Welcome to Library Technology Service’s occasional newsletter for anyone interested in Harvard Library IT.
Change Management Primer
Change is constant, yet navigating it successfully can be a significant challenge. Organizational Change Management (OCM), also known as Change Management, is critical in ensuring smooth transitions and user adoption. Whether implementing new technologies or optimizing processes, change management is essential for success.
What is Change Management?
Change management is a structured approach to preparing, equipping, and supporting individuals, teams, and organizations as they transition from a current state to a desired future state. Change management focuses on minimizing resistance, maximizing engagement, and achieving the intended outcomes of the project or initiative.
Why Change Management Matters
Change management bridges the gap between technical implementation and human adoption. Without it, even the best technology can fail to deliver its full potential. By focusing on the people side of change, technological advancements enhance productivity, collaboration, and innovation.
The Role of Change Management in Technology Transitions
Change Management practitioners collaborate with project managers and technical teams to ensure that new technologies are deployed and adopted effectively. They also work closely with stakeholders to identify potential barriers, develop tailored communication plans, and provide training sessions. By addressing concerns early and fostering a sense of ownership among users, high adoption rates and positive feedback are achieved.
Learn More Live!
Join the Project Delivery Forum (PDF) on January 30th at 3:00 PM for in-depth insight into the basics of organizational change management.
Google Scanning Projects – Book Condition in Alma
As part of an in process project to review and update automated metadata feeds for both ongoing scanning and metadata synchronization for discovery in GBS/HathiTrust, LTS identified condition metadata captured by Google during prior scanning processes that may be of interest to library staff. This metadata has been added to the Alma item record “Physical Condition” field. The data was only added to the item records if the condition field was blank; LTS did not overwrite any staff entered condition data. This data is now available to view in item records in Alma, and reportable in Alma Analytics. Alma Documentation for Item Physical Conditions has been updated with details about the codes added from the Google metadata.
Open Athens Update
The initial test phase of the OpenAthens migration is now complete! To refresh your memory, OpenAthens is an authentication system that provides single-sign on access for subscribed electronic resources (e.g. journal articles). It is a replacement for EZProxy and will offer more flexibility in how users are authenticated.
The test phase included the following platforms:
Brill
JSTOR
Project MUSE
Taylor & Francis eBooks
Taylor & Francis Journals
Wiley Online Library
Users accessing library resources on those platforms are now directed through OpenAthens rather than EZProxy, though they will continue to log in via HarvardKey for access.
Starting this month, we moved into the second phase of implementation, which includes approximately 150 resources that will migrate from EZProxy to OpenAthens. These resources were prioritized because of the method they use for authentication. It is more secure and it relies on single-sign on, rather than IP address for authentication. Currently, we are configuring these resources and will continue testing through January and February with a tentative plan to go live in March over spring break. A full list of resources in this phase will be made available soon. Please look to the Open Athens page on the LTS wiki for updates.
Chinese Rare Books
In collaboration with the Harvard Yenching Library, the National Library of China, and Taiwan's Academia Sinica, the Library Technology Services (LTS) team is committed to enhancing access to and unlocking the knowledge in the Chinese Rare Books collection, which is among CURIOSity’s most heavily used site. Our joint effort aims to enable full-text search capabilities across the entire collection.
Currently, we are in the process of distributing approximately 3.4 million page images, totaling 11 TB of data, to our international partners. This data will allow their scholars to perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR). Due to logistical and geopolitical factors, we are sending this data the old-fashioned way: via hard drives in the mail.
We look forward to the next phase of this initiative, where we will integrate the extracted text into the collection to provide full-text search functionality. Stay tuned for further updates.
Refresher: Getting the Most out of LTS Support Requests
When you have a question or a problem with a library system or service, you want answers ASAP, and LTS wants to help! Asking yourself two important questions as you prepare to submit your support ticket will make sure you get the assistance you need as quickly as possible:
Are you asking in the right place?
LTS can help with technical issues related to library systems like Alma, HOLLIS, DRS, ArchivesSpace, and many more. But other types of questions will get a faster, better answer elsewhere. Here are some common topics and who to contact:
General computer issues like VPN, Windows/Mac, Outlook, or software installation: Email the HUIT Service Desk
Report an issue with an e-resource link: HL ITS E-Resources Team
Questions about library practices or policies: The relevant HL library or department
Report HOLLIS record metadata errors: HL ITS Metadata Management
Report an issue with a physical item’s status or shelf location: HL Access Services
That said, if you’re not sure where to turn, LTS Support is a great place to start. We work with nearly every unit across the HL and HUIT, and if we can’t answer your question, we can usually help figure out who to redirect it to for a better response.
Have you included all the details?
Since LTS does support such a broad swath of systems and services across the library, we know a lot about our library systems but less about the day-to-day details of local workflows in a particular unit. You know your local practices much better than we do. Especially if you’re reporting a technical problem, always make sure to include:
Context: What system were you in and what screen were you on? What were you trying to do? What operating system and browser were you using?
Detailed Description: What did you expect to happen, and what happened instead? If there’s an error message, what is the error text? A screenshot or link to a screencast is often worth a thousand words, but make sure to give us the whole window, including the URL bar.
Steps to Reproduce: List the steps we can take to reproduce the problem behavior.
Taking a few moments to consider these two questions means that the person who’s reading your ticket will better understand the issue you’re reporting without having to spend as much extra time on follow-up questions. It often benefits you more directly, too -- the process of thinking through and writing down the details of the issue for someone else may help you see a pattern or a possible solution to the problem before you’ve even submitted the ticket.
Staff Presentation
Harvard Library and LTS jointly presented at the recent CNI conference (Coalition for Networked Information) on the topic of Reimagining Discovery: Transforming Access to Collections with AI-driven Exploration.
“Library Technology Services Newsletter: January edition,” Harvard Library, © 2025 by Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College is licensed under CC BY 4.0