[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** RE: Costs/Staff training/testing
Deanna Frazee
dfrazee at ci.killeen.tx.us
Tue Jun 15 14:47:28 EDT 2010
And sometimes you just have to say, "Too bad, we're migrating today even
though you never really bothered to train." Some will flounder, others
will realize they picked up more than they thought during their few
practice sessions. And everyone will survive it whether or not they
think they will.
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 10:51 AM
To: atz at esilibrary.com; Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Costs/Staff training/testing
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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