- DRAFT
Implementing web scale discovery and delivery at Harvard
Project Sponsor:
Steering Group:
Document Status:
Project Manager:
Updated:
Library Leadership Team
Jim Borron, Kathleen Donovan, Laura Morse, David Osterbur, Kira Poplowski,
Tracey Robinson, Melissa Shaffer, Scott Wicks, Suzanne Wones (lead)
Draft
Jim Borron
31 March 2014
Overview
For researchers and students who need access to various forms of literature and information resources,
this project will implement Ex Libris Primo Discovery and Delivery - a one-stop solution for the discovery
and delivery of local and remote resources, such as books, journal articles, and digital objects. Unlike the
current solutions that force the scholar to search in a disjointed way across many different search
indexes, this solution provides a unified search experience, with a single search box starting point, a
common search syntax across all sources and a single, yet filterable, search results set. The number of
searchable resources available to the Harvard scholar from this starting point will grow from tens of
millions to hundreds of millions items.
The project will integrate the finding of resources with the delivery of them through integration of
dissimilar systems and services within the discovery layer. If not immediately available online the
researcher can use a variety of retrieval methods including scan and deliver, inter library loan, as well as
placing found items on hold, placing them on course reserves, saving in a personal list, exporting to a
citation manager and so on.
Project Goal/Outcomes
In synchrony with the academic calendar, the project will implement the new discovery service by
September 2014 with all selected features of discovery and delivery fully enabled by September 2015.
This will enable the retirement of HOLLIS (AquaBrowser) interface and may allow for retirement of
pieces of HOLLIS Classic (Aleph OPAC), VIA, and OASIS discovery interfaces, which are running on
obsolete technology.
Evaluation and assessment questions include service impact – is scholarly discovery better than it was? in addition to schedule and cost factors. Assessment of the new discovery environment will be through
consulting the user community and through usage analyses.
Stakeholders and Partnerships
This project will affect students, faculty, researchers, library and instructional staff– those who use and
provide instruction in the use of scholarly resources - and technologists and others who configure library
catalogs, licensed resources, and Harvard’s own special collections of materials – books, articles,
journals, news, audio, video, image, manuscript, dissertation and data resources. The aim is to enhance
their excellence in their scholarly work.
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The primary beneficiaries are experienced and novice researchers conducting interdisciplinary research
who will be provided new discovery tools to help them find and manage useful information items.
Delivery partners essential to bringing the new services online include the technology partner Ex Libris,
and working groups of library staff including reference and access services, and library technology staff.
In addition, a community review group and a steering group will help the project deliver a significantly
improved experience.
Change Management and Communication
This project relates directly to the mission and strategic objectives of the Harvard library – advancing
scholarship and teaching through the dissemination of knowledge, and enabling effective access to the
world of scholarship through intuitive discovery mechanisms. The project needs to take care to address
the many uses of HOLLIS and HOLLIS Classic that have developed over the years to allow a smooth
transition to the new environment.
Preceding this project, an investigation effort conducted in the summer and fall of 2013 involved a great
many people across the university as well as several outside collaborators who are facing the challenge
and opportunity similar to Harvard’s. There is generally good awareness that this work is underway, but
as we enter the implementation phase, we will need to ensure communications are broad, timely, and
effective at answering the many questions that will arise.
Key audiences
The initial audiences are the groups who need to be mobilized to ensure the resources are necessary to
accomplish the goals of the project including the implementation working group and the core technical
team.
The second audience to address is instructional librarians, faculty, and others who help students use the
search tools that Harvard provides. Early working prototypes will be needed as soon as possible to
enable adaptation of teaching materials.
Librarians and faculty are essential to reaching students and other researchers who will also need
treatment as a special audience requiring targeted communications and training materials.
Transition
The transition to the new solution and away from older systems is not yet defined, but is likely to allow a
period of adaptation with features in the new site gradually replacing those in HOLLIS, HOLLIS Classic,
VIA, and OASIS; once all necessary features are replaced, the older sites can be decommissioned.
Decisions
The project teams outlined below make decisions on the project as close to the work as possible, with
steering groups, and the library leadership team available to consult on, hear, and approve of significant
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far-reaching decisions where multiple options may be available. Decisions taken to the steering group or
library leadership team for consultation should be in the form of options with clear recommendations.
Timeline
The expected start of use by the Harvard community is August/September 2014. Classes start on
Tuesday September 2, 2014. We expect that the system will be implemented and tested throughout the
summer. Outlined below is a preliminary project outline which will be informed and substantially
changed and detailed with contributions from the project teams and the vendor who has implemented
the solution many times before, though the size of unique collections at Harvard and the needs of
science disciplines may present some challenges.
The plan will be kept up to date separately from this document.
Following the initial system delivery, the remaining work will be further planned.
Resources – Roles & responsibilities
Key skills and resources needed in the core team include:
Knowledge of Users
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Knowledge of Harvard researcher user behavior & usability testing
Knowledge of Science disciplines & special collections specific needs
Knowledge of delivery (Access Services) policies and practices
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Knowledge of Systems
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Knowledge of HOLLIS & HOLLIS classic features & customizations, including embedded access
service
Detailed knowledge of Harvard catalogs, repositories, data sources, cataloging practices and link
resolvers.
Knowledge of Technique
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Analysis & requirements definition
Wire framing & mock up abilities
Community engagement
Vendor Management
Knowledge of tools and technologies
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Knowledge of LTS authentication environment & system architecture for interoperablity
Knowledge of Primo index concepts and tools
Primo Software Development Kit and APIs
Knowledge of XML and data transitions
Knowledge of Harvard Library API and web services related to discovery and delivery (Get IT)
services
Knowledge of Drupal and Harvard’s Library portal configuration
Knowledge of Aleph, OASIS, and VIA architecture and services for data transformation and
publishing
Teams & People
Who (To Be Verified)
Role
Description
Negotiate contract. Provides oversight to the program and ensures
it remains consistent with the strategies of the Harvard Library and
the University. Group reviews the program management plan and
removes obstacles, weighs and decides (when necessary) on
tradeoff, ensures requirements and resources described are both
necessary and sufficient.
Steering and Advisory Group –Suzanne
Wones (lead), Jim Borron, Kathleen
Donovan, Laura Morse, David Osterbur,
Kira Poplowski, Tracey Robinson,
Melissa Shaffer, Scott Wicks
Support &
Oversight
Implementation Working Group Kathleen Donovan (lead, Social
Sciences), Laura Morse, Corinna Baksik,
and library staffers who can devote 1
day per week on average, Proposed:
Steve Kuehler, (undergrad contact),
Kerry Masteller (arts & humanities,
music), (Reed Lowrie (Sciences,)
Sciences, Margaret Peachy (Special
Collections), Betsy Eggleston
(Cataloging)
Usability,
requirements,
solution review,
testing &
communications
Establish requirements & manage decisions about customizing the
web-based user interface, verifying system works as expected,
engage with school communities, etc.
Usability Team Carla Lillvik (lead), Janet
Taylor, Carli Spina, Kathleen Sheehan
Usability
Team who connect with students, faculty and researchers to test
the emerging solution. Also, guerilla testing. 1 question 1 candy
bar.
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Who (To Be Verified)
Outreach & Training Lisa Junghan (lead)
Dorothy Barr, Luke Gaudreau, renata
Kalnins, Cherly LaGuardia, Amanda
Strauss, Keely Wilczek
Role
Description
Outreach and
training
Core Technical Team (Library
Technology Services) - Laura Morse
(lead), Corinna Baksik, Emily Singley, Ex
Libris, Kathleen Donovan, Jim Borron,
Ken Peterson (Fulfillment), Lauren Syer
(E-resource Management, Julianne
Schneider (Metadata)
System
Administration
&
interoperability
management -
Library Leadership Team
Funding &
Support
Training for frontline staff, including documentation materials ,
support, drop in sessions, open sessions, training sessions, FAQs
etc.
Configure SFX, Metalib, & Primo systems based on decisions from
Implementation Working Group. Assume ownership of the data
transformation and publishing from metadata repositories.
Reviews options for configuration of Primo Central Index, SFX, and
Metalib knowledge bases. Coordinates interoperability between
all participating systems ( such as Aleph, SFX, DRS Delivery
Applications, AMS, VIA, OASIS, SFX, Metalib), and others. This role
requires familiarity with the library’s data sources, users, and the
users’ expectations of the library.
Receives the necessary reports to support the solution and plays
critical role in communicating the solution to schools, faculties and
others who will benefit and be affected.
Initial Project Costs
This is a preliminary budget subject to negotiation with the vendor. Costs will be included in the Library
Technology Services budget.
Phase 1
Phase 2
March 2014-Oct
2014
Nov 2014Oct 2015
TOTAL
Ongoing
Annual costs
Project costs
In Current Budget
Technology FTE (LTS)
150,000
150,000
300,000
HL working group staff
100,000
100,000
200,000
70,000
Incremental Costs
Annual Primo license/maintenance (SaaS) starting in
FY15
250,000
Vendor implementation - one time
FTE/term staff for technical project mgmt and
analysis (LTS)
100,000
250,000
50,000
50,000
100,000
200,000
E-resource management assessment
250,000
100,000
Total Incremental costs
350,000
150,000
500,000
350,000
Total Incremental plus already Budgeted costs
600,000
400,000
1,000,000
420,000
Assumptions, Dependencies, and Questions
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It appears Primo can be customized and implemented differently by individual libraries – how
much of this is desirable and will be supported?
This project is of the highest priority being undertaken by LTS and supported by the Library
Leadership team.
The Discovery education group activities will continue alongside this project as a way to keep
the community involved, and engaged in, and to investigate the possibilities of getting ahead of
the state of the art by learning from and working with organizations outside Harvard.
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Potential Risks
Typical risks for a project like this and ways of handling them include:
Item
Users may not "buy in" to the new system.
Transition risk - this will change faculty &
researcher workflows. It would be a problem if
what gets delivered is not received as positive –
there needs to be a wow factor.
Inclusion of items in science disciplines may not
be indexed as timely as necessary.
Inclusion of items from special collections and
archival materials may take extra effort to
include as we cannot identify peers who have
done this.
Older systems (e.g. HOLLIS, HOLLIS Classic) will
not be retired, leading to an ever more complex
array of user experiences facing the user.
New system will change the way people work in
Library instruction, ITS, access services or other
places in the library
System not built; project not completely done,
momentum wanes.
Initial mitigation approach
Good communications, including one to one marketing and
implementation according to user needs; leave old systems in
place until new ones can demonstrably & easily take over.
Ensure that Science disciplines are well represented on the
project and their needs called out and addressed; ensure Vendor
is aware of and responds to Harvard’s needs in these domains.
Ensure that the ways in which special collections and archival
materials are included in the system is well understood and that
these groups are well represented on the project and their needs
called out and addressed; ensure Vendor is ware of and responds
to Harvard’s needs in these domains.
Be explicit that decommissioning redundant or near redundant
systems is an important outcome, and plan for and ensure their
removal.
Look for these areas early; where necessary establish new
routines and procedures.
Ensure resources and requirements are clear and understood,
Long haul nature of discovery project is important in order to
replace HOLLIS & HOLLIS classic without undue stress suffered by
the user community.
Other Items
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Are there any critical decisions that need to be made now or in the near future to help the
project succeed?
Are there any decisions blocking the project’s progress?
Are there any important policy considerations that need to be resolved before or during the
project?
References
Discovery Investigation Wiki - https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/LibraryDiscoverySystems/Home
Primo Implementation Wiki
https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/IWSDD/Implementing+Web-Scale+Discovery+and+Delivery+Home
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Solution
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