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Alma / Primo VE Training

This guide offers guidance and training materials for the Alma and Primo VE system(s).

Welcome

Wheaton College, along with all other CARLI libraries, will be migrating from our current Voyager system to Alma. In addition, we will transition from using WorldCat Discovery and VuFind to Primo VE. This guide contains information about the project, updates, and training materials for both Alma and Primo VE.

Ex Libris provides a very complete set of openly available training videos and online documentation at knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com. Most of what is linked in this guide is derived from that site.

Sandbox information (Our test instances will be unusable after May 22, so these will be the best option for testing between then and June 24):

https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/alma/sandbox

Links to our test (and eventually production) instances:

Alma sign in with Wheaton College NetID

Alma for internal accounts (rare)

Primo VE

Glossary

  • Alma: The cloud-based, library system created by Ex Libris, which will replace Voyager at Wheaton College. 

  • Primo VE: The library catalog (public interface) which will replace both VuFind and WorldCat Discovery.  Wheaton College is using a version of Primo, called "Primo VE."

CARLI has also created its own Alma and Primo VE Glossary that may be helpful as a reference, and there is a complete glossary from Ex Libris as well.
 

Box Folder

Look here for links to additional, detailed information including presentations, reports on data migration, and more.

Key Dates

Date Impact Description
April 1

Alma Administrators; Acquisitions;
Voyager SysAdmin
  • Stop adding new libraries, locations, vendors to Alma
    test environment
  • Stop adding new locations and vendors to Voyager
  • Final date for Migration form changes to CARLI
April 22 Everyone
  • Last day to file any new Voyager work requests
    (WROs) for physical or electronic MARC record bulk
    imports or deletes
April 25 CARLI; Voyager Catalogers;
Circ Staff
  • Last day that CARLI will run any new or ongoing
    bibliographic bulk import loads into Voyager
  • Libraries stop loading new e-resource bibs and holdings in Voyager
  • Consortial AFN testing using ILDS Delivery to route Transit slips
April 30 Everyone
  • Last day for work in Voyager that stops during the “Tech Freeze”
May 1 Everyone
  • Technical Freeze starts
  • Stop making any manual changes to inventory in Voyager
    (i.e., stop adding/deleting/editing bibs, MFHDs, items,
    POs, invoices, serials check-in, etc.), and stop setting
    “OK to export” to send holdings to OCLC WorldCat
  • Stop making any changes to Alma configuration settings
  • Stop making configuration changes to Primo VE
  • Libraries return updated P2E files back to CARLI
May 8 SFX Admins
  • Stop updates to SFX
May 22 Everyone
  • Stop all Alma and Primo VE demo, testing, and
    training activities
June 11 Circ Staff and Patrons
  • Stop placing UB requests in Voyager
  • Continue "local" circ in Voyager
June 15 Circ Staff
  • Last day for Voyager patron batch purges
June 17 Circ Staff
  • Last day to file any new Voyager patron load WROs
June 17-19 Cataloging Staff
  • Bib load acceptance testing
June 19 Circ Staff
  • Circ Freeze Starts
  • Stop making any manual changes to patron records
    and circ status (adding/deleting/editing records,
    fines/fees, circ status)
  • I-Share libraries MAY opt to use Alma offline circ
June 22-23 Circ Staff
  • Fulfillment load acceptance testing
  • A test Username and Password will be distributed for this purpose - do not use your own account until go live is confirmed
June 24 Everyone
  • Alma and Primo VE live for all uses