Minutes May 21, 2021

Michelle Eichelberger (SUNY)
Michelle Eichelberger (SUNY)
Last updated 
SUNY Discovery Working Group meeting, 5/21/2021, 1:00 pm, via Zoom

Participants: Nancy (chairing/notes), Amanda, Heidi, Jen, Jessica, Jill, Michelle, Pam  

AGENDA
  • Minutes of the last (March 19) meeting were approved for public posting on the SLC Discovery WG page.
    • Michelle noted that current minutes from all SUNY working groups are being aggregated on a new page -- a new way that she is helping to make all the minutes more visible.
    • Michelle also demonstrated how to add links to the top of a list within LibGuides, so that it's easier to keep new entries at the top (thanks, Michelle!)
  • SUNY Primo VE Satisfaction Survey
    Shannon has asked the WG to consider options for a Primo VE satisfaction survey, in response to requests from colleagues in SUNY.  
    • The group discussed the need to clearly define a goal for any such survey, as well as the audience. 
    • There seems to be interest in gathering feedback from end users, but each campus has made unique enhancements to their own Primo VE implementation, and it would be very difficult for one survey to appropriately serve all campuses. Rules about surveying and how they can be distributed also vary widely across campuses. So in terms of an end user survey, the group might research and share suggestions for creating local surveys, but it seems unfeasible for SUNY to administer such an instrument.
    •  Another possible audience for a satisfaction survey is colleagues: what satisfaction would SUNY library colleagues report? This might be a more appropriate group for the SLS to address directly through a survey tool. The goal of this survey would be both to gain information about training needs and to identify pain points. The survey could be open to everyone, requesting that participants identify their campus and their role.
    • A challenge: if you survey, will anyone respond?
      Some group members have tried to survey users about their satisfaction with Primo VE, but they have received very little response. Staff surveys may produce greater responses for some campuses, but others have also received very little response from staff.
    • A challenge: should you ask questions about things if you can't change the outcome?
    •  Some suggestions for inspiration:
      • SUNYLA presentation
      • Individual campus surveys -
        Heidi shared some questions from the basic user survey she used in Primo VE:
        How would you rate the system's ease of use? 
        Please rate your satisfaction with your Primo experience. 
        What do you like?
        What needs improvement?          
        Other Comments
    • Michelle reported that Esta is currently working on a UX project to share best practices, which may include both usability and user satisfaction practices.  So some issues may be addressed by Esta's ongoing work.
    • Next steps: the group agreed that a SUNY staff-oriented survey would be the best route to investigate first. Michelle will put together some ideas and share with the group for feedback.
  • Upcoming Ex Libris early access group: Quicklinks 
    The group discussed the pros and cons of volunteering for an early access test group for the new Quicklinks functionality. We would not want to volunteer all SUNY campuses to test, and are concerned that group participation might have an impact consortia-wide -- so we actually would not necessarily want to volunteer as a group. If Ex Libris is seeking individual campus volunteers, some may be interested -- but we would still wonder about the impact of the consortial environment and IZ/NZ resources. We're also curious/concerned to find if the links are enabled at the view or system-wide level. So in short: early access is not advised for SUNY nor the WG, but it would be tentatively supported for interested individuals in SUNY.
  • Feedback on recent releases
    • May - Search history: logged in users can save search history between browser sessions and opt to delete; Jen is going to test.
    • March - Related Link for Series Added Fields 80X-83X: Nancy noted that UB catalogers have found this to be something less than desirable and not quite as expected; we thought it might allow for hyperlinking between works within a series (since series searching is essentially broken in Primo VE at present, with series mapping to title), but instead it adds "Related Record" entries in the Get It area based on a parent title record that includes an ISSN within the 8XX field -- which is to say, essentially a journal record along with individual component records. It does not serve the UB use cases; YMMV.
  • Discussion of upcoming releases
    • June: New pagination is coming!  We'll be able to test in Sandbox after May 24. By default the new pagination is not enabled; it is configured at the system level -  Discovery Customer Settings mapping table (Configuration Menu > Discovery > Other > Customer Settings) 
  • Issues?
    • How are campuses alerting users to the upcoming downtime for Data Migration?
      • Michelle has shared info, including links to Ex Libris documents, in Workplace
      • Suggestions for message platforms from the group include: Blackboard, email to faculty, highlight of LibKey Nomad and Libkey.io; campus news and other publications; library website; campus intranet. Announcements are going out the week before, hoping to prepare users for the down time.
      • Note that the migration impact is worldwide.
    • General info of interest: Ex Libris seems to be requiring new campuses/consortia to use Easy Active settings instead of Fully Flexible, so they may no longer be allowing Fully Flexible. We have not yet heard anything about campuses on Fully Flexible having to make any changes.
    • Maps in Primo VE: 
    • Problems with ScienceDirect LibKey Link OpenURL - Pam reported that the base OpenURL value for LibKey that she is using in ScienceDirect is missing citation info. Jen confirmed that Cortland is also having problems with this. Heidi and Nancy both confirmed that their links are working ok; Upstate is using LibKey and UB is actually using Alma link resolver.  
      To do: Heidi will share Upstate's URL for comparison.