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-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Cynthia Williamson Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 10:51 AM To: a...@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 <jatzber...@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 <dfra...@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-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@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 <grog...@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-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Deanna Frazee [dfra...@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 dfra...@ci.killeen.tx.us ________________________________ From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org on behalf of Georgette Rogers Sent: Mon 6/14/2010 5:39 PM To: open-ils-general@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