Migrating from Talis to Alma at The University of Manchester Library

Andy LandDigital Systems Manager

Introduction

• The University of Manchester• largest single-site

university in the UK• 40,000 students• 10,000 staff

• The University of Manchester Library• one of only five UK

National Research Libraries

• 11 libraries• 3 million+ catalogue

records• Used Talis Alto (now Capita

Alto)• Alma Early Adopter since

2011• Primo subscriber since

2010

Talis – a way of life

• Talis launched as a product in 1992 by BLCMP, a not-for-profit partnership of which The University of Manchester was a founder member.

• 1993 Manchester becomes the first University library to install Talis

• 1996 – Manchester, Loughborough University, the University of Greenwich, Kingston University and the University of Derby become amongst the first libraries to mount their catalogue on the WWW

Talis – a way of life

• 2013 – 20th anniversary of Talis in The University of Manchester Library

Talis – a way of life

“It’s how we do things…”

Many services built on what Talis could do or would allow

IT infrastructure and support built around needs of the old system

www.digital60.org

Data structure and configuration significantly different

It’s a whole new language

PatronFulfilmentHoldRequestAnalyticsAudit eventCKBCommunity ZoneResource sharingFulfilment unitService unitVendorWork order

Who does what

Change is scary!

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sir-alex-ferguson-retirement-men-3475060

Engaging with the vendor

Don’t under-estimate the impact of Primo

• Primo secondary system 2010-2013

• About 500,000 searches on Primo a month but 600,000 on catalogue

Usability testing to prepare for move to Alma

Work done in partnership with a specialist user experience consultancy User Vision.

24 participants representing various patron groups

Key findings

• The pattern of success and satisfaction did not vary significantly between patron groups but according to the sophistication of the individual’s search techniques

3 things you particularly like about Primo

3 things you would change

Task success impacted by three key factors

• Logging in to view all search results was an absolute barrier

• Records from other collections missed

• FRBRised records not understood by all

Visual design bland and can hinder usability

• Not always clear what is a link

• Tabs and buttons not easily identifiable

• Use of low contrast text colours

• More use of white space

Primo issues since Alma go live…

• Missing records from migration• Lack of pre-search scopes

• Lack of loan history• Configuration decisions impacting on Primo

functionality - requesting

Thank you!