13 EPUG UKI members joined in a workshop on how to create cost-per-use dashboards in Clarivate Ex Libris’ Alma Data Visualization (DV) at the University of Sunderland on Friday 10 July 2026. Participants braved some unusually warm weather to spend the day together in the classroom learning first how identify and clean the correct usage and financial data and then to pull it together into a single dashboard.

The workshop was a combination of background, demonstrations and hands-on exercises. Each participant was able to work in their own Alma instance to create a visually appealing dashboard that would work with their financial and COUNTER usage data to display crucial information to library stakeholders: namely how much is the content from a subscription being used compared to its price?

The workshop was led by the University of Sunderland’s Michelle Halpin, who was assisted by her Sunderland colleagues Ian Frost and Leah Emary. For a taste of what participants created, you could watch Michelle’s recent presentation at the EPUG UKI Spring Event.

The recordings from this year’s Sping Conference, held at the British Library, are available below and via YouTube.

EPUG-UKI Welcome and AGM Business plus IGeLU update

Lee Houghton starting the day with an update on EPUG UKI’s state of play and a finance update on behalf of Laurence Lockton, treasurer. Followed by an IGeLU update on behalf of James Dodd, IGeLU Steering Committee

Primo working group update and using Google’s AI products by Paul Harding

Primo working group update and using Google’s AI products to support and develop Ex Libris products by Paul Harding, University of York

NDE implementation at Nottingham Trent University by Richard Cross, Nottingham Trent University

NDE implementation at Nottingham Trent University by Richard Cross, Nottingham Trent University

Customer Service Update – Martin Buescher, Ex Libris

Customer service update

Leganto Course rollover: Testing for success Laura MacNeil, University of Edinburgh

Leganto Course rollover: Testing for success by Laura MacNeil, University of Edinburgh

Developing a new Inventory Control client by Sara Burnell & Ben Gable, Bodleian Libraries

Developing a new Inventory Control client at Oxford by Sara Burnell & Ben Gable, Bodleian Libraries

Ex Libris Update – Alan Oliver, Ex Libris

Ex Libris Update from Alan Oliver, Ex Libris for the EPUG UKI Spring Conference 2026

Connected Cost and Usage Data Workflows in Alma DV Michelle Halpin, University of Sunderland

Connected Cost and Usage Data Workflows in Alma Data Visualization, session by Michelle Halpin from University of Sunderland

Q&A / Discussion

Hosted by Martin Buescher & Allan Oliver from Clarivate Ex Libris

Creating and connecting datasets to visualise cost, use and cost-per-use in an Alma DV Dashboard

EPUG-UKI Workshop led by Michelle Halpin & Ian Frost, University of Sunderland
Date: 10th July 2026, 11:00-3:30pm
Venue: University of Sunderland, St Peter’s Campus

Register

This workshop is for Alma Analytics users who want to create automated cost-per-use collection dashboards within Alma Data Visualisation. The workshop will share tips for clean and tidy data preparation and offer you step-by-step activities to create, connect and visualise cost-per-use data insights.

Part 1 – workshop starts at 11am

1.5 hours of workshop: demo and supported practice activities

Break for one hour lunch at 12:30pm

Part 2 – workshop resumes at 1:30pm

1.5 hours of workshop: focus more on people working to make their own workflows / dashboards with trainer / peer support

Workshop ends at 3:30pm

To take part in the workshop, you’ll need to bring your own laptop device and have Alma Analytics access permissions.

Participation is free of cost and will include drinks and a light lunch.

Address:  University of Sunderland, Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter’s, St Peter’s Way, Sunderland, SR6 0DD (How to get to the University of Sunderland).

There is ample car parking at the St Peter’s campus or you can take the train to Sunderland and then walk 20 minutes or take the bus to the St Peter’s campus. You could also take the train to Newcastle and then take the Metro (30 minutes) to the St Peter’s stop, and walk for 10 minutes to the Reg Vardy building.

The University is located on the River Wear, and within walking distance to the Roker seaside. So participants might consider combining this with a weekend to explore the North East.

Dear EPUG-UKI colleagues,

This year’s AGM & Spring conference event will be on Monday 11 May 2026 (9:30-4:30 GMT), and will take place in person at the British Library Knowledge Centre in London. Hybrid attendance will take place via Zoom.

Registration is now closed. Attendance is free of charge and a light lunch and hot drinks will be provided. You may register to attend via Zoom up until Friday 8 May.

There is an opportunity to submit questions for Ex Libris & Clarivate colleagues. Please do this by Friday 1 May 2026 either as part of your registration or by emailing epuguki.secretary@gmail.com.

Joining details for hybrid attendees will be mailed out nearer the conference date. The event will also be recorded and made available shortly afterwards.

EPUG-UKI Spring Event Programme, Monday 11 May 2026 (subject to change)

Leah Emary
EPUG-UKI Secretary, on behalf of the Committee

We will be holding our Spring conference this year on Monday 11 May 2026 from 10:00AM – 4:30 PM at the British Library Knowledge Centre in St Pancras, London. All sessions will be streamed live via Zoom.

Member feedback on the question of in-person vs online attendance remains mixed, particularly as budgets continue to be strained. Going forward, we intend to offer at least one in-person event per year and one online-only. We plan to offer regional get-togethers and other themed days, like the recent eResources day in Salford.

Call for speakers

We are also looking for speakers from our members! Please get in touch with epuguki.secretary@gmail.com by 5pm on Monday 2 March 2026 if you’d like to present in May. This can be on any aspect of Ex Libris products or systems such as:

• Alma, Primo (NDE/VE/BO), Leganto, Rialto, Rapido, Rapid ILL
• Recent system implementations, migrations, or integrations with external systems
• Projects reviewing workflows within the Ex Libris systems
• New features you’ve recently enabled or tested
• User engagement/UX studies
• Innovative use of systems, features, or data e.g. analytics, Linked Open Data, AI

Presentations can be between 20-45 mins in length (please specify the preferred length of your presentation) and new/first-time presenters are welcome. Creative suggestions for networking, social events, workshops, or other ideas are also welcome.

Speakers’ travel to and from London from locations in the UK and Ireland as well as accommodation can be reimbursed by EPUG-UKI.

We hope to open registration with a draft programme at the beginning of March.

On 15 January 2026,  Martin Buescher (Customer Care Director) and Meni Toboul (Sr. Director Cloud) from Clarivate joined the monthly EPUG-UKI Experience Exchange call to respond to feedback on the system issues experienced by many members in September-October 2025.

Here is a copy of Meni’s presentation.

With many thanks to Chris Jones and Trudy Gamblin for collating member feedback and compiling the report.

The recording of the 21 January 2026 Alma acquisitions experience exchange is now available. This session focused on Autoholdings for the first half and then branched out into other topics.

This session, and all other recorded sessions in this series, are available via a YouTube playlist.