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UC is Moving to a Hosted VDX Solution at OCLC in 2012

February 3, 2012 Author: Patricia MartinCategories:

By Patricia Martin, Director, Discovery & Delivery

The Council of University Librarians, in consultation with several All Campus Groups and SOPAG, has endorsed CDL’s plan to move the management of UC’s VDX application from in-house at CDL to hosting at OCLC. The completed implementation is targeted for mid-June of 2012.

This change will allow CDL to continue its responsibility for VDX production services while sharing some of the system management duties with OCLC.  Looking to the future, UC will be well positioned to work with OCLC on implementing a new software solution when VDX is retired in 3-5 years, as OCLC has previously announced.

What will change for UC?

  •  CDL will continue to provide first level triage of all of the ILL units’ user support tickets, but OCLC will now have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring timely and satisfactory resolution of all tickets.  CDL will continue to work very closely with OCLC here.
  • OCLC will now have primary responsibility for all software upgrades. CDL, along with campus participants will test and certify the upgrades before they are put into production.

What will change for ILL units?

  •  ILL units will use a new “Windows” login to access the VDX application at its new host location. (The current “Web” login will not change.) CDL will communicate separately with the ILL units to provide detailed instructions and ensure a smooth transition to the new “Windows” login.
  • The two campuses that run special reports, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara, will receive their data by a slightly different method. CDL will work with OCLC and these campuses to ensure they receive the data they need.

What will change for our end users?

  •  Nothing. This change will be transparent to our end users.

Moving forward

  • CDL has begun working with OCLC to develop a timeline and project plan, which we will share within the UC libraries when it is finalized.
  • CDL will be asking the CDL ILL Operations Team and each of the campus ILL units for assistance in testing during April 2012. We will keep you updated on our progress and let you know well in advance the dates when we will ask for your help to test or review the rollout.