migrating from talis to alma at the university of manchester library andy land digital systems...
TRANSCRIPT
Migrating from Talis to Alma at The University of Manchester Library
Andy LandDigital Systems Manager
Introduction
• The University of Manchester• largest single-site
university in the UK• 40,000 students• 10,000 staff
• The University of Manchester Library• one of only five UK
National Research Libraries
• 11 libraries• 3 million+ catalogue
records• Used Talis Alto (now Capita
Alto)• Alma Early Adopter since
2011• Primo subscriber since
2010
Talis – a way of life
• Talis launched as a product in 1992 by BLCMP, a not-for-profit partnership of which The University of Manchester was a founder member.
• 1993 Manchester becomes the first University library to install Talis
• 1996 – Manchester, Loughborough University, the University of Greenwich, Kingston University and the University of Derby become amongst the first libraries to mount their catalogue on the WWW
Talis – a way of life
• 2013 – 20th anniversary of Talis in The University of Manchester Library
Talis – a way of life
“It’s how we do things…”
Many services built on what Talis could do or would allow
IT infrastructure and support built around needs of the old system
www.digital60.org
Data structure and configuration significantly different
It’s a whole new language
PatronFulfilmentHoldRequestAnalyticsAudit eventCKBCommunity ZoneResource sharingFulfilment unitService unitVendorWork order
Who does what
Change is scary!
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sir-alex-ferguson-retirement-men-3475060
Engaging with the vendor
Don’t under-estimate the impact of Primo
• Primo secondary system 2010-2013
• About 500,000 searches on Primo a month but 600,000 on catalogue
Usability testing to prepare for move to Alma
Work done in partnership with a specialist user experience consultancy User Vision.
24 participants representing various patron groups
Key findings
• The pattern of success and satisfaction did not vary significantly between patron groups but according to the sophistication of the individual’s search techniques
3 things you particularly like about Primo
3 things you would change
Task success impacted by three key factors
• Logging in to view all search results was an absolute barrier
• Records from other collections missed
• FRBRised records not understood by all
Visual design bland and can hinder usability
• Not always clear what is a link
• Tabs and buttons not easily identifiable
• Use of low contrast text colours
• More use of white space
Primo issues since Alma go live…
• Missing records from migration• Lack of pre-search scopes
• Lack of loan history• Configuration decisions impacting on Primo
functionality - requesting
Thank you!