Trip Report: 5th IGeLU Conference, Ghent, 30th August-1st September 2010

The 5th annual meeting of the "International Group of Ex Libris users" (IGeLU) took place in Ghent from 30th August to 1st September 2010. The meeting has been attended by Inga and Irina as well as by Regina Bost and Genet Idossa Kitata from the GWDG. This page summarizes our experiences and findings. Further information can be found via the conference program and the #IGeLU10 twitter stream (archived with twatter).

Summary:

Monday, 30th August 2010

Primo PWG (Product Working Group) Business Meeting

• first PWG, that has been working with NERS
• planned Enhancement Management:

• collection of enhancement request via NERS throughout testing
• voting via NERS 1x/year
• implementation of top voted (e.g. top 10) enhancements at regular intervals not finally agreed with Ex Libris

• Primo at the Österreichische Bibliothekenverbund und Service GmbH (OBVSG)

• Consortium matters (Austria)

• not every Primo functionality is available on a institutional / view level, which causes setup problems, e.g.:
  

• search labels
• selection of fields for hyperlinking
• help files
• "home" should be the views' homepage and not a general one
• statistical reports lack statistics per view (reports per institution available)

• General problems

• in V.2 there is a max of 99 Aleph-items per record in Primo, in V.3 1000 items (Answer ExL: the limit is caused by Aleph)
• requests were deleted automatically after 24 hours, if no request-end-date was given (Answer ExL: bug, fix will be distributed within next SP)
• only LoC Subjects implemented, DDC urgently needed (Answer ExL: DDC is planned, could not give a specific date)
• FRBR: Primo does not distinguish between "expression" and "manifestation"
• Pricing: the price should be calculated based on FTEs and not on catalog size (number of items)

• Primo at the FU Berlin

• V.3 beta test by librarians
• Metalib quicksets had beed implemented smoothly
• unfortunately serveral search options Metalib provided are missing in Primo
• just one personal search set can be saved
• Primo ignores licensing information available via SFX (IP? Login?)

• Primo at the UB Mannheim

• ILL1 functionalities cannot be implemented into Primo
• Update V.2 -> V.3 meant more work than expected: many small bugs

• Customizing Primo ( Aalborg University )

• Public Beta of Primo V.2 was launched 2 weeks ago
• several useful customizations via JQuery, e.g.:

• Button "clear" for search field
• Tooltips: Datails about a Database, Help for a field etc.
• Dynamic display of messages on several pages
• Not posted in El Commons yet, because of beta status; might be added later to ElC

• Why JQuery? Easy to use, much faster than Ex Libris Support

Tuesday, 31st August 2010

URM Update - John Larson, Omri Gerson, Susan Stearns

• completely web-based backend interface
• complete workflow for all kinds of publications will be integrated (print, electronic ([licensed remote resources], digital [e.g. locally digitized material])
• metadata from many sources (format? availbility? priority?) should be available even before the acquisition workflow starts, additional material (e.g. reviews) can be displayed on extra tabs- to support the subject librarian
• shared acquisition functionlities: e.g. a proposal for a new electronic resource can be added and interested institutions post the price percentage they are willing to pay for the resource; notes on the resource/messages to other institutions can be added directly to the item
• a focus in the development of URM lies on the homogenization of workflows for the handling of different material (print, electronic, digital); the workflows of the development partners have been examined closely, synergies were detected and all essential functionalities are integrated into the URM workflow
• another focus is on automization: human interaction is reduced, wherever possible (e.g. an order can be sent directly after an items' status changed to "improval" [dependent on setup]- no participation of an acquisitions librarian is required)
• a workflow for digitization-on-demand is fully integrated (almost similar to the photocopy-workflow in Aleph), the digitized item can be displayed directly as a Primo item, if wanted only visible to the (logged in) user, who posted the request

Primo in Austria - Wolfgang Hamedinger, Viktor Babitchev (OBVSG)

• V.2: 4 views in production (u.a. UB Wien, UB Innsbruck, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien)
• additional sources (apart from Aleph data): two repositories, data from eLearning system Blackboard
• implementation period: one year (originally Ex Libris estimated three months); some reasons for the delay: project management and communication had to be improved, Steering Committee had been installed (too) late, unsatisfactory responses of Ex Libris on bug reports
• Challenges:

Sysadmin:

• analysis of errors and logfiles was difficult due to the lack of proper training or documentation
• data transfer from test to production had been difficult
• tough negotiation with Ex Libris to certify a technichal environment based on virtualization (KVM)- runs smoothly now...

Sysbib:

• parameters for deduplication couldn't be set for a single view/source

Authentification (PDS / Shibboleth):

• no expertise from Ex Libris
• documentation incomplete

Full text index:

• bugs, undocumented implementation specialties
• only direct contact to the Ex Libris Development Team could solve several problems

=>more time, higher costs

• Special Development OBVSG:

• normally Aleph-data is processed from the APM (Aleph Publishing Mechanism) directly to Primo
• due to the data structure in the OBVSG consortium (and the demand of full-text-indexing of the material in the repositories) an additional application layer between APM and Primo was developed by OBVSG: PPS. PPS enriches and changes the data in z00p before passing it on to the Primo pipe. PPS might not be needed by most other Primo customers, because its generic aspects had been integrated by Ex Libris in V.3

• Open issues:

• unsolved problems with Oracle RAC (which was certified by Ex Libris...)

• Staff for ongoing maintenance:

• 2 Sysbibs
• 2 Admins (1 database specialist)
• 1 part-time developer
• during the projekt period more staff is needed (initial setup, implementing standard procedures for the integration of new institutions etc.)

• Outlook:

• migration to V.3
• New Libraries with Primo V.3 (Wien 3.Q. 2010, Graz 4.Q. 2010, Austrian National Library 1.Q. 2011 etc.)
• Replace Web-OPAC
• Integration of all consortium member libraries

• Article of OBVSG-Sysbib Markus Knitel about the OBVSG Primo Installtion: http://www.obvsg.at/fileadmin/files/obvsg/publ/knitel_vm_63_1.pdf

The Early Adopter: Primo Version 3 and Primo Central, Habib Tabatabai

University of Central Oklahoma, Chambers Library: http://library.uco.edu/centralsearch

Lessons learned from the Primo project:

• have a timetable
• document everything you do yourself in Primo
• have always a backup of your data / setup
• be proactive: talk to the audience you are doing this for, talk to Ex Libris
• do not rush to deliver a half baked product
• make sure, that Ex Libris remains involved- all different support-teams of Ex Libris (processing of an SI, which covers several products (e.g. Primo / Aleph) can be very time-consuming)
• communities' mailing list primo_discuss_l had been very helpful

Primo Central hasn't been mentioned at all... (!?!)

Some notes on an informal talk with Mr. Tabatabai:

• Three reasons for a try with Primo Central

• did not mean any extra costs
• Ex Libris returned a coverage of 83% for their journals (ExL refused to provide a list title by title- didn't matter that much to the library...)
• matched the idea of a one-stop-shop / a first entry for the unexperienced user/student

• as far as Primo is not productive yet, no statistics on the usage of Primo Central / the improved visibility of the licensed resources are available

• General thoughts on a product like Primo in a scientific environment:

• results probably not relevant enough
• missing features of specialized databases
• subject index too small

• further questions welcome: htabatabai@uco.edu

Wednesday, 1st September 2010

Metalib & Primo: working side by side: first experiences, Stefan Lohrum

unfortunately I missed this- maybe someone else attended? No, Inga not (even planned to go)

comparison between MetaLib, Primo Central and Primo: http://twitpic.com/2k8le1

Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Göttingen

Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung

Integrated Library System by ExLibris

Service Provider

Display Data Channel

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

Freie Universität Berlin

OpenURL Link Resolver

Internet Protocol

Patron Directory Service

Logging-in system for computer networks

Online Public Access Catalogue