From Alephino to Alma, a shortplay in three acts. An ILS migration post-mortem by the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten Library

Abstract

he University of Applied Ssciences St. Pölten Library was one of the first Austrian libraries to migrate to Alma, partaking in the “Aleph succession” project alongside 13 other ACC members. While the project name suggests otherwise, our library's source ILS actually wasn't “Aleph” but “Alephino” – the latter using a fundamentally different backend architecture. Since we were the world's first Alephino library to migrate to Alma, Ex Libris, too, had to venture into uncharted territory. Following the complex global tender, we underwent an intensive, two-year-long preparation phase that ended in August 2017 when we went live with our production environment. In this article we speak about some of the highs and lows we experienced during our journey and specific challenges we faced as a small institution.