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Managing Alma in a Multi-Tenant Environment: The University of Houston System Libraries Approach in Acquisition and Electronic Resources

Jeannie Castro, Electronic Resources Coordinator, University of Houston Libraries

Steve Bonario, Collections Coordinator Librarian, University of Houston - Downtown

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A little bit about the University of Houston Libraries

2023 ARL Ranking of 72
Collections and Collection Expenditure Information¹:

Titles Held: 3,477,22
Volumes In Library: 4,030,257
Electronic Books: 1,359,28
One-time resource purchases: 737,250
Ongoing resource purchases: 11,538,617
Collection Support: 1,241,417
Total Library Materials: 13,517,28

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University of Houston System Alma Migration

Migrated July 2019 from III Sierra

University of Houston, University of Houston – Clear Lake, University of Houston – Downtown, University of Houston Law Center Library
University of Houston – Victoria did not migrate at this time and is not part of this

Migration timeline began February 2019 and Go Live was July 2019
Acquisitions data entry began with the new fiscal year on 09/01/2019
Alma migration team held weekly calls with our stakeholders until January 2020

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Formation of University of Houston Alma Stakeholders Working Group (UHAS)

Founded in November 2022 with the purposed of coordinating the 3 functional areas in Alma
Steering committee
Three Functional areas

Acquisitions & Electronic Resources (AER)
Resource Management
Fulfillment

The Law Library has representatives on Resource Management and Fulfillment, but not Acquisitions & Electronic Resources

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UHAS AER

According to our Governance Document our purpose is:

To ensure the effective administration and management of UH System libraries’ shared Library Services Platform (LSP) by providing a collaborative infrastructure for shared governance.

In a Multi-Tenant environment, nearly every customization in the Alma config applies to everyone in the system.
Decisions impact all of us

For example, Page View in Primo

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Big Libraries and Small Libraries

UH is the big dog and we usually lead the charge in setting up how things are in a shared environment
Wanted to change the dynamic, but needs are different
UH Acquisitions and Resource Sharing Department (ARS)

Combined Acquisitions, Electronic Resources, ILL, and Course Reserves

7 Acquisitions and Electronic Resources Staff and Librarians
3 ILL Staff
1 Course Reserves Staff
6 Student workers

UH-Downtown

6 Acquisitions and Electronic Resources Staff and Librarians

UH-Clear Lake

5 Acquisitions and Electronic Resources Staff and Librarians (2 vacant positions)

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Communication

Meetings are held in MicroSoft Teams and are recorded.
From 2022-Aug. 2024, we met every two weeks to get ahead of our concerns
From Sept. 2024 going forward, we are meeting monthly
Started our work with a “Pain Points” document based on 16 areas within Acquisitions: Fund Management, Vendor Management, Licensing, Physical Resources (One-Time, Standing Order, Subscriptions, Collection Maintenance), Electronic Resources (One-Time, Standing Order, Subscriptions, Collection Maintenance), Invoicing, Analytics, and Configuration
Documents was shared across all individuals within the department to see what the staff who did the work thought about these areas

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Managing AER Issues

Steve Bonario, MILS

Collection Development Coordinator Librarian

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Communication is Key

Having agreed upon communication practices and tools is critical.
Our communication practices and tools:

Standing meeting (monthly, remote, via Teams).
Co-chairs (easier to facilitate communication and share burden).
Agreed-upon workflow and practices documents.
One tool (Teams) for live remote meetings (including recording meeting), chat/conversation topics, file sharing/storage, and task planning/tracking/management. Email still used as needed.
One institution hosts the tool; members from other institutions join as guests.

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Initial Workshop

Held a two-day in-person retreat/workshop.

Socialization. Helped us get to know each other. Easier to dialogue around issues/concerns.
Identified concerns across multiple areas and gave general sense of prioritization.
Captured the issues/concerns in the Tasks tool in Teams.

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Managing Issues in Tasks tool

Initial setup and use of Teams required an “IT partner”; someone who understood our needs and mission.

Microsoft 365 tool is called “Planner” – a kanban-style tool; in Teams it is called “Tasks”.

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Managing Issues in Tasks tool

Tasks grouped into “buckets” (e.g. documentation, training, etc.) to align with mission/charge statement.

Tasks labeled with broad Alma UI and library workflow “tags”.

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General Task Workflow

Any member can enter a new issue or “ticket”.

New Issue

Assign people to work on it and a due date.

Assign

When issue is resolved it is closed.

Discuss issue and prioritize as urgent, high, medium or low.

Review/Prioritize

Assigned people work on the issue outside of the meeting.

Work on Issue

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Current Experience

We address urgent issues (system-wide or critical work interruption) within a month or less; few of our issues are urgent.
High priority issues (resolve within 3-6 months) get most of our focus. Only a handful of these at a time.
Medium priority issues (resolve within 6 months to a year).
Most of our issues are ideas/concerns listed as “low” priority (i.e. for future consideration as needed).
Having a system to keep all of these in one place is helpful to know what we’ve said is important now, and which things we’re OK with not addressing.

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Example Issue

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Example Issue

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Evolving the Task Model

We’re trying out a model of asking these 12 questions when we review a task to make sure we’re not letting anything fall through the cracks.

1. What is the problem this task is trying to solve, or the question being� answered, or the improvement being made?�

2. Has the task been stated as an action?�

3. Do we understand the task? Is more research needed?�

4. Does task require further breakdown into sub-tasks?�

5. What does the outcome look like? How do we know it is completed?�

6. How soon can or should the task be started? Is there a deadline?�

7. Are there specific tools or documentation required to assist in � performing the task? What are they?�

8. Does the task require specific expertise or knowledge? What is it?�

9. Who should be Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed?�

10. What is the Task's Priority (Urgent, Important, Medium, Low)?�

11. What is the estimate of how much time it will take to complete the task?�

12. Are there follow up steps/tasks after it is completed?