LTS Newsletter: September 2025

Library Technology Services, Harvard Library

Welcome to Library Technology Service’s occasional newsletter for anyone interested in Harvard Library IT.

Collections Explorer

The Reimagining Discovery team is thrilled to announce that Collections Explorer is now live!

Join us on Thursday, October 23rd from 2:00-3:00 for a virtual open meeting for library staff about the new platform. The meeting will include a discussion of the technology behind the search tool, how staff evaluated LLM features, and hands-on activities. Zoom details are in the attached calendar invite.

Collections Explorer brings together semantic search, natural language processing, and generative AI to deliver more meaningful, relevant results—helping researchers and students uncover hidden gems across Harvard Library’s collections. You can search for questions like, “What is the history of MRI technology?” and “Who were leaders in the pro-choice movement?”.

Collections Explorer currently contains all published finding aid data from ArchivesSpace. Over the coming months, additional data sources will be added including records from HOLLIS Images. Development of this system is an iterative process, and we welcome your feedback. Check out the Staff Documentation Center wiki for more information about Collections Explorer.

Adding Pictures to HOLLIS Pages

Did you know you can use Alma-D to add pictures to HOLLIS pages? For example, see a reference photo of a ballet slipper in the Theatre Collection. This feature is supported through Alma functionality, and can be used for many purposes, such as displaying book bindings or endpapers, tech lending objects, etc. The LTS Documentation Center includes instructions for adding pictures to HOLLIS pages.

Leganto Updates

The update of the HKS/Leganto LTI 1.3 integration for Canvas and the migration of reading lists from Ares to Alma/Leganto represents an important step in modernizing course reserves and ensuring alignment with current library systems. LTS worked with HKS Academic Technology and reserves staff to configure, test, and validate the new LTI 1.3 connector in a sandbox environment before moving it into production, confirming its integration with Leganto and Alma. In parallel, LTS assisted with preparing and standardizing course reserves data from Ares so it could be imported into Alma/Leganto, enabling existing lists to be reused in the new system. A process was also set up for importing associated data into lists, providing a foundation for ongoing updates. Together, these efforts supported a smooth transition to the updated platform and established a more consistent workflow for managing course materials.

Maintenance Sprints: Keeping Production Systems Healthy

What are maintenance sprints?

Maintenance sprints are short, time-boxed iterations of development and maintenance work dedicated to systems that are already in production. The aim is to deliver upgrades, fixes, small enhancements, and other outstanding work so that services continue to be reliable. During the maintenance sprint, LTS implements, tests, and deploys the system updates; product and service owners verify and accept the work. Completed work is shared with the Library community at the conclusion of the sprint.

Maintenance sprint planning

Service owners and product owners review possible maintenance sprint work for each system. The work is prioritized based on considerations such as user impact, risk of deferral, security risk, and overall effort. When scheduling maintenance sprints, LTS considers both capacity and operational needs.

Examples

Security updates and fixes to systems such as Streaming Delivery Service, LibraryCloud, and ACORN DRS ingest service
Retire systems such as the DRS Storage Manager
Remediate accessibility issues in CURIOUSity