LSP Update: The Kickoff
The Library Services Platform Project got off to a roaring start on Friday, February 1st, as library staff from 106 colleges attended the kickoff in Costa Mesa. LSP Program Manager Amy Beadle and Project Manager Amy Carbonaro began the day by introducing project staff, the LSP Task force members, representatives from most of the 11 vanguard (pilot) colleges, the work group leads, and governance committee officers. Also introduced were three statewide LSP consultants—CSU librarians Ian Chan and Moon Kim and community college librarian Aleah Kropholler—who will provide technical and project management support to librarians around the state.
Several communication and project management tools were shared, including the LSP Listserv (https://listserv.cccnext.net/scripts/wa-cccnext.exe?SUBED1=LSP-ALL&A=1), the LSP Project Wiki (https://cccnext.jira.com/wiki/spaces/CLSPP/overview), and the Ex Libris Canvas shell (if you have not enrolled or would like to enroll another member of your team, submit a help ticket to the Orange Coast College support team at OrangeCoastCollege.edu/support and provide your name, your institution e-mail address, and the name of your institution). Many thanks to John Taylor and his crew at Orange Coast College for all they’ve done to support the creation of this Canvas shell.
One of the highlights of the day was the panel of vanguard college participants, moderated by Santa Rosa librarian and Governance Committee Co-chair Eve Miller. Panelists included Monica Doman (Cypress), Jeffrey Sabol (Long Beach), Lauren Saslow (Pierce), Paul Szponar (Foothill), and Mary Wahl (Pasadena). Each panelist recounted positive take-aways from the vanguard experience. There was widespread agreement that the amount of collaboration that took place from college to college was extremely valuable, with a promise of that continuing during the system-wide implementation. Among the challenges, panelists noted that, conceptually, it’s hard to grasp how the work done on data migration and other forms translates into the functional realities of the new system. It was helpful to hear from panelists that as we migrate our data and configure our production environments, we will continue to learn more and more about the functionality of the LSP, and that over time, things really do click. Another important distinction made about the Alma/Primo LSP is that it is really a work flow-based system. It’s useful to ask this question in considering new work flows: how do we accomplish important tasks in our current system? How might we change this to leverage the functionality of our new LSP? The panel took questions for more than a half hour, and at the end of that time, there was appreciation expressed that this activity helped our community experience our collaborative possibilities, and that as a group, we would manage the challenges of adopting this new system together.
As the 110 participating colleges are coming from a dozen legacy systems, there was a brief meeting by legacy system and some quick discussion around unique issues related to migration from each system—a useful if brief starting point for more work together.
The afternoon was devoted to Ex Libris project leads laying the scope of the project, some very specific details about migration and configuration, and timelines for our work. Here is a projected timeline for major milestones coming up in the next twelve months:
LSP Alma Primo Implementation Project Timeline
1 February 2019 Kickoff Meeting
5 February 2019 Delivery of Alma & Primo VE Sandboxes
5 February 2019 Begin Alma Training Series
5 February 2019 Canvas Tour & Project Calendar Review
5 February 2019 Start of Weekly Project Status Calls & EXL Office Hours
5 February 2019 Begin Planning for ILS Data Extracts (TL) 15 February 2019 Watch Migration Trainings (TL)
15 February 2019 Attend Link Resolver & P2E Training (TL)
1-8 March 2019 Draft & final migration data and forms completed/submitted (TL)
15 March- 15 April 2019 EXL Migration Work (TL) 3 April 2019 Attend Configuration Meeting (TL)
12-19 April 2019 Draft & final Configuration data forms completed/submitted (TL)
15-30 April 2019 Production Alma & Primo VE environments delivered (TL)
April 2019 “Using Alma for Data Review” training
April-May 2019 Onsite Alma Workshop
April-Oct 2019 Integrations Work*
April-Nov 2019 Alma Data Testing & Workflows
May-August 2019 NOTE: Institutional Summer Schedules / Breaks
May-Nov 2019 Primo Customization Work
August-Dec 2019 Internal Staff Trainings
September 2019 Complete Alma Certification
September 2019 Complete Primo Certification
Sept-Oct 2019 Finalize Configurations
Sept-Oct 2019 Attend Cutover/Go Live Planning Review Meeting (CO)
Sept-Oct 2019 Attend Go Live Readiness Meeting (CO)
Sept-Nov 2019 Cutover Preparations / Submitting Data files & forms (CO)
Nov-Dec 2019 EXL Migration Work (CO)
Nov-Dec 2019 Alma Data Review & Acceptance (CO)
Nov-Dec 2019 Primo Review & Acceptance (CO)
Nov-Dec 2019 Go Live – Alma & Primo
The main involvement for IT at individual colleges will be related to integrations with a variety of other systems, including Student Information Systems (e.g., Banner, Peoplesoft), proxy servers, OCLC records, and connection to Ex Libris Z39.50 server. Below is a rough timeline for when that work needs to be scheduled and completed.
TIMELINE FOR IT/INTEGRATIONS WORK:
March 2019 IT report on status of integrations for Vanguard institutions, provide timing estimates for implementation phase
April 2019 Alma production environments available for implementation phase participants
April 2019 IT planning for integrations for implementation phase
May 2019 IT begin integrations work for implementation phase May 2019 S/FTP server needs to be in place
June-Sept 2019 Authentication set up and testing for all sites
June-Sept 2019 SIS load /API testing for all sites
September 2019 Additional integrations configured if needed *
October 2019 Finalize integration configurations and testing
Oct-Dec 2019 Cutover / Go Live
The Ex Libris Canvas shell provides detailed information about work to be completely week by week. It includes links to required reading and viewing of materials, virtual meeting dates, dedicated discussion threads, and links to support materials. This week, the first of our weekly required meetings and homework with the Ex Libris team began; by next year at this time, we’ll all be fully online with a new LSP that has already begun to bring us together as a community and will result in greater student success. Great appreciation is due to LSP Program Manager Amy Beadle and Project Manager Amy Carbonaro at the CCC Technology Center for their careful planning, logistical wizardry, and tireless efforts toward what became an exciting beginning to our work together.