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Library IT

Projects

Below you will find lists of the different projects that LIT have either completed, are actively working on, currently planning, or currently researching.

This is not a a full list of requests that LIT is considering. That list can be found in this spreadsheet https://byu.app.box.com/file/966061270055 This list will be updated twice a month, typically on the 1st and 3rd Friday's of the month.

The tabs on this page have more details about the different projects in each of these phases.

Project updates for Design and Software Engineering
Summary
Active
Planning
Researching
Completed

Brief Overview of Projects for Design and Software Engineering

For a more detailed description of these projects please look at the details found in the tabs for each section.

Active

  • Online map improvements
  • Update look and feel of library main website
  • Improve EZProxy error page
  • Rosetta ingest tool: spreadsheets, compound objects, & configurable metadata mapping
  • ArchivesSpace metadata extraction for CONTENTdm
  • ARKs
  • Migrate WordPress sites to Brightspot

Planning

  • Improve item / resource type identification
  • Add predictive search terms to ScholarSearch
  • Honors Thesis processing
  • Ask Patrons to return On Hold items early
  • Search results 2.0
  • Search results 2.1
  • Search items details page
  • Preservation ingest tool updates

Researching

  • Website homepage 2.1
  • LibGuides UX and Design Guide
  • Improve Item Recommendations
  • Library services into the BYU App

These are projects that are currently being worked on by the Design and Software Engineering groups in LIT

Online map improvements

Implementing recommendations based on studies from the Assessment Department on wayfinding and user suggestions. We are looking into improved functionality and responsiveness in online maps - for example, removing legends and table data, adding adaptable orientation of maps, and changing what info is displayed as users zoom in and out.

Update look and feel of library main website

LIT is working with WWC to improve and update the look and feel of the library's main website. The changes will address concerns from patrons related to the freshness of the site as well as how things are organized. We will also be looking to update things to so there is greater alignment with the BYU online branding.

Improve EZProxy Error Page

The EZProxy error page is not very user friendly. Our intent is to improve the page with better messaging and web design.

Rosetta ingest tool: spreadsheets, compound objects, & configurable metadata mapping

As changes continue to happen in metadata management for Rosetta, it will be important to have the ability to quickly adjust to those changes. Adding the ability to change metadata mappings with out having to change the code will provide this greater flexibility. Also working on some fixes to the ingest tool and how it handles compound objects from the CSV file upload process.

ArchivesSpace metadata extraction for CONTENTdm

ArchivesSpace is the system that describes the manuscript section of special collections. A tool developed by LIT to help pull metadata from ArchivesSpace as items are digitized and put into CONTENTdm. This tool will not work with the latest version of ArchivesSpace. This project is to fix this situation and move the tool to a LIT supported tech stack.

ARKs

An Archival Resource Key (ARK) is a multi-purpose URL used as a persistent identifier for information objects. It is commonly used in libraries, archives, museums, genealogy organizations, and in many other areas. With the increasing number of digital items that the library is working with and with the number of systems where some or all of the information related to digital objects are stored, it is essential that we property correlate different instances of the same digital item in different systems. The purpose of this project is to explore implementing using ARKs as a persistent identifier of digital items and metadata and all the places where it can be used.

Migrate WordPress sites to Brightspot

WordPress and Brightspot are both solutions in the Content Management System (CMS) sphere. The purpose of a CMS is to make it easier for content owners to manage content on a website without needing to know how to write HTML. For more than a decade the library has used WordPress to help with the managing of content of some library sites. Over the past couple of years BYU has been using and encouraging the use of a campus wide CMS called Brightspot. Many websites on campus are now using Brightspot including the BYU main website. In this project we are looking at the 30+ WordPress sites that we currently have and evaluating whether it makes sense to migrate the content to Brightspot. We anticipate that many but not all of the sites will be migrated to Brightspot. Moving to Brightspot will increase the ability of content owners to manage the content of their sites and reduce the dependency on employees in LIT making those content changes. As we work through the list of sites each website steward can anticipate that they will be contacted by LIT to evaluate their site and the options available.

This is a list of projects that are currently in the planning phase and will be started as projects that are currently being worked on are completed.

Improve item / resource Type Identification

With improvements in cataloging metadata there is an opportunity to improve how ScholarSearch identifies a library item type. The purpose of this project is to improve the user's experience by using better metadata to more accurately identify an item type.

Add Predictive Search Terms to ScholarSearch

User research has shown that user's expectations are that a search tool will provide suggestions of terms to use to add to their search. The purpose of this project is to find a way to provide this service to library users.

Honors Thesis processing

The Honors program in BYU's Undergraduate Studies is adopting a new submission system that will be used by students to submit their Thesis for review and eventual publication and preservation by the Library. We will be updating our existing electronic Thesis and Dissertation processing system to handle the submissions for the new system.

Ask Patrons to Return On Hold Items Early

For high demand items, we want to include to our tool belt of meeting patron's needs as quickly as possible the ability to request of patrons who have a copy of an item on hold that they return the item early in order to help another patron get access to the item sooner.

Search results 2.0

Improvements to the library search results page will include an updated design taking advantage of more horizontal space from the navigation redesign. Updated information arrangement. Faster load times of search results.

Search results 2.1

This update will focus on the promoted results section of the search results. We will be improving the relevancy of what is returned. We will also redesign the promoted results with the goal of increasing user engagement with these results.

Search items details page

With an updated website navigation and more horizontal space to work with, we will be updated the layout of the item details. We also want to look at improving the user experience related to requesting an item from this page.

Preservation ingest tool updates

An updated tool is being developed to assist with the workflows and processes of ingesting and preserving digital items that they library has and continues to acquire. Improvements will increase the accuracy of information gathering and will help with the expanding efforts in digital preservation.

Here is a list of the requested projects that currently fall somewhere in the research cycle.

Website homepage 2.1

An updated version of the library homepage will address the following goals:

Realign information architecture and taxonomy (names, categories, etc.) of the main site to align with user tasks.

  1. Understand how data is being pulled in and how it should be displayed in the user interface
  2. Identify and define objects in the user interface that users can act upon to accomplish those tasks (ie “jobs to be done,” or, what jobs do users “hire” these objects on our site to do? And how do they know what they can act upon?”)
  3. Surface and investigate research questions that come up in a cyclical way that informs decision making in these sessions.

LibGuides UX and Design Guide

Based on best practices in UX and visual design, we have created a guide to help Librarians keep their guides consistent and serve users better. We are still finalizing it, but hope to distribute it in end of Winter semester 2024.

Improve Item Recommendations

We want to reevaluate how item recommendations happen in ScholarSearch and find a way to recommend more relevant items to the user.

Library Services into the BYU App

The BYU app is used by more than 90% of the campus community. We want to figure out which services will be most impactful and useful to students and employees to have in the BYU app.

Fall 2024

  • New version of library search released

Spring/Summer 2024

  • Migration of online schedulers to LibCal
  • Split search internal and public beta testing
  • Change library search to the new split search
  • Lots of excellent progress for Workday changes
  • Library systems are ready for Workday go-live in December 2024.
  • Full transition to using new Symphony user management tool.
  • Keeping the lights on by upgrading server operating systems and migrating of lots of web apps

Winter 2024

  • Feed LibCal data to the data store
  • Updates to helpdesk system
  • Database access for retirees
  • Lots of good progress on preparing for Workday
  • Print Demand Driven Acquisition (DDA) pilot

Fall 2023

  • Room and equipment scheduling system replacement, just over 75% of schedulers migrated
  • ScholarSearch split search prototype
  • Barcode generator for AuxStore
  • Development work for Symphony user account management
  • PII data cleanup continued

Spring/Summer 2023

Winter 2023

  • Data retention and cleanup
    • Currently just over half of the custom applications that have been identified that need to be cleaned up have been cleaned up and, where applicable, data for long term retention and reporting is being copied over to the Library's Data Store.
  • Changes to corporate author data mapping in ScholarSearch
  • Alphabetic Browse updated to latest technology stack
  • Updates to Rosetta harvesting tools

Fall 2022

  • Digital Exhibits Platform
    • LIT has decided that Brightspot will be the primary platform for online/digital exhibits. By request and with justification either WordPress or a custom built site can be considered.
  • Update technology stack for ScholarSearch
    • Technology gets old. One of the things that LIT does on a regular basis is update existing projects to more modern and secure technologies. Most of these efforts go unseen and are worked in with other project enhancements. It has been many years since we have done this for ScholarSearch. These updates were made live 14 December.
  • Data Store
    • As part of our ongoing data retention cleanup we have created a single place where application data will be stored for reporting and analytical purposes. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is automatically cleaned up based on the BYU Library data retention policy.
  • Employee contact info
    • Promoted results for library employees links to the library directory instead of displaying contact information in the promoted result.
  • Improved ISSN search for SFX
    • ScholarSearch is now using ISSN information from multiple locations in the catalog metadata to enhance journal finding via SFX.
  • Saints by State site
    • A site that is a joint venture with a professor from Religious Education. The site will contain stories about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from all 50 states in the US.

Spring/Summer 2022

  • ATOM
  • ATOM - new collections
  • My Account
    • Fixed several issues related to creating new requests and renewals of ILL requests
    • Completed automated tests which are used to verify that the system is functioning correctly before changes are rolled out to production.
    • Downloadable Patron History - A CSV download of all current and past checkouts as well as ILLiad requests both past and present.
  • Ring Central transition
  • Suggest a Book and Faculty Expedited Order forms are no longer open to non-BYU users.
  • Systems migrations
    • Moved the following systems to a new backend system:
      • Lettering app
      • Thumbnail generator
  • Tyk Transition
    • The system that BYU uses to provide API access to user information had some urgent needs and was changed with relatively short notice. LIT worked to be prepared for this change so that the library IT systems were not affected when the change happened.

Winter 2022

Fall 2021

  • New My Account experience
  • New ATOM collections (pre-production)
    • Capitol Records
    • Chinese Agriculture
    • Viola
    • Music Microforms Index
  • Migrate off of retired APIs provided by OIT
  • Shift in technology stack for the running of internal web applications

Spring/Summer 2021

Winter 2021