[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Costs/Staff training/testing

Cynthia Williamson crwbookgirl at gmail.com
Tue Jun 15 11:50:33 EDT 2010


Couldn't agree more re staff testing - our one "do-over" would be changes to
the way we did staff testing/training.  In a past migration project at
another library, when our vendor did the training months before we went live
(we had no choice about timing), I knew staff wouldn't retain what they'd
learned.  I created exercises for them to do on a weekly basis, they had to
work together in pairs and they had to hand in their "homework".  In going a
more casual, open source, learn-yourself way, my big under-estimation was
staff engagement.  They just weren't as excited about EG as Robert and I
were.  We're lucky to be an academic library with a slower summer time so it
all worked out for us.  And our circ desk is not crazy busy as some public
libraries circ desks can be so that made the "learn while live" situation
doable.  It all really means that, in spite of some universal truths, you
have to make your plan according to your own situation. Its not a one size
fits all situation, many things can be done differently depending on how
much time & money you have and depending on the skill levels and engagement
of your staff.
Cynthia

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Joe Atzberger
<jatzberger at esilibrary.com>wrote:

> Not making time to get trained on a new system also correlates to the
> predictable moments of freak-out like "Where's the XYZ button?!  WHY ISN'T
> THIS EXACTLY LIKE THE OLD SYSTEM!?"  Sometimes I think half the value of an
> on-site trainer is just to get people to do what they otherwise were
> supposed to do anyway without a trainer.
>
> Having provisioned test servers for staff use before go-live, I've noticed
> that they sometimes go virtually unused by staff who are supposed to be
> "playing around" to isolate and configuration, data conversion, workflow or
> actual logic problems (in addition to training themselves)!  I imagine that
> that activity is always assigned a lower priority than their "real work",
> right up until they make the jump.  So the only way I see to avoid that is
> to make elements of testing a higher priority, or to get test-experiences
> into a dialog so that there are more concrete expectations earlier in the
> process.
>
> I think NEKLS did a good job of that by posting regularly to a migration
> blog when they were moving to Koha.  My 2 cents...
>
> --Joe
>
> On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 9:37 AM, Deanna Frazee <dfrazee at ci.killeen.tx.us>wrote:
>
>>  The document Cynthia attached contained a universal truth in the very
>> first bullet point.  Staff may intend to test the system, but they will not
>> get around to it.  In spite of ample time to test, our staff has been
>> terrible about getting on there and learning how to use it.  Most seem to
>> think that they will “just pick up on it” when we go live.  We have really
>> had to stay on top of them and watch while they have trained to keep them
>> from wandering off or just doing a 5-10 minute training and claim that they
>> are prepared.
>>
>>
>>
>> Deanna
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:
>> open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] *On Behalf Of *Cynthia
>> Williamson
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, June 15, 2010 8:24 AM
>>
>> *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group
>> *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Costs
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Georgette - Like Deanna said, cost is different for everyone.  We spent
>> @ $7500CAD on our server, 2 full-time people worked on getting things up and
>> going for the better part of a year - that allowed us to keep up other parts
>> of our jobs.  We went live well before our support contract with our former
>> ILS vendor expired - that allowed us to do a very soft launch and do lots of
>> troubleshooting/tweaking and some more staff training.  We did contract with
>> Equinox for some programming (booking module @ $8000USD) but did not spend
>> any money on training or migration. The EG community has been a big help, I
>> can't really say that we did it on our own.  I've attached a list that I've
>> shared with some other folks that gives some details of our process, please
>> use it/share it as needed.
>> Cheers, Cynthia
>> Mohawk College,
>> Hamilton, ON
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 8:47 AM, Georgette Rogers <
>> GRogers at libertylakewa.gov> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you so much for the reply.  I am not authorized to send out an RFP,
>> but I will pass the information to my director and she will take it from
>> there.  I really appreciate all the information that has been coming to me
>> from the list serve.  I will probably have more questons.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks again
>>
>>
>>
>> Georgette
>>
>> *Georgette Rogers*
>>
>> *Circulation Supervisor*
>>
>> *Liberty Lake Municipal Library*
>>
>> *23123 E  Mission Ave*
>>
>> *Liberty Lake, WA 99019*
>>
>> *509-435-0778*
>>
>> *1-866-729-8507*
>>   ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org [
>> open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Deanna
>> Frazee [dfrazee at ci.killeen.tx.us]
>> *Sent:* Monday, June 14, 2010 7:07 PM
>> *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group
>> *Subject:* [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** RE: Costs
>>
>> There really isn't a set cost.  We bought a server, paid Alpha-G for
>> migration services and have self-trained.  But it has not been a simple
>> process.  There have been numerous delays as I dealt with issues that left
>> us too short-staffed to cope with a migration at times and as we have worked
>> with Alpha-G to get things right so that we can go live with as few
>> interruptions to service for our patrons as possible on the go-live day
>> (next Monday).
>>
>>
>>
>> There has been some training out there for Evergreen, but much of what you
>> will need to do is look at the manuals that other libraries have created
>> in-house.  From there, you may have to just experiment with it to see how it
>> works.
>>
>>
>>
>> Since this is not an out-of-the-box solution, the price will be unique to
>> your situation.  Your best bet is to send out an RFP with the details you
>> mentioned below as well as infornation on your current ILS.
>>
>>
>>
>> Evergreen offers a lot of flexibility, but it is for those intrepid enough
>> to take on an ILS without formal documentation and without the sort of
>> full-time training staff that you often get with an established proprietary
>> system.  These things will come with time, but they aren't here now.
>>
>>
>>
>> Deanna Frazee
>> Killeen City Library System
>>
>> Killeen, TX
>>
>> dfrazee at ci.killeen.tx.us
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org on behalf of
>> Georgette Rogers
>> *Sent:* Mon 6/14/2010 5:39 PM
>> *To:* open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
>> *Subject:* [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Costs
>>
>> Could anyone tell me the cost for implementation, self hosting, maitence
>> and training for the Evergreen system.  We are a 9,000 square foot library,
>> we have 28,000 items and about 5,000 patrons.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you
>>
>>
>>
>> Georgette
>>
>>
>>
>> *Georgette Rogers*
>>
>> *Circulation Supervisor*
>>
>> *Liberty Lake Municipal Library*
>>
>> *23123 E  Mission Ave*
>>
>> *Liberty Lake, WA 99019*
>>
>> *509-435-0778*
>>
>> *1-866-729-8507*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> “Many a man stumbles across the truth, then picks himself up and hurries
>> on as though nothing had happened.” Winston Churchill
>>
>
>


-- 
“Many a man stumbles across the truth, then picks himself up and hurries on
as though nothing had happened.” Winston Churchill
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