CHSS Library & Academic Computing Committee
27 February 2015
Paper 2
Disclosable
For Discussion
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE
Wednesday 4th March 2015
Library Management Platform (LMP) Replacement Programme Update
Description of paper
1. This paper updates the Committee on progress of the overall Programme to
replace the current Library Management System and Discovery Service with a
new, next-generation Platform. The Procurement phase of the Programme is
now complete, and the Migration, Integrations, and Implementation projects
are now underway.
Action requested
2. The Committee are asked to disseminate their knowledge of the Programme
to staff and students across the Colleges.
Recommendation
3. The Committee are recommended to advocate for the Programme, and to
liaise with colleagues from the Library around any improvements to
communication that may be identified.
Background and context
4. The Library has been using its current Library Management System, Ex
Libris’s ‘Voyager’ since 1999. Voyager no longer provides the functionality
required to manage the breadth and format of the collections acquired by the
University Library. Crucially, Voyager does not provide functionality to
manage electronic resources (including licences and cost per usage data),
resulting in significant and cumbersome workflows being no longer feasible for
the content which accounts for 86% of the expenditure from the Library
Materials Budget.
5. Procurement and IS Applications Division’s Project Services were engaged in
late 2013 to commence the project for procuring a replacement system.
Throughout 2014, this process took place, with Library staff, academic staff
and students developing the requirements, demonstration scenarios and then
undertaking the evaluation of the bidding suppliers.
6. Ex Libris were awarded the contract in December, on the basis of a high
Quality score of 75.9%. The Ex Libris ‘Alma’ Library Management Platform
and ‘Primo’ Discovery Service are already in use at a range of comparator
and competitor research libraries, including Imperial College, University
College London, University of Birmingham, University of Manchester,
University of Sheffield, and University of York.
7. The Programme has been identified as ‘Major Project’ under Project Services
guidelines. A Project Board was created to oversee the management of the
project, consisting of the Directors of Library and University Collections, User
Services Division, Applications Division; the Deputy Director of Finance,
Academic Representatives from each of the three Colleges; EUSA; and an
external advisor from Manchester University Library.
8. The LMP Project Board have requested a wide dissemination of the benefits
and deliverables through Committees and University-wide marketing. A
‘Drivers for Change/Benefits’ document has been developed, and is being
updated regularly by the service owners of the Programme.
Discussion
9. The Programme consists of two elements which require complementary
approaches in managing the implementation and communication tasks
required for success. The two elements are the ‘Alma’ Library Management
Platform (back-office system), and the ‘Primo’ Resource Discovery System
(library search/catalogue and user account).
Back-office system implementation (Alma)
10. Teams are working across nine Library-related functional areas to undertake
the implementation tasks identified by the Ex Libris Project Manager and
internal planning to ensure the configuration of the system and data migration
meet the Library’s requirements. This includes an intensive period of training
for functional area experts, and the completion of migration, configuration and
integrations forms.
11. Staff from Finance and the IS Applications Division are also working together
with the Library to ensure the integration of the LMP’s acquisitions processes
with eFinancials. Opportunities for further streamlining and enhancement of
processes will be exploited.
12. The Project Board meet every six weeks; the project team every two weeks;
Library Managers every two weeks; Ex Libris and Applications Project
Managers every two weeks; and the implementation team every week. This
ensures deliverables are met and the programme stays on track. So far the
project status is green, meaning it is progressing to plan.
13. The go-live date for the Alma Library Management Platform back-office
solution is 29 June 2015.
Resource Discovery system implementation (Primo)
14. The Primo Discovery system is the part of the solution that our library users
will need to engage with. As such, communication around the change in
service is critical.
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15. An internal Library Discovery Group has been set up to address the
configuration requirements of implementing Primo; to create the
communication materials that will be used in the lead up to go-live; to create
training materials for use before and after implementation (for internal
audiences and user audiences); and to prepare for continuous service
improvement in the 2015/16 academic year. This group meets every two
weeks.
16. A Library Discovery User Group consisting of members of the internal Library
Discovery Group, academic representatives from the three Colleges, the CIO
of HSS, EUSA and other students has also been convened to meet every six
weeks. This Group is responsible for advising on modes of communication; to
represent their communities through User Acceptance Testing and sharing
feedback from colleagues in relation to the service changes; and to advocate
for the programme.
17. Functionality of the new Discovery system will represent an improvement for
users. For example: user account functionality will be simplified, unified, with
less dominant authentication requirements (authentication only required when
seeking access to an e-resource or to use the ‘my account’ functionality); the
current confusing, multiple search systems for discovering library content will
be reduced to one; there will be improved accessibility, such as mis-spelling
auto-suggestions, in search. Users will notice no change in current highdemand services such as self-issue and self-return.
18. There may be some required changes to library operational policies as a
result of the system implementation. These are anticipated to be more open
and beneficial to our users than at present. Such changes will be widely
communicated to users through the promotional materials and initiatives being
developed by the Library Discovery Group. The Committee will be notified of
these changes at the autumn 15/16 meeting, along with an overall summary
of the project following completion.
19. In relation to early dissemination of the changed service, a competition has
been launched to find a new name for the Library Discovery Service (we
currently use the name ‘Searcher’), with close to 100 suggestions received in
less than a week. A new Blog page has also been developed, which will be
updated regularly throughout the project: http://library-discovery.is.ed.ac.uk/.
20. The go-live date for Primo is the same as the Alma LMP, 29 June 2015.
Change Management and Assessment of the Programme
21. The implementation of Alma will result in a significant change and
improvement in processes for all staff across the Library. In advance of the
implementation phase, the functional area experts and managers from across
the Library undertook change management training. In addition, these staff
and others responsible for disseminating training to all library colleagues will
be undertaking a ‘Best Practice for Training’ session with Learning and
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Development in March. This is to ensure wider dissemination of knowledge of
the system effectively, and to ensure delegation of ownership of system
functionality to all staff.
22. As part of the assessment of the programme, stake-holders involved in the
project to date undertook the Major Project Governance Assessment
(https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/webfm_send/3442) prior to Procurement, and
post-award of the contract. This assessment showed that confidence in the
programme had increased in this time, and that overall confidence in the
programme is very high.
Resource implications
23. There are no resource implications for this committee to consider. Budget for
the project has been identified and assigned by Information Services for the
length of the contract and for the additional resource requirements in the
implementation phase.
Risk Management
24. The Project features a full Risk Analysis Log:
https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/project/lmp002/risks.
Equality & Diversity
25. An Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) was undertaken for this project and
has been published on the University EqIA webpage: http://edin.ac/1vIoe5c.
Next steps/implications
26. The Project Plan will be followed through implementation to go-live, and a
roadmap/continuous improvement plan will be develop to ensure ongoing
delivery of benefits of the replacement LMP. Library Committee will be kept up
to date with progress of the programme of work.
Consultation
27. This update paper has been developed for the purposes of Library
Committee’s information. It will be shared with the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences’ LACC in advance of this meeting. Information contained
within this paper has been shared with the groups mentioned in the body of
this document, with the Library Management Team and other relevant
stakeholders.
Further information
28. Further information on the project can be sought from the Project Senior
Users: Stuart Lewis (Stuart.Lewis@ed.ac.uk) and Laura Shanahan
(Laura.M.Shanahan@ed.ac.uk), or the Project Manager Karen Stirling
(Karen.Stirling@ed.ac.uk).
29. Paper Author: Laura Shanahan, Head of Collections Development & Access.
Freedom of Information
30. This paper may be included in open business.
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