2CUL TSI E-Resources Troubleshooting Team

Report - PHASE 1: Investigation

Create an inventory of all policies, practices, tools, and workflows related to e-resource troubleshooting at both institutions;

• 2CUL Systems used for E-Resources - This spreadsheet describes the tools and systems used for various aspects of e-resource management at each CUL. (updated March 1, 2013)
• Confluence Wiki sites at both partners include policy, procedures, workflows, and best practice information for handling troubleshooting tasks.  Work is progressing updating these wikis following a matching organizational scheme with special focus on making troubleshooting information readily available to staff at both CULs. (in progress)

Identify dependencies and limitations inherent in working with different systems, user populations and e-resource packages and licensing;

and

Review policies, practices, and workflows related to e-resources troubleshooting at both institutions to identify points of harmony and points of discord;

• Points of Harmony and Discord - this is an initial list of points of Harmony and Discord that the team developed over meetings early in Phase 1.

Establish baseline productivity and staffing at each institution to allow for future assessment of changes and development.

• Productivity - Appear to be very similar levels of troubleshooting volume and nature of incidents - (Some analysis of the nature of incidents is still underway)
  • January-March 2013 - Columbia 244, Cornell 251 (very close month to month totals) - Accuracy of these is limited by different sources of information.
• Staffing levels and general workflow - Very similar numbers of individuals and time spend handling troubleshooting work

Based on our work so far, the team is looking more deeply at the following areas and tools to better integrate troubleshooting efforts:

• Off-campus access and variable browser configuration testing - BrowserStack - implementation underway.
• Troubleshooting tracking system - A single incident tracking system for all troubleshooting reports to automatically populate (Jira?  other?).
  • LIBIT-L@cornell.edu and cul-eproblem@columbia.edu or other appropriate sources of reports should feed directly into the system to avoid re-entry.
  • Easy to identify Cornell or Columbia issues
  • Ability to route issues
• Common ERM/LMS - Information access and data normalization? Variables include:
  • Serials Solutions ERM Suite and Consortial add-on - cost, implementation & migration workload, gain vs. loss regarding Alma migration
  • Alma implementation timeline
• Workflow and information access - Consolidate useful information into parallel wiki's or consolidated wiki?
  •  Develop guidelines of what to handle at 2CUL level, what to route to "owning" library.
• Other tools
  • Automated link/access checking - Callisto