What's been happening

Not long after the last post it became clear that the libtics project was going to struggle to get traction within Alma using, academic research libraries. I was (and am) living in Spain, with limited opportunities, and budget for getting around and doing the needed marketing. I felt a bit ‘outside looking in’.

libtics.org — updates

It’s been a quiet few months at libtics.org with the main item of note being the construction of vagrant and docker development environments for people who want to share in the analytics content development. But, I think I can say that libtics.org is now fully live.

libtics.org — what it is and where it came from

The project, libtics.org, began as an enquiry from the University of Leeds, via Ex Libris, about providing some training materials for internal use. Leeds were interested in developing analytics capability within the institution, having recently (in 2019) become users of Alma.

Cycling around Padul, Granada, Spain

Fancy doing some cycling in Spain, around the Sierra Nevada, Valle de Lecrín or La Alpujarra? Yep, I thought so. Then join me on my photo tour ride this morning. I do this loop frequently. It’s straight out the door, about 40 km with 750 m elevation gain and takes around two hours. And it’s stunning.

Business plan, for want of better words

Now that we have settled into life in our new home over the past year I’d like to continue doing some work in the realm of HE library analytics. The simplest mechanism would be to just take work when it’s available and bill for time and expenses as necessary. It’s just that it’s neither practical nor legal to do that. Please read on.

Graffiti wars and views while out cycling

For no particular reason¹ I thought I’d share the views and graffiti I’ve seen while out cycling, enjoying semi-retirement, near Padul and Durcal. If you’ve been to Spain you’ll know there is plenty of graffiti on various themes to go along with the usual tagging and knob and balls. No doubt I’m misinterpreting some language.

The top of the retirement slope

It’s time to begin semi-retirement. On 31^st January I leave the Digital Innovation team at Lancaster University Library, my place of work for almost 15 years. I’ll miss my colleagues, I hope some will miss me.

EPUG-UKI Alma Analytics Day 2015

Or, trying to organize a mini conference/workshop in a rush is not wise

After getting back from holiday on 21^st September, some mild panic ensued. The second AAD (Alma Analytics Day) under the auspices of EPUG-UKI was due in 12 working days, with two of those being the actual EPUG-UKI AGM and another day in York. Nothing had taken place beforehand due to heavy involvement in a JISC Research data spring project called DMAOnline and attendance at the IGeLU15 conference.

Simple Alma printing

Quite some time before implementing Alma we had decided that we would no longer be generating printed notices. The only thing we would be printing would be hold shelf slips to be placed into requested items before placing on the hold shelf. This simplifies the task, but I think that the solution we came up with is extensible if more printing than this is required.

The first Alma Analytics EPUG-UKI SIG away day

Well, what was it? Social get together, workshop, unconference, extended chat, exchange of experience, inaugural SIG meeting? A bit of all that. I’ve written up the day on the wiki we agreed to set up. These are personal reflections on the day.