Project Team Relationships and End User Engagement

The project team at Coventry consists of the following members:
Caroline Rock – University Librarian (JISC Project Champion)
James Fisher – E-Resources Co-ordinator (JISC Project Manager)
Graham Daniels – Head of Electronic and Network Services (Primo Implementation Project Manager)
Sandy Forster – Head of Bibliographic Support (providing input on the management of bibliographic records from the Aleph Library Management System)
Paul Smith – Library Systems Manager (carrying out most of the technical developments on the Library side)
Theresa Morley – Assistant Subject Librarian (giving a user-focussed view to the project) Carolyn Haresign – Head of Academic Services (also giving a user-focussed view and providing experience of running focus groups)
Joanne Marsh - Repository Development Officer (providing input on integrating the University’s repository (Equella) with Primo)

The majority of the Coventry project team can be seen in these photos.

The project team from Ex Libris consists of the following members:
Georg Heiming, Ex Libris, Germany (Project Manager)
Lee Smith, Ex Libris, UK (working on Coventry Primo implementation for Ex Libris)
Leonard Wright, Ex Libris, UK (working with Lee on Coventry Primo implementation for Ex Libris)

Engagement with end users has already started with a survey to consider potential names for the CU Primo product when it is launched. Once the initial version of Primo has been made available usability testing will be carried out and the results of this testing will be used to inform changes that will be made to make the interface more intuitive. During the survey about the name for Primo, respondents were asked if they would like to volunteer to take part in usability testing over the summer and 40 people volunteered, leaving their details so they can be contacted about taking part in the testing.

Intellectual Property Rights

As required by JISC the case study report and all other outputs will be published using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike UK 2.0: England and Wales license.

Managing risks and success

The intention is to launch Primo in time for the start of the new academic year in September 2010, although it will continue to be developed and tested after the launch. If for some reason this is not achieved the contingency plan is to carry out a soft launch at a slightly later date, making Primo available alongside the current Library Catalogue and MetaLib systems. These other interfaces will then be removed later on, leaving Primo as the single user interface, for searching for Library material.

The risks that have been identified relating to the project are listed below, along with the actions required to mitigate against those risks.
1. The risk of losing key personnel can be reduced by building expertise across the team.
2. The risk of delays due to inter-departmental dependencies can be reduced by ensuring effective internal communication and the inclusion of relevant staff in the team.
3. The risk of delays due to supplier dependencies can be reduced by agreeing the implementation timescale in the contract.
4. The risk of the unavailability of stakeholders for consultation and feedback can be reduced by effective project planning and the offering of incentives and by engaging with stakeholders early in the project.

Since starting the project the team has realised that there is a risk to authenticating via Shibboleth with the Aleph Library Management System, which the technical members of the team are working to resolve.

It is hoped that Primo will be very popular with the users at Coventry. There are no major problems anticipated as a result of this. However, we do need to be aware of the resource implications of continuing to develop the product and ensure that there is staff time set aside to do this.
Similarly, if the case study report is well received this shouldn’t cause any problems.

Benefits from the project to Coventry University and the wider community

The introduction of Primo should benefit the users at Coventry by providing a simpler search experience and making information retrieval easier as previously outlined. It will also simplify searching by providing a single point of access when linking from other student systems, such as the VLE and student portal. This should help to improve student satisfaction. The new interface should also increase confidence that the best use is being made of the Library’s resources.

The case study and usability testing should benefit the wider community by deepening the understanding of the information seeking behaviour of the ‘google generation’, piloting Web 2.0 technologies, testing the adequacy of harvestable metadata and testing the interoperability of related information systems. It should also be of benefit to the Primo community who may want to use the report to inform changes to their own Primo interfaces.

Project aims, objectives and outputs

This is a blog about the Coventry University Primo Implementation Project. This is a project to implement Ex Libris’s product Primo as the single user interface for searching for all Library material (books, journals, articles, DVDs, streamed video, etc.) at Coventry University. The new interface will search the Library Catalogue, the Library’s federated search tool (MetaLib), pre-harvested metadata from certain Library databases and the University’s Institutional Repository (Equella). This should help to deliver the objectives of the project which are:

1. To provide a consistent user experience when retrieving Library information from a range of databases and other data sources (e.g. the Library Catalogue, MetaLib and Equella).
2. To improve the efficiency of information retrieval, using web 2.0 functionality
3. To increase the use of the Library’s e-resources in order to improve return on investment. The enhanced and more intuitive interface should lead to an increase in the identification and use of the e-resources.
4. To contribute to the development of a ‘community of learners’ by offering social networking tools appropriate to an HE information environment

The experience of implementing and evaluating (with usability testing) Primo at Coventry will be written up as a case study to be submitted to JISC and shared with the Library community.