Tag: ExLibris

Rutgers Law Libraries to Join Alma/Primo

The Rutgers Law Libraries are joining our Alma and Primo instances in January 2020! Project planning for appending the Law libraries catalog has begun. We are currently participating in bi-weekly planning meetings with Ex Libris and the Law libraries. Progress will be communicated through the Ex Libris Implementation team. This is an exciting opportunity for us and the faculty and students that we serve. 

Leganto Update

The Leganto implementation team is preparing to go live with 16 pilot courses from the School of Social Work. This summer, social work graduate students will be able to access their course reserves, including electronic course reserves, live links to the physical reserves holdings, and access to our journal and database subscription content, directly from their course in Canvas. The team is planning a soft launch for fall, so if you know of a department that would be interested in this comprehensive course reserves solution, please contact your campus representative to the Leganto team or the Ex Libris Team at exlibris@rutgers.libanswers.com.  

FRBRization disabled for music materials 

FRBRization refers to the process by which different versions of the same work are grouped together. Generally speaking, FRBRization is a useful feature that allows researchers to easily find and identify related works (e.g., different editions of the same book). However, in some cases, unrelated works are mistakenly grouped together, which causes confusion and makes these resources more difficult to find. This is especially true for musical scores and audio recordings where heavy use of generic titles, complex statements of responsibility, and variations of performance can lead to erroneous matches. Accordingly, FRBRization has been disabled for these materials. This decision was made in consultation with and based on feedback from experts in public services, cataloging, and the music department. The exemption applies to scores and audio recordings only. All other types of materials will continue to be FRBRized.

Improved metadata for Academic Video Online (AVON)

Academic Video Online (AVON) is a large streaming video collection of documentaries, interviews, performances, and feature films spanning a wide variety of subjects. However, the metadata provided by Ex Libris for this collection suffered from a number of limitations impacting its discoverability in QuickSearch. Accordingly, these records have been replaced with vendor-supplied MARC records. The new records are not only of higher quality but also offer more reliable linking, less duplication, and improved result filtering. However, in order to keep the collection up-to-date, the records must be reloaded every six months. Since record permalinks will change every time the records are reloaded, it is recommended that librarians and instructors who wish to link to this content use direct links to the platform rather than link to the record in QuickSearch. To do this, simply click “Embed/Link” below the video player in AVON (see screenshot).

Where did all the ISSNs go?

Standard identifiers such as ISBN, ISSN, and OCLC number are currently not being displayed in QuickSearch. This information typically appears in the “Identifier” field of the detailed record. Although this data is still searchable, it is currently not being displayed to the public. The issue has been confirmed by Ex Libris to be related to a known defect that is scheduled to be fixed in the July 2019 release. Until a fix is released, the only way to view this information in QuickSearch is to click the “View Source Record” link at the bottom of the record and look for it in the appropriate MARC field.

Primo 2019 Roadmap

Related reading? Citation trails? Enhanced personalization? Want to know what new features and functionality are coming to Primo this year? Check out the 2019 Primo Roadmap.

This month, the Ex Libris Implementation Team welcomed back Megan Drake from Ex Libris for our follow up to the six-month health check. Following two days of meeting with representatives from various Ex Libris working groups, Megan provided some very actionable suggestions for improving our processes and making our workflow more efficient in Alma. The team is working hard to integrate her suggestions into our processes.

Leganto Implementation

This month also marked the kickoff of the Ex Libris Leganto project. Leganto is a course reserves platform that is integrated with both Alma and the course management systems we support at Rutgers, like Canvas, Sakai, Moodle, and Blackboard. This product will give instructors more control over developing their course reserves lists and put the power of the library directly in their course space to help them provide electronic resources and streaming video from our subscriptions, and realtime catalog information for physical reserves.

Because faculty members are able to create their own course reading lists, Leganto will enable us to increase our course reserves services without creating additional work for reserves management in access services. Students will be able to access course reserves directly from their course management system on any device and Leganto will help faculty select clean pdfs from our subscription databases rather than scans of readings. The system also provides robust analytics and encourages faculty to use materials from within our subscription databases for course reserves, providing us with a more accurate understanding of usage. Ex Libris provides a good overview of the product in this video demo.

Ex Libris expects that our implementation process will take 12 weeks and the team plans to conduct a pilot with several courses during the summer with an official launch in Fall 2019. Faculty engagement is important for the success of Leganto, so expect to hear soon from your campus Leganto Team representative about communication strategies and training.

As we move into spring semester, the Ex Libris Implementation Team is working towards optimizing our workflows and resolving remaining issues in the systems. We passed a major milestone in December with the end of our subscription to Symphony. Integrated Information Systems (IIS) has archived our data and will make it available on request. The Ex Libris Fulfillment Team has also transformed in the New Year and will continue in a new form as the Fulfillment Working Group, addressing central coordination for systems and processes for access services. The Ex Libris Implementation Team moved to a new schedule and will be meeting every other week during spring semester as we address the remaining implementation issues. Some other updates from our work include:

Updates to QuickSearch

We made several updates to QuickSearch in early January based on feedback from user testing and from system enhancements provided by Ex Libris. These updates include direct linking through Get it @ R, increased clarity in the display of some menus and options, and search improvements.

Six-Month Health Check

Megan Drake, a representative from Ex Libris, visited onsite in January to review workflows and address system issues. Representatives from each working group brought lingering problems for review and Megan suggested alternative strategies and optimizations that will help improve efficiency in Alma.

Analytics Training for Selectors

We held our first analytics training session for selectors on January 7. This active training session focused on learning the analytics platform and testing queries related to circulation and fund information. Future sessions are planned for 1–3 p.m. on January 17 and January 22 in New Brunswick and via WebEx and 9–11 a.m. on January 18 in Newark. Prior registration is not necessary, but if you have questions, please contact Laura Costello.

Ex Libris Identity Service

At the end of January, Ex Libris will debut an identity management service that will improve security for our barcode and password users. New security standards will ensure better privacy protection and users will be able to change their own password and retrieve a lost password via “My Account.” This update will not impact our users that authenticate via NetID.

The fall semester has started, and September 5 marks the third month of Alma and QuickSearch implementation. We have focused on rectifying known problems in preparation for the new school year, and have made many improvements to the system and the services it provides. Thanks to feedback from users and library staff, we are continually making improvements to the system. We encourage and welcome your input and questions—submit them by visiting https://apps.libraries.rutgers.edu/ex-libris/contact.

As reported in the July update, the Implementation Team visited all four campuses in August. During those meetings, the team reported on the respective working groups and held discussions with library personnel. We appreciate the fact that people took the time to participate in these sessions and provided thoughtful feedback and questions. The discussions were lively and productive.

The Implementation Team would like to take this opportunity to share the following updates:

• A QuickSearch tutorial has been created and will be available this fall. An announcement is forthcoming.
• The library names facet in Primo has been revised to reflect abbreviated and more commonly known library names, making it more usable for patrons. For example, Archibald S. Alexander Library will now display as “Alexander Library”.
• 856 links to finding aids and other materials are now available in the “Links” section of QuickSearch records.
• Sign in has been improved to allow users to sign in with fewer actions and to more easily access account options such as loans, requests, and favorites.
• Database lookup has been enabled so that users who enter database names (PubMed, JSTOR, Factiva) in the search box get a direct link to that resource at the top of their search results.
• An open access filter is now available in QuickSearch, enabling users to limit results to content published in open access publications.
• A number of fields are now available in QuickSearch record displays, including uniform title, language, identifier, related work, and several local note fields (e.g., general, bound with, performer, production credits, donor, and finding aid). Additionally, the donor note is now searchable, making it easier to identify specific gift collections and to retrieve records for items in those collections.
• Harvard has been added to the list of citation options and MLA has been updated to the 8th edition.
• Users can now save records to Zotero.
• Users are now able to pick up materials from off-site delivery locations, such as the law libraries.
• A new marketing campaign for QuickSearch will be unveiled this fall.

The Implementation Team’s website is available at https://apps.libraries.rutgers.edu/ex-libris. It includes the various teams and working groups associated with the implementation, a timeline for the project, resources, an FAQ, and a list of known issues for Alma and QuickSearch (alias Primo). The team is working through both lists of issues, and the lists are updated as progress is made and issues are resolved.

We are fully aware that our experience with QuickSearch and Alma is one of learning and trial and error. The Implementation Team values input and collaboration from the Libraries as well as our user community to continually refine and improve this service.