Training Opportunities for Alma

Happy New Year!

There are several upcoming training opportunities for you to learn more about Alma and its functions and capabilities:

Alma Demo Day

Wednesday, January 10th, Room 10-G, MDA Library, starting at 9:30am.

Sessions will be held all day covering the different functional areas within Alma (Fulfillment, Resource Management, Acquisitions, etc.) See our previous post for more information.

Getting to Know Alma Webinar Series

Ex Libris offers an ongoing series of live and recorded webinars that cover Alma’s functional areas in detail. Upcoming live webinars include:

Resource Management | 9 January, 9:00am (CST)

Fulfillment | 16 January, 9:00am (CST)

Sandbox Server

We now have access to the Alma sandbox server so staff can explore a live version of the system! Login information will be provided in the coming weeks.

Best,

Lee

Alma Virtual Demo Day, January 10th, 2019

Ex Libris will be holding a virtual demo for us on January 10, 2019. We ask that users of Sierra or Serials Solutions attend the sessions related to their functional areas.

Each library is encouraged to provide a setting for group viewing.
UH Main will be hosting the demo in classroom 10-G.

Connection information will be provided soon. If you have any questions, please let myself or Richard know.

Brief Schedule:

9:30 – 10:00am – Alma Overview

10:00am – 12:00pm – Acquisitions, Electronic Resources and Resource Management

1:00  – 2:00pm – Fulfillment

2:00 – 2:45pm – Alma Analytics

3:00 – 3:30pm – Alma Systems & Integrations

3:30 – 4:00pm – Q&A

 

 

Project Charter – Acquisitions Team

The project charter for the Acquisitions Team was approved on November 14, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:
The Acquisitions Team will be responsible for reviewing policies and procedures related to acquisitions activities, configuring the system appropriately, implementing the related Alma workflows, and ensuring that all staff involved with acquisitions activities are appropriately trained.

Project Scope:
This team will review Alma acquisitions documentation to understand the Alma acquisitions infrastructure and workflows. The team will create a plan for configuring the acquisitions infrastructure and workflow rules, including funds and ledgers, purchasing, assignment of appropriate staff roles, vendor information and communications, and integration with campus financial systems. The team will examine existing acquisitions processes and recommend changes in alignment with the new system. The team will coordinate and provide training and documentation on acquisitions processes within Alma.

 

Update on Alma from Ex Libris

Sent on behalf of Dean German:

Dear Colleagues,

I’m pleased to provide an update on Alma from Ex Libris, the new library service platform for University of Houston Libraries, the UH Law Library, UH Clear Lake, and UH Downtown.  

On Thursday, November 29th, members of the Alma Steering Committee held a conference call with Tony Gibbons, our Ex Libris customer onboarding representative, to kick off our Alma implementation! Tony provided a high-level overview of the next 6-7 months of the implementation project. The first phase is onboarding, starting now through January 2019, where we will review the project schedule and high-level milestones, and begin preparing our Sierra ILS (and other systems’) data for migration to the Alma test environment. We will also gain access to the Alma sandbox server so that library staff may begin exploring the Alma environment.

Weekly conference calls between Ex Libris representatives and the Libraries’ project managers (Richard Guajardo and Lee Hilyer) will begin the first week of December to continue the conversation and prepare for the second phase (project implementation) which begins in January and concludes in July 2019. Other project team members and key stakeholders will be included as needed. The final phase is known as “Switch to Support,” when the Ex Libris project team concludes its work, the system is live, and support needs are handled through regular channels.

Our current go-live date is scheduled for July 23, 2019. More information, a detailed schedule, and links to further training opportunities will be provided soon at sites.lib.uh.edu/alma.

Lisa German
Dean of University Libraries and Elizabeth D. Rockwell Chair
University of Houston Libraries
4333 University Dr.
Houston TX 77204-2000
Ph. 713-743-9795
Lagerman@central.uh.edu

Project Charter – Migration Team

The project charter for the Migration Team was approved on October 30, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:
The Migration Team will work with Ex Libris and UH System Libraries to facilitate the technical aspects of the move to Alma and Primo. This team meets regularly with the Ex Libris Project team for data migration, system configuration, and implementation planning and enactment.

Project Scope:
The Migration Team is responsible for providing migration and implementation deliverables required by ExLibris; extracting and validating of Sierra and E-resources data for migration to Alma; facilitating system configuration of Alma to maximize interoperability with campus enterprise systems and third-party vendor systems.

Project Charter – Resource Management Team

The project charter for the Resource Management Team was approved on October 30, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:
The Resource Management Team will be responsible for developing policies and procedures related to resource activities, implementing the related Alma workflows and ensuring that all staff involved with resource management activities are trained.

Project Scope:
The Resource Management Team will gain full understanding of the bibliographic, authority, inventory records and data in the Alma system. The team will establish and document workflows and practices for resource description and management for all formats of materials.

Project Charter – E-Resources Management and Workflow Team

The project charter for the E-Resources Management and Workflow Team was approved on November 14, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:
The E-Resources Management and Workflow Team will be responsible for reviewing policies and procedures related to e-resources activities, developing and implementing Alma workflows related to e-resources, and ensuring that staff involved with e-resources activities have the necessary knowledge and training.

Project Scope:
The E-Resources Management and Workflow Team will gain full understanding of the functionalities in Alma including license management, harvesting of usage data, coordinating description, and ongoing management of all electronic resources. The team will establish and document new interdepartmental workflows and recommend necessary (organizational) structure changes to maximize efficiencies.

Project Charter – Fulfillment Team

The project charter for the Fulfillment Team was approved on October 11, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:
The Fulfillment Team will be responsible for reviewing policies and procedures related to fulfillment activities, implementing the related Alma workflows and ensuring that all staff involved with fulfillment activities are trained.

Project Scope:
This team will review the Alma fulfillment documentation to understand Alma workflows for fulfillment tasks. With that understanding, the team will review existing policies and processes and adjust data such as patron categories and loan rules to match Alma’s architecture and workflows. The team will provide the necessary configuration options for fulfillment activities (e.g., “the spreadsheet,”) and will coordinate and provide training to colleagues and student staff.

Project Charter – Alma Steering Committee

The project charter for the Alma Steering Committee was approved on October 1, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:

Leading and coordinating UH’s institutional effort in the implementation process of Alma from Ex Libris, the new library service platform for UH Libraries, the UH Law Library, UH Clear Lake, and UH Downtown.

Project Scope:

The scope of the Steering Committee is to initiate the implementation process, guide efforts of internal decision making, communicate with internal and external stakeholders, establish expectations with internal and external stakeholders, serve as the primary communication channel with Ex Libris, support units through training and change management strategies, ensure successful implementation of Alma, and ensure successful launch of new workflows with Alma.

Project Charter – Bibliographic Data Preparation Team

The project charter for the Bibliographic Data Preparation Team was approved on October 11, 2018. Excerpts from the charter (PDF) are below:

Project Description and Purpose:
The Bibliographic Data Preparation Team will be responsible for reviewing and modifying data in bibliographic records to ensure a smooth transition of data from Sierra to Alma.

Project Scope:

The Bibliographic Data Preparation Team will review, modify, and remove (where possible) inconsistent Sierra records and codes. This will reduce possible complications during data migration to Alma by reducing the amount of data migrated, as well as removing problem records that are not needed or desirable. It may also simplify data mapping for the implementation team.