This month, I just want to express my gratitude once again to everyone who helped make State of the Libraries so special. From the major events committee to the poster presenters to those of you in the audience–our colleagues are what make this a great event. For 2017, we experimented with the format of the event in several ways, introducing new elements while also retaining what makes this such a special event. In a significant departure, we invited an external speaker to visit us and discuss unconscious bias works and what we can do to mitigate its influence in the Libraries. Calvin Lai’s presentation was as entertaining as it was informative, and it is my sincerest hope that it helps us to better appreciate and accommodate diversity and inclusion in what we do.
I hope everyone who attended had a chance to tour the always-popular poster session. It is fitting that at the close of the year, we get to survey the many great activities and initiatives underway at the Libraries. From Libraries-wide initiatives like ORCID and the Open and Affordable Textbook Program to the exhibits program at Robeson and the enhanced coin scanning project from the Digital Humanities Lab–these posters are a reminder of the positive impact we have on the university and the work of the Libraries. For those who were unable to attend or did not make it around to see all the posters, the communications team has recorded short videos with the presenters that can be viewed on YouTube (see below). Also, a special note of thanks to Dee Magnoni and James Hartstein who provided professional quality printing for the posters. They looked great!
There will be much more to say in the coming months, but for now, I want to wish you all a happy New Year! We have so much to look forward to in 2018.
The entire Ex Libris Implementation Team attended the State of the Libraries on December 6 and appreciated the opportunity to engage library faculty and staff there. We thank everyone who came to our table and talked to us about the project. Congratulations again to those lucky winners of prizes!
This project update focuses on the major progress made in December. In our previous update, we described the three stages of implementing Alma and Primo–Define, Build, and Deploy. For the Libraries’ Implementation Team, the numerous tasks in those three stages generally fall into two categories: working on data migration and system integration in tandem with Ex Libris and developing two-way communication channels and training opportunities for the library (and eventually university) community. We are pleased to report that significant progress has been made on both fronts in December.
Project Website
In early December, we unveiled a new website for the Ex Libris Implementation Project, at http://exlibris.libraries.rutgers.edu. As the information hub for the project, the website includes the following pages:
About – Introduction to the project, benefits to the Libraries, and impact on library workers
Teams – Membership of the project team and responsibilities of the working groups
Timeline – Major milestones from the planning to the formal launch on June 1, 2018
Resources – Basic training resources, research & case studies, and team meeting minutes
FAQ – Answers to questions such as what is Alma and what is Primo
Contact – An online form for library faculty and staff to send questions and comments to the project team
The site will grow significantly in scope and detail as the project progresses and more information becomes available. Please remember to check back from time to time to see what is new or use the contact form for questions and comments. We thank everyone who made this site possible, including members of the Implementation Team (especially Joseph Deodato and Chad Mills), Jessica Pellien, and the Web Team of IIS.
Migration Forms
As of this writing, the Implementation Team and several working groups are working tirelessly on completing the forms for Symphony (SIRSI) to Alma and EBSCO to Primo migrations. These lengthy forms define the test data load and take a lot of time and care to fill out. Our immediate objective is to turn in the forms on December 22 for our Ex Libris partners to review during the university’s holiday break. To meet this deadline, lately the Implementation Team has been meeting twice or three times a week on the forms. Some team members work late in the office and others take work home. We have also actively sought the input from colleagues in Access, Collection, and Technical Services, in addition to consulting with Ex Libris.
The process of completing the migration forms exemplifies the spirit of teamwork. Besides two point persons for the forms—Chris Sterback and Gracemary Smulewitz, all the other team members have contributed time, energy, and expertise to the process. It is such an uplifting feeling to see colleagues from different departments of the Libraries working selflessly toward a common goal. We look forward to reporting new accomplishments from this wonderful team of colleagues in 2018.
Robert Kirkbride accepts the NJSAA Author Award for “Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.” Credit: Casey Ambrosio / The Daily Targum.
NJ Academics Unite!
The New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance held their annual Author Award Winners Panel at Alexander Library in December. These awards recognize works that reflect a new understanding of New Jersey’s history and culture, demonstrate evidence of original research in the application of New Jersey resources, or reveal new insights into a given topic.
This year’s winners? Garry Wheeler Stone for Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle in the nonfiction scholarly category; Rusty Tagliareni and Robert Kirkbride for Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in the nonfiction popular category; and Maxine Lurie and Richard Veit for Envisioning New Jersey: An Illustrated History of the Garden State in the reference category. Read more in the Daily Targum’s recap of theawards.
The Creative Life of Douglass opens at Douglass Library on January 16.
Celebrating a Century of Creativity
The Creative Life of Douglass—an exhibition of materials from the University Archives chronicling ten decades of dance, theater, music, visual arts, and literature produced by the women of Douglass Residential College–opens at Douglass Library on January 16. The display, part of the #Douglass100 centennial celebration and held in partnership with the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities, was curated by the Libraries’ Kayo Denda, Erika Gorder, and Fernanda Perrone.
kite+key now offers payroll deduction for full time employees.
A New Way to Get Your Tech On
kite+key, the Rutgers tech store, is now offering payroll deduction as a payment option for all full-time Rutgers faculty and staff. Employees can spread $250–$3,000 over one year, or 26 paychecks (10-month faculty payment schedule varies) with no interest! Payments as low as $9.62 per check for a $250 purchase to $115.38 per check for a $3,000 purchase. For more information and to view the Terms and Agreement, visit kiteandkey.rutgers.edu/payroll-deduction.
Lookin’ Fresh
The Libraries’ website refresh launched just before the holiday break and it looks fantastic. Kudos to the Web Improvement Team for their hard work in pulling all the changes off in time for the spring semester. Interested in learning more about the refresh and the research that informed the changes? Amy Kimura’s post from last month’s Agenda is definitely worth revisiting. And if you have any comments or suggestions for the team, head on over to their feedback submission form.
Regina Koury begins as director of Paul Robeson Library on January 16.
A New Year, A New Vision
This month we will welcome Regina Koury as the new director of Paul Robeson Library at Rutgers–Camden. Regina comes to us from Idaho State University, where she served as assistant university librarian for discovery and resource services.
“It is a particular honor to have been selected as director of Paul Robeson Library,” she said when her appointment was announced. “I look forward to working with excellent library staff, students, and faculty; to continue expanding outstanding library services, collections, and spaces; and to collaborating on existing and new initiatives in support of the Rutgers–Camden community.”
And we look forward to helping her achieve her vision! Read our press release to learn more about Regina.
Marty Kesselman Will Give the 5th SAPAC Talk of the Year on January 16, 2018, 12 p.m.
Marty Kesselman will present “Report of the Consumer Electronics Show,” on Tuesday, January 16, 2018, 12pm-1pm, in the Pane Room of Alexander Library (remote to Dana Library Special Collections Room, Robeson Library Conference Room, and Smith Library Conference Room). Topics to be covered include:
New technologies of potential use in libraries and how and why librarians can attend.
Report from the one day session, Transforming EDU that focuses on how technology is changing the face of teaching in various ways, e.g. credential vs. degrees, non traditional students, use of new technologies (e.g. virtual reality) in the classroom (and libraries), makerspaces, etc.
University innovation programs that encourage young science entrepreneurs and a potential new role for libraries.
How quickly this area is moving and how does one keep up.
Feedback and discussion with those that attend.
A glimpse at the Milton to Milton exhibit on display at Alexander Library through February 28.
Closing Soon: Catch These Displays while You Still Can!
The closing reception for the Opposition book arts exhibition is slated for January 17.
The Opposition Lives On
Wednesday, January 17 5:00–7:00 p.m. Alexander Library, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Rutgers University’s Special Collections and University Archives will hold an exhibition closing reception for Opposition, an exhibition of artists’ books, installations, and related textually based or inspired artwork on Wednesday, January 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. Following a panel discussion moderated by Karen Guancione with other Opposition artists including Asha Ganpat, Susan Happersett, China Marks, and Dikko Faust and Esther Smith of the Purgatory Pie Press, and a premiere of Karen Guancione: Book Arts, Installations & Assemblages, a digital archive of photographs and texts conceived by Grace Agnew, we will serve light refreshments in a room adjoining the gallery. The Closing discussion will be held in the Pane Room on the main floor of the Alexander Library, at 169 College Avenue, New Brunswick. The resistance will continue, but come say goodbye to Opposition. RSVP to Michael Joseph (mjoseph@rutgers.edu). For a peek at our digital archive visit https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/projects/guancione/.
Lenoard Cassuto will discuss 21st century graduate education on January 31.
The Future of Graduate Education
Wednesday, January 31 5:00–6:30 p.m. Alexander Library, Rutgers–New Brunswick
This semester, the School of Graduate Studies is inaugurating a new lecture series titled Provocations: The Future of Graduate Education to promote universitywide discussions about key issues, challenges, and innovations to generate ideas for advancing graduate education at Rutgers. Leonard Cassuto, professor of English and American studies at Fordham University, will present a talk titled “Graduate School 2.0: Rethinking Graduate Education for the 21st Century.” This will be an interdisciplinary discussion open to all students, faculty, and staff at Rutgers.
On Campus over Break? So Is the Zimmerli!
Tuesdays through Fridays: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays: Noon to 5 p.m. First Tuesday of each moth: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Visit the exhibitionsSubjective Objective: A Century of Social Photography, On the Prowl: Cats and Dogs in French Prints, and Absence and Trace: The Dematerialized Image in Contemporary Art before they close on January 7.
Looking for a preview? Place on Stone: Nineteenth-Century Landscape Lithographs is set to open on January 13. For more information, visit the Zimmerli Art Museum website.
Rutgers–Camden’s Julianne Baird will lead a special performance of “The Music Hamilton Heard” at Kirkpatrick Chapel on January 12.
The Music Hamilton Heard
Friday, January 12 7:00 p.m. Kirkpatrick Chapel, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Join Rutgers’ Division of Continuing Studies at Kirkpatrick Chapel for a special concert with internationally renowned soprano and Rutgers–Camden Distinguished Professor of Music Julianne Baird and the Lord Camden Chamber Players as they perform the pieces enjoyed by the Founding Fathers of the United States.
Led by Dr. Baird, the Lord Camden Chamber Players will perform the music that our great founder actually enjoyed. As the United States embarked on its first steps into the world of nations, its composers and artists began to express what Ben Franklin called, “the American Muse.”
Lemony Snicket’s Bewildering Circumstances: An Evening with Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket comes to Rutgers–New Brunswick on Saturday, January 13.
Saturday, January 13 6:00 p.m. College Avenue Student Center, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Novelist Daniel Handler, known to despairing readers everywhere as Lemony Snicket, attempts to chart a course from the troubling questions of his childhood to the literary success of his adult life, with the sinking feeling that these are actually the same thing. How do the questions that haunt us as children lead us into our supposed adulthood? Mr. Handler will either answer this question or explain why he can’t.
Tickets are $10 for Rutgers students and come with a free book! $15 for Rutgers faculty or staff; $20 for general public. For more information, visit the Division of Continuing Studies website.
The Big Read Lecture Series: School of Nursing Faculty
Wednesday, January 31 5–7 p.m. Location TBD, Rutgers–Camden
A cross-section of School of Nursing faculty researchers will discuss health equity through the lens of Citizen: An American Lyric. Panelists include: Patricia Supplee, PhD, RNC-OB studies maternal health in low-income urban communities and the healthcare needs of African-American women and families; Rashida Atkins, PhD, APNc studies depression in black single mothers, healthcare disparities, and develops evidence-based interventions; and Bonnie Jerome-D’Emilia PhD, MPH, RN studies health disparities associated with breast cancer screening, diagnoses and treatment. For the latest information, visit the Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts website.
Join the Graduate School of Education for the DeMarzo Lecture on Teaching Excellence on February 15.
Building a Coherent and Equitable System of Assessments in Science in a District: A Partnership Approach
Thursday, February 15 3:30–5:30 p.m. Bloustein School, Rutgers–New Brunswick
The Graduate School of Education cordially invites you to the fifth annual DeMarzo Lecture Series on Teaching Excellence. This lecture series features outstanding scholars addressing a broad range of issues around teaching. Dr. William Penuel, professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder, will give this year’s lecture.
In this talk, Professor Penuel will describe the ongoing efforts of a research-practice partnership between Denver Public Schools and the University of Colorado Boulder to create a more coherent and equitable system of classroom and district-based assessments of students in science.
This month, we go back two decades in the Agenda’s history to January 1998. The median household income was about $38,000; the world was ramping up for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan; and we’d see blockbusters Armageddon, Titanic, and Saving Private Ryan all hit the box office over the course of the year. How did we ring in the New Year at the Libraries?
Asking the Big Questions
[P]rinted below are the questions in the charge [of the Steering Committee for the Libraries Long-Range Plan]…. As you can see, answers to the questions will give us guidance by which we—library faculty and staff—will then make specific plans for our future….
What principles should guide how collections are developed and distributed throughout the system, including, for example, duplication of resources, dispersion of collections, new program development, and locations of departments/programs?
What factors should influence the balance between print and electronic resources that the Libraries provide?
To what extent should the Libraries satisfy the University’s information needs through collaborative resource sharing arrangements or document delivery, as well as the traditional ownership of information resources?
What are the characteristics of service excellence to the university community?
What quality, scope, and types of library space will be required to provide service excellence into the future?
In what ways can the university community act to affect the current scholarly communication models to increase information availability and reduce costs?
– The Agenda 20, no. 1 (January 11, 1998)
Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
At long last, the Rutgers library catalog will have full authority control for all name and series headings. The recently established LIS-Authority Committee is now investigating Sirsi policies for the implementation of authority functions and beginning a search for the vendor which will provide the best services. It will be writing an RFP (Request for Proposal) for authority control processing this spring, with an eye toward selecting a vendor in the early summer. The Committee, chaired by Rhonda Marker of TAS, welcomes all suggestions, wish-lists, and caveats from the library community regarding either vendors or online authority work.
– The Agenda 20, no. 1 (January 11, 1998)
Freshening Up
The Libraries have recently received an allocation from University VP Joseph Seneca of $92,695 to upgrade academic facilities as part of the “Reinvesting in Rutgers” initiative the President announced in his state of the university message.
The Libraries submitted a proposal as part of the academic facilities upgrade component of this initiative. The specific projects that were funded include upgrading the Mathematical Sciences library facilities (carpeting, draperies, acoustical buffers, etc.); replacing the telephone and wiring infrastructure at the Kilmer Library; and upgrading voice wiring at Douglass.
In addition, Media Services was allocated $1.7 million to upgrade the smart classrooms on the New Brunswick campus and to improve the Kilmer Library media classrooms.
Decisions regarding programs to be funded on the Newark and Camden campuses facilities are being handled through their respective provosts, who have not yet reported.
I know that we spend a lot of time focused on building infrastructure. Our top priorities involve undergraduate success and strengthening information control to ensure that our users have efficient, reliable access to information resources.
I just got back from a Big10 meeting at Purdue. At the meeting, we reviewed the results of a survey of the BTAA library directors’ top priorities for future collaborative activities. Each director picked three areas of interest. The results:
Collection Management 54%
Student Success Measures 46%
OER 46%
Data Management/Curation 38%
Analytics/Assessment 38%
Open Access 15%
The remaining four items: Special Collections, Professional Development, Digital Humanities, and Library Publishing all were 8%.
In another part of the survey, the directors listed the most important BTAA initiatives as Discovery to Delivery, Collections Infrastructure and Management, and Student Success.
Although these priorities and initiatives do not represent the most important work of the libraries, the selections do say something about initiatives that are most effective when done ‘at scale’ with the broader community. As I listened to my colleagues share their experiences and challenges, it struck me that we are not the only research library that is focusing on basics.
In a meeting back here at Rutgers, Judy Cohn brought up the NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Library Edition. This report from the New Media Consortium looks at trends in libraries, technology, and education to imagine what is on the five-year horizon for academic and research libraries. It is produced in collaboration with University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), ETH Library, and the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). It identifies trends, challenges, and developments in technology that will impact how libraries plan to meet the needs of their users, how we function day to day and year to year, and the services that will be in highest demand. The first of the top 10 highlights listed was:
Libraries remain the gatekeepers to rich tapestries of information and knowledge. As the volume of we resources increases, libraries are charged with finding new ways to organize and disseminate research to make it easier to discover, digest, and track.
It was surprised to see that improving ‘information control’ was featured so prominently in the report. It seems that academic and research libraries have a renewed focus on the fundamentals and are redesigning infrastructure so that it better meets the changes in the environment. I know there are times when we feel like we are behind; however, it appears that we are actually in sync with many of our peers.
Over the next week, we will have meetings with Office of Information Technology and the Office of Research and Economic Development to discuss potential collaboration on research and digital humanities infrastructure. This will move us closer to another one of our priorities: identifying and communicating our role in the broader research environment of Rutgers. We are making progress!
While we are moving fast, our activities continue to be guided by the expertise and research of our colleagues. There are several examples of this that come to mind, all with librarywide participation. The Discovery Working Group has offered a model of how to harness data and best practices to make impactful changes in how our users discover and access collections via our website. Their work continues to propel us forward, even as the Ex Libris Implementation Team works to create nimble and knowledgeable teams to accommodate the anticipated workload over the next 7 months. And the Website Improvement Team is rolling out an impressive, incremental website refresh derived from extensive user research and analytics. The work that we are doing now will pay off in the coming years with flexible and easy to manage systems. It is my hope that these changes will make it easier for you to do the important work that you do.
As we move into the holiday season, I would like to thank you for your dedication and patience. It has been a difficult few years of change in response to the new environment, but, thanks to your efforts, these challenges continue to be met with creativity, hard work, and shared purpose. Your dedication to Rutgers, our students, and our faculty is impressive and collectively, we are creating libraries—digital and physical—that encourage learning and exploration and support to the success of our users. I am very grateful to count you all as my colleagues and I wish you and your families the happiest of holidays and all the best for the New Year!
Symphony in C will perform two versions of the Four Seasons at Rutgers–Camden on December 2.
Symphony in C Performs The Four Seasons
Saturday, December 2
8:00 p.m.
Rutgers–Camden
Symphony in C will perform Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires at Rutgers–Camden’s Walter K. Gordon Theater. Click here for more information and tickets.
The Rutgers–Camden Campus Center transforms into a winter wonderland with family-friendly activities on December 9.
Winter Wonderland
Saturday, December 9
12:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Rutgers–Camden
The Campus Center will be transformed into a Winter Wonderland with pancakes, a hot cocoa bar, photos with Santa Claus, and fun, family-friendly activities. Attendance is free and open to the public. Presented by the Rutgers University–Camden Division of Student Affairs. Click here for more information.
An exhibition drawing upon the Queer Newark Oral History Project opens at Newark Public Library on December 14.
At Home in Newark: Stories from the Queer Newark Oral History Project Opening Reception
Thursday, December 14
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Newark Public Library
At Home In Newark: Stories from the Queer Newark Oral History Project draws from this growing collection of life history interviews, called oral histories, to examine how LGBTQ Newarkers have claimed space for themselves in bars, balls, houses of worship, street corners, community centers, and artistic venues in the face of poverty, violence, illness, racism and discrimination. Through their activism, creative expression, and determination, they have made Newark their home. Click here for more information.
Rutgers Gardens hosts a winter farm market on December 15.
Rutgers Gardens Winter Farm Market
Friday, December 15
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Rutgers–New Brunswick
The mission of the Rutgers Gardens Farmers Market is to provide the local community, including residents, students, university faculty and staff, University Dining, and restaurants the opportunity to experience and purchase fresh, locally grown and/or prepared food products. The following vendors will be here for the winter markets: Beechtree Farm, Chickadee Creek Farm, Gourmet Fruits and Nuts, Local 130 Seafood, Neil’s Sharpening Service (In December 12/15 only), Neshanic Valley Beekeepers, Pickle Licious, Romarsi, LLC, Silver Birch Kitchens, Spoon Me Soups, Stefan’s Pure Blends. Click here for more information.
Rutgers–Camden’s Julianne Baird will lead a special performance of “The Music Hamilton Heard” at Kirkpatrick Chapel on January 12.
The Music Hamilton Heard
Friday, January 12
7:00 p.m.
Rutgers–New Brunswick
Join Rutgers’ Division of Continuing Studies at Kirkpatrick Chapel for a special concert with internationally renowned soprano and Rutgers–Camden Distinguished Professor of Music Julianne Baird and the Lord Camden Chamber Players as they perform the pieces enjoyed by the Founding Fathers of the United States.
Led by Dr. Baird, the Lord Camden Chamber Players will perform the music that our great founder actually enjoyed. As the United States embarked on its first steps into the world of nations, its composers and artists began to express what Ben Franklin called, “the American Muse.”
Tickets are $10 for Rutgers students, $15 for Rutgers faculty and staff, and $20 for the public. Click here for more information.
We had an extra reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving. After a long search process, we are delighted to welcome Regina Koury as the new director of Paul Robeson Library at Rutgers–Camden. Read our news release to learn all about Regina, and prepare to welcome her to her new position in the new year starting January 16.
Watch: Providing Hurricane Maria Relief
Digital Humanities librarians Francesca Giannetti and Krista White were on ABC7NY’s Tiempo with Joe Torres to discuss their initiative to host open data mapping events in support of Hurricane Maria relief efforts in Puerto Rico. Watch the entire segment on YouTube courtesy of Rutgers Today. Kudos to Francesca and Krista for this recognition of their work!
Dee Magnoni speaks at the Carr Library dedication ceremony. Credit: Jim Stapleton.
Watch: Honoring Rutgers’ First Black Graduate
As you are all well aware by now, earlier this semester we rededicated the former Kilmer Area Library in honor of Rutgers’ first black graduate, James Dickson Carr. In case you were unable to attend the ceremony, a full video of the event is now available online courtesy of RU-tv. Have a watch and enjoy!
Watch: Native American Arts in the Spotlight
In September, we joined the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission to welcome John Haworth to Alexander Library. Haworth, senior executive emeritus of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, delivered an engaging lecture on Native American arts and cultural practice in America. Check out the full video of the presentation, courtesy of our friends at RU-tv.
Honoring the Legacy of the Modern School
Special Collections and University Archives hosted the 45th annual meeting of the Friends of the Modern School, a group formed to preserve the history of the progressive education community located in Piscataway Township from 1915 to 1953. The event was well-received and even spurred a deep-dive into the history of the Modern School and the Modern School Collection, which is held by Rutgers, in the Daily Targum.
The Big Read exhibit at Robeson Library features a magnetic poetry board.
What’s On? Catch These Exhibits while You still Can!
The Web Improvement Team (WIT) is excited to announce some changes coming soon to the Rutgers University Libraries website. Since September, we’ve been speaking with our users (students, faculty, and staff) and analyzing survey and usage data to determine how we can begin to improve our website user experience. We’ve been exploring best practices for user-centered design, content strategy, responsive design, and accessibility. Through one-on-one conversations, focus groups, and data analysis, we have learned more about our users’ essential tasks and resources, pain points in the current design, and user preferences.
Here are some of the takeaways from our first round of user research:
Users are very task-oriented, and generally come to the site knowing what they want; the scope of their use is quite narrow
The current homepage was thought to be too busy and complex
Pages are hard to read, with small text and too much content
Users spend very little time on most pages, and rarely scroll below “the fold”
A relatively small number of resources are especially heavily used (hours, room booking, A-Z database list, ILL, library account)
We based our first round of changes on these findings. Our goals became to:
Surface and prioritize the most frequently used resources and services
Freshen up the look and feel: reduce visual clutter on the homepage, enlarge fonts for sitewide readability
Refine the presentation and content for a few key pages
Minimize initial disruption to lower-level pages
Our overall approach is one of incremental change over radical redesign. Making incremental modifications based on user data ensures that those modifications are genuine improvements (as opposed to change for the sake of change, or change based on guesses or assumptions). If we’re proven wrong, smaller changes are easily reversed or refined. Although change can be uncomfortable at times, a continuous cycle of improvement and evaluation builds a sustainable, usable website that delivers a positive user experience.
You’ll also notice that a lot of things haven’t changed: the red navigation bar, most of the underlying content, the mobile presence. These, too, will change in time, but require considerable user research, usability testing, and content control. There will be opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to get involved in future research.
The new website is expected to be in place by late December, in time to greet students in the new semester.
Stop by our poster at the State of the Libraries if you want to learn more!
In this second update on the Ex Libris Implementation Project, we report on a major milestone achieved in November – the completion of organizational planning. In early December the project will transition from the pre-implementation to implementation stage, so this update also introduces the timeline from December to June, focusing on the three key phases of implementation – Define, Build, and Deploy.
Completion of Organizational Planning
Cabinet recently approved a proposal to form several working groups connected to the Implementation Team, marking the completion of organizational planning for the project. As reported last month, the Implementation Team was created in late September and includes seven members from the infrastructure units of the Libraries. Reporting directly to the University Librarian, the team functions as the coordinating body of the project. The working groups will provide expert input to the Implementation Team, organize workflow reviews, testing, and training in their focus areas, and involve library faculty and staff in the implementation process. The team appoints team members to liaise with the working groups to facilitate two-way communications.
Here is a list of working groups and their membership:
Michelle Best, Paul Cabelli, Cathy Pecoraro, Lucy Vidal, Geoff Wood, Tao Yang
Fulfillment
Chris Sterback
Access Services Committee*
Interlibrary Loan
Gracemary Smulewitz
Abbey DiPaolo, Orla Mejia, Glenn Sandberg
Resource Management
Mary Beth Weber
Colin Bitter, Jamie Smith, Geoff Wood, Tao Yang
(* indicating existing groups)
The Discovery Working Group and Access Services Committee are existing groups, and the others are newly established. All of the groups have members from multiple departments or units of the Libraries.
While approving the working groups, Cabinet also made two important points:
The Ex Libris Implementation Project is a top priority that must be completed within the established timeframe. Members of the Implementation Team and working groups are taking on a significant amount of work, so it may be necessary for everyone to adjust the expectations for them in areas unrelated to implementation.
Communicating with library users about potential service interruptions (and enhancements) is an essential component of the implementation project. The Implementation Team will work with the Director of Communications to develop an external communications plan.
The Implementation Team has also made significant progress on creating a project website and performing data preparation and validation. We hope to describe them in more details at the poster session of the State of the Libraries or in the next monthly update.
Overview of Implementation Timeline (December – June)
Ex Libris divides the Alma/Primo implementation process into three phases: Define, Build, and Deploy. During the Define phase for Rutgers (December – early February), the Implementation Team gains access to the standard Alma sandbox environment including standard Ex Libris data and configuration, takes Alma training (including configuration training) via pre-recorded sessions, and then configures the sandbox environment. At the same time, the Libraries continue with data extraction and validation and deliver the data from source systems (Symphony and EDS) based on the Ex Libris specifications for migration to Alma. The Define phase ends with Ex Libris completing the configuration of the Alma production environment with the input from the Rutgers team and a test load of the migrated data.
During the Build phase (late February – May), the Libraries receive access to both the Alma production environment and Primo environment for functionality review and data testing. Both environments use Rutgers data and configurations and we need to document any necessary modifications for the cutover data load. The Implementation Team works with Ex Libris to define a list of third-party integrations (such as the ILL and Central Authentication Systems). Ex Libris conducts onsite workshops to explain the workflows of the new system. The Implementation Team and working groups also prepare and perform internal staff training. This phase completes with a “freeze” of the source systems (Symphony and EDS). Ex Libris then performs the cutover data load.
Alma and Primo are scheduled to go live at Rutgers on June 1, which is the Day 1 of the Deploy phase. From June to July, the Implementation Team works closely with Ex Libris to address any issues and support library faculty and staff through their first steps with Alma and Primo in production.
Additional information about the three phases can be found in this chart published by Ex Libris:
We look forward to the opportunities to discuss the project with you at the State of the Libraries and other venues. Please do not hesitate to contact us or other Implementation Team members if you have any questions or comments. Thank you!
