Spring 2026: Web Services, Systems & Operations
Untitled, 15. Children's Art of India.
Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.
Alma
Alma usage remained largely stable and typical throughout the Spring 2026 semester, and we’re pleased to report that fewer ‘mystery scenarios’ emerged related to fulfillment, metadata, electronic resources, and other areas than in previous semesters.
With the departure of the Reserves and Support Services Librarian who provided close faculty support, the Library paused typical requests for course resource list additions, edits, and rollovers. In response, members of the Operations and Web Services Team began servicing occasional requests for Course Resource Lists in May as the College transitioned from the Spring to Summer course schedule. Thankfully, much of our ability to perform this work was due to detailed documentation, with screen captures, of typical course resource list processes. We anticipate that work will be ongoing as the Fall Semester approaches and the new Resource Management and Access Librarian gains confidence with Leganto integrated with Canvas.
Primo
The Operations and Web Services team remains the authority on Alma and Primo Administration issues, and as such, the mandated transition of the Library’s discovery tool from Primo VE to Primo NDE is of paramount concern. The Team worked on the new product tirelessly during the Spring semester in preparation for the August launch. We interviewed members of Gottesman Libraries staff to understand core concerns about the Library’s catalog and public interface; gathered data about Primo Action Usage during the previous full academic year; and examined other live Primo NDE instances in the academic world. Data proved to be largely predictable – the most common actions for users were geared towards searching, faceting, displaying, and accessing full records, and generating citations for those records -- though we remained on our toes for an any surprising results in our research process.
Other Primo NDE instances encouraged us to ensure that the landing page of the catalog did not simply replicate the front page of the Library’s website, as the stock NDE configuration – like our homepage – contained five customizable buttons, a search bar, and space below for additional content. We wanted our landing page to be written with content specifically about searching our catalog, as we expect users who arrive on this page to have already seen our homepage and to be ready to embark on the research process.
Members of the Operations and Web Services team were keen to join Ex Libris’ ‘May Cohort’ of Primo NDE adopters, but discovered a mix of results: at times, a confusing discourse-driven program and rather mediocre in addressing questions. Well-versed in Primo views configuration, our team resourcefully found answers to our more pressing front end development questions elsewhere online.
Rollout of the new look of Educat+ is slated for August 2026. With launch of NDE, we also expect to build updates to our digital collections by way of Alma Specto Essentials, a new platform for managing digital content through Alma.
TerminalFour
Work on web properties in the Library’s domain remained largely stable and routine. The team mounted three digital book displays on the site, while also paying special attention to broad web accessibility provisions. The team felt it worthwhile to ensure that more of the Library’s content is usable by more people.
LibAnswers
In April, a defect in an HTML container on the Library’s website caused our chat widget to expand to a noticeably greater size. Mobile users, in fact, saw the widget expand to nearly the full width of their screens. In response, team members removed the widget from the website; rebuilt it from scratch; and remounted it in the College’s content management system. Although normal chat service was interrupted for about a week, it did not slow down the Library’s steady stream of reference traffic.
Throughout the semester, Operations and Web Services team members have aimed to provide a model of chat service to be emulated by Associates. They serviced 19 separate transactions from January to June and also responded to 78 tickets of varying complexity during the Spring semester.
The team remains the technical lead for the LibAnswers product, and responds to configuration and ‘how-to’ requests on an ad hoc basis. With the departure of the Reserves and Support Services Librarian in April, we took the opportunity to consolidate a variety of communication channels. This enabled various staff members to contribute to course resource list requests, purchase requests, and interlibrary loan requests more expediently.
LibGuides
In addition to NDE, the Operations and Web Services team expects to rollout enhancements to the look and feel of LibGuides properties over the Summer, including our 70+ Research Guides and our Databases A-Z homepage. These enhancements were created by Springshare to meet wider adoption of the latest Bootstrap conventions.
Work towards this goal for the team has involved attending webinars on the Bootstrap update, building out the backend of the new Databases A-Z management page, and outlining a plan of work for addressing this change in our many Research Guide Assets over the Summer. We’re eager to have these updates live at around the same time as our updates to Educat+.
MarketingCloud
The Operations and Web Services team helped bring to life five issues of the Library’s long-running Bookends and Beginnings newsletter, which largely involves transforming content developed in word documents and image generators into HTML, so that they can be delivered by email.
Digital Accessibility
We continued to represent the Library on the Digital Accessibility Task Force and are working towards the Title II deadlines for May of 2027. The Operations and Web Services team remains committed to taking accessibility concerns seriously, and takes them into account with every new piece of content published within our digital apparatus. Additionally, the team has begun to review already published content to see if and where additional work can be done to make vulnerable content accessible. The team predicts that in addition to accessibility concerns, the Library may be obligated to review our publishing standards to respond to the growing reach of AI.
A Few Stats
- Average Daily Visitors: 355
- Self-Bookable Room Bookings: 3,498
- Large Room Bookings: 95
Staffing Updates
Manager of Operations, Meryl Jefferson joined the Gottesman Libraries on Monday, March 2, 2026, midway through the spring semester. While Meryl was in the process of familiarizing herself with the library systems, she brings prior experience to the role. Before starting at the library, she spent four years in Enrollment Management, supporting the former Chief Enrollment Officer & Associate Vice President, and assisting with student needs within the Cowin Student Success Hub.
The Gottesman Libraries had several staffing changes recently, as many of our long- term Library Associates have graduated from TC. We sincerely appreciate their dedication and support; many of them have been with the library for two years.
The Manager of Operations has been actively handling documentation for numerous vacant positions within the Gottesman Libraries and conducting interviews with prospective new team members. This is an exciting period for us as we work to expand our staff to better support operational needs and our TC students.
