Alma Impact and Value Report University of Salford and Ex Libris The University of Salford is a public university in the UK with undergraduate and post-graduate programs in the liberal arts, business and law, health, media, and the built environment. Salford serves 17,000 students on its campuses near Manchester. Salford’s three libraries have a combined staff of 81 FTE, and the collections include 350,000 books, 23,000 e-journals, and 575,000 purchased e-books. Previous ILS/Systems: Capita Alto (previously known as Talis Alto), SFX Summary of Institutional Moving to Alma Benefits: Salford’s consideration of a next department, which had its own generation library system began with priorities for upgrades and • Alma and Primo provide one-stop a proposal to the University to programming. Basic needs such as discovery and access to resources for support a digital library, including fiscal year rollover had to be planned users self-service, RFID, and a discovery months in advance, and system. The University had also enhancements for the Library • Alma gives library staff control to move invested in a campus presence at frequently waited in a queue. Salford collections and make policy changes MediaCityUK, which houses the was paying additional money for BBC, ITV, and other media-related development and consulting to • Libraries can measure their businesses. The Library needed integrate their LMS with external performance and effectiveness using systems, technologies, and systems, such as their self-check Alma Analytics collections to support the teaching at machines. They wanted to streamline this campus. to fewer systems, improve their control, and plan for the future based To leverage the potential of Primo, on the needs of their user which had already been community. implemented, the Library needed to With a need to spend the capital consider its Library Management money devoted to their digital library System (LMS). Their goal was to project within the University’s create a gateway for all library timetable, Salford issued a tender services, providing discovery and and prepared a business case with a access to resources and improving total cost of ownership comparison. the student experience. Salford’s Alma was the clear winner. previous LMS had not been updated to keep pace with the increase in electronic resources’ acquisition and usage, resulting in many workarounds, manual processes, and spreadsheets. The server was controlled by the University IT enabled analyses of in-house usage of materials. With Alma on a In addition to management informa- tablet, staff can easily capture tion, Salford expects to develop usage by walking through the reports to analyze how well users Impact of Alma building. Information about collec- are taking advantage of the libraries’ tion usage is important to support services. There are national flexibility offered by Alma’s configura- the Library’s ongoing transition to projects in the UK to collect data to The Libraries Gain consolidated collections. Staff can assess library impact and to Control tion options in many ways that would have required external make informed decisions about correlate use of the library with consultants or additional licenses in which materials to move, store, or student success. Salford hopes to Adopting Alma made it possible for the past. Staff have set up their discard. Access to the Alma Cloud make more use of Analytics to the Salford libraries to address own integrations with external page also supports business extract this data. strategic priorities in timely and interfaces, including RFID. They continuity priorities with Alma’s 24x7 responsive ways. The library staff have configured rules to allow for monitoring and the transmission of Improved User could take on work that had online fine payments. Library staff emergency notifications when Experience previously been performed can edit patron letters to include issues arise. exclusively by their vendor or by the desired wording; for example, they Salford is a teaching university with university IT department. In the added text to promote elections for With their greater understanding of a strong emphasis on students and past, vendor and IT priorities were student union. Alma gives them Alma configurations and their data, the user experience. According to not always aligned with the libraries’ easier ways to communicate with the Salford libraries are now in a Angela Walker, Digital Library goals and the libraries often had to their users. stronger position to provide input Manager, reducing the number of wait for their needs to be into campus IT developments that systems a student needs to use in addressed. With Alma, library staff Configuration control allowed affect them. They are better able to order to find information was a have taken control of identifying and Salford to test a proposal to identify needs and issues, and can primary goal when Salford selected prioritizing their requirements. eliminate most fines. Staff were able be more demanding and challeng- Alma and Primo. The library Access to Alma configurations to set up scenarios on Salford’s ing in articulating what is required to removed the online catalog and allows the staff to make needed Alma Sandbox, try different options, improve their service to users. created a one-stop shop for users “Moving to Alma reinforced changes quickly and to introduce and implement the changes. The on Primo. Alma workflows are new policies and programs to Salford’s strong focus on staff felt comfortable that they could Analytics for visible to staff and students in support their users. students and improving the user respond quickly if there were any Management and Primo. Users can see their account issues. There were no major Assessment information and follow the progress A major strategic priority for the experience” problems, however. of new materials as they are Salford libraries involves creating a Salford was very interested in the processed and moved to their Angela Walker, Digital Library Manager digital library environment, adding Other functions where Salford staff capabilities of Alma Analytics. Their home location. Alma provides an technologies to support increasingly enjoy the benefits of configuration workflows were already stream- audit trail for staff, making it easy to electronic collections and services. control include: EDI record loading; lined, but they did not have good track materials in transit. New This project includes closing and batch changes, where the library management information on electronic resources purchases are consolidating libraries, moving and staff can see their files and resolve whether their processes were quickly discoverable and accessible reducing physical collections, problems if necessary; import efficient. With Alma Analytics, the to users in Primo thanks to Alma’s renovating spaces in the main profiles and normalization rules, Collections manager has a view of efficient e-resource acquisitions and library, and providing dynamic now handled by the metadata the department’s activities and how management workflows. physical collections that would librarian; adding new vendors; and, well the library’s suppliers are reflect learning needs when and adding new users. For Salford, performing. Staff are setting up where they are needed. In this taking control means taking scheduled reports to pull together context, it was important for Salford responsibility for setting priorities management information for all of to be able to manage their print and enabling staff to perform their libraries. Salford can see that collections easily. In their old needed changes in support of future developments in Alma system, moving a collection when a those priorities. Analytics will further support their library closed would have taken efforts to provide good value for the weeks. With Alma, it took them half Access to Alma in the Cloud University’s investment in Alma. an hour to create sets and apply a provides additional capabilities that process to change the necessary support decision-making and locations. strategic priorities. Alma allows the Salford has taken advantage of the library staff to be mobile and has enabled analyses of in-house usage of materials. With Alma on a In addition to management informa- tablet, staff can easily capture tion, Salford expects to develop usage by walking through the reports to analyze how well users building. Information about collec- are taking advantage of the libraries’ tion usage is important to support services. There are national flexibility offered by Alma’s configura- the Library’s ongoing transition to projects in the UK to collect data to The Libraries Gain consolidated collections. Staff can assess library impact and to Control tion options in many ways that would have required external make informed decisions about correlate use of the library with consultants or additional licenses in which materials to move, store, or student success. Salford hopes to Adopting Alma made it possible for the past. Staff have set up their discard. Access to the Alma Cloud make more use of Analytics to the Salford libraries to address own integrations with external page also supports business extract this data. strategic priorities in timely and interfaces, including RFID. They continuity priorities with Alma’s 24x7 responsive ways. The library staff have configured rules to allow for monitoring and the transmission of Improved User could take on work that had online fine payments. Library staff emergency notifications when Experience previously been performed can edit patron letters to include issues arise. exclusively by their vendor or by the desired wording; for example, they Salford is a teaching university with university IT department. In the added text to promote elections for With their greater understanding of a strong emphasis on students and past, vendor and IT priorities were student union. Alma gives them Alma configurations and their data, the user experience. According to not always aligned with the libraries’ easier ways to communicate with the Salford libraries are now in a Angela Walker, Digital Library goals and the libraries often had to their users.