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Yearly Archives: 2019
Polls
Which SIG group would you like to hear more about?
- Implementers Group (31%, 5 Votes)
- Metadata Management (25%, 4 Votes)
- Resource Management (13%, 2 Votes)
- ERM Sub Group (13%, 2 Votes)
- Reporting (13%, 2 Votes)
- User Management (6%, 1 Votes)
- System Ops and Management (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 16
Loading ...Duke FOLIO Forum November 20 2019
On Wednesday, November 20, we held our second quarterly open forum for Duke Libraries’ staff. We shared updates on the international project, heard from members of three of the FOLIO special interest groups (SIGs), and an update on the project plan and timeline of Duke’s implementation.
Dracine Hodges led us off with an overview of the international project, starting with the advantages of FOLIO’s platform and it’s features. She shared an updated FOLIO development timeline that extends to the fourth quarter in 2020. 
We celebrated Chalmers’ being the first to launch FOLIO in production. And we learned more about the commitments other institutions have made and when they’re planning to launch FOLIO in their production environments.
FOLIO’s Round 2 early adopters are:
FOLIO@Duke Newsletter v. 1 no. 6
Upcoming Duke FOLIO Forum
Steering Group Update
Watch This!
Bee Facts
Duke FOLIO Forum
November 20, 2019
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m
Korman Assembly Room (Perkins 217)
Agenda:
Update on international FOLIO project
Lightning Talks by members of international FOLIO project Special Interest Groups
- User Management
- Reporting
- Data Migration
- Other Special Interest Groups
Duke’s updated timeline
Approach to implementation
Questions
Steering Group Update
Over the past month the Steering Group has been discussing how to tackle the tasks we’ll need to complete for implementation of the ERM-focused apps in the third quarter of 2020, and the rest of the FOLIO apps in third quarter 2021. Historically, we’ve focused on our functional areas with a team for circulation, one for cataloging, and one for acquisitions. We know that each one of those areas affects the others, and are very aware that we need to facilitate discussions on those cross-functional areas with appropriate subject matter experts. We’ve been discussing how to set up the working groups to accomplish that. We’ll be sharing more at the Duke FOLIO Forum on November 20.
Watch This!
Bee Facts
FOLIO@Duke Newsletter v. 1 no. 5
In this issue:
Save the Date!
Steering Group Update
Library Systems and Integration Support Update
ERM Focused Applications
Watch This!
Bee Facts
Save The Date!
Duke FOLIO Forum
Wednesday, November 20 at 9:30 a.m.
Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein 153).
All library staff are invited. An agenda will be forthcoming.
Steering Group Update
In August, the Steering Group made a recommendation to the Duke University Libraries’ Executive Group that we implement Electronic Resources Management-focused parts of FOLIO in Summer/Fall 2020.
The Steering Group also participated in a brainstorming session. We considered high-level subjects that need to be completed such as loading user data, integrating OCLC Connexion, 
and setting up our location structure. We wrote those subjects on sticky notes and placed them on whiteboards that were divided into quarters of the year. We worked on planning parallel timelines; one for the potential ERM-focused implementation and one for implementing all of FOLIO. The discussion that followed helped us think through the need to consider our timelines and make sure that staff are not overbooked on the different tasks that need to be done at the same time. We continued the discussion into our next meeting with discussion on how to organize smaller working groups and be sure that we are addressing the cross-app features (locations and item states are two) in a functional way. In the past, we’ve organized our working groups into functional areas and we need to take the time and decide if that’s the right decision for this implementation.
ERM-Focused Applications
So what does it mean to have an “ERM-Focused” implementation? An ERM system keeps track of agreements, licences, usage statistics and can help with the workflow involved in managing electronic resources. Virginia Martin and Julie Brannon developed a presentation showing what FOLIO apps would be involved, and how we might use them. Duke is not using an ERM application right now, so having one would be a benefit to us, making it easier to answer questions that come up about our electronic resources.
FOLIO ERM Overview Slides 9_5_19
Library Systems and Integration Support Update
An update of Aleph being is planned. OIT is requesting that we update Oracle to the most recent version. In order to update Oracle, we’ll need to update Aleph to the most recent version. Fortunately, a whole upgrade with new servers and a fresh installation won’t be necessary, but we will have to schedule a short window of downtime, tentatively planned for the December break. There are some new features which we’ll share soon, so we’ll need staff to help thoroughly test those as well as testing our regular tasks to be sure everything works as expected.
Watch This!
The most recent FOLIO Forum included an overview of apps that are included in acquisitions.
Bee Facts
Did you know that Pranayama is the Hatha yoga practice of breath control? And that it includes the “bee breath”?
Duke FOLIO Forum August 12 2019
What a great turnout! Thanks to all of you who came yesterday. Due to technical difficulties with the microphone in the room, we were unable to record the session. Rest assured, we’ll get that in place for future forums. We’ll also look at ways to live-stream, perhaps using Zoom meetings.
Deborah Jakubs started us off with a welcome and history of Duke’s involvement in this project. Did you know that Duke was approached by the Mellon Foundation to consider what an open-source system designed by librarians for libraries would look like way back in 2008? We partnered with Lehigh University the University of Chicago, and SOAS University of London. The resulting product was Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) created in a partnership with the Kuali Foundation. Lehigh, UChicago, and SOAS are all using the OLE software today. The FOLIO project and community grew out of the OLE project.
Dracine Hodges continued with an overview of the FOLIO project. She described the primary partners, the OLE Foundation, EBSCO, and Index Data and listed the partner institutions. Our partner institutions span the globe, so we collaborate over Zoom, Confluence, Slack, and use Jira for tracking the user stories. She gave an overview of the major functional areas, cross-functional areas, and the FOLIO development process. Dracine shared the FOLIO milestones, with release names and dates and described the “cone of uncertainty” as we move farther into the future, which is normal in an agile project.
Lightning Talks were next on the agenda. We heard from Jacquie Samples and Jackie Gottlieb about the Metadata Management SIG, their sub-groups and working groups, and the areas where 
they are focusing. These areas include Data Import, MARCcat, the Inventory app, Special Collections/Archives, Batch Edit, Data Export, Search Enhancements, Instance Metadata and MARC mapping, Analytics and Bound-withs, and Holding Metadata and MARC mapping, among others. They shared screenshots of an instance record, in this case, an item record for a book and how the administrative data such as the resource ID, ISSN, and other identifiers are shown.
Andrea Loigman and Erin Nettifee presented on Resource Access. They covered the functions included in Resource Access such as loans, returns, requesting, circulation rules, and fees and fines, to name a few. The RA SIG meets twice a week for an hour each, and Andrea as the convener of the RA SIG invites anyone who would like to participate to contact her. Erin ran a live demo using one of FOLIO’s test sites. She showed the process of placing a hold all the way through checking out the item with the hold to the patron who requested it.
Virginia Martin and Julie Brannon presented about the Resource Management SIG. Resource Management includes Acquisitions and E-Resource Management (ERM). Acquisitions functions include Organizations (Vendors), Finance (Budgets), Orders, and Invoices. ERM functions include Licences, Agreements, eHoldings and eUsage. We are not currently using an ERM here at Duke, so implementing an ERM would have to include reviewing MS Word documents where our licence data is stored, and manually inputting the data into the ERM instead of migrating data.
After the lightning talks, Karen Newbery and Laura Cappelletti shared information on Duke’s project plan, starting with a recognition that people learn in different ways and how we plan to address auditory learning (FOLIO Forums, updates at Open Forum and First Wednesday), visual learning (slides, demos, documentation), and kinesthetic learning (testing, training). Over 129 staff members have been identified for interviews across the Duke Libraries, including the professional school libraries. About 115 first interviews have been completed. Sometimes two or three interviews are required to gather all the information. Thanks to all who have taken their time to be interviewed. Each first interview takes about ninety minutes, so if you do the math…that’s a lot of time. We’re taking you’re opinions to the community as we work to build a better product, and as we consider the development of documentation and training. You’re part of the FOLIO community too!
The extended LSP Steering Group is producing a report that outlines five different scenarios that Duke could chose to implement FOLIO. They include implementing all of FOLIO for a small library, implementing all of FOLIO for all libraries or implementing a subset of functionality. The subsets we’re considering are: circulation focused, inventory plus MARCcat focused, or ERM focused. Each scenario is compared using assumptions, risks, impact to staff, and impact to patrons, to name a few criteria. The report will be compared to the list of functionality that will be included in the Market Viable Product (MVP) and presented to the Executive Group.
We reviewed the prospective timeline at Duke, punctuated with the FOLIO release dates. The boxes below the timeline show when and what will be happening here at Duke as we move toward implementation. Note that our date of moving FOLIO into production is still a date range. As we review the features that will be in the Market Viable Product and choose our implementation scenario, we’ll be able to be more precise in choosing our implementation date.
We now have a sample of FOLIO running on a Duke server. Details can be found on the Duke Libraries Wiki (login required). The sample server is not secure, so please do not put private data in it as you create users and other data. Work will continue on building a production-level, stable, and secure server.
Next Duke FOLIO Forum: Wednesday, November 20; 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.; Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (RL 153)
A Brief Guide to Folio Apps
FOLIO is an app-based system – different apps will show up at the top of the browser screen, depending on what your library role is.
Each app listed below is being actively developed, but it may be earlier or later on in the process.
- Agreements: E-resources or packages would be managed here as agreement lines. Manage relationship between licenses and agreements.
- Check-in: Check-in and routing items for circulation (different from check-in for acquisitions/receiving.)
- Check-out: Check-out physical items for patrons.
- Data Import: Used for importing data records.
- eHoldings: Connects to the EBSCO KB API. Allows librarians to search KBs, add/remove packages/titles to/from holdings, and manage coverage dates, etc. (Because Duke uses Serials Solutions, this app is likely not to be implemented.)
- eUsage: Supports display of e-usage data from providers such as GOBI or EBSCO. Can view COUNTER reports via an aggregator using SUSHI credentials as well as allowing users to enter basic usage data for non-COUNTER compliant vendors.
- Inventory: Instance, holding and item records for physical items and some electronic records (not sure about electronic?)
- Invoice: Manage invoices which link to purchase order lines in Orders.
- Finance: Manage budgets using structure that includes Ledgers, Funds, Groups, Budgets, Fiscal Years.
- Licenses: Manage license records including terms, amendments contacts. Can link to agreements.
- Orders: Manage orders and receiving of orders.
- Organizations: Manage data about organizations (vendors.) This is where vendor data is managed for payment of invoices for orders.
- Requests: Managing requests for items (holds/pages/recalls.)
- Codex Search: The Codex app is meant to provide a way to search all FOLIO records at once by providing a interface for normalized searching and drill-down. In early/active development.
- Users:Managing patron accounts and staff accounts. IDM info, contact info, connection to patron history, fines/fees, permissions for library staff.
- Settings: Configuration options for individual apps and for the FOLIO installation as a whole.
I’ll take FOLIO for $1000, Alex
FOLIO Fun Fact:
Did you know that Emma Boettcher, the Jeopardy contestant who unseated James Holzhauer is a Product Owner for circulation functions in FOLIO? Here is a great article on her, and on FOLIO.
FOLIO@Duke Newsletter v. 1 no. 4
In this issue:
Save the Date!
FOLIO Community Working Meeting
Steering Group Update
Feature Prioritization and Gap Analysis Results
Library Systems and Integration Support Update
Thinking about Testing
Watch This!
Bee Facts
Save The Date!
The Steering Group will be hosting a FOLIO forum on Monday, August 12 at 10:00 a.m. in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein 153). All library staff are invited. An agenda will be forthcoming.
FOLIO Community Working Meeting, Crystal City, VA, June 17-19
The FOLIO community has scheduled a working meeting in June. Many of the special interest groups will be taking advantage of this face-to-face time where more can be done than over conference calls. A few of the topics will be discussing strategic plans and road maps, sharing implementation plans between institutions, and working on functional and technical requirements. Around ten library staff from Duke will be attending. Once the final schedule has been created, we’ll share it with you. Look for a recap of the meeting from the Duke attendees in the next newsletter.
Steering Group Update
The Steering Group is starting to plan a FOLIO Forum to be held this summer: the agenda and the date will be forthcoming.
Last month, we discussed the FOLIO Community Working Meeting, who would attend, and what Duke needs from this face-to-face opportunity.
Karen is now the convener for the FOLIO Implementers Group, which includes a primary contact from each institution that is planning to implement FOLIO over the next year. It’s a group to discuss documentation and how it will be presented, what progress each institution is making toward their implementation, and to share ideas and tools to help each other. You can read the about the FOLIO Implementers Group here and find the minutes, members, and details on the members’ implementations.
Feature Prioritization and Gap Analysis Results
Our Business Analysts, with help from local stakeholders, completed the feature prioritization and gap analysis. They reviewed 468 features on the list prepared by the FOLIO Project Manager. We held multiple meetings with stakeholders to make decisions on what is needed at the time we go-live vs. what could wait, or what we won’t need. After the feature prioritization was done, they reviewed the notes they’ve taken from interviews they’ve conducted, read through hundreds of documented FOLIO issues, listened in on SIG meetings, and created a list of 99 features that Duke gaps that were not clearly stated in any of the existing FOLIO documentation. Some of those gaps that were identified were issues that other institutions had assumed would be included, but were not clearly defined in the available documentation. Other gaps identified are Duke-specific and we will be following up to be sure they’re included in future development.
Library Systems and Integration Support Update
The staff in LSIS have been balancing work on FOLIO with other projects such as the authorities process and reports that have been requested. Our Business Analysts, Erin, Jackie, and Julie, have continued with interviewing staff about their workflows. Matt, our Data Analyst, has been working on the authorities project with Tech Services and creating reports. Over the next few weeks, he will shift his focus to working on data migration mapping from Aleph to FOLIO. Jeff, our developer, has been working on installing FOLIO and all the associated pieces in preparation for working with Jack Hill (Core Services) to be able to easily create multiple FOLIO servers. Jeff has also started work on writing the code to extract data from Aleph to load into FOLIO. He and Matt will work together to be sure the data manipulations in the current extract are documented for our subject matter experts. All this in anticipation of having a Duke copy of FOLIO running for you to use! Our goal is to have a test server for you with Duke data before school starts in August.
Thinking about Testing
By Jackie Gottlieb, Business Analyst, Library Systems and Integration Support
While testing our implementation of FOLIO may not be on most minds yet, the preparation has begun. Effective testing is key to a successful project. In order to effectively test, we need to know what to test and have a plan on how we will perform the tests. It begins with the interviews being conducted. We are learning your roles, processes, and needs that are translated into expectations and business requirements. For each requirement to be met, there are typically numerous criteria to fulfill. These are called “acceptance criteria” and also serve as Test Cases that require one or more steps to perform as part of the test.
An example of a business requirement is, “As a FOLIO user, font size, style, and color must be configurable by me so that it meets my visual screen needs.” Acceptance Criteria includes, “Font style, size, and color is accessible by user.” ”It can be individually changed by each user.” “Font changes are saved and remain in that same configuration each time user logs in.” Test steps would be, “Log in,” “click on the Font button,” “select and change STYLE,” etc…
As we contact you for your interview, you are helping with this process by openly sharing what you do and how you do it. Thank you each of you who have greatly helped with this process and those who will soon be contacted for interviews.
We are currently exploring testing options and anticipate a plan in place in the coming months. Stay tuned for part II when we share decisions how testing will be performed and how you will be able to participate.
Watch This!
Upcoming Folio Forum: Roadmap and Bellis Release Demo 
Wednesday, May 29 11:00 a.m.
Room Bostock 024 is reserved for viewing this event, or you may register at the link above to watch on your own.
Description: The FOLIO development continues to move forward, and in April FOLIO introduced the Bellis release. In this forum, you will hear an update on the development roadmap and see a demo of some of the FOLIO Library Services Platform apps. Harry Kaplanian will present deliverables of the roadmap and projections on development in functional areas while Theodor Tolstoy and Lisa Sjogren will show the apps from the perspective of the Chalmers University installation. Presenters: – Harry Kaplanian, Senior Director of Product Management, Software Services, EBSCO Information Services – Theodor Tolstoy, FOLIO Lead Implementation Consultant, EBSCO Information Services – Lisa Sjogren, Librarian, Chalmers University Please use the hashtag #FOLIOforum on social media for these events.
Bee Facts
FOLIO@Duke Newsletter v. 1 no. 3
| Steering Group Update | Reporting SIG Update | Business Analyst Update | Watch This! | Bee Facts |
Steering Group Update
The FOLIO project has asked each implementing site to do a feature prioritization and gap analysis by the end of April. The Steering Group charged the Library Systems and Integration Support team with leading the work. The FOLIO Implementer Group’s charge regarding the feature prioritization/gap analysis can be found on the FOLIO wiki. This is the spreadsheet listing all the features that are to be ranked, lists the related FOLIO issues, and includes the 2018 responses from schools that had planned to go live in 2019. You may find the videos that have been produced as part of this process of interest. They are linked in the Watch This! section below.
Locally, the LSIS team has been holding reviews of the list with DUL staff who have been serving on the FOLIO SIGs, since they have been involved with the FOLIO conversations thus far. Please feel free to review the spreadsheet and any of the FOLIO issues in areas you’re interested in, but please do not fill in answers on the official FOLIO spreadsheet. Instead, please forward your questions to Julie Brennon, Jackie Gottlieb, Matt Harrington, Erin Nettifee, or Karen Newbery.
Reporting Special Interest Group Update
By Angela Zoss, Ph.D., Assessment and Data Visualization Analyst, Assessment & User Experience
I’ve been attending the weekly meetings for the FOLIO Reporting SIG since last September. The Reporting SIG is focused on:
- gathering data on the reporting needs of institutions implementing FOLIO
- sharing report requirements and reporting expertise with developers of any FOLIO apps that are implementing internal reports
- guiding the development of a “data warehouse” that will collect data across FOLIO apps and support broad reporting needs
The SIG spent much of last year gathering and prioritizing specific report requirements from member institutions, and we are just ramping up on the development of the data warehouse (officially known as the Library Data Platform, or LDP). The LDP is not an app like the other FOLIO apps. Instead, the LDP is being built as a relational database using open source database software called PostgreSQL.
For the last few months I’ve been directly involved in the design of the LDP through my participation in a report prototyping subgroup. The subgroup starts by looking for specific reports that have been requested by multiple institutions and rated as high priorities. Then the fields specified in the requirements for that report are matched up with data elements in the data storage modules for the FOLIO apps. Those data elements are then organized into the growing database schema for the LDP, according to both best practices and ease of use for report writers. Once the schema has been updated, LDP developers generate fake data to fill up the database tables and enable queries. Finally, the subgroup writes SQL code that can be used to generate the original report requested.
Using a relational database means that any reporting tool that can pull data from a database can be used with the LDP – we won’t be locked into one particular reporting interface. The report prototype subgroup has created a GitHub repository for sharing SQL code for different reports, and subgroup members have been testing that code in various reporting tools (e.g., Tableau, R, Crystal Reports, Aqua Data Studio). Some tools can ingest SQL code directly, whereas others may need a bit of transformation. Documenting processes like that and/or sharing additional code for particular tools will be ongoing work for the subgroup.
At Duke, though, we ultimately hope to implement a generalized reporting interface that can make it easy to create custom queries on the fly without having to learn or use the SQL code to query the LDP directly. More on that project in the months to come!
Business Analyst Update
By Julie Brannon, Business Analyst, Library Systems and Integration Support
“What are the biggest challenges in your role?”
“Tell me about the tasks you perform each day…”
“What are the biggest pain points you experience in Aleph?’
If these questions sound familiar, then you’ve likely spent time with one of the IT Business Analysts as we delve into conversations with a list of approximately 120 staff members from across DUL and the professional libraries. We’re eager to gather existing documentation about existing processes, learn how you do what you do, listen to your perspectives about the transition to FOLIO, and transcribe your vision of future functionality.
These interviews are the highlight of my workday and I’ve already enjoyed the opportunity to meet with 17 interesting and welcoming professionals who are patient and generous with their time. These discussions provide the basis for inventories of existing business process, lists of reports and services, and system integrations. We’re busy translating those conversations into process workflow diagrams, business requirements, and future test cases.
So, if you haven’t already, please start gathering those documents, examples, complaints, and wish lists because sooner or later one of us may stop by your desk to ask “So, what documents about your work currently exist?” or “What reports do you wish you could run?”
Watch This!
Have you seen FOLIO yet? Check out these video overviews! These videos were produced to show the new features that we’re prioritizing, but they show more than that. Get a feel for how different apps work, how to navigate in FOLIO and what some of the screens look like!
ERM Functionality and Time Line
Bee Facts
FOLIO@Duke Newsletter v. 1 no. 2
The FOLIO@Duke Newsletter is a communications tool intended to keep staff abreast of news, schedules and important information regarding the development and implementation of FOLIO at Duke. We will regularly convey four main cornerstones of the project in each newsletter. Those cornerstones are Steering Group Updates, highlights of the project’s driving values and road map, discussion of FOLIO design and functionality, and updates about Duke’s migration activities and timeline.
In this issue:
| FOLIO SIGs | Steering Group Update | Watch This! | Bee Facts |
FOLIO Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Thank you to all who have served on the various SIGs and SIG Subgroups! Your work helps make sure Duke’s needs are met by FOLIO.
Special Collections Working Group
Steering Group Update
The Data Retreat was held on February 11, and included participants from across the Duke University Libraries, facilitators, and representatives from technical services from the Goodson Law Library and the Ford Library. The focus was creating a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) for DUL owned catalog, acquisitions, patron, and circulation data. We discussed data standards that are currently in use, challenges we face when data we receive is inconsistent, and the importance of having the systems external to our ILS having access to consistent data. There was agreement that it was time well spent and that another retreat should be held.
Watch This!
Folio Year in Review:
The leaders of the FOLIO project review highlights from the year past and discuss what they’re looking forward to in 2019.
Folio Roadmap Update
Presenter: Harry Kaplanian
Harry Discusses the FOLIO decision making of organizing the Jira issues for the project as well as lays out a FOLIO Milestones chart (at 18:24) with the planned releases up to Q2 2020.
