Reference for IT Staff: Universities' Experience Implementing Alma

Owned by Aura Hill
Last updated: Jan 24, 2022 by Liana Giovando
2 min read

Introduction

This information is based on the experience of two universities implementing Alma and Primo in 2019. They shared their experiences and tips for a successful implementation at a OLA Super Conference session. The purpose of sharing their experiences and tips is for reference only.

The information has been organized under topics for ease of use.

Note: This material is sourced from the “What to expect when you’re expecting Alma+Primo” presentation at OLA 2019 by Gordon Coleman and Frances Dodd at Simon Fraser University, and Heather D'Amour and Heather Ganshorn at the University of Calgary.

http://accessola2.com/superconference2019/Sessions/1WedJan30/what_to_expect_when_expecting_alma_primo.pdf

Original Presentation

Integration with Other Systems

SFU

  • Identify which systems are critical and prioritize.

    • Day one, integration with SSO, student information system, self checks, ILL

    • Ordering, EDI, reserves, etc can wait a few weeks

  • Current ILS is probably integrated with a lot of things that you may have forgotten about. Important to map it before migration and plan, identify what will need to be recreated, and prioritize.

U of Calgary

  • Had a business analyst as project manager, someone with experience going through other university IT projects, had the connections to help with implementing all the connections. Took the entire length of the project to get some answers, so important to get started on integrations right away.

  • Use their own copyright clearance system (Ares), doesn’t integrate at all. Would recommend switching to the ExLibris system (Leganto).

  • Springshare has a webinar about integrating their modules with Primo.

Discovery Layer - Primo

SFU

  • Needed to explain to staff the difference between the ILS and the OPAC (would no longer have an OPAC), involve them in configuring discovery

  • Have to make decisions at the beginning

U of Calgary

  • Primo implementation comes in later in the migration process

  • Other layer of integration, this is where you set up harvesting other data sources (eg archives, digital repository, via OAI-PMH)

Go Live

SFU

  • Go live delayed by a day, went relatively well

  • They knew in advance what would be working on day 1, what would have to wait

U of Calgary

  • Don’t expect go live to go smoothly. There will be a lot of back and forth.

Challenges & Benefits

SFU

  • Cloud means there is no longer a local system to maintain, continuous improvement

  • Modern features, ERM and acquisitions are truly integrated, great analytics, modern reporting tool

  • Unified discovery helps with end users, especially new students

U of Calgary

  • No longer having to support local client software, everything is web based means less work for tech staff.

  • Can do new things, such as online payments, etc.