July 27, 2021
Please see NZ Project Updates for metrics
- Named Users Reductions – we have met our contractual obligations on the consortium-scale for this, and while there are still a couple of institutions that need to reduce their numbers, and a few that need to purchase additional allotment, this is largely completed and should be finalized in the next few months. Going forward, targeted emails will be sent to schools that go over their allotment so we can make sure to keep things straight forward.
- Change The Subject Project (NZ) - Library of Congress Subject Headings include terms related to noncitizens and undocumented immigrants that are pejorative and offensive to many users of OneSearch. This problem has been well documented and discussed among librarians since 2016 when proposed changes to the terminology by the Library of Congress were rejected by Congress, and unable to be implemented. Changes cannot be made by our consortium or college/district institutions to portfolio records from electronic collections that are part of the Community Zone. Offensive terminology will still be visible in OneSearch depending on the source of the record. Although vendor records are increasingly being changed to use preferred vocabulary, it is not consistent. To prioritize the User Experience, the NZ will replace non-preferred terminology found in MARC 6XX for all bibliographic records linked to the NZ. We are currently in the final stages of testing our normalization rule and process and once that’s ready, this will be applied to all existing NZ records and setup to apply to any incoming records going forward.
- Change The Subject Project (IZ) – this is a second part of the previous project; in that we will make our normalization rule / process available for any college that wants the same subject changes to be applied to their non-NZ linked records. We will make the code available after successful implementation of the previous project.
- Bibs w/o Inventory Removal – the second metric to which we need to adhere is a number of bibliographic records (non-journals) across the consortium. To that end we have identified a number of schools that have unused bibs that aren’t linked to any items that need to be removed (likely caused by removing electronic collections without selecting the proper option of deleting bibs). This project is largely completed, with several schools with a tiny number of bibs left – to be completed in the next few months.
- NZ Activations PHASE 1: Bib Record Limit Per Contract – second part of our effort to minimize bibs across the consortium by activating collections at the NZ and sharing them out with the individual institutions instead. While the tracking shows 45% completion that shows the number of schools that have removed absolutely everything from their IZ and are on NZ-activations only – we are much closer to 100% than this, with several schools still needing to do their deletions. Will be completed by the end of Fall 21.
- NZ Activations PHASE 2: NetLibrary Legacy Collections – an effort to move all EBSCO NetLibrary collections to be NZ-activated and shared out with the schools, exactly as collections from the previous project. Currently testing an sFTP solution for immediate CZ updates to those collections. Likely to be available at the start of Fall 21.
- NZ Activations PHASE 3: No Previous Activations – this is a sweeping project aimed at cross referencing currently subscribed to collections and what’s actually been activated by each institution, with the goal of every single collection that every school pays for to be activated at the NZ and shared with them properly. Additionally, envisioning seamless activation of any newly purchased collections going forward.
- Publishing to OCLC – continuation of the project started under the previous NZ Admin – currently in information gathering stage aimed at working out what steps have been taken by individual institutions and restarting / starting or continuing the implementation of the Publishing to OCLC process.
- CCLC FOD – in recognition of the poor quality of FOD records available at the CZ, this will implement full records to be uploaded to the NZ and shared with appropriate schools to greatly increase discoverability and quality of the records. Currently, all import profiles have been tested, waiting to consult ERM and Cataloging about the particulars of the collection in the Fall.
- ALMA NZ Analytics Reports – in recognizing that many collections are now shared out via the NZ, there is a need to begin to create appropriate reports for each school to easily track usage of those collections. Early stages of development, likely to start in the Fall.
That’s about it from me for July. Please stay tuned for more info in the upcoming months. Thank you, and as always – please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Don’t forget to submit tickets to our HelpDesk or email directly if it’s urgent.
