Migrating to a New Integrated Library System (ILS): Update #1

Image credit: http://infomotions.com/musings/web-scale/ngc.gif

The Armacost Library faculty and staff are deep in preparations for migrating to a new integrated library system (ILS), a complex system that facilitates many library functions from acquiring materials (ordering, receiving) to making them discoverable (cataloging, indexing) to tracking use of resources (borrowing). Preparations began in January and will continue through July, when we go "live" on the new system.

This is the first in a series of updates intended to inform students, faculty, staff and administrators on our process, progress, and about changes that will affect our community members.

Image credit: Sanjeet Mann

Library faculty and staff are meeting weekly as members of multiple implementation teams: Fulfillment & User Services (FUSE), Acquisitions & Resource Management (ARM), and Primo (the public-facing discovery layer). Additionally, a core team meets weekly via conference call with the ILS vendor's project management team. Sanjeet Mann, our project manager for the migration, and Emily Croft are at the center of all of this work, mapping our current system functions and data to the new ILS.

Image credit: Emily Croft

All of this planning and preparation includes:

• Technical: translating, mapping, and managing system functions and data 
• Conceptual: translating and understanding system functions and work processes
• Philosophical: reconsidering policies, descriptions of data, and the way we interact with the systems as researchers and library users
• Training: translating and learning a new language for our daily work

Snapshot of FUSE implementation team homework. Credit: Paige Mann

Needless to say, we are feeling a bit stretched thin and even fatigued with multiple weekly meetings and accompanying study, homework, and decision-making. Not unlike our students. It feels like midterms every week.