Remember the late-May post about sunsetting the system that runs the back end of the catalog and multiple discovery portals at Duke? That post concluded with a promise to provide late-July reflections from members of the Collections Services division on work that led up to sunsetting our previous system, Aleph, and launching our new system, Alma.
Well, July passed in a flurry of go-live activity. This activity happened on the heels of much work leading up to flipping the “on” switch for Alma on the morning of July 10, 2024. By noon that day, Duke University Libraries was once again open for business with a new system. Collection Services staff were already busy at work in Alma by that time and have been busy this month ensuring that access to electronic resources continues to work reliably, advising on data syncing between Alma and the Books & Media catalog, populating the system with budgets for ordering library materials, updating catalog records singly and in batch, and scanning items into system process types that allow for granular tracking and routing— among many other things! The unifying feature of all this work is that it took and will continue to take teamwork across the whole Collections Services division. Stay tuned for the next Alma post that will close the loop on the late-May post and present staff reflections on work time during the period between Aleph and Alma, what was most rewarding (and most) challenging immediately before and right after go-live, and what we hope we learn about Alma during the first six months with the system.