Quinnipiac University

Challenges with Previous ILS

Q: Describe your previous ILS and what encouraged you to search for a replacement. What specific “pain points” were you hoping to alleviate? What were you hoping to achieve by implementing a new ILS?

A: Quinnipiac had Sierra in a very limited implementation. There was no e-resource management system, and there was very limited and difficult reporting. There were components of Sierra that Quinnipiac had not purchased due to cost containment measures, and that severely limited functionality. The product was not being updated. We were also frustrated with customer service, specifically response times for tickets were slow or unhelpful, (although to be fair after Ex Libris & ProQuest acquisitions, it did improve quite a bit).

Evaluating FOLIO as a Replacement ILS

Q: What critical evaluation factors were part of your search for an ILS? 

A: We wanted more flexibility in a system that we could use to improve our workflows and enable more staff to tailor workflows necessary for efficiency and ease of use. We wanted an e-resource management system. We needed better tracking of our budget and expenditures, and better ways for administrators to easily see how much funds had been expended on what budget lines. 

Q: What are the primary factors that led to the selection of FOLIO with support from EBSCO? 

A: The EBSCO staff seemed interested in supporting a smaller institution, which was encouraging whereas Alma seemed more targeted to providing the services and workflows needed by very large institutions. In addition, there was a lot of positive energy and excitement about FOLIO in the library community.  It was very refreshing.  Our old ILS just seemed so old and stale, with no exciting future enhancements to look forward to, at a very high cost. 

Q: Was a committee involved in choosing your ILS? What departments and roles were involved in evaluating a new ILS, and why?

A: Our selection committee had members from 3 different libraries, which included an Undergraduate library, a Law library, and a Health Sciences library.  While many of the committee members were from Tech Services, we made sure that Access Services was represented as well.

EBSCO FOLIO Senior Implementation Consultant, Jordon Andrade, said, “Working with Quinnipiac University on their transition to FOLIO was an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the adaptability and power of the FOLIO platform. Through close collaboration with Quinnipiac, we were able to address their unique challenges—like simplifying workflows, enhancing e-resource management, and aligning financial tracking with institutional needs.” Andrade continued: “Quinnipiac’s commitment to innovation and excellence in library services has set a great example for institutions of their size, and I’m excited to see how they continue to evolve with FOLIO.”

Post-Implementation Impact & Measurable Results

Q: How has FOLIO impacted your library, your general and power users? Have you seen measurable results and benefits from implementing FOLIO? 

A: We have reduced the time needed to process books after they arrive in the library for print from a week to a day, and for e-resources to appear in the discovery system from a maximum of one month to a maximum of two weeks. The process of getting order records for e-books from GOBI is now automated. These are significant staff savings, and it is better for patrons who can now find books in a timelier manner.

Managing finances in FOLIO has been a great improvement. Our fund codes are now in line with our Quinnipiac budget system, making it easier to reconcile our expenditures. It is also now significantly easier for administrators to see at a glance what has been spent.

There have also been a few small questions that we have come across in our cataloging process. For example, when we add a record to the system outside the usual purchase workflow, the call number isn’t automatically pulled from the MARC record currently resulting in the staff to take additional steps to complete the process. However, this has been recognized by the FOLIO development teams, and they are currently committed to working on them. Extracting data or making lists is also difficult. The reporting is currently limited in FOLIO making it more difficult to perform routine tasks.  

Kathleen Moore, Senior Agile Product Owner from EBSCO highlighted that the Lists App in FOLIO and some of the features that have been released in the most recent FOLIO releases to highlight ongoing developments aimed at addressing these limitations:

“The Lists app aims to provide actionable lists in FOLIO at the point of need. The beta version of the Lists app was introduced in the Poppy release, and each subsequent FOLIO release has included enhanced functionality and expanded data coverage.”

She also noted that “As of the Ramsons release (February 2025), the Lists app supports querying: inventory records (instance, holdings, items), loans, organizations, purchase order lines and users. The Sunflower release (expected Fall  2025) will expand coverage to include finance, invoices, and orders. Future enhancements will empower users to create lists that join different record types together and will significantly broaden data coverage to include areas such as MARC data, fines, fees, circulation, and more. We are looking forward to seeing how Quinnipiac enjoys these new features.” 

Q: How has FOLIO impacted the library staff? Are there time savings as a result, and what are some of the lessons learned?

A: Staff have taken ownership of workflows that impact their job. They have written the documentation for workflows and have made changes to either how they do work or how FOLIO is configured. 

Staff also benefitted from working across libraries on the implementation. They were able to help each other and share implementation work and knowledge. Some of that cooperation has carried over into our work post-implementation. 

We were able to streamline the print book purchasing, so that instead of getting the copy cataloging after the print book arrives, we now do it when the book is ordered. This means that when the book physically arrives at the library, we have a faster process for checking the book in and processing it, which can now largely be done by student workers. 

We also radically overhauled our fund codes during the FOLIO implementation, to both simplify and put our library bookkeeping more in line with how our budget is managed by the university. Administrators can now use FOLIO to see an accurate reflection of our spending, along with encumbrances. 

We were able to set-up automatic user/patron loads on a daily schedule, which we were not able to do in our previous system. Previously, all three libraries had to run the established process separately and would have to repeat any time new patrons needed to be added.

We can now utilize the EBSCO MARC updates service to automatically load e-resource records to EDS directly, instead of having to load them to the ILS which we did previously. This has freed up a considerable amount of staff time.

We are currently trying to learn how to build reports in FOLIO because FOLIO does not have a native reporting solution. We are having trouble learning EBSCO’s supported product, Panorama.

Corrie Hutchinson, EBSCO’s Product Manager for Panorama, highlights that “There are online tutorials to help with learning Tableau including an Overview and Creating Custom Dashboards Using Explorer License created by Molly Driscoll, Senior Customer Training Specialist, EBSCO and plans are underway to provide a data manual that will clarify where and how metrics are determined and displayed in Panorama.” She also noted, “We're also working on dashboard adjustments including better labels and clearer charts. We appreciate the feedback and are actively working to make it easier to use for FOLIO customers.”

Because FOLIO is browser based, it is much easier to access as opposed to the desktop app that we used previously.  We no longer worry about installing the app on new computers. Staff can also access from off-campus much easier than before.

Conclusion: A Meaningful Evolution in Library Services

Quinnipiac University’s adoption of FOLIO has brought about meaningful improvements in how the library operates and serves its users. From faster processing of materials and streamlined financial tracking to enhanced collaboration across departments, the transition has empowered staff to take ownership of their workflows and better support patrons. The ability to automate key processes and align systems with institutional needs has not only saved time but also improved access to resources. 

As FOLIO continues to evolve, Quinnipiac is well-positioned to take advantage of new features and ongoing enhancements which ensures their library remains responsive, efficient, and forward-looking.