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Dordt facts
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1400 undergraduates
Highly residential (87% live on campus)
Located in rural northwest Iowa (population 7,000)
Typical private, liberal arts college with over 90 programs of
study and 1 online M.Ed. program
Top 5 majors: education, business, engineering, agriculture,
and nursing
83 full-time teaching faculty
Affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church of North
America (Dutch Calvinists)
Institutional member of CCCU and ACL/CLC
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Library facts
• Library staff
• 2.2 FTE professionals (1 full-time; 2 part-time)
• 3.6 FTE support staff (2 full-time; 4 part-time)
• Staff size has only decreased over the past 20 years
• Expenditures
• $573,000
• Collection size
• 285,000 volumes
• 65,000 e-books
• Circulate equipment such as iPads, Android tablets, laptops,
cameras, camcorders, GPS devices, other media equipment
• Gate count for one week in Oct. 2013 was 16,016
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Our story
• Not necessarily looking to change to new ILS
• Using SirsiDynix since 1995; working well but some concerns:
• Annual maintenance cost continued to rise but functionality didn’t
• Had to pay extra for enhanced content (book jackets and reviews)
• Discovery interface way too expensive; link resolver too expensive
• Difficult to modify user interface (logos, links); API training required
• Using Ebsco EHIS for discovery portal but didn’t work well with Sirsi
• Difficult to discover items NOT in our collection; several step process
• Continuous Improvement Process – Dec. 2011
• Focus on customer needs (immediacy; simplicity; accessibility; discoverability)
• High Impact/High Difficulty = Get a different system - replace Sirsi - connect to
WorldCat
• February 2012
• attended first webinar about WMS; contacted OCLC about WMS pricing and found
out about CLC discount
• read OCLC’s report Libraries at Webscale
• attended CLC webinar on WMS featuring Tad Mindeman
• March 29, 2012 OCLC sales rep visited us; demo of system
• Quickly became convinced we needed to move to webscale; question was
when?
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We could be…
Pioneers
Settlers
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• O Pioneers! - April 30, 2012 signed contract
• Then things really began moving fast:
• May 8, 2012 first implementation conference call; decided to do
WCL and WMS implementations separately
• May 18, 2012 began WCL implementation
• May 23, 2012 assigned to WMS Cohort; weekly webinars began
• August 15, 2012 went live with WCL as user interface
• August 17, 2012 sent bibliographic records for data migration
• November 1, 2012 original goal for full WMS implementation
• November 10, 2012 put into new staging process
• January 1, 2013 went live with WMS on staff side
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What’s gone well
• Outstanding Support
• OCLC implementation and support teams VERY responsive
• Increased Visibility
• Our resources are represented in the places where users work, like
Google Scholar – they get pushed to us
• Aggregation of all our materials in one place
• View now button
• Mobile interface
• Gained Efficiencies
• A simpler and more intuitive interface; a Google-like search box
• Faster discovery and the central index
• No longer have to locally manage IT infrastructure -- hardware, run
upgrades, load patrons
• Workflow management improved – cataloging (not duplicating
efforts)/digital management/system admin (plus can access it from
anywhere)/ILL/student workers find it easier to use
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• Greater Impact
• Regional access to collections (Nearby Libraries)
• Access to free materials from nonprofits (Hathi, .gov, etc.)
• Cost Savings
• Savings on local hardware and IT time
• Not paying for separate catalog, enhanced content, discovery
interface, A-Z list; added link resolver and collection analytics
• Lower bottom line
• Shared Intelligence
• Cohort group experience(two other SirsiDynix libraries); great
model for peer support, collective knowledge and expertise; a
real collaborative feel
• User Support Center provides great documentation, training
material, video tutorials, web-ex sessions/recordings, forums
• We’ve also contributed in our role as pioneers
• Anticipated Innovation
• Looking forward to this the most
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What’s not gone as well
• Migration problems
• No historical circ data out of SirsiDynix
• Problems with serial records and call numbers/LHRs
• Problems with ongoing patron loads (initial load from SirsiDynix
successful); automatic loads from Datatel not in place yet
• CAS authentication not in place yet
• Lack of some functionality (serials, reports, call number browse,
multiple parts, closed hours)
• Not all modules fully developed (acquisitions, academic reserves)
• Bugs and glitches – “agile development”
• Workflow changes (serials; acquisitions) and staff adjustment
• 100% team buy-in beforehand didn’t negate dissatisfaction with
system after migration
• OCLC growing pains?
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Is WMS right for you?
• Two major paradigm shifts:
• Agile development
• Accessibility over accuracy
• (Tad Mindeman said much of this last year but it’s still true):
• Get team buy-in
• Have a positive attitude
• Go with the flow; be creative with problem solving and workarounds
• Accept limitations while anticipating future benefits
• Learn from our experience and that of others (GIGO)
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Contact info
Sheryl Taylor
Director of Library Services
Dordt College
Sioux Center, IA
Sheryl.Taylor@dordt.edu
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March 5, 2013