The Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) University Library is pleased to announce the Cal State University System’s (CSU) adoption of a next-generation online library services platform that will connect all 23 CSU libraries, facilitating increased collaboration across campuses and streamlining workflows. The implementation of this new Unified Library Management System (ULMS), provided by industry leader ExLibris, will take place in phases over the next two years, going live for all 23 CSU campuses in May 2017.
The new ULMS will enable a variety of collaborative efforts across campuses, from building collections to creating new services that will enhance teaching, learning, and research in the CSU. The ULMS will also ultimately lead to considerable cost savings as well as greater efficiencies in statistics gathering and analysis.
Above all, the ULMS will improve resource sharing, increasing the university community’s access to information in ways never seen before. Gerry Hanley, assistant vice chancellor for Academic Technology Services at the CSU Office of the Chancellor, maintains that the system “will enable the collective expertise of CSU library faculty and staff to build greater library capabilities at more affordable costs.”
The University Library is eager and excited to introduce this powerful new system to the CPP community and to enhance the ways it supports the everyday teaching, learning, and research needs of this great university, but the process will take time.
The initial data cleaning and verification phase of the project began in August 2015. Once phase one is complete, the library will then begin the extensive testing that is needed to shift successfully from the old system into the new. Initial testing will occur from April to June 2016, with final testing and implementation anticipated to take place in spring 2017 on all CSU campuses. While the migration to the new ULMS requires a great deal of work over an extended time period, this work is taking place behind the scenes, with no anticipated interruptions of access to library services and resources.
For the latest news on the progress of the library’s ULMS project, please visit the following library website: https://www.cpp.edu/~library/index.shtml.