How will the upcoming Library System upgrade benefit Teaching and Learning?

Unitec's Library Systems are being upgraded and moved to the cloud. The changes are due to go live on 4th December 2014.  Here are 5 benefits of the upgrade to teaching and learning at Unitec:

1)      Enhanced search,  discovery and delivery of resources

Our discovery layer application (Primo) which we call LibrarySearch (including catalogue) will be upgraded as part of the library system project, and this will integrate better with the new back-end library management system (Alma).  Students and staff will benefit from many new and improved features such as:

• More obvious distinction between physical and online access to items
• Facebook ‘like’ your favourite library books / resources. 
• Add a whole page of search results to your favorites in one click
• Ability to create more complex search combinations by simply ticking boxes to include/exclude certain topics.
• Ability to virtually browse shelves  – ie see a list of all books sorted by the number on the book’s spine

2)      Better access to full-text journal  articles and other e-resources

Data about eJournals and other eResources will be centrally managed and provided as a cloud service.  The data will be updated automatically and more frequently.  This means better access to electronic material as there will be a shorter delay between the database vendor/publisher releasing it and it being loaded into the Library system.

New workflow functionality will enable us to better manage our e- resources which will mean new eResources will be easier to try out, purchase and activate.


3)      Better access to usage information and other analytics

Our new system provides real-time dashboard reporting about how library resources and services are being used by students and staff. The improved access to analytics will make it easier to ensure Library resources and services stay relevant.


4) More frequent upgrades and updates keeping pace with future needs

Moving to the cloud means upgrades and updates will happen automatically and far more frequently. We will share our new system (Alma) with a global community of hundreds of tertiary institutions. Shared requests for enhancements needed to meet future needs for teaching and learning will be given high priority. 


5) Less risk of long service outages

The cloud service environment will provide better business continuity processes in the case of outages. Because Alma and Primo will be remotely hosted we do not have to worry about our servers getting old, and being stranded if one of them packs up.  There will be less likelihood of long outages due to server issues.


Want to find out more?

If you’ve got any questions please don’t hesitate to ask your Liaison Librarian or contact the Project Manager (Tom Nimmo).  Unitec staff can see our project page on the NEST for more information, plus there will be more updates posted on the Library website, Nest and Yammer closer to the go live date.