Communicate. Cooperate. Collaborate.

By Cathy Sicard, LOUIS

The SirsiDynix Symphony ILS has been

hosted by LOUIS since 2001, and it’s now

being migrated to SirsiDynix’s cloud solu-

tion, SaaS (Software as a Service). Along-

side the migration to SaaS is a move to Red

Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with an em-

bedded Oracle database structure with

Unicode support.

So far 22 of 34 LOUIS Symphony sites have

migrated to SaaS with both Production and

Test systems. Migrations for the remaining

LOUIS sites will continue through the end of

January, 2016. The project has been a

smooth process so far.

Loyola University will be added to the LOU-

IS migration plan, as they recently made

the decision to migrate to the LOUIS Sym-

phony environment. LOUIS will soon have

35 LOUIS Symphony sites!

Migrating Symphony to SaaS has allowed

LOUIS to move more swiftly on the rollout

of SirsiDynix’s BLUE-

cloud Campus prod-

ucts, thus building up-

on our LOUIS LSP

(Library Services Plat-

form). With continued

budget cuts to higher

education in Louisiana,

we are fortunate that

many of the BLUEcloud products, including

BLUEcloud Cataloging, BLUEcloud PAC and

BookMyne, are available to LOUIS sites at

no additional cost. This was a decision

made by SirsiDynix in an effort to deliver

solid value with existing annual mainte-

nance dollars. BLUEcloud Analytics was an

added cost and was recently purchased by

LOUIS for all LOUIS Symphony sites. It will

be installed for LOUIS sites in the coming

weeks.

LOUIS queried sites that have migrated to

SaaS to find volunteers willing to test one

or more of the BLUEcloud products. The

SaaS Migration Progress Report and

BLUEcloud Campus Updates

New Department at LSU Libraries Offers

Enhanced Services

LUC 2015-Another Year Gone

Centenary adds SirsiDynix’s “Buy It Now”

Open Access Week

Electronic Resources Update

Programmer’s Corner

Out with the old, in with the new—EBSCO

Full Text Finder with Holdings

Management

Symphony Sharing Week

On Task!

SaaS Migration Testimonials

SaaS Migration Progress Report and BLUEcloud Campus Updates

November 19, 2015 Volume 2, Issue 2

following sites are testing one or more of the

products: Baton Rouge Community College,

Bossier Parish Community College, Delta

Community College, Louisiana State Universi-

ty in Shreveport, Louisiana State University

Law Center, Louisiana State University, and

McNeese State University.

Early testing seems to indicate that BC Cata-

loging, BC PAC and BookMyne all have poten-

tial. It may be some time before all required

functionality is included in the products. LSU

Law has expressed interest in using BC Cata-

loging in Production, which is very encourag-

ing. This will be enabled very soon. It is im-

portant that LOUIS sites continue to test and

provide feedback to SirsiDynix via the SPPs

(Strategic Partnership Programs). SPPs allow

early involvement in product development

which can help assure these evolving products

will meet the needs of academic libraries.

LOUIS will continue to reach out to sites that

have migrated to SaaS to offer BLUEcloud

testing opportunities. We’re excited to finally

be in this next chapter!

Want to know what others had to say

about their migration experience? See

page 9.

2

Volume 2, Issue 2

by Elissa Plank, LSU Libraries

During the 2014 fall semester, the Circulation

and ILL departments merged to form Access

Services, with Kelly Blessinger as head of the

new department. The synergy created by the

merger has resulted in the ability to give bet-

ter customer service and offer new services to

library users. The hours of operation for the

Interlibrary Loan department have been ex-

tended with the merger of the circulation and

ILL service points so that patrons can now

pick up interlibrary loan books and have ques-

tions answered any time that the main circu-

lation desk is open. In addition, the Access

Services Department has begun offering two

new services. The first, called Books-2-Geaux,

is a book delivery service brings requested in-

terlibrary loan and Middleton books to the

mailboxes of faculty members on campus. The

turnaround time for the service is three to

four business days. The second new service is

a waiting list for laptops that are available to

students through the Gear-2-Geaux program.

Using the SMS function in SIRSI Workflows,

students are sent a text message whenever a

laptop is returned by another student and is

available for checkout. Students have 30

minutes to come to the desk in response to

the text before their reservation is deleted.

Although both new services began last month

at the beginning of the fall semester, and the

response from the LSU community has been

overwhelmingly positive.

The synergy created by

the merger has resulted

in the ability to give

better customer service

and offer new services

to library users.

C. B. Pennington Jr. Conference Center

Baton Rouge, LouisianaNew Department at LSU Libraries Offers Enhanced Services

3

November 19, 2015

Upcoming Webinars:

December: EDS

Custom Linking—

Overview and Q&A

Session

TBD: ILL Document

Delivery

TBD: Hosting a

Student Open House

TBD: Loading e-

Resources Best

Practices

Recent Webinars:

August: SirsiDynix

Symphony Migration to

SaaS and EBSCO A-to-

Z Migration to Full Text

Finder

October: Social Media

in My Library and

Yours: A Case Study

using Instagram

October: Credo and

Information Literacy:

Solutions to Meet Your

Library’s Needs

C. B. Pennington Jr. Conference Center

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

by Jaime Barrilleaux, LOUIS

LUC 2015 was held at the C. B.

Pennington Jr. Conference Cen-

ter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

on October 7th and 8th. We

had a total of 173 registrants.

The conference featured a total

of fifty sessions, including an

opening and closing session,

breakout sessions, and sharing

sessions. It also featured four

poster sessions. Presentations

from the conference will be pub-

lished on our website as they

are made available to us.

New to the conference this year

were door prizes, reserved

lunch tables, an academic social

event, and a #selfie booth.

We have requested to return to

the Pennington conference cen-

ter next year for LUC 2016 for

October 5-6, 2016. Save the

date!

If you have any ideas for ses-

sions you’d like to see at next

year’s conference, email Jaime

at jaimeb@lsu.edu or provide

topic suggestions in the evalua-

tion form., available at http://

svy.mk/1KkEgST.

View the Picasa Slideshow at

http://bit.ly/1PwA9vi

See the LUC 2015 Story at

https://t.co/kE9Urd1BHA

LUC—Another Year Gone

Learning with

LOUIS

Webinar recordings are

available at http://bit.ly/lwl_recs.

To request the

password, go to http://bit.ly/louis_kb.

Have an idea? Suggest a topic or

Submit a proposal!

By Christy Wrenn, Centenary College

CENTENARY COLLEGE announces that Magale

Library has added SirsiDynix’s “Buy It Now”

product at no cost to their eLibrary electronic

catalog. SirsiDynix set up the “Buy It Now”

button inside eLibrary so that patrons who

had the desire to purchase a copy of a Cen-

tenary catalog title could do so instantly, and

also have a percentage of their purchase go

to support Magale Library. Patrons and

Magale, WIN, WIN.

by Teri Oaks Gallaway, LOUIS

During the week of October 19-25, 2015,

LOUIS celebrated International Open Access

Week by hosting a weeklong series to high-

light Open Educational Resources (OERs) and

the work Louisiana academic libraries have al-

ready done in this area. A suggested list of

daily activities (http://bit.ly/louisoaweek) was

distributed to the listserv and daily reviews of

relevant open access content providers were

distributed. On Thursday of that week, Emily

Frank (Louisiana State University), Jim Hobbs

(Loyola University New Orleans), and Jeanne

Pavy (University of New Orleans) served as

guest moderators on the LALINC listserv.

Jeanne Pavy prompted the group to think

about how open access models would influ-

ence collection development and information

literacy practices. Jim Hobbs solicited infor-

mation about what open access adoptions had

already occurred on campuses and how librar-

ians were engaging with faculty to encourage

open textbook adoptions. Emily Frank shared

resources to the group about strategies to de-

velop large-scale OERs and affordable learning

initiatives. A transcript of the discussion can

be found at http://bit.ly/oa_week. LOUIS staff

are continuing to investigate other statewide

models for promoting open access and more

broadly at initiatives to reduce student text-

book expenses. We look forward to repeating

this weeklong event for Open Access Week

2016.

LOUIS Celebrates Open Access Week

4

Volume 2, Issue 2

For more information

on Buy It Now, go to

http://

www.sirsidynix.com/

products/buy-it-now

Centenary Adds SirsiDynix’s “Buy it Now”

November 19, 2015

5

Eight (8) complete MCAT® prac-

tice tests are now available in

the College Center to help stu-

dents prepare for the new

MCAT® 2015 test.

They’ve added a new series that

focuses on workplace skills. It

includes Mastering Workplace

Skills: Math Fundamentals, Mas-

tering Workplace Skills: Gram-

mar Fundamentals, and Master-

ing Workplace Skills: Writing

Fundamentals. There are also

new GED® test preparation

eBooks in English and Spanish,

a new edition of California Police

Officer Exam, and a new “501”

eBook—501 Questions to Master

Everyday Grammar and Writing.

Thirteen (13) new practice tests

and a new tutorial are the latest

additions to the Common Core

State Standards resources. They

feature technology-enhanced

item types and interactivity, and

are completely aligned to the

Common Core State Standards.

Considered & Closed:

Artstor Digital Library.

American Society of

Mechanical Engineers

(ASME) Digital

Collections.

Founding Era Digital

Editions

BBC Monitoring – Global

News & International

Reports

Bentham Science

Publishers

BoardVitals (Stat!Ref)

PsycTESTS (EBSCO)

AmbroseDigital

ASME – revised proposal

PLUMx Metrics (EBSCO)

Cambridge Journal

package & Digital Archive

Shared Shelf (Artstor)

OmniTax Library / CCH

Tax & Accounting

Under Consideration:

WestLaw Campus

New Mini Consortia:

No minis were created

this quarter

Platform Enhancements:

Gale—mobile

responsiveness

Gale Artemis-

consolidated resources

Readex-responsiveness

EBSCO eBook App

IEEE XPlore—introduced

IEEE Collabratec

New Resources for LearningExpress

Elect ronic Re sou rce s Update

Interested in more updates? Subscribe to LER-l at http://bit.ly/louislists

Sixty-one new titles were added

to the LOUIS GVRL package; fif-

ty-three are currently available

and eight are on backorder.

MARC records are available from

the vendor or through EBSCO’s

MARC record service.

To continue receiving these

briefs, go to http://

www.lexisnexis.com/trial/

uslm170041.asp?access=1-

529606416&treatcd=1-

New GVRL Titles LexisNexis Briefs

H. F. Group Bindery JSTOR Usage Stats

LOUIS pricing and delivery

schedule goes into effect Janu-

ary 1, 2016 through December

31, 2016 for sites that have an

existing state contract. Sites

that have their own contacts can

join the LOUIS contract at any

time. Sites will be billed directly

for services. Contact:

Adam Brouwer

Email: abrouwer@hfgroup.com

2015 Counter 4 reports are

available at https://

www.jstor.org/analytics; 2014

Counter 4 reports are available

upon request to sup-

port@jstor.org. Counter 4 re-

ports older than 2014 will soon

be inaccessible, so download

them now.

Usage reports for 2014 and

years prior can be accessed by

logging into your JSTOR ac-

count.

by ZeeZee Zamin, LOUIS

Updated custom scripts that handle EBSCO

A-to-Z MARC data loads for LOUIS sites.

Now manage the load processes for 4 addi-

tional sites: LSU, LSU Veterinary School,

NSULA, and ULL.

Enabled the Policy Webify process for

Northshore and Nicholls so they can view

their Symphony policies on the web.

Wrote various custom scripts to better

manage Symphony in SaaS.

Utilized API tools to find 856 fields in A-to-

Z records and worked with sites to remove

these.

Utilized API tools to update bibliographic

data in various tags for LSU Law.

Enhanced the LOUIS-managed EDS custom

processes to easily confirm that files have

been sent to EBSCO successfully.

Worked with LSUE to update Symphony

item ids based on matching criteria in 049

fields using API tools.

Worked with Nicholls on a call number

clean-up project using API tools.

By Jaime Barrilleaux, LOUIS

Thirty-two LOUIS sites migrated from A-to-Z

Admin and LinkSource to EBSCO’s new inter-

face, Full Text Finder with Holdings Manage-

ment in September 2015. While the migra-

tion was not completely smooth sailing, we

were able to work through the majority of is-

sues and conclude the project on time.

What do these words mean?

Full Text Finder = link resolver

(previously LinkSource)

Publication Finder = journal listings

(previously A-to-Z Reader List)

Holding Link Management = resource

management (previously A-to-Z Admin)

Current Issue

Full packages are not selected in Holdings

Management

Solution: find package, review selections,

then de-select and re-select package, if nec-

essary. You might also need to adjust the set-

ting that allows EBSCO to add new titles.

Some Final Steps

Review and update links on your web-

sites.

Review branding for ALL EBSCO profiles.

Review custom links and settings in each

profile—some issues were caused by the

migration, but some pre-existing issues

came to light after.

Review catalog records for lingering A-to-

Z URLs.

If you encounter any issues or have ques-

tions, open a FootPrint with LOUIS. We might

have the answer already.

Note:

If your EBSCO Admin password expires,

LOUIS can reset it for you. You do not need

to contact EBSCO Support.

Out with the old, in with the new - EBSCO Full Text Finder with

Holdings Management

6

Volume 2, Issue 2

This segment reports custom work recently undertaken by LOUIS to help sites. If you are interested in

learning how LOUIS can assist you, send a request to LOUIS via FootPrints.

Programmer’s Corner by Cathy Sicard, LOUIS

November 19, 2015

7

By John Guillory, LOUIS

In the past LOUIS scheduled sharing sessions

as face-to-face meetings, one in the northern

part of the state, the next in a southern part.

This distributed the cost and inconvenience of

attending the sharing session more fairly. In

the interest of providing a sharing session

without the expense of travel, LOUIS hosted

the Symphony Sharing Session online this

year. A new topic was introduced each day of

the week on the LALINC-L discussion list - top-

ics which roughly corresponded to Symphony

modules. After the email introduction to the

day’s topic, moderators kicked off the day with

engaging questions. Then, on Friday, the week

was capped off with a webinar to follow up on

the weeks discussions.

Monday 9: Discovery/Patron Interfaces.

Moderators: James Hodges (UNO), Na-

talie Palermo (LSU Law)

Tuesday 10: Cataloging and Acquisi-

tions. Moderators: Natalie Palermo (LSU

Law), Paul Kelsey (SELU), Allison Gal-

laspy (ULL)

Wednesday 11: Circulation and Re-

serves. Moderators: Michael Sartori

(McNeese), Kevin Hebert (Xavier)

Thursday 12: Serials and Government

Documents. Moderators: Janie Branham

(SELU), Lori Smith (SELU), Doris Hudson

(LSU)

Friday 13: Online Sharing Webinar.

During the Friday online meeting, LOUIS staff

asked participants how to make future online

sharing sessions better. With the feedback

from participants, we concluded that we will

schedule a future sharing sessions with input

from participants at least a week or two in ad-

vance. We will communicate with library deans

and directors to send of word of encourage-

ment to staff to participate in the online meet-

ing. We will also encourage the use of audio-

microphone USB headsets to improve the ex-

perience of participants.

A special thank you to the moderators whose

open-ended questions encouraged engage-

ment and sharing.

Symphony Sharing Session Week: November 9-13, 2015

Want to see your headline featured in LOUIS Lagniappe?

Submit at http://bit.ly/1KTnNJO

Strategic planning identified several objectives

that require membership participation in order

to meet current and evolving needs, services,

and expectations. Membership participation is

largely undertaken through task forces and

interest groups. To learn more about them,

visit each group's web page by clicking on the

group title below.

Task Forces

Task forces were implemented in order to es-

tablish working groups tasked with investigat-

ing specific issues or reaching specific goals as

they are identified within in the consortium.

Active Task Forces include:

Grants Task Force

Resource Sharing Task Force

Interest Groups

Interest groups have replaced the original

committee structure. Interest groups pro-

vides for greater participation through discus-

sion lists where members can discuss and

share ideas, ask questions, and propose pro-

jects.

Active Interest Groups include:

Collection & e-Resources

Information Literacy

Library Technology

Visit our website for more information on how

to get involved!

On Task!

8

Volume 2, Issue 2

November 19, 2015

9

LSU Center for Energy Studies (Richard Pincomb):

“Honestly I don't know the difference (before and after

migration), but if the LOUIS people say it's a good thing,

then so be it.”

LSU Law Center (Natalie Palermo): “LSU Law Library’s

migration to SaaS was easier than expected. Staff from

SirsiDynix and LOUIS were quick to handle the small

number of issues related to the Unicode conversion and

Oracle. Overall, it was a very positive experience.”

Bossier Parish Community College (Debra Harmon):

“This was a seamless transition for BPCC. The LOUIS

staff has done all the hard work for us in advance. As

the third conversion of the group, we had absolutely no

issues to report. Thanks for all your hard work!”

McNeese State University (Michael Sartori): “Having

done migrations before and installed Symphony from

the ground up, this was much easier and quicker than

anticipated. Thus far we haven’t had any issues and

truly do not expect any. The SirsiDynix and LOUIS staff

did an outstanding job!!”

LSU (Mike Waugh): “It has been seamless and painless,

even more so than the typical Symphony upgrade

process. I get the feeling there was a lot of preparation

going on behind the scenes at LOUIS, and there wasn’t

much for the Sys Admins to do other than test. Oh, and

searches are faster.”

BRCC (Lauren McAdams): “Our migration was quick and

easy. Everything was back up and running much sooner

than we had expected.”

Delta (Jessica Louque): “Staff at Louis made me feel at

ease and communications were sent out pre-migration

that ensured I would know what to expect. On migration

day, testing went as planned, and it was difficult to tell

much had changed on Workflows other than the logo.

Thank you LOUIS staff for making the migration to SaaS

easy and painless!”

LSU-E (Gerald Patout): “As usual, with important LOUIS

support and technical expertise, the LeDoux Library of

LSU Eunice enjoyed a seamless and error free SaaS

migration in late August.” (Patricia Brown) - “Nearly

unnoticeable—which is a good thing!”

LSU-S (Brian Sherman): “Going live with SaaS entailed

very little inconvenience and with the LOUIS/SirsiDynix

team at the helm, the migration was as smooth as silk,

delivering faster responses times.”

Fletcher (Cindi Blaschke): “Through the directions and

guidance provided by LOUIS for the migration of

Symphony ILS from the LOUIS hosted servers to

SirsiDynix’s cloud solution, SaaS, Fletcher's daily library

operations continued as normal. Testing the new

platform proved a successful migration for our site.”

Centenary (Christy Wrenn): “Migrating to SaaS was the

easiest technology move that Magale Library has ever

been through. With the LOUIS Team and the SirsiDynix

Team working together, the steps appeared seamless.

Testing data inside the new environment was even

easier. We were LIVE before realizing it. Thanks to you

ALL!”

Grambling (Adrienne Mosby): “Our migration to SaaS

was quick and easy. The Louis team made sure that we

were up and running by the end of the day!”

LaTech (Will Lancaster): “Quick and painless like always

when working with LOUIS. We were up sooner than

expected and the day went as normal.”

SLCC (Jennifer Gauthier): “SLCC’s migration was quick

and painless, at least for the library staff. J It did not

take nearly as long as anticipated, and resulted in very

little disruption in patron services.”

Nicholls (William Charron): “The regular updates from

the LOUIS staff, and SIRSI and LOUIS doing all of the

behind the scenes work made for an easy migration.”

NTCC (Margaret Keller): “The fact that we knew that the

LOUIS staff would be with us through the whole process

was very assuring. When we had questions or concerns,

they were there to talk us through it, but the migration

itself was pretty seamless!”

NSULA (Gail Kwak): “Our migration to SaaS was quick,

easy, and completely painless. We are very happy with

the results and look forward to learning more about

Unicode!”

OLHCC (Diana Schaubhut): “LOUIS led us through our

migration in a blink of an eye and with not one hiccup.

OLOL (Maggie McCann): “Migrating to SaaS was a

painless process, minus one delay caused by our own

network security. After a quick firewall update, we were

up and running. Thank you LOUIS/SirsiDynix for an easy

transition!”

Here’s what others had to say about their SaaS migration...

200 Frey Computing Services | Louisiana State University | Baton Rouge, LA 70803 | 225.578.3700 | louislibraries@lsu.edu

GET SOCIAL!

RECENT & UPCOMING EVENTS

October 2 LALINC Fall Membership Meeting

October 7-8 LOUIS Users Conference 2015

October 12 Regional EBSCO Training

October 19-23 Open Access Week

November 9-13 Symphony Sharing Week

November 12 Regional EBSCO Training

November 13 Virtual Symphony Sharing Session

December 15 Submission deadline for LOUIS Lagniappe

January 14 System Administrators Meeting

Alexandria, LA

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