One of my former clients, the Vermont Dept of Libraries, recently developed their five-year plans for LSTA, and as part of that process, they identified how the needs of their library users are changing. After conducting surveys and focus groups, they identified Vermont's "most important community needs." State Librarian, Martha Reid, puts it this way:
I'm pleased to announce that there is now a demo version of the new Evergreen web-based staff client. Check it out here:
https://webby.evergreencatalog.com/eg/staff/
login: admin password: demo123
It's not done yet but it already looks pretty darn good! Congratulations to everyone who has contributed to this new development including:
Atlanta, GA - May 13, 2014 - LYRASIS and The Galecia Group announce that LYRASIS will be managing and hosting the Open Source ILS Feature Comparison Tool under the LYRASIS FOSS4LIB project, beginning immediately. The move is part of the Open Source Decision Support Tools project, funded in part by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Open Source ILS Feature Comparison Tool, previously on galecia.com, is now available at https://ils.foss4lib.org/
The Open Source ILS Feature Comparison tool compares more than 1,000 features between the Koha and Evergreen open source integrated library systems, and was designed to help libraries navigate open source software options and determine the best fit for their needs. The tool was created in 2012 by The Galecia Group with help from dozens of content contributors from the Koha and Evergreen communities. The project was funded through the Empowering Libraries with Open Source project, part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant awarded to the King County Library System (WA). This move is part of a wider enhancement effort on the FOSS4LIB site, with integration of the ILS feature comparison site with the main FOSS4LIB site, including unified logins and links between the two sites coming soon. The ability to compare other types of software packages in addition to integrated library systems will also be added in the coming months. After completing a registration process, librarians can create custom reports of just the features they need for their libraries. Those who have already registered can still use their login. New users can register athttps://ils.foss4lib.org/user/register.
A new website has popped up as a result of a research project undertaken at the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences. The project was funded from an IMLS grant. I don't know if there is any expectation of keeping up the site but there are some useful things there and some not-so-useful things there. Several of us have attempted to contact the lead research, Vandana Singh, so she could correct the misrepresentations. But no one has received a response. Too bad.
Worked with Catamount Library Network to evaluate Koha and Evergreen, two open source ILS options, under consideration. The project included fleshing out two documents that comprehensively define Koha and Evergreen functionality, to articulate the short- and long-term objectives of the network, and then to identify the differentiating factors.
Lori Ayre worked with the group to capture information about their needs and to help prioritize them. Ultimately, the group was able to identify for themselves the ILS choice that best met their needs.
There was some discussion on the Koha Mailing List recently about how to go about procuring an open source ILS...or at least, how to remain open to the possibility of moving to either an open source or proprietary ILS. The thing about the traditional procurement process is that it makes if very awkward (at best) to unmanageable (at worst) for the open source service providers for two reasons:
Slides from my lightning round at KUDOS Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. The presentation is an entertaining (I hope) history lesson on how Koha came to be and how it changed everything. Trying to give some props to those brave souls that got us going on the open source ILS trajectory!
Helped establish and managed the Open Source Open Libraries Consortium in cooperation with Peninsula Library System and Califa. The goal of the consortia was to "empower libraries and library consortia by encouraging participation and collaboration in software products generally, and encouraging them to consider an Open Source Library System such as Koha or Evergreen."
Over the course of the project we moved 9 library systems to Koha and helped three library systems begin evaluating Evergreen and Fulfillment. The project was concluded in October, 2013.
Presentation at KohaCon 2009. The goal of this session is to make sure people moving to an Open Source Library System such as Koha don't treat the change as "just another migration with a new vendor." The possibilities are endless. It requires a complete culture shift to truly take advantage of the possibilities. And, its exciting! Plano, Texas.
Thomas Krichel of Palmer School of Library and Information Science has developed, and is sharing, course material for an intensive course he developed in which students, without any previous system admininstration experience, installed debian, and then installed Koha.
http://openlib.org/home/krichel/courses/lis508p10w/
All 17 of his students were successful...wanna give it a go?