The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Tag: Ex Libris Implementation Team

  • Ex Libris Implementation Team Update – December 2022

    The Ex Libris Implementation Team is hard at work on the Alma Post Implementation Review. We look forward to sharing the results in the new year and wish everyone a restful and peaceful holiday break!

  • Ex Libris Implementation Team Update – November 2022

    Library Mobile
    As of November 9, the app has 1,348 registered users. Contests for registrations and Quick Polls continue to be held. We also continue to hope that more local contests or initiatives to increase registrants can be held to increase awareness and registrations.
    Electronic Resources
    A public data dashboard is being built to provide easy, on-demand access to e-resource inventory and usage data to help inform collection development and management decisions.
    Rapido
    Work is underway to create a presentation regarding Rapido for LLT. The team will demonstrate the product and review the current status of the project and known issues. We hope that the presentation can occur in December.
    Esploro
    • SOAR’s integration with ORCID has been improved. This integration allows researchers to automatically push their research outputs in SOAR to their ORCID profile. Improvements include resending records that failed and updating ORCID with changes made to the SOAR record.
    • The Libraries are partnering with the Office for Research to offer training to Rutgers faculty on how to search for funding opportunities using Pivot-RP. It is hoped this collaboration will open the door to additional partnership opportunities in the delivery of university-wide research services.
    Post-Implementation Review
    As previously reported, the entire team is participating in and leading a post-implementation review process of Alma. The review will focus on identifying areas where improvements could lead to increased efficiency or enhanced internal backend services. Identified areas for improvement will be prioritized and addressed as time and resources permit. Examples of solutions may include redesigned workflows, additional training, technical customizations, changes to configurations, etc. Please be sure to speak to the appropriate team member regarding any suggestions you have regarding pain points or potential improvements to Alma workflows.

  • Ex Libris Implementation Team Update – October 2022

    The Ex Libris Implementation Team continues to keep busy with a variety of initiatives, projects, and issues. Here are some highlights:

    Library Mobile

    Over 1,000 patrons have downloaded and registered their Library Mobile app as of mid-October. Weekly drawings are occurring to award swag and gift cards to students who register and respond to Quick Polls. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are excited to grow our user base even more. Representatives from the Rutgers Library Mobile implementation team presented on the app and our implementation process at the Ex Libris Northeast User Group (ENUG) conference on October 21.

    Post Implementation Review

    Over the course of FY23, representatives from the Implementation Team will lead a post-implementation review of each of their functional areas. During this process, we will review current backend Alma workflows in an effort to identify areas where improvement is necessary or desired. Once identified, we will prioritize issues for deeper analysis and potential solution implementation. We encourage everyone working with Alma to participate in this process and to reach out to your Implementation Team Representative with any ideas for areas that could use improvement.

    Chosen Name

    Starting October 17, a chosen/preferred name provided by students, faculty, and staff began appearing in Alma patron records in place of the patron’s legal first name. The chosen name is being used in QuickSearch once a patron has signed in and in any email communication from the Ex Libris platform. For more information on managing your chosen name at Rutgers, please visit the University Inclusion and Equity site.

    ReShare Update

    The version updates performed by Index Data on October 2 resulted in many issues that continue to disrupt processes at all PALCI member institutions. While some bugs have been resolved, Index Data continues to address the outstanding issues. Most of the interruptions are specific to the staff interface, but we have been able to continue receiving items with manual intervention. However, patron notifications are currently suspended. As a result, patrons are not receiving emails confirming their request or notifying them of a failed request. We have requested that an alert be placed on the VuFind landing page so patrons are aware of this suspension. PALCI has done a good job of keeping all members informed with updates. We will continue to monitor progress and share updates as they are available.

    Esploro

    Q&A sessions were held for library faculty interested in learning more about Esploro’s researcher profiles. Researcher profiles gather and present information about faculty scholarship, activities, and achievements in order to showcase and promote faculty research, facilitate collaboration and identification of experts, attract external funders and industry partners, and enhance institutional reputation. As proof of concept, publication data was imported using Esploro’s smart harvesting technology, and profiles were created and temporarily activated for all library faculty. Q&A sessions were then held to show faculty how to edit and manage their profile and discuss potential benefits, use cases, and configuration options. Library faculty were also invited to take a brief survey to assess the completeness and accuracy of their profile, share feedback, and offer suggestions for improvement.

  • Ex Libris Implementation Team Update – September 2022

    The Ex Libris Implementation Team provides regular updates to inform the Rutgers University Libraries (RUL) community of its activities and accomplishments, which benefit RUL and our user community.

    Primo

    Primo (aka “QuickSearch”) marked its 5th anniversary this year and continues to be one of the most heavily used library services, ending FY22 with over 2.2 million searches, 1.7 million record views, and 1 million full-text downloads. This year’s enhancements included the addition of ebook license information, search and indexing improvements, integration of the library link resolver with EndNote, improved error reporting, and various bug fixes. Enhancements for the coming year include persistent login, improved deduping, linked data enrichment, and improved collection discovery.

    Notable statistics for FY22 include:

    • 2 million searches
    • 7 million record views
    • 1 million downloads
    • 450 support requests
    Esploro

    Last year, the Libraries launched a new and improved version of SOAR (Scholarly Open Access at Rutgers) that’s powered by Esploro. Esploro improves and extends the Libraries’ ability to capture and manage institutional research output using automated data harvesting and machine learning techniques. SOAR staff imported over 22,000 new research assets via smart harvesting and accepted over 500 faculty deposits. Planned enhancements for the coming year include a redesigned research portal, enhanced ORCID integration, and implementation of public researcher profiles.

    Notable statistics for FY22:

    • 22,000 assets ingested
    • 56,000 record views
    • 62,000 downloads
    • 100 support requests
    Alma

    A pilot project to expedite the cataloging of donated books was conducted using two donations, the International Youth Literature Collection (IYLC) and the Tanner Collection. Two hundred ten IYLC donated titles were added to Alma, and 61 donated items were added for the Tanner gift. The pilot will be refined based on feedback from key stakeholders and is a work in progress. The goal is to expand the workflow to include other donations from across RUL.

    The ArchivesSpace Users Working Group was reinstated in July. They are working to establish local practices and standards for finding aids across all RUL archives and are using the ArchivesSpace plug-in tools for subject and name authority access. This initiative is led by Melissa De Fino, and group members include representatives from IIS, SC/UA, IJS, Smith Library, Robeson Library, and SMLR.

    A sustainable method to track withdrawn serial titles for the BTAA Shared Print Repository was developed by CTS, HMU, and IIS using Alma’s statistical notes feature. This information will be available in Alma Analytics in perpetuity.

    CTS and IIS personnel are working with SC/UA to improve the configuration of SC/UA locations and related changes in support of the SC/UA Migration Project for resources located in remote storage due to damage from Hurricane Ida.

    A new and innovative process is being developed for scores cataloging to meet a need in an area where expertise is currently lacking in CTS due to the departure of the music cataloger. The process is being developed in collaboration with Backstage Library Works.

    A total of 474 support requests were handled in response to queries and requests sent to the Cataloging Queue.

    Library Mobile

    The Library Mobile team is excitedly preparing for the Fall 2022 launch of our new student app. We encourage everyone to check out the tour on RUL’s YouTube channel and to download instructions so that you can start using the app.

    Rapido

    We’ve been working with Ex Libris on the implementation of Rapido, a resource-sharing platform that’s integrated with Alma and QuickSearch. Rapido will provide our patrons with a streamlined requesting experience, allowing them to search for and request all materials from within QuickSearch. Patrons will no longer need to log into and search multiple platforms. If the material isn’t available from RUL, background configurations will allow Rapido to source the requested materials using our existing sources via OCLC and ReShare as well as our new Rapido partners.