Ex Libris and all the I-Share member institutions.

CARLI Board members, I-Share directors, and I-Share liaisons,
 
On June 28, 2021, I sent an email informing you that CARLI had recently learned that we were exceeding our licensed number of Alma named users (library staff Alma login accounts) and bibliographic titles. We learned from Ex Libris this week that they want us prioritize efforts to reduce our named user count as soon as possible.
 
"Named users" are defined by Ex Libris as active user records in Alma that have been assigned any role that can log into Alma. This includes all Alma roles except Patron, Instructor, and Trial Participant. Alma pricing is based on a metric that counts titles, e-journals, and named users.
 
CARLI’s Alma license currently allows us 2162 named users to be used among the 89 I-Share libraries and the CARLI Office staff. That is a consortium-wide number; there are not specific user limits per I-Share institution. Currently, we have 4322 named users in Alma, i.e., double our licensed amount. While Alma does not functionally prevent us from adding more named users or titles than we have licensed, Ex Libris monitors these numbers as part of managing their cloud environment. As these numbers can directly impact our Alma costs, it is in our shared best interest to not store duplicate bib records or to keep active Alma named user records for individuals that do not need them.
 
On Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 2pm, CARLI's Open Office Hours webinar will focus on best practices for managing Alma named user records, reports for tracking these numbers and identifying unused staff logins, and procedures for deactivating unneeded named user records. This session will be recorded. Reports on named users in each institution will be provided through the Box file system in the coming week; please watch your email for details.
 
CARLI is also changing our recommendation on how to manage student worker logins based on this situation and our year of Alma experience. Previously, based on earlier recommendations, we encouraged you to use a personal login for each student worker. While that may still be needed for some student staff, particularly if they supervise others, in most cases we will now encourage you to use shared, generic logins for student workers wherever possible, such as at a circulation desk computer. CARLI staff are quickly working to draft a best practice statement on, and instructions for, creating generic logins and we will announce when those are available on our website early next week.
 
Working within these license numbers is new to all of us in Alma. With Voyager, we hosted our software and data on our own servers, and it was our own expense and responsibility to augment our server environment as needed to keep up with our growth. With the cloud environment, we contract with the vendor for costs based on our size.
 
The good news in this is that CARLI staff believe that we can implement some reasonable changes to get our consortial number of active Alma named users down to the contracted number and keep them there. We’ve run some preliminary reports and have seen that we have a number of active named users that have never logged into Alma, and others that have not logged in for months. There are also named users that were created to test things in Alma, and we can now do much of that work in our sandboxes which do not count against our consortial limit. While we are going to be making a big push on this user reduction over the remainder of the 2021 calendar year, this is going to require all I-Share libraries to adopt workflows for reviewing staff logins and deactivating named user accounts as people leave your employment on an ongoing basis.
 
Please join us on August 26 at Office Hours for more information. As always, we appreciate your attention and efforts in this area.