Migrating link resolvers didn’t seem that big a deal until discovering data was coming from 3 sources simultaneously! These slides display the challenges encountered in the transition from 2 link resolvers to 1, exposing glitches, re-verification of access, and why the change ended up being worth it. This was originally presented at the Electronic Resources & Libraries 2017 conference in Austin, Texas.

1. The Adventure of Too Much Data:
Migrating from SFX to Ebsco’s Full Text Finder
Amy Castillo
Periodicals & Electronic Resources Librarian
Tarleton State University - Dick Smith Library
Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) 2017 Conference
April 5, 2017 | Austin, Texas

2. The case
Migrate from one vendor’s link resolver/A-Z list
platform (Ex Libris’ SFX) to another’s (Ebsco’s Full
Text Finder) with as little “damage” as possible
e.g. lost holdings, dropped access points,
downtime for patron’s use, etc.

3. The plan
Go from start to finish in about
6 months’ time.
We were fortunate that we had
several months to run both link
resolvers simultaneously
before SFX was shut off.

4. What actually happened
● I imported holdings from SFX (excluding all
A&I resources since FTF does not display
those)
○ I received a number of error reports of
titles that could not be imported. This
was more or less expected.
● Ebsco imported holdings selected in their
previous link resolver product, Linksource/A-
Z which I regrettably forgot about
● Ebsco also imported titles from Ebsconet
orders/EJS - unfortunately there were
glitches that came along with this
Forgot!
Glitches!
Error
Reports!

5. Sorting it out & playing detective
• Turned off the order integration feature for 2 reasons
o To stop any further glitches from occurring which had caused all of the titles pulled from
Ebsconet/EJS to display “No Access” as the coverage date - patron’s could see this!
o To stop interference of conflicting information of pending or old orders that were overriding my
own changes
• Used the “Download Holdings” feature in FTF Holdings Management to pull
reports that helped find affected titles - including Hidden titles
• Due to titles that could not be imported from the SFX holdings list (error reports),
needed to gather entitlement lists & coverage dates directly from publishers site’s
to make sure I selected the appropriate titles & coverage information
• Created lots of spreadsheets to keep this and other aspects of the migration as
organized as possible

6. Keeping
organized with
spreadsheets...

7. Full Text Finder
Holdings Management
aka the back end

8. Full Text Finder
Holdings Management

9. Packages

10. Titles

11. Something I still
don’t like...
When in a title record there is the
ability to do Package-level changes
such as selecting and removing the
entire package.
While a warning box does come up
when deselecting something (for both
title & package) it just doesn’t make
sense to be able to have the package-
level functions at the title level.
I accidentally de-selected an entire
package this way and lost all
changes/selections/coverage
information with no ability to recover
the information from either my end or
Ebsco’s end….

12. Make sure your packages link to something
Links button

13. Download your holdings!

14. Publication Finder
aka Full Text Finder
aka the front end

16. Integrated with
EDS
We chose to integrate Full
Text Finder into EDS
which allows patrons to
search within publications
and take advantge of
EDS’s A&I resources.
Branding, colors, & logos
from EDS profile are
applied to the Full Text
Finder/Publication Finder
interface as well.

17. In Conclusion

18. Lessons learned & some
advice
o Find out first where the data that
will be imported from and
whether you can get a copy of
the data first in case it needs to
be reviewed and/or exported
back out.
o Cover yourself by periodically
downloading all holdings.
o If possible, allow for overlap time
between migrating systems https://goo.gl/images/rwutCO

19. The good things
● We got through it! Holdings are more
accurate as a result & I receive less
notices of incorrect information to fix
from fellow library staff or patrons.
● A quick survey of Tarleton library staff
showed that on average using Full Text
Finder is as easy or easier to use than
our former link resolver.
● All respondents (11) said yes when
asked if having Full Text Finder
integrated with our Discovery system is
helpful.
● Shout out to Carol Seiler, our Ebsco
account manager, who helped us
through the migration and put us in
touch with her colleagues to resolve
technical issues.
https://goo.gl/images/rEsYDH

20. Thank you!
Amy Castillo
acastillo@tarleton.edu
Periodicals & Electronic Resources Librarian
Tarleton State University - Dick Smith Library