From Server to the Cloud: Sharing Our Alma Experiences Post-Migration

Abstract

The goal of our presentation is to share some of our knowledge and experiences learned from transitioning to a cloud based system. Our Alma Implementation Team has continued to meet weekly since migration in order to expand our understanding of Alma and improve configuration, and workflow for areas such as fulfillment, resource management, acquisition, and administration. Our presentation will focus on challenges and accomplishments post-migration, including areas such as user authentication, user permissions, work orders, printing, working with local and consortial e-resources, proxy configuration, addressing ongoing frequent updates to the functionality, and more.

The University of California, Santa Barbara (USCB) Library went live with Alma on July 3rd, 2017. Our pre-migration process began with the formation of the Alma Implementation Team, which was given six months to work with our appointed Ex Libris project team following an outlined task list. Once we were live in Alma, our team members who had become Alma certified began learning more about areas we still needed to configure, things that worked differently in Alma compared to Aleph. Our priority for go-live was User Authentication and Fulfillment -- making certain our patrons could check out materials. This, we achieved. Our post-migration successes began with a rigorous review of our policies and procedures. This is an ongoing process and an ongoing learning process.