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Page1+ Consortium OCLS Service Proposal

Service Area: Page1+ Consortium - General Services & Support

Summary

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Introduction

This cluster of services speaks to OCLS’s anticipated role in providing a suite of cost recovery, value-added services and activities that support the colleges participating in the Page1Page 1+ Consortium. The focus of this service cluster is on contract management and aspects of central system support that are aimed at helping to leverage the consortial value offered by of a shared library services platform without duplicating support and services already provided by ExLibris.

Rationale

Describing the initial foundational services the OCLS will provide to support the Alma Consortium.

  • Advantage of centralized knowledge and efficient expertise

  • Leveraging longstanding partnership with college library staff delivering customized service

  • Facilitated collaboration through the sharing of service

Access Requirements:

In order to perform these services OCLS will need:

  • Admin access to participating college’s IZ Alma and Primo VE instance

  • Credentials or guest access to College SSO in support of their Primo VE instance

Dependencies:

Future Considerations:

Distribute and maintain letter templates

API Development and Management

Alma Training School

Proposed Funding Model

The identified funding model represents OCLS’s best effort at determining how the costs to provide proposed services will be covered.

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  •  Centrally funded:
  •  Cost recovery: incorporated into annual Alma Consortium fee schedule

  •  Professional Service:
  •  Under review

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Service Activities

As the migration to Alma impacts OCLS services, OCLS would like to provide some guidance about what services will look like after implementation. Although things We anticipate that this suite of cost recovery services will be defined and developed further in consultation with Page 1+ standing committees and the participating college libraries.

Rationale

OCLS has a long history of providing centralized services and support to the members of the Sirsi Consortium. We propose to bring that experience and knowledge to support the Page 1+ Consortium.

Proposed services in this cluster emerged from initial consultation with ExLibris, the Project Management Office and other consortia. The proposal is also drawn upon the experience that OCLS has from over a decade of facilitating the work of the Sirsi consortium and is designed with the expectation that some libraries may require additional support as they fully implement and begin to use the software. 

In line with the Page 1+ Consortium’s strategic goals for leveraging collaborative activities for efficiency and cost savings, OCLS’s value-added services and activities will:

  • Provide the advantage of central coordination to leverage consistency and efficiency across the Consortium.

  • Streamline system support and administration activities.

  • Leverage longstanding partnerships with Ontario college libraries to deliver customized services.

  • Reduce duplication of work by individual colleges for the benefit of Page 1+ Libraries.

  • Facilitate collaborative initiatives through the support of a shared system.

Service Activities

Although services, activities and priorities may shift as we move forward, the OCLS Activities table outlines the high-level activities that OCLS currently believes will recommends be part of this service.

To provide some clarity about important activities that the colleges/third parties may need to undertake, we have provided those in the Out of Scope Activities table. These out of scope activities are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all activities for the colleges, but rather to identify activities that OCLS will not be undertaking on behalf of the colleges post Go Live.

OCLS Activities

 OCLS will be responsible for these activities.

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Activity

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Notes

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Maintaining a helpdesk for support and consultation

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Alma/ExLibris Support Portal incident tracking for contractual agreement

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Ticket escalation;

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Centralized contract & financial management services

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e.g. named user management in terms of surpassing contractual threshold

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Coordinating, supporting, and facilitating for committees, working groups and COPs

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Meeting agendas, minutes, reminders of action items communications expertise, knowledge

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Review product updates, work with working group, perform testing in sandbox, report to and roll out to participating colleges

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Alma Sandbox oversight and management

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LIT program Alma Sandbox oversight and management

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IZ Primo VE configuration, support and maintenance as required

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IZ Alma configuration, support and maintenance as required

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NZ and IZ specific Analytics

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Out of Scope Activities

Colleges/other parties will be responsible for these activities.

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Activity

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Notes

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 Communication through helpdesk for requests

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 Participation in working groups

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 Proposal Details

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Drafted on:

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Prepared by:

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Prepared for:

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Reviewed on:

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Finalized on:

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its value-added services.

OCLS Cost Recovery Service Activities - Contract and System Support

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titleMaintain and monitor the centralized contracts & provide financial management services.

OCLS proposes to support consortial contract negotiations and vendor relationships in support of Page 1+. This may include, for example:

  • Negotiations regarding the total number of Named Users in the system and/or

  • Monitoring Support Portal cases to ensure Ex Libris is meeting response standards as described in the Service Level Agreement.

/wiki/spaces/CI/pages/568361010

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titleSupport and maintain centralized settings and distributed configurations within the Alma Network Zone in support of participating Page 1+ libraries.

Many settings and configurations must be managed centrally or distributed from the Network Zone to enable Alma functionality in each Institution Zone.

For example:

  • Distribute letter/notice templates, role profiles and assignments

  • Resource sharing configurations in the NZ with the peer-to-peer model in Alma. These include The identification of Partner Libraries, Sending Borrowing Request Rules, Locate Profiles, and Determining Rota. More details can be found in the ExL Knowledgebase: managing partner library profiles and parameters, and configuring fulfillment information in the Network Zone.

  • Maintaining a custom package branding template that colleges can use in Primo VE. OCLS can create and maintain a central discovery template that can be used as the basis for further college customization. In this way copies of the original custom package will be preserved and accessible to all colleges instead of on local desktops. In addition, any consortial discovery branding decisions can be supported and distributed through the shared system as opposed to external systems such as the display and placement of the Page 1+ logo and decolonized text.

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titleEvaluate and roll out Alma and Primo VE updates.

With a centralized perspective, OCLS is in the optimal position to review product updates, perform testing in sandbox, coordinate testing with colleges, report to and roll out to participating colleges.

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titleSupport and maintain configurations of Alma Institution Zones and IZ Primo VE instances on behalf of individual colleges.

Some colleges may not have the staff capacity or expertise to make configuration changes in their IZ or Primo VE instance. OCLS, by request, can make those changes on behalf of the college.

For example:

  • configuring loan, booking and request policies

  • configuring changes to how links, items and holdings display in Primo VE

  • self-check kiosk integration

  • troubleshoot an issue with Ex Libris while college library staff can focus on other tasks

  • college library staff who do not have capacity to do preliminary research on a function in Alma or Primo VE, ask OCLS to figure it out, in some cases test in Sandbox and implement

This builds capacity and expertise across the consortia with staff who are positioned to develop and share that knowledge and expertise for all members big and small to benefit. The work can also be replicated across IZs when recommended by CLO and requested by individual members.

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titleSupport Page 1+ consortial analytics activities including providing NZ and IZ specific support.

It is possible to create reports containing information from the Network Zone and to share reports created in the Network Zone. OCLS can be responsible for configuring analytics for the network zone, identify existing reports in the Alma Analytics Community Folder that can be used by Page 1+ libraries, create and maintain shared reports as needed, or assist individual colleges in the creation of reports for their own purposes.

For example:

  • Identify statistical data required by CLO Annual Survey that can be collected in Alma, create Alma Analytics reports, automatically send reports to the CLO Metrics and Assessment Committee (so colleges don’t need to manually fill in related data for CLO stats).

  • Configure Analytics to display Network Zone information to colleges (so colleges can access Network Zone reports and e-inventory information).

  • Identify existing reports in the Analytics Community folder that can be used by colleges.

  • Help colleges with their questions about Analytics.

  • Assist colleges in the creation of reports/dashboards.

  • Assist colleges in creating sets for jobs using Analytics.

  • Create reports as needed in the Network Zone and share them with colleges.

  • Troubleshoot and resolve colleges’ Analytics problems.

  • Liaise with Ex Libris on colleges’ Analytics problems when OCLS cannot resolve them.

  • Facilitate a working group to identify analysis needs on an ongoing basis, address common problems, explore tools and resources, and improve Analytics knowledge and skills

Out of Scope Activities

  • Fix synchronization issues between Alma and Analytics

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titleOversee and manage the Page 1+ Alma Sandbox and the LIT program Alma Sandbox.

Sandboxes are the Alma/Primo VE test environments. Library staff and OCLS may use these sandboxes for training and experimenting with different configurations or integrations. OCLS can manage these sandboxes and develop guidance on how the Page 1+ colleges can use the Alma and Primo VE sandboxes.

For example,

  • Develop sandbox policies and procedures

  • Manage testing credentials in sandboxes

  • Manage Developer Network credentials for sandboxes and create API keys for the sandbox environments on demand

  • Review and test new releases and enhancements in the sandbox environments and introduce them to colleges

  • Manage the refresh of sandboxes. This includes requesting the refresh, requesting extra features to be turned on as needed, and testing after the refresh

  • Resolve sandbox problems as identified

  • Assist colleges with LIT program training. This may include creating accounts, assigning roles, troubleshooting, and data cleanup

  • Coordinate with LIT program training colleges to manage sandbox refresh

Out of Scope Activities

  • Perform testing in sandboxes for colleges

  • Remove college-created testing data

  • Restore college-created testing data

  • Retain college-created testing data during the sandbox refresh

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titleProvide consultation and support that is unique to the colleges and the shared Page 1+ system.

OCLS is the expert on the Page 1+ consortium, it’s consortial services, and shared data that are embedded in the system (eResource Management, Remote Access, CLEAR, Metadata Management, the Network Zone). With this customized expertise and admin access to the NZ and IZs, OCLS is in a unique position to provide hands-on support to the colleges.

For example:

  • Assist in troubleshooting an issue or a question that requires familiarity with consortial decisions and shared services.

  • Compare system settings and provide examples of what other colleges have done (ex: what language have other colleges used in their letters).

  • Further research and identify issues that can be resolved with OCLS support or a consortial initiative.

  • Formulate questions for Ex Libris.

  • Troubleshoot an issue to determine if the issue is OCLS service-related or is an issue for ExLibris to address.

Out of Scope Activities

  • Escalate a support ticket with Ex Libris.

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titleServe as a strategic resource in support of consortial decision-making and planning.

OCLS is in a position to act as a strategic resource in support of consortial decision-making and planning. As a central service, OCLS can identify dependencies resulting from the work of different committees as well as OCLS services. In this way, we avoid duplication of effort and leverage the advantage of collaboration in the Page 1+ Consortium and college efforts.

For example:

  • Provide research and analysis to help library leadership identify options and implement solutions to business or operational problems.

  • Prepare information in advance of meetings so that committees and working groups can easily consider consequences and come to decisions.

  • Coordinate, support, and facilitate committees, working groups and Communities of Practice (COPs).

  • When the consortium has made decisions that impact IZ configurations not covered by ExLibris documentation, OCLS will support communication, and share expertise and knowledge.

  • OCLS can also manage documentation that is shared across colleges such as a consortial “List of Suppressed Terms” and instructions on how to implement the list in a college Primo VE.

OCLS intends to develop detailed service descriptions for each of these activities. The descriptions will outline aspects of the proposed service, its alignment and value to the Page 1+ Consortium and, how we propose to deliver it. Ultimately, once accepted, the service descriptions will form the basis of a Service Level Agreement between OCLS and the members of the Page 1+ Consortium.

Access Requirements

In order to perform these services OCLS will need:

  • Admin access to college’s IZ Alma and Primo VE instance

  • Credentials or guest access to college SSO in support of their Primo VE instance

Dependencies

In order for OCLS to provide these services, colleges need to commit to the following:

  • Consult with OCLS on services and priorities

  • Consult with OCLS on the costing and cost allocation model

  • Agree in principle that not all services will be needed by all colleges, but that for the long-term benefit of the consortium all colleges will pay their share of the agreed upon suite of cost recovery services

Future Considerations

Letter template development and maintenance

API development and management

Alma Training School

Proposed Funding Model

The identified funding model represents OCLS’s best effort at determining how the costs to provide proposed services will be covered.

OCLS intends to observe and consult with the colleges during the first year of service provision to ensure the development of a funding model that will best suit college library needs.

  •  Centrally funded:
  •  Cost recovery: incorporated into annual Page 1+ Consortium fee schedule
  •  Professional Service:
  •  Under review

Proposal Details

Drafted on:

 

Prepared by:

 OCLS

Prepared for:

Implementation Steering Committee

Reviewed on:

 TBD

Finalized on:

 TBD