Weekly Update, September 15, 2025

September 15, 2025

LSP Migration

Announcements

Upcoming Watch Me Work sessions

September 18, 10-11AM. Join the Training and Documentation Working Group who will show searches for Fulfillment, Acquisitions, and other work. Alma’s Persistent Search bar offers powerful searching capabilities, but it can be difficult to remember how to get the results you need, and which search dropdowns to use. Participants are welcome to share tricks that you have found to keep your searches relevant. Register here.

September 22, 10 – 11AM. For the Cataloging and Metadata Working Group's second installment of their Watch Me Work series, Presenter Stefanie Hunker (Bowling Green State University) will demonstrate holding and item record basics in Alma (based on her work in the Browne Popular Culture Library). Basically, this session will be in the spirit of "So, you've got a record in Alma, now what do you do to make it available for use?" Register here.

September 23, 11:30AM – 12:00PM. Join the Circulation & Resource Sharing Working Group to watch presenter Brenda Zwayer (Bowling Green State University) demo Alma's Shelf Report tool for shelf-reading/inventory in the stacks. Student workers use a tablet and a barcode scanner to scan each item on the shelf. This tool creates a report showing which barcodes are in place, mis-shelved, missing, or not in the catalog, allowing a quick and easy way to manage physical inventory. Note: this WMW is only 30 minutes long. Register here.

September 25, 11AM – 12:00PM. Join the Circulation and Resource Sharing Working Group for Watch Me Work: Using Item Policies as the Basis for Fulfillment Unit Loan Rules (rescheduled from August). This session will review the setup of a Fulfillment Unit with locations that have different Terms of Use (TOU) assigned based on the Item Policy and User Group involved in the loan. Presenter Scott Trimmer (Cuyahoga Community College) will break down Fulfillment Unit Rules into three distinct groups to ensure College-wide rules, Location Specific Rules, and Overall Rules are applied in the correct order; and cover a standardized naming convention for Rule Name and Rule Description. Register here.

DUX WG Open Call: Teaching with Primo VE: Experiences, and Plans, Sept 23, 10AM

Whether you’ve taught with Primo VE or are overwhelmed with the thought of integrating it into your instruction, the Discovery and User Experience working group invites you to join this open call to learn what colleagues are doing, get tips, share plans and experiences, and ask questions. This session welcomes guest presenter Stephanie Kays from Denison University who will share their experiences teaching with Primo VE. Register here.

Action needed by Sept 22: Central & OHDep Catalogs go offline next week

The classic view of the Central Catalog (olc1.ohiolink.edu) and the Ohio Depository Catalog (ohdep.ohiolink.edu) will be shut down on Monday, September 22, 2025. Please check your web sites and remove/update links to these catalogs. Traffic to both catalogs will be redirected to pages explaining that these URLs are no longer reachable and that users should contact their OhioLINK library for more information. The redirect will remain in place for one year.

Knowledge Acceleration Program begins October 7 

The Ex Libris Knowledge Acceleration Program (KAP) is a webinar series created specifically for libraries who have gone live with Alma in the last six months. These live sessions for OhioLINK members will focus on a range of topics that libraries often request to help them optimize Alma during their first year of production. These are open to all library staff. Each session includes 60 minutes of instruction delivered by the Ex Libris Training Services team. Learn more and register.

New Directors Orientation, Oct 17

Please save the date for the New Directors Orientation on October 17. Each year OhioLINK hosts an orientation session for new leadership at member libraries. This event is particularly beneficial for library directors who are new to Ohio and unfamiliar with OhioLINK, although it has also been well-received as a valuable review for experienced staff too. We encourage all new leaders to attend this informative, in-person event. Details regarding this meeting will be shared via the Directors’ list. If you have any questions, please contact Tasha Bryant-Willis.

2025 Membership Report available

We’re pleased to share the Fiscal Year 2025 OhioLINK Membership Report. Yes, we migrated to a new system, but together we accomplished so much more! (You’ll need an Ostaff account to be able to take advantage of many links in the text. If you don’t have an account yet, please ask your manager to request that one be created for you.)

Ongoing call for crowdsourced content

Even though we’re live, let’s continue to work together to help the entire OhioLINK community by crowdsourcing Alma/Primo/Rapido training, documentation and communication materials and Primo VE code and customizations. Check out what’s been contributed here.

Vendor Webinars

LibKey update, Sept 30, 3PM

LibKey is a calendar year opt-in resource available to OhioLINK institutions. Join Third Iron President and Chief Librarian John Seguin, MLS, on Tuesday, September 30 at 3:00-4:00 pm to learn more about LibKey’s useful new enhancements: expanded retraction data, AI, and the Nomad ++ extension. John will share an overview of LibKey, provide live demonstrations of LibKey showcasing the new features, discuss the benefits libraries are reporting, and answer questions. Join the Webex here. Meeting number: 2422 267 8325; Password: WsmmMSty625

Professional

Registration open: NOTSL Fall Meeting, Oct 3

Register here for the NOTSL Spring General Meeting, titled Tectonic Shifts: The Changing Landscape of Technical Services. Steve Kelley, Head of Continuing Resources & Database Management at Wake Forest University, and CORE President Elect, is our keynote speaker. Lacie Griffin, Collection Development Manager, Johnson County Library, and Past President of CORE’s Metadata and Collections Section, will present “Technical Services in Public Libraries.” Cynthia M. Whitacre, Sr Metadata Operations Manager at OCLC (recently retired), will present “Musings on Past, Present, & Future of Technical Services.” Daniel N. Joudrey, Professor and Director of the Libraries and Librarianship Concentration, Simmons University, will present “Technical Services: The Next Generation.” View full program.