Library Moves to the Cloud

A new cloud-based software system, called Alma, went live last July on the college library system. This transition has been made by most of Washington State’s four-year institutions; however, Pierce is the first cohort of community and technical colleges to make the transition to Alma.

“The decision was made for two reasons,” says Christie Flynn, dean of library and learning resources.  “We knew that this innovation would ultimately benefit students and we wanted to get the system into students’ hands as soon as possible and we have a fantastic technical team who could do the work.”

With the transition to Alma, students now have enhanced research capabilities.  What used to require several individual searches by the student (i.e. web search, catalog search, database search) now is completed with one request.  Alma searches all available resource channels and streamlines the results at one time and in one place. Students will never see Alma, but will become familiar with its interface called Primo located on the library home page.

In addition to the library’s database subscriptions and physical library catalog (books, periodicals, etc), Primo/Alma looks to open access sources (free and shared scholarly information) such as the US National Library of Medicine, Project Gutenberg, the Directory of Open Access Journals and more.  This offers the Pierce student more research sources than before.

Giving students the opportunity to learn how to research using Primo/Alma was another consideration for the decision to transition.  Most of Washington’s universities have already switched to Alma. “Student success was at the center of our decision to move to Alma,” says Flynn. “Students will experience a more seamless transition to 4-year institutions and will be better prepared for lifelong learning.”

From an IT perspective moving to a cloud-based program means less software upgrades.  According to Lesley Caldwell, systems librarian and one of the faculty who oversaw the project, “Over the last 18 years there have been 9 upgraded versions to the library’s research software. Each time the IT Dept. would update each individual PC in the library. Now with the switch to Alma, the upgrades are done behind the scenes at ExLibris (the company that created Alma) and we receive a message from them letting us know of the changes.  It really saves a lot of time and effort on our part.”

Although the upgrade to Alma took place last July, Primo looks the same as it has in the past. When asked about the student experience with the new cloud-based system, reference & instruction librarian Kaitlyn Straton shares, “I don’t know if students have any notion that it’s different, but the search results are certainly better for the students.”

 “What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education,” said Harold Howe a leading American educator. Given that, Pierce College has strong feelings about education.