Discovery Services Area Reports
- Cari Davis
August 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. 37 service desk support tickets were closed in August.
The search for Associate Dean for Research & Academic Success has kicked into full gear. We reviewed 27 candidates, narrowed it down to 9 that we wanted to hold Zoom interviews with. Those interviews took place in August, and we will be inviting our top 4 candidates to campus for a second round of interviews.
Cari worked with Michael Malahy on getting Primo authentication moved from CAS to SAML.
Cari has started working with Michael Malahy on moving EZProxy authentication to SAML. This work is still in progress.
Price College has expressed interest in getting their own laptop vending machine and we met as a group to discuss their requirements. We have gotten the Dean’s approval and have written an MOU.
We have been meeting with DGI to finalize metadata requirements. They are configuring our new Islandora instance now. We are also working on project planning for the next phase of work.
Cari met with Fred, Jaymie and Sara to work through the pros/cons of moving our Databases A-Z list away from Drupal to either LibGuides or Discover. More work on this will happen once Magen returns from her leave.
A considerable Zasio database overhaul was necessary this month. For the last 5 years, every time we ingested items at the LSC a new ingestID column was created in the master Records table in the database. There have been just shy of 1,000 ingests done since we opened the LSC. Well, we finally maxed out on the number of columns in the Records table. Not sure why the database was set up this way, but Cari determined that this data isn’t necessary. Every ingestID column was manually removed from the database. All ingest queries were also updated to remove the code that creates this column during ingest.
July 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. 43 service desk support tickets were closed in July.
Logan Thompson has officially joined Discovery Services as of July 13th! Hooray!!
It was decided that we would sunset the “Request Digitization” services that has been available for print-only theses and dissertations. Work was done to disable the request links in Discover.
Cari created a LibGuide that lists different direct URLs for: Discover, Local Catalog, Journal Search, and each specialized search scope. It’s part of the larger Discover Search Widgets guide. I shared it with WAWG (in the Slack thread where Magen asked about it) and added it in Confluence and Jira for quick access.
Work has started to move Primo authentication from CAS to SAML. We are currently working on this in the Primo sandbox.
Logan T. has completed and shared the first iteration of the new Islandora Metadata Dictionary!!!
Price College has expressed interest in getting their own laptop vending machine and we met as a group to discuss their requirements.
Logan T. is working with Fred on minimum viable metadata record for SHAREOK.
We have been meeting with Discover Garden Inc to discuss metadata requirements in preparation for the Islandora migration.
June 2024
Created a CLTA request form for use in Discover. It’s used to request an appointment to view an item in the Chinese Language Translation Archive. This form passes bibliographic parameters like the request forms used for ILL, SoonerXpress, WHC, HOS, etc…
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 55 service desk support tickets in June.
I completed an Alma user cleanup project. There were many manually created internal users accounts that needed to be updated. The number of rejected users requiring cleanup is declining. There were only 2 this month. I hope this trend continues!
I completed EZProxy configurations to prep for EBSCOhost platform move on June 1st
I moved all of my project work out of the DAD Jira projects board into either the DSI Projects board or into the DAD Jira Service Desk. The DAD Jira project board has been deleted. I have updated all of my automations to run in the service desk and rewritten all of my filters for reporting and stats.
I improved on the Discovery Services Help.Libraries page. I have added a link for reporting e-Resource problems. This form points to the acquisitions e-resource reporting form. This used to just exist as a banner at the top of the page and was frequently ignored. Hopefully, this change helps. Also hoping that removing the #techplatforms channel is Slack will help. E-resource problems are still being reported to LTP, even though that has been incorrect for many years now. ARGH.
I have completed the Open Access project! I have created an Open Access top level filter to our local catalog, like the one that already exists in Discover. Users can now limit to Open Access resources when they do a search in the local catalog. With Fred’s help, Open Access indicators are now visible on local open access records in all search scopes in the catalog. This feature already exists in our Discover catalog for records provided by ExLibris but hadn’t been set up for local records.
Worked with Logan Thompson to create a Confluence page that highlights the work we’ve both done to promote Open Access resources for Sarah Robbins.
May 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 33 service desk support tickets in May.
I manually created 6 Alma user accounts that were rejected due to recycled 4x4s, changed barcodes, or missing first names.
I completed EZProxy configurations to prep for EBSCOhost platform move on June 1st
New materials were added to two Featured Collections (Study Materials: Physics and Astronomy Qualifying Exam and Learning Lab Popular Reading)
Spent a day at OU Tulsa to help them set up Featured Collections in their Norman catalog
I moved all of my project work out of the DAD Jira projects board into either the DSI Projects board or into the DAD Jira Service Desk. The DAD Jira project board has been deleted. I have updated all of my automations to run in the service desk, and rewritten all of my filters for reporting and stats.
I improved on the Discovery Services Help.Libraries page. I have added a link for reporting e-Resource problems. This form points to the acquisitions e-resource reporting form. This used to just exist as a banner at the top of the page, and was frequently ignored. Hopefully, this change helps.
Work has started on adding Open Access indicators and filtering in our local catalog. This feature already exists in our Discover catalog, but hasn’t been set up for local records. Open Access indicators have now been added to 20,000+ local records that already had the appropriate MARC tagging (508 $f.) I will be working with Fred and Sara to find the remaining records that need appropriate MARC tagging. Once we have a workflow in place to identify and tag these records, I will be adding an Open Access top filter to our local catalog.
Two new OJS journals to set up for harvest in Discover
Several improvements have been made to OJS records. I’ve added Collection name (OU Libraries Published Journals) to full display and to Collection facet display. Report a Problem links now display in the records. Open Access indicators have been added to the brief record. Collection name and journal acronyms now searchable. Journal logos/covers have been added as thumbnails, instead of the generic icons when no cover art is available.
April 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 32 service desk support tickets in April.
I manually created 8 Alma user accounts that were rejected due to recycled 4x4s, changed barcodes, or missing first names.
I launched the new Special Research Collections search scope in Discover. It searches all Special Research Collections locations across five Alma libraries (WHC, HOS, Bizzell, SRC in Bizzell, and Storage) and Digital Collections records in the local catalog. ArchivesSpace and Islandora aren’t searched directly, but catalog records point back to the respective platforms. Right now, only some of the Digital Collections (Oklahoma School of the Air Radio Show, History of Science, Nichols Rare Books, and Bass Business History) are represented in our local catalog. The Islandora content migration and platform hosting projects are preventing me from harvesting the rest at this time. Once those projects are completed, I will be able to harvest the remaining collections (Indians for Indians Radio Show, American School, and Bizzell Bible Collection, etc.…) This will probably happen next year.
I have finally disabled Quick Links feature in Discover. ExLibris enabled this feature for some vendors, and it doesn’t always work, but we had no way to disable it or fix it until the most recent update was applied on our system this month. Hooray!! Now, all electronic resource records are accessed in the same way, through targets displayed in the View it section of the record. We have control over when/how these display.
I created what I’d like to see in a new site map, based on our hierarchy of user needs, for the Website Working Advisory Group.
March 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 37 service desk support tickets in March. This was a short month due to extended illness, Spring Break, and vacation.
Continued work on Special Research Collections search scope in Discover. Will launch in production in April.
Overhauled Discover Search Widgets page in LibGuides and added link to it on DS Confluence space and added it as an option on my service desk.
Overhauled Citation feature in Discover. Needed to be switched from EasyBib to CSL. EasyBib no longer supported by ExLibris.
Facilitated product enhancements voting for Alma and Discover. Didn’t get good participation for this round but submitted what I got.
There has been an uptick in the number of rejected Alma user accounts that require manual intervention and clean-up, this year. (all of 2023: 12, January: 4, February: 25: March: 14) These are accounts that come over from OU IT with recycled 4x4s or without a first name which is required for Alma accounts. When they aren’t loaded in the nightly feed, I have to research them and then create them manually in Alma.
Dealt with a very large outage in Discover, that appears to be the result of a release update. Several of our openURL/Delivery configurations were bounced. This outage also impacted OU Tulsa and the law library. I was able to resolve the internal catalog linking issues by looking for settings that stood out as being incorrect. I was not able to resolve the issue of external resources not being able to link back to the catalog. ExLibris was not very helpful/responsive, but the problem was finally resolved the following day.
Added a link to the Tags feature on the homepage in Discover so users can easily access tags that have been added to Discover records. This feature is visible to everyone, but you must be logged in to add tags. This feature has been available all along but was never asked about until now. There was no landing page to view tags or search for tags, making it kind of meaningless.
ILLiad migration meant updating patron item request linking in Discover, Lean Library and Reprints Desk.
Launched new request processing for Special Research Collections in Bizzell as the WHC remediation project comes to an end and items are now available to be requested from a new Alma library and physical location.
February 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 66 service desk support tickets in February.
Came to campus for a special Web Advisory Working Group meeting where we discussed a new direction for the site, with a focus on new-to-OU users, and the things that are most needed from that perspective.
Started work on a new Special Research Collections (SRC) search scope in Discover. This will allow users to search for SRC holdings across 5 different libraries (WHC, HOS, Bizzell, SRC in Bizzell, and Storage) while we work to consolidate libraries/locations in Alma.
Dealt with campus IT over two different vendors (iEEE and Taylor & Francis) blocking 3 different campus IPs as a result of misuse. It took much longer than it should have to get their assistance, but it was completely resolved after just over two weeks.
Worked with Stacks Management and SRC staff on new request procedures now that items are being moved into BL401A.
Started working on new ILL/SoonerXpress request linking from Discover, in preparation for ILLiad migration.
Gathered information about potential Reading List software that integrates with Discover and Canvas.
Created new Learning Lab Popular Reading featured collection that will be get updated monthly.
Created custom linking configurations for Norman Transcript and NYTimes in Lean Library, to guide users to the appropriate URLs if they aren’t coming from our website.
Did a significant amount of Alma rejected user clean up as a result of changes that IT made in their system on Dec. 6th. 4x4s got reassigned for expired users, which is causing problems when they reuse the previously assigned 4x4 for new users. Ugh. I manually created/corrected 25 user accounts this month.
January 2024
Administration and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 60 service desk support tickets in January.
Reworked Alma and Primo Analytics for monthly, quarterly, and annual stats. Also created new dashboards in Alma and Primo, to highlight usage stats in one place.
Updated Discovery Services Confluence space and changed layout.
Created Central Discovery Index report so public services can see which e-resource collections are searchable in Discover. Sharing that report as a link on unit Confluence page. Working on other possible options for sharing.
Spent a significant amount of time examining other libraries’ websites and rethinking our site map for the Web Advisory Working Group (WAWG). We are having a special in-person meeting to discuss this in early February.
Worked with Acquisitions to set up 6 different database trials kicking off in February and running through April.
Gathered up details regarding Alma/Discover integrations with ILLiad to prepare for ILLiad migration.
Made updates to Discover Featured Collections for two Past Exhibits (Newbery Award Winners and Oklahoma Women Warriors.)
Created two email forms to use when responding to EZProxy throttle blocks and NYTimes access emails. They are numerous and time-consuming.
Completed self-evaluation and updated 2024 goals draft.
December 2023
I continue to administer and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 19 service desk support tickets in December.
Jenny asked for a giant Jazz Hands report, detailing box numbers and box locations, so they can pull and do an arsenic check on 4 thousand pre-1900 items. That was fun!
Drafted 2024 goals and started entering them into Cornerstone.
The rest of the month was spent doing housekeeping, tying up loose ends, and thinking through 2024 project work.
November 2023
I continue to administer and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library. I closed 31 support tickets in November.
Improvements made to user facing EZProxy error message and to the EZProxy Error webform used to report these errors. We noticed that host information was no longer being passed through the webform and users weren’t responding when we asked for more details. I updated EZProxy needhost.htm to make it easier to read, to add the URL as a parameter, and added a link to NYTimes access instructions. (Half of the problems reported using this form are NYTimes related.) I also updated EZProxy Error webform (Dev and Prod) to include “Missing Host” and “URL”, so we have the necessary information for troubleshooting when these problems are reported.
I generated a report of all EZProxy host error submissions that came through with no host details from the webform, so I could make the necessary configuration corrections. Only one user actually responded when we asked for information, only to tell us that they didn’t remember what they were trying to access. *le sigh*
I made improvements to the display of Braille materials and search functionality in Discover.
I provided templates for all Alma user notifications, so Jenny can use them as a guideline for creating new ILL notifications. She would like them to be a close match. I see edits to Alma notifications in my near future.
I’ve created new analytics to collect usage stats for Featured Collections (Primo analytics) and Technology Lending in Bizzell (Alma analytics.) I made updates to reporting/scheduling of monthly stats for Circulation. Report now includes current and previous year’s stats, so I won’t have to manually send December stats each January.
Completed annual Fire Safety Training.
Offered up ideas about refining “Finding Resources” layout for Web Advisory Working Group (WAWG) after meeting with consultants during WAWG meeting.
Realized I haven’t been reporting out the number of monthly support tickets closed since they are moved from my service desk to my project board, so I ran those numbers and added them to all previous months’ area reports for the year. Set up Jira reports so those numbers will be readily available each month and annually, so I can easily report them out moving forward.
Drove to Norman for DSI Retreat, and I am so grateful for the in-person team-building time with everyone.
Entered 2023 goals into Cornerstone and started thinking through 2024 goals.
October 2023
Work that was out of scope for a project initiated by KRS, has now been completed. “Unlimited Access e-Books” has been added to the top-level facet options in Discover. I also updated how that top-level facet functions, while I was doing this work. The options used to be fixed and now they display according to size.
The DSI Common Read of Crucial Conversations has been completed. Hooray!
WHC requested that I add a link to the archival collection finding aids (the ArchivesSpace record) in the brief record in Discover. This will signal users that a finding aid is available without them having to open the full record. It also gives users an additional access point to the Archives Space record, with less clicking.
More work has been done to automate menial tasks in Jira, so that I don’t have to touch things so many times.
Created a special Alma query for Kelly to use on Grad-Honors billing issues, should they crop up. We’ve had continued fallout for a change made to Alma user groups, because IT implemented a change without giving us a heads up, several months ago.
Created a new user profile for the Special Research Collection in Bizzell library/circ desk. These permissions have been assigned to all WHC, HOS, and Storage staff. We are now using the new American School locations and will start using the new Chinese Literature Translation Archive locations soon.
I’ve started working on the EZProxy config.txt file again, as time allows.
Completed lengthy cyber-security and harassment/discrimination training.
I continue to administer and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library.
September 2023
Completed a project for KRS, creating an “Unlimited Access e-Books” search scope in Discover. I created two Discover search widgets that can be used on LibGuides, websites, etc... Will be adding a “Limit to” facet of the same name in Discover, in October. This work was requested after the project scope was approved.
The DSI Common Read of Crucial Conversations continued.
Spent a lot of time reading the enormous Usability & Experience Audit Report shared with the Web Advisory Working Group (WAWG).
Worked on a report of Alma duties that need to be delegated to a different unit.
Met with Fred to discuss reworking how we display LC Subject Headings in Discover. I then suppressed “related” subject headings from view and have plans to create a new “Related Subject Headings” field that will display separately in the full Discover record. It’s a VERY complicated configuration, so I’m taking my time on it. “Related” subject headings are still visible in the Subject Browse search in Discover in the meantime.
Spent a significant amount of time examining the Technology Lending website and a spreadsheet provided by Kelly, after noticing hundreds of records in the catalog that should’ve been suppressed. I discussed procedures with Magen and Kelly and we agreed that it would be best to create a Technology Lending location for these items in Alma and then make sure that they are suppressed from view in Discover. I then created sets and worked with Fred to ensure that the items were moved to the new location and suppressed.
I continue to administer and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library.
August 2023
Laptop vending machine was installed.
Transitioned back to being a team of one.
Worked with Michael and Jenny to map out a new library/location structure for Special Research Collections locations in Bizzell. The library is called “Special Research Collections in Bizzell”. We have created new locations for WHC Manuscripts that will live in BL401A and for the American School Drawing and Manuscripts. We are also working through consolidating the five Chinese Literature and Translation Archive locations currently in Bizzell, into one CLTA location in the SRC in Bizzell library. Eventually, all SRC in Bizzell will be moved to this new SRC library.
Lots of Primo clean-up and customization work for Discover resource types. Added “databases,” “magazines”, and “magazine articles” as options in the Resource Type facet in Discover. These are new resource types that weren’t previously represented. Resolved duelling duplicate “Videos” and “Audio” Discover Resource Type facet values in Discover. Improved on “photographs”, “archives”, “government documents”, and “videos” resource type normalization rules for more accurate display in Discover.
Made changes so journal coverage dates are visible in Discover brief records.
User group configuration changes were made for undergraduate honors students and graduate students in Alma. The OU IT student information system integration changed, and this necessitated changes to fulfilment configurations. Undergraduate honors students used to come into Alma as graduate students. They now come into Alma as undergraduates. This will allow for better control of privileges that should be restricted to graduate students for Zarrow and Article Galaxy.
The DSI Common Read of Crucial Conversations is underway!
Chinese Literature Translation Archive featured collection and Foreign Language Films featured collection have been created.
Created a customized Report a Problem link for Islandora records in Discover. Right now, emails will come to liberesource@ou.edu, eventually shift to DCD email alias.
Mapped out DSpace harvest pipes and normalization sets in preparation for future project to customize ShareOK repository and Open Access Journals records in Discover. Configured the display of “OU Libraries Open Access Journals” Collection details for our OA journals in ShareOK.
Totally reworked the Discovery Services Jira project board to match DSI board. Linked all my epics to my DSI projects so it will always be possible to see the status of my work on those projects.
Continue to administer and support: Discover, EZProxy, Alma, Zasio, and Lean Library.
July 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library.
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
We launched a new “Textbooks” search scope in Discover. This is where students can go to find course reserves materials.
Carl Albert Center Library set up in Alma.
Lots of updates to webforms in Alma, Discover, and EZProxy to coincide with website launch.
Updated Discover HTML page to coincide with website launch.
We prepped for shift to new Alma Analytics UI in August.
History of Science, Nichols Rare Books, and Bass Business History collections in Islandora have all be harvested and are now available in Discover.
A custom “Report a Problem” link has been created and added to Islandora/Digital Collections records in Discover.
Started Primo publishing pipe overhaul remove outdated pipes.
Cassondra took a new position in DCD.
June 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library.
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
Cassondra is still conducting office hours at Bizzell twice a week. She is using an office near the liaison librarians, Room 239.
Cari completed cleanup work on 600+ Courses and 700+ Reading Lists in Alma and added Fall 2023 Courses to Alma in preparation for relaunching the “Course Reserves” search scope in Discover.
Cari launched new resource type icons in Discover.
Cari finished customizing beta webforms used in Discover in preparation for the new website launch.
Cari is working with Jenny to delete unused locations in Alma.
Cassondra continues to develop training sessions and LibGuides for public services staff.
Cassondra created new LibGuide widgets for specific Discover search scopes: Law, ShareOK, Course Reserves and Textbooks on Reserve.
May 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library.
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
We have both completed our SMART Goals and they have been approved.
Cari worked with MaryAnn to develop new resource type icons for Discover.
Cassondra continues weekly office hours at Bizzell. She is using an office near the liaison librarians, Room 239.
Cassondra is working closely with circulation staff to update Course Reserves and Textbooks configurations and workflows in Alma.
Cari has done additional configuration work to Textbooks and Course Reserves scopes in Discover Test view.
Cassondra continues to develop training sessions and LibGuides for public services staff.
Cari has reworked the Discovery Services beta website to prepare for launch.
Cari completed Alma location and fulfillment configurations for laptop vending machine project
Cari has been troubleshooting beta webforms that are linked to from Discover to facilitate ILL/SoonerXpress, SRC requests, and Report a Problem services.
We have both provided feedback on the Beta Website.
April 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library.
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
Cari was off for two weeks, wandering around Spain & Portugal, so this will be a smaller area report than usual.
Cari made corrections to Primo CSS to make “My Account” and “Sign in” areas visible w/o mouseover after ExLibris updates broke our original CSS customizations.
Cassondra continues to hold office hours at Bizzell once a week. She is using an office near the liaison librarians, Room 239.
Cassondra has completed work with Bizzell and the branches, simplifying their Alma calendar configurations
Cassondra has been gathering Alma training materials for various positions in circulation
We have just completed an Alma RSS clean-up project and will be working to develop a new request workflow
Cari started making location and fulfillment configurations for laptop vending machine project
Cari has been working on the lexicon as part of the Web Advisory Working Group
Cari completely overhauled the CSS in our Primo test view, so it is now an exact match to our production environment.
We both provided several rounds of feedback on the Alpha Website
March 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library.
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
Cassondra has finished setting up a special Alma workflow for Exhibits processing, using an internal work order feature. She is going to work with James and Jen to make sure the process is fully documented.
Cari has recently assisted with the setup of a trial for several LibKey products. The first piece is the LibKey Nomad browser extension which functions much like LeanLibrary, providing links back to the catalog from vendor websites. Cari has created a LibKey Discovery Trial View of Discover (with a wee JS assist from Fred.) Cari worked with Sara Huber to get LibKey Link set up in EBSCO and ProQuest databases.
We used the Technology Platform Adoption Framework to process the LibKey Trial request and I think it went pretty well.
Cassondra continues to hold office hours at Bizzell once a week. She is using an office near the liaison librarians, Room 239.
Cari has completed several Primo improvements. The last quarterly update included a new “Barcode Search” advanced search feature and the ability to do a “Starts with” search on Call Numbers, not just Titles. The “Sign In” and “Menu” links are once again visible without mouseover in Discover.
In preparation for reworking Circulation’s Course Reserves Alma work flow, Course Reserves configurations have been completely redone in our Discover Test View. The original settings were built during our Primo implementation before Course Reserves functionality was baked into Primo. We are now using the baked in functionality and the old settings have been removed.
Cari has also created a new “Textbooks” search scope, requested by Circ, in our test view. Work on the Alma changes will happen over the summer with input and assistance from Circ staff.
Cari has set up the Charles M. Russell Center library in Alma. Special display configurations have been made in Primo to point users to the Russell Center to make arrangements to view items. I believe Josh will begin cataloging items soon.
Cassondra is working with Bizzell and the branch libraries to gather information on how they process Course Reserves in preparation for an overhaul of that Alma workflow this summer
Cari has been working on the new lexicon as part of the Web Advisory Working Group
We have both been providing feedback on the Alpha Website
February 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library. Zotero was responsible for the uptick in EZProxy vendor blocks and that situation has been resolved by and update on their end and communication to our users to update software.
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
Cari has finished reworking the Discovery Services Confluence space. Anything that anyone may want to know about us, what we are working on, or plan to work on, is available there.
We are both participating in the Inclusive Metadata TF. Both of us are working on separate smaller teams that are focused on different areas of work. Cari’s team has just finalized their report. Cassondra’s team is still information gathering.
Cassondra has completed new LibGuide that features different Discover search boxes.
Collection Discovery is fully functional and in use! Folks can make a request for a collection using the Discovery Services button at Help.Libraries. Cassondra is planning on doing workshops to help launch this new service. We just met with MaryAnn to get more information about promoting this new service, and to talk about other possible uses.
Cassondra is working with Fred and Circulation staff on improvements to the Course Reserves configurations and workflow.
We are working on setting up a special Alma workflow for Exhibits processing, using an internal work order feature.
Cari’s work harvesting Islandora collections for display in Primo has stalled out until there is time for CID to sort out configurations in Islandora that are preventing a complete harvest of the remaining collections.
We have recently assisted with the setup of a trial for LibKey Nomad browser extension.
Cassondra has resumed office hours at Bizzell once a week. She is using an office near the liaison librarians.
Cari has been working to integrate Trello and Jira. She met with Barb to talk about how the team uses Jira and Trello to track work, time, and project. She is learning some cool new tricks for passing information between Trello and Jira to automate as much work as possible. If anyone is interested in learning more about that please reach out. It’s good stuff.
Cari is almost done configuring the most recent quarterly updates in Discover. Two huge changes are: a new “Barcode Search” advanced search feature and the ability to do a “Starts with” search on Call Numbers, not just Titles. There are also several new My Account and My Favorites features.
Cari has just completed job description standardization for our unit.
January 2023
We continue to do the usual daily triage on problems reported for Discover, EZProxy, and Lean Library. There has been an uptick in EZProxy weirdness. Sounds like Zotero may be causing some pseudo-bot activity
We continue to do the usual daily administrative work in Alma, EZProxy, Lean Library, and Jazz Hands.
Cassondra has completed the new ULGuide: Linking that addresses best practices for linking to resources. Cari is reworking the DS space in Confluence and will be linking to these resources there.
We are both participating in the Inclusive Metadata TF. Cari just turned Team 2’s collaborative document into a draft report. Cassondra’s team is in the information-gathering stage of their work.
Cari and Jenny met with folks from ILL and SRC to hammer out the details of the new workflow for requesting items at the LSC to be brought back to campus. Cari added a link to the SoonerXpress form to internal emails and added a special (somewhat hidden) link to SoonerXpress for Request Only items at the LSC for staff use.
Collection Discovery is fully functional and ready for use! Cari has developed a Jira workflow for placing a Collection request using the Discovery Services button at Help.Libraries. Cassondra is working on a brown bag presentation to help launch this new service. Cassondra has also been clearing out test collections and tightening up internal documentation for this project.
Cari is part of the team planning the big WHC move project. WHC might use Jazz Hands to track the boxes that are going through remediation and being relocated. All feasible options are still being researched.
Cari has been doing work to harvest Islandora collections for display in Primo. Huge thanks to Logan, Barb and Fred for getting the records set up for harvest and including me in the conversation. So exciting!! Oklahoma School of the Air Radio Show is done and visible in Discover. Indians for Indians Radio Show will be next.
Cari has been making improvements to the display of DSpace records in Discover. working with Nick to make sure our OJS harvesting in Primo is current. We need to do a complete delete/reload of SHAREOK and OJS records that are being harvested in Primo, but that will take some time and coordination.
Cassondra has resumed office hours at Bizzell once a week. She is using an office near the liaison librarians.
Cari has done as much prep work and testing as possible for the February release in the Primo Sandbox. Remembering now, why that isn’t the usual practice. Our sandbox doesn’t match our production environment well enough to facilitate configurations or adequate testing most of the time. When the February release is installed in prod, Cari will slowly roll out the configurations during non-work hours. There are a few great features coming with this release. Once they are set up, Cassondra will announce them on the #discover channel in Slack.
Cari has been working with Bobby and Magen’s teams, and Fred, on a special project to improve the display of bone sets that are available for check-out at the Circ desk. Once the records are more complete, Cari will do work to update how these records look in Discover. Hoping this work will launch a clean-up of equipment records that are available for check out and booking at Bizzell and Fine Arts.
Cassondra continues her work on the Advisory Council for Gathering4Gardner and has recently completed an Omeka Archive of the Gift Exchange.