Presented by The LOUIS Team
LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is a model of collaboration at both the state and national level. The collaborative effort between LALINC governance, staff at consortium member libraries and the LOUIS central staff, combined with the negotiating power of a 50 member consortium, have made LOUIS an innovative and effective leader in centrally-supported consortium management for over 20 years. Join the entire LOUIS staff as they describe the type of work that goes into supporting over 50 separate institutions from an administrative to technical level.
4. LOUIS is responsible for 3 main Initiatives
• Library Services Platform (LSP) = Integrated Library System (ILS: SirsiDynix
Symphony) + Discovery (EBSCO EDS) + other pieces
• Electronic Resources (Consortia and Mini)
• Interlibrary Loan System (OCLC Atlas ILLiad)
9. 65%
26%
8%
1%
LOUIS Time 13-14
ILS & Discovery
E-Resource
ILL
Digital Library
30%
67%
3%
0%
LOUIS Budget 14-15
ILS & Discovery
E-Resources
ILL
Digital Library
Budget vs Time
11. History
• 1990-1995: Automated academic libraries on NOTIS
• 1997: LLN Technology Committee led efforts to find a replacement for the
NOTIS LMS by investigating next generation Integrated Library Systems (ILS)
through literature reviews, vendor demos, surveys, an RFP and site visits
• Jul 2001: $4M funded by Louisiana Board of Regents to license and
implement Sirsi Unicorn ILS
• Jul 2001 - Aug 2002: Phase 1 -3 sites migrated from NOTIS to Unicorn
• Jul 2003 - Jun 2004: Phase 4 sites implemented on Unicorn
• Aug 2007 - SirsiDynix Unicorn rebranded as SirsiDynix Symphony
• Oct 2009: Executed a 5-year contract with SirsiDynix for Symphony
• Jun 2013 - Oct 2014: 4 new sites added to Symphony
• Oct 2014: LOUIS locally hosts and supports the Symphony ILS for 34
Louisiana college and university member libraries
• Sept 2014: SirsiDynix 5-year contract expiring and next gen ILS buzz
13. • Needs of member libraries and their users
• Shrinking library budgets and staff
• Plethora of next generation ILS systems and current ILS maintenance costs
• Strategic Partnerships – SD BLUEcloud Campus and EBSCO Suite
• Institutional knowledge of Symphony continues to grow as LOUIS staff
regularly collaborates on tasks and projects, i.e. LOUIS weekly team meetings
• Current hardware, database platform, and operating system infrastructure
• Input from SirsiDynix, LSU IT support staff, Sys Admins, COSUGI, and ICOLC
Evaluate the Current Landscape
14. Do we need the latest & greatest to meet our needs?
15. LOUIS Library Services Platform (LSP)
• SD BLUEcloud Campus: Next-generation suite of tools using modern
architecture and Web Services - BC Cataloging, BC Circulation, BC Acquisitions,
BC Serials, BC Analytics, BC PAC, BookMyne and Universal Admin, etc.
• EBSCO Suite: EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), EBSCOadmin, Full Text Finder
• EDS integration with e-Library, i.e. patron functionality and reserves
• Auto-harvesting Symphony bibliographic, holdings and policy data for EDS in
place of custom scripts
• ILLiad for Interlibrary Loan
• Custom processes with Symphony Web Services
17. • Customer support (your helpdesk)
– Quick yet thorough work on your problems and questions
– LOUIS staff are people your system admin knows
– LOUIS staff have abundant direct experience with Symphony
• Under the hood
– Hardware, operating system, webserver (Apache), backups, security
– We work with the UNIX and hardware experts at LSU/ITS
• Upgrades & Service Packs
— Read and summarize release notes
— System Admins vote yes or no
— Scheduled with your input
— Work with SirsiDynix to assure successful & speedy updates (less downtime)
LOUIS delivers ILS services
18. LOUIS is “plugged in”
• LOUIS works with SirsiDynix
– Strategic Partnership Program & BETA Testing
– New Symphony versions
– New products: MobileCirc, BLUEcloud
– Product Managers
– Sales, Legal/Contracts (cost negotiations save $$$)
– Customer Support
• Active in COSUGI (user group)
– Another way to influence the vendor
– Our fellow customers are resources too
19. LOUIS is your ILS consulting team
• E-Library (OPAC)
– “Forgot my PIN”
– Colors & logos that to match campus web site
• Record loads
– A-to-Z, Gov Docs, patron loads
• Business intelligence
– Monthly & annual stats
– Break down data by call number ranges
– Reports for acq, circ, bib data, easily opened in Excel
20. LOUIS is your ILS consulting team
• Record editing
– Call number updates, user ID switches, EZproxy URL prefixes
• Campus integration
– Banner patron loads, circ bill exports, invoice payments
• Fast fixes
– DISCARD report gone wrong, deleted the wrong records, record load gone
wrong
21. LOUIS is your ILS consulting team
• If you can describe it, we can probably do it
– Record loads
– Edit data
– Custom reports
– Within reason
• Bear in mind, consulting work is generally billable
– SirsiDynix charges $300 per hour!
– No separate charge with LOUIS
23. Formal disaster plan in
place
Conducted every other
year
Hotsite server located at
LaTech
Minimal downtime
during the switch over
24. Online Catalog and Secure Browsing
Autonomous, unique, and configurable
Individual customizations can be site
controlled or changed on the server side
Over 200 custom e-Library pages
SSL certificates ensures patron’s private data
is protected
28. Advocate
A person who supports, recommends, or speaks in favor of
something, esp. a proposal or doctrine.
29. LOUIS is Your User Advocate
• EBSCO Discovery Service – EDS
– LOUIS scripts to extract and send catalog data
• Add, updates and deletes sent daily
• Full catalog rebuilds sent once a month
• Location and library policy changes sent as needed
– Enhancements
• Work with EBSCO on enhancement requests
– Example: ER #63220 #94236 Ability to Limit to Printed Books vs eBooks within
EDS
30. LOUIS is Your User Advocate
• EBSCO Discovery Service – Future plans
– SirsiDynix and EBSCO partnership - working together to
seamlessly link the two products
– Full Text Finder (FTF) – AtoZ merge with EBSCOhost
• Publication Searching with auto-complete
• Holdings Management Tools
• Link Management & Resolver
• Features will appear in EBSCOhost and EDS
• Summer 2015
31. LOUIS is Your Staff Advocate
• Public Service Assistance
– Symphony Circulation Issues and User Loads
• LCTCS Patron Record Project
– Resource IP management and access
• LOUIS updates vendors and is your access helpdesk
– EZproxy configuration assistance
• Assist all sites with EZproxy questions – not just the sites that use
the LOUIS EZproxy server
32. LOUIS is Your Staff Advocate
• Technical Service
– EBSCO AtoZ Records loads
• Monthly Load of LOUIS Marc Record File
• Monthly Remove of non-updated records
• Latest LOUIS file contained 67,252 records
– Bibload Management Service
• Load and Remove records for your site
33. LOUIS is Your Staff Advocate
• List Monitoring – LOUIS team subscribe to multiple listservs in
order to monitor our vendor relationship and forward
pertinent information including:
– Content updates
– Training opportunities
– Interface changes
– Enhancements
– Downtime
35. LOUIS NEGOTIATES ON YOUR BEHALF
Strive for ‘big bang for your bucks’!
Focus on negotiating prices for:
• LOUIS electronic resources subscriptions
• Mini-consortia subscriptions
• Government documents
• ILLiad
• EZproxy for authentication
• SirsiDynix suite of products
• EBSCO suite of products
No fees tacked on … what the vendor provides, we send to you!
36. Negotiate with ….
LOUIS electronic resources: 11 vendors
Mini-consortia: 15 vendors
Other products: 7 vendors
American Library Association
American Mathematical Society
Annual Reviews
Atlas
Bomgar
Chemical Abstracts Service
Chronicle
Credo
Ebsco
Elsevier
Gale
IEEE
JSTOR
Learning Express
Marcive
New York Times
OCLC
Readex/Newsback
RegOnline
Sage
SirsiDynix
Springer
Springshare
Thomson Reuters
37. LOUIS negotiated savings for electronic resources
Total LOUIS subscriptions: 13
Resources: 82
Market price: $7,052,773
LOUIS price: $2,795,427
Total savings: $4,257,346
39. LOUIS negotiated savings for Mini-consortia
Total mini-consortia: 31
Market price: $7,081,531
LOUIS price: $2,037,761
Total savings: $5,043,770
40. Go beyond negotiating …. make it accessible!
Make the data available to patrons:
• Get MARC records for: Databases, Government documents
• Ensure authentication: EZproxy configuration, IP addresses
• Load the bibliographic files:
- Vendor files
- AtoZ MARC files (LOUIS databases / Library licensed dbs)
- Government documents files
LOUIS is always available to load the files for your library
Is it being used? … Usage statistics
• Usage Consolidation (Ebsco)
• Vendor statistics
41. ILLiad At Your Library
Interlibrary Lending Automation
A Comic by Adam C Viator
43. Benefits of ILLiad
• LOUIS-assisted troubleshooting and
customization
• Inexpensive
• Intuitive interface
• Automation saves staff time
• What would your ILL look like without it?
45. Bomgar
• Issue: Immediate assistance on time crucial issues
• Scope: Narrow; typically one topic where time is
critical
• Example: ILLiad Client will not open after upgrade
• Location: Remote screen sharing where LOUIS Team
Member can view or control Library Staff computers
• Who Attends: Any Library Staff, filtered through LOUIS
Contact
• Statistics: 19 remote-sharing sessions
46. Site Visits
• Issue: Non-immediate assistance
• Scope: Narrowish; deep exploration of multiple topics
chosen by Library Staff
• Example: Cannot figure out how to get a particular
statistics report to run, while you’re coming let’s talk about
Serials Control Records
• Location: Face-to-face troubleshooting where LOUIS Team
Member(s) come to Library’s Staff’s home library
• Who Attends: Any Library Staff who have a topic to discuss
• Statistics: 15 site visits in 2013-14, 6 since July
47. Boot Camps
• Issue: Non-immediate overview or training on a few topics
• Scope: Broad; training on or overview of multiple topics chosen by
Library Staff compiled into agenda by LOUIS Team; can be group or
individual sessions
• Example: I’d like an overview of the Circulation Map and a better
understanding of report selection criteria
• Location: Central location for group, Library Staff’s home library for
individual
• Who Attends: Typically Sys Admins for group but individual boot
camps are open to any Library Staff who has a topic they’d like to
better understand
• Statistics: 2 group in 2012-13, 1 individual in 2014
48. Sharing Sessions
• Issue: Non-immediate insight into how other sites are handling a certain
topic, interaction between LOUIS Member Libraries and moderated by
LOUIS Team Member
• Scope: Broad; topics chosen by attending Library Staff and arranged into
an agenda by the LOUIS Team
• Example: I wonder who has set up direct request in ILLiad, I wonder who
plans to convert records to RDA
• Location: Central Location in the North and South of the state at volunteer
host libraries, LOUIS pays travel for Conference Attendee presenters
• Who Attends: Any Library Staff member using ILLiad and/or Symphony
• Statistics: 2 ILLiad and 2 Symphony Sharing Sessions held each year
49. Site-to-Site Collaboration
• Issue: Immediate or non-immediate issue which another LOUIS
Library Member has greater expertise than LOUIS Team Member
• Scope: Narrow; topic where insight from staff at another LOUIS
Library is more efficient than working with the LOUIS Team or a
group of LOUIS Members
• Example: I’d like to get started using custom Widgets in EDS and
another site has already succeeded in that task
• Location: LOUIS-facilitated remote sharing or Library Staff travelling
to another Library with LOUIS paying travel expenses
• Who Attends: LOUIS Contact to LOUIS Contact
50. Meetings
• Issue: Non-immediate updates as chosen by LOUIS Team
and/or supplied by attending Library Staff
• Scope: Broad; topics that cover the entire scope of LOUIS
Consortium activities: Narrow; topics that require LOUIS
Team input for issues that effect a large number of sites
• Example: LALINC Meetings, Bi-annual Sys Admin Meetings,
LCTCS Patron Load Meetings
• Location: Central location at volunteer host libraries and/or
rented venues
• Who Attends: LOUIS Contacts from various groups
52. Learning with LOUIS
Teaching, learning, and sharing
webinar program facilitated by
LOUIS
Launched March 2013
20 webinars to date
586 participants
4 scheduled - November, January,
February, & May
Recordings can be access via our
website & Knowledge Base
Open call for presentations &
suggestions
53. Subscription began October 2013
Started with 5 IDs; increased to 8
IDs in spring 2014
28 checkouts; 19 sites:
BPCC
Centenary
Delgado
Delta
LATECH
LOUIS
LSU
McNeese
Nicholls
NTCC
OLHCC
OLOL
SLCC
SOWELA
SUNO
ULL
ULM
UNO
Xavier
Over 145 courses accessed to
date
Renewing October 1st
SirsiDynix Mentor
54. Vendor Trainings
LOUIS helps facilitate vendor-led
trainings based on needs
identified by member libraries &
vendors
Webinars
Face-to-face
Current products & services
New products, services, &
technologies
In 2014, LOUIS facilitated 179
vendor-led trainings
55. LOUIS has hosted a users’
conference every year since 1992
Purpose is bring our partners
together to communicate &
collaborate
Two-day conference each fall
Sessions support the Library
Services Platform
Presenters include librarians and
staff from member libraries &
partnering vendors
LOUIS Users Conference
56. Community Outreach
LLA Academic Section Meet and Greet
LLA Legislature Day
Louisiana Book Festival
Open Houses
“In addition to providing needed service to community members, community outreach
programs…provide a unique opportunity to improve public image within a service
community and offers excellent collaboration opportunities with community leaders,
groups and organizations that will enhance overall…service.” – Lisa Livesay, Carole Petro,
and Starla Yelm
59. LOUIS Solution Center
Under Resources & in Quick Links
Details LOUIS support services &
applications
Statistics
Under Resources & in Quick Links
ILS statistics; information about DL &
ER statistics (stats prior to 2013
available)
Public Relations
Under Resources
Promotional publications & tools;
LOUIS logos
LOUISLibraries.org
LALINC
Under Governance
About page, publications, member
lists
Task Forces & Interest Groups
Under Governance
About pages, publications, member
lists
LOUIS @ myLibrary
Under Resources & in Quick Links
Built with student community in
mind
Search menus, participation reports,
webpage shortcuts
“Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that.”― Paul Cookson
60. Expanded social media presence by recommendation of the LALINC
Communication Task Force
LOUIS in Social Media
“Social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr provide an unparalleled
ability for people to stay connected in new and unique ways.” -Michael Bennet
63. • Business Plan in the works using LUMA Consulting
• 2013-2016 Strategic Plan October 2014 Report is distributed
• 6 active Task Forces
• 2 new initiatives
– Automation of LALINC card (Resource Sharing TF)
– Evaluation of SD platforms (future needs/options)
What else is going on?
Hinweis der Redaktion
The ILS is one leg of the Library Services Platform
Discovery (EDS) is the other
The ILS is one leg of the Library Services Platform
Discovery (EDS) is the other
Support: we are your helpdesk. Not a distant, corporate helpdesk. More collegial.
Under the hood: things you do not have to worry about. Not just doing backups but doing them better (fewer files, less disc space.) We know some UNIX, but the ITS NetApps team is our support team.
LOUIS is “plugged in”: we know key parts of the SD team on a first name basis. Friendly, but we’re not pushovers. Active at COSUGI conference. Past COSUGI board membership too. Marcy & Lisa once taught a pre-conference seminar on e-Library customization
Upgrades: major sets of fixes and feature updates. Service Packs = smaller sets of features and updates.
We don’t reflexively and automatically install every update. Evaluate fixes and features. Ask for SA votes.
When you approve an upgrade or service pack, we do our best to pick a satisfactory date. Staged on BETA, Training before Production.
Assure speed and success: our environment shared binaries. At one point, Service Packs stopped working with our environment. Worked with SD to get it right.
The LOUIS “forgot my PIN” function existed well before SD created one. And we still use ours because our sites prefer how it works.
Patron loads include recent efforts for LCTCS Banner extracts
Business intelligence: Stats on LOUIS web site. Provide an example of financial data from Symphony
Record editing: examples
The LOUIS “forgot my PIN” function existed well before SD created one. And we still use ours because our sites prefer how it works.
Patron loads include recent efforts for LCTCS Banner extracts
Business intelligence: Stats on LOUIS web site. Provide an example of financial data from Symphony
Record editing: examples
John just explained the various ways we save your work and one of those ways is we sync the data to hotsite every night. That piece is extremely important because it allows us to have immediate access to your data in case we need to use it for a disaster recovery.
This backup scenario became important after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. That is when we really became aware that LOUIS needed a formal Disaster Recovery plan in place and that plan needed to be tested. The plan was created by the LOUIS team with input from our AIX and DNS server admins. Right now we are on target to conduct a DR test every other year. Our last two tests have been successful. The process is mapped out in great detail and each team member keeps copies of the documentation at home in case the physical LOUIS office is unavailable. We are able to move the contents of the entire production server to the hotsite server located at LaTech. The complete migration to the hotsite server, in a controlled disaster, only takes 2-3 hours. Thankfully we haven’t had to test it in an “uncontrolled,” or true disaster environment, but we are prepared to do so, if the situation arises. The DR becomes important because if a disaster affects the southern part of the state, the northern part needs to continue to operate. By having this DR in place it assures that is possible.
As you know, each site has an online catalog, or e-Library. Each site’s catalog is autonomous, unique, and configurable. Your system administrator can control the look and feel of your online catalog including school colors, content that appears on the screen, and custom images or logos. They can do limited customizations themselves in WorkFlows, while the more complex edits are done by the LOUIS team on the server side. We currently have over 200 custom e-Library pages among the LOUIS SirsiDynix sites.
Secure browsing is also offered in your online catalog. Each server has secure certificates installed to ensure protection while patrons use e-Library to manage their library account, pay fines, place holds, and conduct other requests. We recently installed certificates for our current and future BlueCloud products that we will implement in the months to come.
You also use EZproxy which is the access software that your site uses to authenticate against your electronic resources. It’s middleware that allows users to gain secure remote access to the web-based, licensed content they discover in libraries. Currently 9 sites are hosted at OCLC, 21 administer their own EZproxy servers and 4 are hosted with LOUIS. Our goal is to eventually have all sites either hosted through OCLC or running EZproxy on their own campus. LOUIS, however, will still administer the site’s authentication scripts that use the SirisDynix user file and the authentication web pages.
What should your site do if you have a question or problem with a LOUIS initiative? As you heard many times today, just open a Footprints. FootPrints is an easy-to-use problem reporting tool that the LOUIS staff uses to investigate questions and issues that arise with LOUIS members. Two people associated with each of the 3 initiatives at each institution have a FP ID. The initiatives are: Electronic Resources, ILLiad, and SirsiDynix. We strive to stay efficient by funneling all issues from a minimal number of contacts at a site. During work hours, we will “grab” and respond to a footprint within one hour of submission. We have escalations rules in place within the software to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Since we implemented FP in 2008, approximately 8000 footprints have been submitted by LOUIS Members.
Included in the FootPrints software package is our solution center or Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base is where the LOUIS team documents common day to day functions that may help a System Administrator prior to having to open a FootPrints. You will notice that the LOUIS Staff Info category has many more documents than any other category. This is because we also keep internal documentation here, separate from what the other FootPrints accounts can access.
The LOUIS Team also see ourselves as Advocates for your user base. Our support for your library assists your library staff in supporting your users.
We have been talking about primarily Symphony but another key part of the LSP is EBSCO Discovery Service – EDS. There are many ways LOUIS directly helps you help the student. Two examples are our custom scripts and our team work with EBSCO on enhancements.
Bringing Symphony functions into EDS – examples are My Account and Reserves.
These services are examples of the way we indirectly assist in keeping your resources available to students on and off campus.
Loading, removing, and updating files of records can take many staff hours. LOUIS can help you with these issues.
The LOUIS staff monitors lists, blogs, and websites to keep up with technology trends and issues.
The LOUIS Team has developed and/or implemented outreach programs that support our library services platform. These programs are developed from ideas generated in our weekly team meetings and from recommendations made to us from the membership through the task forces and interest groups.
Homegrown webinar series that covers a broad range of topics
Extremely popular among our membership as a learning/training opportunity, but also as a means of presenting/sharing their work and interests.
The webinars are recorded and saved for members to watch or review in the future.
We’re always looking for topics & volunteers!
~~~~~~~~~~
Topics covered include embedded librarianship, inventory, Googling tips, EDS, trouble tickets, GPO, ILL, SirsiDynix Mentor, Symphony WorkFlows & eLibrary, Ezproxy, SACSCOC reaffirmation, MarcEdit, & LibGuides.
1 in the works but no ETA: MobileCirc in Use.
Suggested topics include more inventory practices, primary sources searches, gathering & using usage statistics, booking rooms & equipment, library reorganization projects, highlighting new resources, student worker training, library intranets, & project management.
The LOUIS Team negotiated a subscription for the ILS’s eLearning courses, which is also popular among the membership that uses Symphony WorkFlows.
As you can see from the graph, cataloging courses have proven to be the most popular – particularly those courses on batch bib loads.
Our $1,000 Mentor subscription has allowed our sites to take training that would cost $9,000 a la carte.
The LOUIS Team helps facilitate vendor-led trainings outside of Learning with LOUIS.
Sometimes this involves us simply forwarding an invitation sent to us by the vendor. These invitations are primarily shared on the discussion lists.
Sometimes it involves us initiating a conversation with a vendor regarding a specific need identified within the membership to construct a targeted training.
We evaluate the conference every year to see what works & what doesn’t.
New this year – unconference sessions, an on-the-spot meeting scheduler, and a business consultant to chat with.
We hope to see you at the conference next week!
LOUIS is sponsoring the Academic/ACRL Meet & Greet at LLA 2015.
LOUIS is a proud supporter of LLA Legislature Day. This year we provided copies of our brochure and instructions on accessing the Participation Summary Reports in the packets given out to lawmakers. Two team members also attended LLA Legislature Day 2014 at the State Capitol.
We have registered for a booth at the 2014 Louisiana Book Festival, where we will be …
The LOUIS Team was pleased to participate in the LSU Libraries Open House in February 2014. We sponsored the candy guessing games situated through the library. And we had fun quizzing the students that stopped by the LOUIS station on what LOUIS is and giving away T-shirts to those with the best answer. We will be participating at their next one in a couple of weeks.
Quote available at http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/Projects/youth/llivesay/librarymarketing.html
Discussion List Webpage:
Information about lists.
Subscribe to lists.
Unsubscribe from lists.
Post etiquette.
Form to submit list commands such as Review, Search, Change Email, Help, etc.
Instructions on accessing web interface.
Web Interface:
Best method for searching list archives.
Manage subscriptions.
Post to lists.
Published electronically each quarter. Distributed via the discussion lists, but partners can subscribe directly, if they do not subscribe to the lists.
Content includes Conference Takeaways/Updates
New Library Services, Projects, and/or Programs
New Library Technologies
Task Force Updates
Interest Group Updates
Library-related Events
We want this to be an avenue for all our partners to publish information to the consortium, not just the LOUIS team.
Submission dates are available on the LOUIS calendar; publication dates are available on the newsletter webpage.
Public face of our organization – often the first impression non-members have of us
Keeps our partners informed – the most valuable reference source for all things LOUIS
Ensure relevancy & usefulness of website:
Keep design fresh
Keep content meaningful
Keep content current
Recent updates include:
Links to FootPrints & Knowledge Base moved to Quick Links
Calendar display changed
New contact directory published
Post etiquette added to Discussion Lists page
Site Visits page revised
Images & icons standardized to minimize & streamline design
Twitter feed added
Participation Summaries updated
In addition to pages already mentioned in the presentation, here are some other important pages you should be aware of.
Viable communications & public relations tool
Presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Wikipedia entry in development
Investigating other social media networks, such as Tumblr, Instagram, & SlideShare
Managing presence can be time consuming
Online tools available to help
www.Bufferapp.com – website & mobile app that links our three primary accounts and allows us to prioritize & schedule updates