Weekly Update, September 29, 2025

September 29, 2025

LSP Migration

Announcements

Switch to Support: Intro and How to Create an Actionable Support Case, Oct 2

Please register for the first in a series of OhioLINK "switch to support" information sessions that will ease the transition to working with Ex Libris support by providing practical advice about working with Ex Libris and the OhioLINK office on support issues for Alma, Primo, and Rapido. On October 2 at 1-2PM, we will provide an overview of what "switch to support" means followed by a deep dive into best practices for writing a support ticket, with time for questions. Open to everyone.

Upcoming Watch Me Work sessions

October 7, 2PM, Watch Me Work: Adding Subject Browse Links to Full Record View. Join Zebulon Wimsatt (Oberlin College) of the Discovery and User Experience Working Group for a demonstration that will cover configuration of the Browse Search function and Oberlin's process for adding browse links to full record view in Primo VE. While this demonstration is about adding subject browse links, the approach is viable for other Browse Search indexes (author, title, genre, etc.). Register here.


October 9, 2PM, Watch Me Work: Configuring Alma's Resource Recommender. Join Michayla Nester (Denison University) of the Discovery and User Experience Working Group as she walks attendees through the process of adding entries to things you would like to feature at the top of Primo search results. The Resource Recommender gives you a lot of flexibility in what you display in Primo, which makes it the perfect tool for sharing library information, highlighting specific databases, and more. Register here.

October 16, 2PM, Watch Me Work: Setting up a Primo Warning/Alert. Join Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy (University of Cincinnati) of the Discovery and User Experience Working Group who will walk you through the process of adding an alert/warning to the top of your Primo pages. As we head into the Fall with winter weather closures on the horizon, this feature is a great addition to your Primo toolkit. Register here.


October 21 at 2pm, Watch Me Work: Two Approaches to Report a Problem in Primo. Join Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy (University of Cincinnati) and Simon Robins (University of Dayton), both of the Discovery and User Experience Working Group, as they demonstrate setting up the "report a problem" link within Primo. Aja and Simon will provide overviews of each of their institutions’ distinct setups for this feature, detailing their decision-making processes, as well as discuss how their links have been used since go live. Register here.

For Faculty: Oct 3 deadline for applications to OhioLINK OER Course Redesign Grants

Librarians, please share with your faculty. Are you interested in reducing your students’ textbook costs? Would you like to make it easier for students to access your course materials? Are you curious what people mean when they talk about open educational resources (OER) or open textbooks? Do you find it difficult to change textbooks because you work with a team of instructors to teach a high enrollment course or it's difficult to redesign a course you have been teaching for years?

If you answered yes to any of these questions but aren’t sure how to make changes—and can’t afford the time to think about it, consider applying for OhioLINK’s Fall 2025 OER Course Redesign Grants! Deadline is October 3rd. Learn more about this opportunity to teach with OER.Contact Anna Bendo with questions.

Knowledge Acceleration Program begins Oct 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

Registration is now open for OhioLINK’s annual New Directors Orientation scheduled for October 17. OhioLINK hosts this orientation each year to support new library leadership across our member institutions. While especially beneficial for those unfamiliar with OhioLINK, the session has also been well-received as a valuable review for experienced staff. We strongly encourage all newly appointed library directors and leaders to attend this informative event led by Amy Pawlowski. If you have any questions, please contact Tasha Bryant-Willis.

Migration survey

We’ve been live on Alma/Primo for three months now. While things are still top of mind, we would like to gather some baseline feedback on how people are feeling about the migration—the OhioLINK Sept 2025 LSP Vibe Check. Just three very brief questions. Aggregated results will be shared with OhioLINK members in a future LSP Webex update. As always, your input is invaluable and will help shape future collaborative activities and communications. We’ll do this same survey again in 2026 so that we can see how things have changed.

Central & OHDep Catalogs

Because resources are now available through our libraries’ Alma/Primo catalogs the classic view of the Central Catalog (olc1.ohiolink.edu) and the Ohio Depository Catalog (ohdep.ohiolink.edu) are no longer functional, as of September 22. Please check your web sites and remove/update links to these catalogs. Traffic to both catalogs is being 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.

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.