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Library Services Platform Selection - Progress, Past Activities, & Principles

Project Progress

The Working Group (WG) finalized the LSP requirement specification in mid December and worked with Procurement and Contract Management (PCM) to post the RFP before the Christmas break with the closing date for proposal submission on January 25th, 2024.

A Selection Committee of five has been formed to evaluate the proposals: Weiwei Shi, Lindsay Johnston, Natasha Nunn, Ian Bigelow and Elaine Coupland. There will also be subject matter experts (SMEs) from the Library, as well as IST participating in the proposal evaluation and providing their advice on respective functional areas.

The plan is to complete the evaluation and have an LSP vendor selected by the end of March 2024.

Past Activities

Environmental Scan

From June to September, 2023, the WG reached out to seven universities with comparable size and complexities of collections to gather information on their LSP migration, experience and lessons learned. The Seven institutions: Cornell University (FOLIO with Blacklight as discovery layer), Duke University (Aleph+FOLIO with Blacklight), McGill University (OCLC WMS & WorldCat), McMaster University (Alma & Primo VE), Michigan State University (FOLIO with VuFind+EDS), University of Chicago (FOLIO with VuFind+EDS), University of Toronto (Alma & Primo VE). Please explore the links to try out their interface.

Solutions Exploration

From June to September, 2023, the WG invited five enterprise level LSP vendors and service providers to demonstrate their LSP solutions and services:

  • EBSCO (FOLIO/EDS)
  • Ex Libris (Alma/Primo)
  • Index Data (FOLIO/VuFind)
  • OCLC (Worldshare Management Services)
  • SirsiDynix - BLUEcloud

All staff can review the demo recordings in the Learning Management System (LMS).

User Requirements Workshops

In October and November 2023, WG held a number of workshops/meetings with different user groups/units of the Library to walk through the project scope and high-level requirements, as well as to discuss and gather staff inputs and feedback on the LSP requirements.

Focus areas / User groups / Units Workshop / Meeting schedule
Discovery, Circulation and User Experience Oct 24th, Oct 26th and Nov 9th, 2023
Access Services Oct 26th, 2023
Cataloguing Strategies & Collection Strategies Oct 30th, 2023
Digital Collections, Special Collections, and related functions Nov 6th, 2023
Administration, Copyright, Facilities and all other units Nov 9th, 2023 (same session as the 3rd one of the Discovery, Circulation and User Experience workshop)
Technical Nov 6th, 2023

Please refer to links below for workshop materials:

LSP Selection Principles

WG identified a list of high-level principles that could guide us in deciding requirement priorities and assessment criteria/matrix for the LSP:

User-Centric Tools:

  • Current needs: Provide user-friendly tools for all patron types and for staff, improving accessibility, resource discovery, and workflow efficiency and effectiveness.**
  • Future needs: Have a well-defined roadmap and inherent potential to meet evolving user needs over the next 10 years.

Sustainable & Flexible Technology Strategy

  • Sustainable technology: Prioritize economically viable solutions that support long-term use without straining resources, **
  • Modern and agile technology: Provide a framework for rapid adaptation, easy exit strategies, and future-proofing against changing requirements, while remaining aligned with modern technology approaches.
  • Interoperability and Compatibility: Enhanced interoperability and compatibility through industry standards, flexible data architecture, and robust web services for seamless integration and data flow.**
  • Efficient Service Delivery: Ensure efficient services by minimizing downtime, optimizing data indexing, responding promptly to user needs, and facilitating of collaboration with partners. **

Support Open Strategy

  • Open Metadata Ownership: Ensure all library-created metadata remains openly accessible and owned by the library.
  • Promote Open-Access Collections: Actively enhance the accessibility and discoverability of open-access collections.

Optimize Metadata Management and Application

  • Single Source Metadata Management: One single metadata location to manage metadata for one type of information, eliminating duplication and errors, and streamline processes.
  • Flexible Data Models and Standards: Support diverse formats and standards, allowing phased integration including BIBFRAME implementation.
  • Quality Metadata and its Application: Provide, optimize, and leverage the breadth of metadata that is available to us

** Higher priority

If you have specific questions please submit those in LibAnswers - LSP Info for Library Staff or contact a Working Group member.