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10 Making the Most of Your ILS Project Details We are early in the planning stages and expect details to change as the project takes shape. However, here is our initial plan: • Review the features we currently have in Sierra, including add-ons and upgrades we have purchased, and compare them with what Innova- tive is offering in its new Core Academic package to aid in decision making regarding future agreements with our vendor. • Determine an end-of-life date for our Sierra database and application servers to provide a better understanding of when we need to a move to a hosted service. • Review our basic system configuration, using Innovative’s implementa- tion manual as a guide, and possibly revisit system settings decisions. • Audit the security of our ILS in its current self-hosted configuration before we migrate to a hosted server, including reviewing Sierra’s Limit Network Access Table and our campus firewall configuration with OIT, staff user permissions, and any needed software or operat- ing system updates. • Review our current review files configuration and consider creating additional review files by redistributing the overall number of records Innovative has allotted us. • Identify and document all sources of data input into our ILS, for instance, sources for bibliographic records and patron records, and consolidate if possible. • Identify and document all external systems we are exporting Sierra data to, for instance, Summon and Gold Rush. This is an important goal because before we make changes to our system, we need to determine which external systems might be impacted, for instance, Prospector. • Identify, document, and perform Sierra records clean-up tasks (expired patron records, bibliographic records without attached item records, etc.) that need to be performed on a regular basis. • Identify and document all staff permissions in the system and develop default permission templates based on roles and responsibilities. • Document and possibly clean up codes used in the system by web ser- vices and emerging technologies, technical services, and circulation. • Document unusual workflows being performed by each department and consider alternatives if more effective workflows are available. Estimated Costs At present, we do not believe there will be any costs associated with the ILS audit beyond the staff time and labor necessary to perform the audit. In query- ing other libraries that have performed similar audits, we found that some