Minutes 7/19/19

SUNY needs to gather use cases from individual institutions. Ex Libris has suggested that the speed problems we documented during test have been fixed and are now “good enough,” attributing lags and other speed problems to individual configuration issues. So it’s vital that as a consortium we document and address all these issues as thoroughly and with as much detail as possible.
 As a general rule, speed performance across SUNY Primo instances does seem to have improved somewhat since test – but it is still not overall good.
 Heidi has documented many problems with speed at Upstate.

Direct linking is still very laggy.

Michelle is testing across SUNY instances.

We may be witnessing a lull not so much in problems but in reporting, since some SUNY campuses are still using Aleph and other SUNY campuses have fewer power user researchers during the summer.

Question: what benchmarks should be we using for evaluation? What should we consider “good enough”?
 Answer: if it doesn’t seem good enough to us, then it isn’t. If it seems laggy, we should document.

There are also lots of other weird issues with Primo, things that should be working in the systems, per documentation and Ex Libris information, but they just don’t. There are also notable delays with indexing and records – both Alma and PCI -- appearing in Primo results.

Shannon requests that we document problems, gather examples, and ask Ex Libris to present on them.
 The Working Group will assist in a comprehensive approach to problem identification and resolution by monitoring Basecamp for issues and encourage individuals to open tickets; Michelle will also open tickets when required.  Some of these issues may come back to the Working Group for follow-up and future development.

Shannon, Heidi, Erin, and Michelle participate in monthly Ex Libris administrative meetings, at which they can request attention to problems, which will be reported back to the WG (and to SUNY).

 

2.     Committee membership
The Working Group has an opening for a new member and has sought a representative from the community colleges.  We received two excellent nominees. The members of the group agree that adding two members would be beneficial and the membership would not be too large to be efficient, so both individuals will be invited to join (welcome!).

 

Shannon will arrange a meeting between the consultant and the working group. The group needs to determine who should have ownership of the Discovery FAQs:

·       Working Group?

·       An individual?

·       SUNY Central?

Michelle would appreciate it if someone else could take over the FAQs. Heidi is willing to assist but probably won’t have time to do so until after September. 
 The group is interested in the consultant’s recommendations, but Shannon notes that we need to let her know what we want.

4.     Ongoing support for SUNY discovery issues after Ex Libris Basecamp goes away
Shannon confirms that SUNY is working on a platform to enable continued SUNY-wide communication and support on LSP issues. There will be a survey on this topic soon. The SLC Advisory Board is being encouraged to guide discussions.

The role of SUNY central staff will need to change. Throughout the test and implementation period, many institutions have come to rely on central staffers for very individualized support; going forward, individualized support will need to be established at the campus level or via more official extended support arrangements. Central staff needs to be able to focus less on providing individual support and more on a comprehensive approach to SUNY-wide issues.
 The sort of informal support structure that SUNY colleagues have shared via brainstorming and crowd-sourcing on Basecamp and Slack will therefore be even more important. The working group will continue to contribute to and hopes to strengthen this model.

 

5.     Next meeting date: neither Erin nor Nancy can attend the next regularly scheduled meeting (August 2). Our next meeting will therefore be Friday, August 16, at 2:00 pm.