Migrating from Talis to Alma at The
University of Manchester Library
Andy Land
Digital Systems Manager
Introduction
•The University of Manchester
•largest single-site university
in the UK
•40,000 students
•10,000 staff
•The University of Manchester
Library
•one of only five UK National
Research Libraries
•11 libraries
•3 million+ catalogue records
•Used Talis Alto (now Capita
Alto)
•Alma Early Adopter since
2011
•Primo subscriber since 2010
Talis – a way of life
•Talis launched as a
product in 1992 by
BLCMP, a not-for-profit
partnership of which The
University of Manchester
was a founder member.
•1993 Manchester
becomes the first
University library to install
Talis
Talis – a way of life
•1996 – Manchester,
Loughborough University, the
University of Greenwich,
Kingston University and the
University of Derby become
amongst the first libraries to
mount their catalogue on the
WWW
Talis – a way of life
•2013 – 20th anniversary of Talis in The
University of Manchester Library
“It’s how we do things…”
Many services built on what Talis could do or
would allow
IT infrastructure and support built around needs
of the old system
www.digital60.org
Data structure and configuration significantly
different
It’s a whole new language
Patron
Fulfilment
Hold
Request
Analytics
Audit event
CKB
Community Zone
Resource sharing
Fulfilment unit
Service unit
Vendor
Work order
Who does what
Change is scary!
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sir-alex-fergusonretirement-men-3475060
Engaging with the vendor
Don’t under-estimate the impact of Primo
•Primo secondary
system 2010-2013
•About 500,000
searches on Primo a
month but 600,000 on
catalogue
Usability testing to prepare for move to Alma
Work done in partnership with a specialist user experience
consultancy User Vision.
24 participants representing various patron groups
Key findings
•The pattern of success and satisfaction did not vary significantly between
patron groups but according to the sophistication of the individual’s search
techniques
3 things you particularly like about Primo
3 things you would change
Task success impacted by three key factors
•Logging in to view all
search results was an
absolute barrier
•Records from other
collections missed
•FRBRised records not
understood by all
Visual design bland and can hinder usability
•Not always clear
what is a link
•Tabs and buttons
not easily identifiable
•Use of low contrast
text colours
•More use of white
space
Primo issues since Alma go live…
•Missing records from migration
•Lack of pre-search scopes
•Lack of loan history
•Configuration decisions impacting on Primo functionality requesting
Thank you!