ELUNA 2015

In December 2014, Western Michigan University Libraries prepared and completed a migration document for our move from Voyager to Alma. The process was more complicated than expected, requiring several meetings between the WMU Implementation team and Ex Libris and substantial collaboration among department and unit heads within the library in order to finish this document on schedule before our initial load in January 2015. Our presentation will outline our Migration Form completion process including lessons learned, surprises and some potential best practices for libraries planning to migrate from Voyager to Alma.

The project was slightly more difficult and rushed due to the fact that our migration date was pushed up from late in 2015 to an official cutover of May 2015. We had to contend with learning our new project management system while also navigating further cleanup procedures we still hadn’t finished (for instance, a patron purge), and our questions about the migration document itself.

We had various issues we did not anticipate when we first started. While every library is different and may not experience the same problems we did initially, it is prudent to consider the potential issues that may arise during the initial migration process. We suggest that librarians ensure they will give themselves adequate time to fill out this form, otherwise they may run the risk of delaying their cutover or causing much unneeded stress. 

Alma