FOLIO Community Onboarding

Onboarding new FOLIO members

Kat Berry

Kirstin Kemner-Heek

Alexis Manheim

Martina Schildt

Petra Schneider

Sharon Wiles-Young

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FOLIO Onboarding process�

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Onboarding process to get to know…

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FOLIO Project and Library Services Platform

Who is in the Project and What is the FOLIO Library Services Platform

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FOLO governance model

… the new members

Homework questions- What questions do you have for us?

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… and follow up

Offer ongoing contact and advice, organize mentor

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Onboarding steps

Pre- information

1st onboarding meeting

2nd onboarding meeting

Stay in touch…

General information for new members to watch recordings or wiki prior to first meeting

Onboarding group identifies potential mentors related to interests and resources

Q&A | Carve out areas of interest and engagement | Point out needs and propose roles of engagement

Plan focus of engagement | Presentation of specific roles that are of interest | Mentorship | Clarify whom to report to

Find mentors

Ongoing opportunity for feedback & questions | Standing offer to help

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FOLIO Introduction�

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What is FOLIO?

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FOLIO is an acronym: The Future Of Libraries Is Open

This acronym can be used to describe a platform, product or community among other things.

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The FOLIO Project is a community effort to create an open-source library services platform. The FOLIO Project has a governance model that defines three councils and their roles, membership, and other groups.

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FOLIO Terminology

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FOLIO - a bit of history …

Okapi platform is built by Index Data and EBSCO

Okapi platform

Before 2016

Start of community funded projects, e.g. ERM

Community projects

2018

FOLIO gets new governance model

New governance model

2021

Transformation process: stakeholder become FOLIO community

Transformation

2020/2021

Open Library Environment (OLE) joins as 3rd stakeholder → first governance model

OLE

2016

2018 ongoing

Releases

9 main releases - most recent Nolana (12/12), Orchid is in preparation

2019

1st implementer

First implementer Chalmers goes live in September

Diverse Community

Community develops from OLE to a more diverse community with different members, like vendors, libraries, networks, more international etc.

Ongoing

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FOLIO – cooperative project

• Cooperational presentations and events: library conferences, FOLIO days, information events (virtual / on-site)
• Wiki and regional web pages (e.g. Germany)
• Membership Conference of the OLF: WOLFCon (latest: 2022 in Hamburg)
• Growing number of implementations → implementer reports and projects
• Various community driven development projects, like ERM, eUsage, NCIP, course reserves, single record import, serials management, Open Access/APC, …

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FOLIO Software�

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FOLIO technical architecture

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Models of “How to develop” in FOLIO

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Development teams from different partners, institutions and funding

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• Development teams comprised of FOLIO community - Library developers, vendor developers,
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• Development teams contracted by Universities for development
• ERM
• Development teams from Ebsco and other vendors
• EPAM- Acquisition app
• Development teams from Universities and other libraries
• Development teams

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Models of “How to develop” in FOLIO

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• How to find a development community and enter the development of FOLIO:
• Offer development resources to the FOLIO project: one developer or a team → Community Council
• Offer monetary resources to hire a software vendor to build a new app or a new functionality idea → Community Council
• Offer money or development resources through SIG/PO: find a small group of libraries in SIG that have similar functional needs
• If this development will be done according to the FOLIO standards*, it will be integrated into the core software (flower release)

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FOLIO Community�

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Vendors

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Service Providers, Software Vendors, and Integration Partners

Libraries

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Academic, Public and Special libraries of all sizes, worldwide

Networks/ Consortia

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Groups of libraries and networks sharing systems and resources

Developers

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Code contributors, architects, DevOps, QA and other technical professionals

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The Three Governing Councils

Product

Guides functional development and manages scope.

Community

Ensures strong and healthy community as well as smooth operations. Handles finances.

Technical

Maintains technical policies, best practices, infrastructure, and operational health.

https://wiki.folio.org/display/COMMUNITY/FOLIO+Governance+Model

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FOLIO - Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

• Core part of community representation
• Aligned with functional areas of FOLIO
• Define workflow, feature requirements

and specifications

• Most meet weekly; all are open*

*Calendar of SIG meetings with links to details and FOLIO Meetings with Zoom access info

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SIG teams

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Provide real-world expertise, answer specific questions and provide feedback, help shape direction of development

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SUBJECT MATTER/

FUNCTIONAL

EXPERTS

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Keep the SIG functioning, set agendas, listen to concerns, coordinate effort across multiple areas

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CONVENER

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Represent the SIG in other groups to communicate, advocate, and coordinate specific activities or areas of work

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SIG LIAISON

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Roles within a SIG

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Document needs, manage

feature backlog, serve as bridge between developers and functional experts in SIGs

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PRODUCT OWNER

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Convert functional needs of experts into visual interface using mockups and wireframes, follows the UX guidelines throughout the whole ecosystem

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UX/UI DESIGNER

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Work on a team to develop code based on functional requirements from SIGs and technical requirements from POs within guidelines from architects and UX/UI designers

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DEVELOPER

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Roles related to SIGs

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Joining a SIG

• What is your area of interest/expertise?
• Check out SIG meetings and charge on the wiki
• Look at Slack for recent posts. How can you contribute?
• Contact the convener for more information and how to get up to speed
• What kind of time do you want to put into your involvement?

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How to get started�

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More ways to get involved in the FOLIO Project:

Documentation and other Roles

• Documentation Editor/Manager
• Documentation Working Group (under Support SIG)
• works with SMEs from relevant SIGs
• meets monthly
• Product Council Liaison

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• End user documentation
• JIRA management of documentation items
• Tools and process info on the FOLIO wiki

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MORE ways to get involved: Testing

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Bugfests occur before each release

• Have someone add you to #bug-fest
• First time? Review helpful resources, attend kick off meeting
• Gain access to test rails
• Claim tests you will complete during testing week
• Complete testing

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FOLIO – What has contributed to our success?

• Intensive cooperation from the beginning
• Cooperative development with partners
• Cooperation in virtual, agile, and diverse communication structures and spaces
• Commitment to active information sharing and transparency
• Flexible and pragmatic approach to solve upcoming challenges
• Start and iterate - quick correction where necessary
• Start small – grow steady and continuously → enable trust building and resource sharing

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FOLIO … is innovative and unique

• Building additional functionality to classical ILS, e.g. ERM, OA request management, CDL …
• Building regional functionality, e.g. translation support, integration of 3rd party systems such as ILL, …
• Cooperation of public and commercial development for special features
• Consistent usage of internal and external APIs
• International cooperation and long-term perspective
• Free choice of business model

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Next steps: topics and questions for mentoring

• Working with other libraries / strategic level
• What are your areas of interest and/or expertise?
• Join a SIG
• What kind of involvement do you want to put into FOLIO?
• How much time and how many people?
• How much time do I need to invest for each role in a SIG?
• What do your implementation plans and timeline look like?
• Have you talked with other FOLIO implementers? Are you interested in mentoring?
• Suggest reaching out to peers in FOLIO on your own

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Questions?

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SECOND meeting slides

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I’m moving what was marked as secondary from the community section here. If we want to add back we can.

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We’ve discussed that slides that go here would be covered in the second meeting, after they have had a chance to digest the first section.

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Subject Matter/Functional Experts

What is a Subject Matter/Functional Expert?

• Members of the FOLIO Community who regularly attend SIG meetings and provide
• real-world expertise,
• answers specific questions
• feedback to help to shape direction of development in their area
• Time commitment varies

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Responsibilities

• Bring real world examples from your institution
• Share existing workflows and pain points
• Respond to mock-ups and wireframes
• Perform User Acceptance Testing

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Convener

What is a SIG Convener?

• The SIG convener is a person(s) selected by the group participants to facilitate, and to some extent moderate, the group’s discussions and activities.
• Time commitment?

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Responsibilities

• Determine when rough consensus has been reached and discussion should move on to another topic
• Onboarding new members
• Coordinate meeting agendas and ensures that minutes are posted to the SIG's wiki space
• Communicate SIG activities to the Product Council

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Product Owner (PO)

What is a PO?

• The product owner represents user community. They work with a special interest group (SIG) to determine what features will be in the product release
• Time commitment: 5-15 hrs/wk
• Open product owner positions

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Responsibilities

• Research and gather proposed features and/or user stories and requirements
• Backlog maintenance
• Platform maintenance
• Product development
• QA and product testing
• Release management
• Stakeholder communication and customer support
• Support other POs, mentor new POs

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Product Owner (PO) support

Gain experience and skills

• Opportunities to gain experience by supporting current POs
• Contact Lead PO (Khalilah Gambrell) or if you know the PO that you want to work with, contact directly
• Inform the PO
• Chosen activity
• Time commitment and duration
• You and PO agree to the commitment.

PO Support opportunities

• Conduct market intelligence
• Research requirements' questions
• Peer review requirements
• Test drive new functionality
• Review existing functionality
• Review bugs
• Review functionality with SIG
• Write test cases
• Organize user acceptance testing
• Coordinate user research activities

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SIG Liaison

What is a SIG Liaison?

• Volunteer or designee appointed by the Convener that attends meetings and/or represents a SIG on other teams or working groups
• Time commitment varies

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Responsibilities

• Represent the SIG in separate group(s)
• Communicate, advocate, and coordinate on behalf of the SIG
• Specific activities or areas of work as assigned

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Other ideas to introduce:

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• Roadmap overview
• Aspirations of project:
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FUN for today 2/7

From Sebastian:

I asked ChatGPT for a limerick about FOLIO. Here is what it offered:

I once heard of a library system called FOLIO

It was open source and quite versatile, oh my!

It could manage collections and services with ease

And offered a range of APIs to please

It was hailed as a game changer, no lie!

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Notes

• Present to PC next week
• present slides
• explain what we had in mind and what we want to do with it
• Ask for direct feedback and open up for comments (max. 2 weeks)
• Find a pilot group to test the concept: new members from 2022
• Integrate in “welcome email” as offer (FOLIO secretary SMLLC) -> wiki page of onboarding group with contact data

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OPEN source: Context for FOLIO

• Engagement with FOLIO community
• “Libraries cannot afford to dismiss the value benefits of using and contributing to open source communities” ****ADD to slide 20?
• Professional development opportunities

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****Extra slides/info in the folder --

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Notes

• goal 1: onboard new members who sign a MOU first
• concentrate on that process in the following slides
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• goal 2: reuse the PPT to do the same for SaaS institutions and other interested parties
• goal 3: split the onboarding in 2 parts
• 1. general information and questions -> maybe homework
• 2. Come back and carve out best areas to start and connect to each other

DEADLINE January 26, 2023 -> Presentation at PC!!!

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Goals for onboarding new FOLIO members

• Get to know new institutions and learn about their motivations to Join FOLIO
• Hold conversations and ask questions of new institutions in the FOLIO community
• Identify their strengths, interests and options in FOLIO engagement
• Explain “state of the art” of FOLIO - Vision and status of the FOLIO project
• Explain immediate needs and areas of engagement in FOLIO
• walk the institutions through the roadmap

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Onboarding questions

• What is the area you are most interested in?
• What kind of resources do you have?
• What would a potential area of investment look like?
• What is your experience with open source?

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