Breaking Ground: Consortial Migration to a Next-Generation ILS and Its Impact on Acquisitions Workflows

From June 2013 to January 2015 the Orbis Cascade Alliance (OCA), a consortium of thirty-seven public and private academic institutions, migrated to a new shared Integrated Library System (ILS), Ex Libris Alma, with Primo as the discovery component. The consortium wanted to cultivate an environment that would better support collaboration and sharing, particularly in the realms of collection development and technical services. This paper examines the immediate impact of the migration on acquisitions workflows, mainly of the largest consortium member, and the short-term and long-term goals following the completed migration. Lessons learned and suggestions for managing a consortial migration are offered, plus a discussion of what it is like to work in the cloud.