Industry News
Tuesday Feb 9, 2010 
20 most recent items:
February 9, 2010. Civica Library and Learning and Bibliotheca RFID Library Systems AG sign global memorandum of understanding on technology and commercial collaboration. Civica and Bibliotheca RFID Library Systems (Bibliotheca) have signed a global Memorandum of Understanding covering technology development and commercial collaboration of the Civica UHF and the Bibliotheca HF RFID systems for public libraries, specialist libraries and academic libraries. This collaboration will be additional to the ongoing independent research and development of the two companies. <<more>>
February 9, 2010. SwetsWise Searcher improves its federated search performance with Deep Web Technologies. Swets announced that it has entered into a partnership with Deep Web Technologies to further enhance the performance of SwetsWise Searcher, Swets’ powerful federated search module. <<more>>
February 9, 2010. Ex Libris and Ingram Digital launch e-content collaboration. Ex Libris and Ingram Digital announced an agreement to make e-book content available through Ingram’s MyiLibrary, the leading e-content aggregation platform. MyiLibrary e-book content will now be available to library users through the full suite of Ex Libris discovery products that are used by thousands of libraries around the world: the Primo Central mega-aggregate of scholarly e-content, the SFX OpenURL link resolver, and the MetaLib gateway and metasearch solution. <<more>>
February 8, 2010. Ex Libris Further Expands Its European Organization with the acquisition of the company’s Scandinavian distributor . Ex Libris announced the acquisition of the Fujitsu Services A/S library division--the exclusive distributor of Ex Libris products in Denmark and Sweden--and the assumption of all interaction with the Company’s approximately 200 customer institutions in these countries. The newly opened Ex Libris Scandinavia office is part of the continually expanding Ex Libris worldwide organization. <<more>>
February 8, 2010. FHSU's Forsyth Library unveils AquaBrowser, a quick and easy system for locating materials. Now Forsyth Library at Fort Hays State University has moved to the next generation of online searches. During a news conference and reception this morning in the FHSU library, Director John Ross announced the transition to a new visual faceted interface for Forsyth Library's online catalog. The integration of the AquaBrowser Library with Forsyth Library's existing Voyager library system involved nearly 18 months of work by library staff and the Medialab Solutions implementation team. Forsyth Library also hosted training provided through Oklahoma State University. <<more>>
February 8, 2010. Solanco School District Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Support. ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced that The Solanco School District, covering Southern Lancaster County, PA has partnered with them for support of the community version of the Koha integrated library system. Solanco School District is running a self installed and implemented Koha system, and has contracted with ByWater for support and consultation. <<more>>
February 8, 2010. Update on Relais and Open Source. In 2008 Relais International announced that we would make parts of our Relais products open source. This has however remained a low priority for us in light of other commitments to customers; as a result we have not yet made a release under an open source license. Currently our resources are focussed on the launch of Relais D2D – Discovery to Delivery - we will provide an update on the status of an open source license by the end of 2010 after the implementation of Relais D2D. <<more>>
February 4, 2010. Follett Digital Resources signs five more publishers to ebook distribution agreements. Follett Digital Resources, a member of the Follett Corporation family of companies, today announced that five additional publishers have signed major eBook distribution agreements with the company. <<more>>
February 4, 2010. McLean County District Unit No. 5, Illinois Choose Atriuum. McLean County District Unit No. 5, Illinois awarded the contract to implement all 24 McLean libraries to Book Systems Inc. for its Atriuum Web-based ILS. <<more>>
February 4, 2010. Surpass Software releases version 6 offering newly-designed OPAC. Surpass Software released version 6 of its suite of library automation products, bringing a brand new interface chock full of features to Surpass Safari, the company’s public access catalog for desktop and Web. Upgrades to version 6 are free for current users with a valid support subscription. <<more>>
February 3, 2010. Kirtland Community College (Mich.) Goes Live With Evergreen. Kirtland Community College has gone live with Evergreen, the consortial, open-source library automation software. Equinox Software provided migration assistance for the project and will provide ongoing technical support. The server for the new installation is being hosted at the college and members of the Michigan Library Consortium provided staff training. <<more>>
February 3, 2010. Relais International and LYRASIS announce partnership. LYRASIS and Relais International are pleased to announce a new partnership that broadens options for interlibrary loan and document delivery services for LYRASIS members. Products now available to members across all LYRASIS regions include Relais Express, Relais ILL, and Discovery to Delivery D2D. <<more>>
February 2, 2010. Atlas Systems joins InCommon Federation. Atlas Systems, the leading provider of time-saving solutions for libraries, announced that the company has joined the InCommon Federation as a sponsored partner. Atlas’ membership ensures that Ares and Aeon customers who participate in InCommon will benefit from the ability to share library resources in a protected environment. InCommon eliminates the need for researchers, students, and educators to maintain multiple passwords and usernames, and for online service providers to maintain user accounts. <<more>>
February 1, 2010. America's First Public Koha Library Chooses ByWater Solutions. ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that Nelsonville Public Library, serving Athens County, Ohio since 1935, has partnered with them for the implementation of Koha, the open source integrated library system. <<more>>
February 1, 2010. Softlink Brings Literacy to the Forefront. Softlink launched their Literacy GPS module to a select group of Academics, and key players within the Education arena. Literacy GPS is the latest module for the flagship Oliver Library Management System. <<more>>
February 1, 2010. mk Sorting Systems Announces LibDispenserTM – designed to help libraries provide cost effective 24/7 service to people in ways that are relevant to their unique circumstances.. Sorting Systems announced the launch of LibDispenser, one of the most technologically advanced solutions to make materials more widely available to patrons anytime and just about anywhere. This product was designed to help strengthen a library’s position as budgets are being carefully considered, at the same time that library services need to extend not diminish. Operating as a stand-alone branch, LibDispenserTM is a 24 hour, 365 days a year service solution that handles books, holds, CD's and DVD’s, borrowed or returned, at any branch location. LibDispenserTM has a simple and intuitive touch screen user-interface, uses the library’s existing online catalogue, and has a real-time circulation interface with the library’s ILS via SIP2 or NCIP. <<more>>
February 1, 2010. Califa accepts LAT as an authorized discounting vendor. Library Automation Technologies, Inc. announced that Califa, a membership-based service bureau for California libraries, has accepted LAT as a provider of automation equipment to its members. <<more>>
January 29, 2010. Academic and public libraries in Indiana will implemented shared Millennium ILS. Libraries of Indiana State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College have joined forces with Vigo County Public Library to integrate their search systems and allow users to simultaneously search each of the library's holdings. The agreement creates the first academic and public consortium in Indiana and is only one of a handful in the United States. The three schools of higher education have shared an integrated library system for 11 years, but this marks the first public partner in the consortium. Indiana State signed a contract on Wednesday, Jan. 27, with Innovative Interfaces Inc., to provide the new integrated library system. The new system should be in place in August. <<more>>
January 28, 2010. West Bloomfield Transitions to SkyRiver in Record Time. The West Bloomfield Township Public Library in West Bloomfield, MI has completed the conversion from its legacy bibliographic service to being fully operational with SkyRiver cataloging in less than a month. West Bloomfield's conversion is the quickest to date for a SkyRiver partner underscoring the relative ease with which SkyRiver partner libraries can adopt this new service. <<more>>
January 28, 2010. Washington County Public Library (Ky) Selects Evergreen and Equinox. Washington County Public Library has selected Evergreen as their next-generation Integrated Library System. Equinox Software will provide data migration, software configuration, and post-migration technical support. When Washington County Public Library goes live in the spring, it will be the first known library in Kentucky running Evergreen. <<more>>
January 27, 2010. Getting your hands on EveryThing - with Libero and LibraryThing for Libraries New Integration feature. Libero Libraries can soon offer new and exciting ways to interact with the library catalogue via integration with LibraryThing for Libraries, one of the most talked about next generation interfaces. Via the LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) catalogue enrichment tool, Libero users can provide patrons with access to a range of Web 2.0 features and interactive content including book recommendations, ratings and reviews. <<more>>
The Library Technology Guides website aims to provide comprehensive and objective
information related to the field of library automation.
It provides information on the technology products, companies, and trends that impact libraries.
Whether you are in the process of selecting a library automation system,
or just want to keep up with developments in the field,
Library Technology Guides is the place to start.
GuidePosts
Perspective and commentary by Marshall Breeding | Blog Archive |
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ILS turnover report for lib-web-cats
I have created a new set of reports that provide an informal indicator of the migration patterns of integrated library systems. This report automatically generates counts of ILS migrations by year, with a breakdown of the previous automation systems used. In addition to the counts, links execute queries that list the specific libraries involved.
ILS Turn-over report: counts and lists the automation systems recorded as selected or installed in 2009 with a breakdown of the previous systems displaced. (Counts are generated dynamically.)
Reverse ILS Turn-over report: counts and lists the systems that were recorded as replaced in 2009, with a breakdown of the new systems that were selected to replace them. (Due to system performance reasons, this static page reflects counts as of Feb 4, 2010.)
These reports should not be considered as comprehensive, but only represent the data in lib-web-cats. Tools such as this will become more powerful as more libraries contribute information on their current and previous automation systems to lib-web-cats. Please review, update, or submit information on your library if you have not already done so.
Marshall Breeding Feb 5, 2010 09:34:20 Link to this thread
lib-web-cats Advanced Search
I have made a minor adjustment to Library Technology Guides to limit the advanced search of lib-web-cats to those who register and login to the site. No costs apply to membership. I hope that this approach will lead to a higher level of user engagement on the site and make it more possible to deploy features in the future of specific interest to those with interest in library technology topics. The basic search page and the entries for the libraries, by far the most popular features of the site, will remain open to non-members. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this new procedure.
Marshall Breeding, editor, Library Technology Guides
Marshall Breeding Jan 24, 2010 15:32:57 Link to this thread
Marshall, I certainly hope that you succeed in generating a higher level of user engagement.
I recently read Rose Holley's PRDLA keynote "Crowdsourcing and Social Engagement: Potential, Power and Freedom for Libraries and Users"[1] which has some useful advice on user engangement. Perhaps having a dynamic list of recent additions/updates and of top user contributors could help open up what's going on and encourge people to start, and then continue, engaging and contributing.
There are two things that bug me that would help the user experience (and so hopefully user engagement). One is that when you log in you aren't taken back to the page you were on originally - sometimes the back button solves this, but sometimes it's a bit of a hassle to renavigate to whatever page it was. The other is that it seems like you get signed out quite frequently. Whether it's just a short session timeout, or conflicts with concurrent sessions (or both), it's a little frustrating to have to sign in so often.
[1] http://prdla.ucmercedlibrary.info/2009/10/crowdsourcing-and-social-engagement/
David Friggens Jan 24, 2010 18:45:47
Thanks for the feedback. I have increased the time-out value from two hours to six. It would definitely be nice for it to bring you back to the original page once you log in. I'll see what I can do about implementing that feature.
Marshall Breeding Jan 25, 2010 08:28:08
Perceptions 2009: An International Survey of Library Automation
I have posted the results the third annual survey of data collected on how libraries rate their current integrated library system, the company involved, and the quality of customer support. The survey also aims to gather data regarding attitudes regarding interest levels in open source ILS products. Perceptions 2009: an international survey of library automation gives the general conclusions and presents all the statistical results derived from the survey. As usual, some of the most interesting and valuable information lies in the comments offered by responders.
Top survey findings
- Products and companies focusing on smaller libraries and narrower niches generally receive higher perception scores than those involved with larger, more complex organizations that and that serve multiple types of libraries.
- Apollo, a system adopted exclusively by small public libraries topped the charts in ILS, company, support perceived satisfaction and in company loyalty, following the formula for success mentioned above. Most libraries adopting Apollo have migrated from abandoned products such as Winnebago Spectrum and Athena.
- Libraries operating AGent Verso from Auto-Graphics and Polaris from Polaris Library Systems continue to receive extremely high scores, consistent with previous editions of this survey.
- Companies and products serving large and complex library organizations and diverse library types receive a broader range of responses, and fall into a middle tier of rankings. Yet where they fall within this middle ground represents important differences. Millennium from Innovative Interfaces, Library.Solution from The Library Corporation, and Evergreen as supported by Equinox Software came out as very strong performers at the top of this middle tier.
- Companies supporting proprietary ILS products receive generally higher satisfaction scores than companies involved with open source ILS. Evergreen, primarily supported by Equinox Software fell into the middle tier of satisfaction ratings. LibLime received especially poor marks in customer satisfaction; libraries implementing Koha independently gave themselves high ratings.
- Except for the libraries already using an open source ILS, the survey reflected low levels of interest, even when the company rates their satisfaction with their current proprietary ILS and its company as poor. Other than libraries already running an open source ILS, and for Winnebago Spectrum and Athena, the mode score from libraries using proprietary ILS products was 0. These results fail to confirm the trend of broad-based interest in open source ILS; rather we observe a minority of early adopters voicing strong support.
Here is a sample table from the report:
Statistics related to the question: How satisfied is the library with your current Integrated Library System (ILS)?
| Satisfaction Score for ILS | Response Distribution | Statistics | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Responses | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Mode | Mean | Median | Std Dev |
| Apollo | 34 | 6 | 10 | 18 | 9 | 8.35 | 9 | 1.37 | |||||||
| AGent VERSO | 71 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 16 | 27 | 21 | 8 | 7.83 | 8 | 0.95 | ||||
| Polaris | 92 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 52 | 21 | 8 | 7.79 | 8 | 0.83 | ||
| Koha -- Independent | 26 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 7.77 | 8 | 1.57 | ||||||
| OPALS | 41 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 7 | 18 | 9 | 7.66 | 8 | 1.41 | |||
| Atriuum | 55 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 14 | 19 | 9 | 7.53 | 8 | 0.13 | |||
| Millennium | 343 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 31 | 32 | 109 | 102 | 51 | 7 | 7.13 | 7 | 0.43 | ||
| Library.Solution | 110 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 45 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 7.06 | 7 | 0.67 | |
| Evergreen | 49 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 21 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6.76 | 7 | 1.00 | ||||
| Circulation Plus | 38 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6.39 | 7 | 1.30 |
| Spydus | 22 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 6.36 | 7 | 1.28 | ||
| ALEPH 500 | 133 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 16 | 27 | 37 | 31 | 4 | 7 | 6.29 | 7 | 0.61 |
| Virtua | 21 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 6.29 | 7 | 1.31 | |||
| Koha -- LibLime | 49 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 6.12 | 7 | 1.00 | ||
| Symphony (Unicorn) | 304 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 16 | 62 | 56 | 97 | 44 | 7 | 7 | 6.07 | 6 | 0.46 |
| Horizon | 192 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 13 | 24 | 25 | 69 | 32 | 7 | 7 | 6.06 | 7 | 0.51 |
| Voyager | 164 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 31 | 39 | 41 | 22 | 4 | 7 | 5.91 | 6 | 0.23 | ||
| Athena | 22 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5.73 | 6 | 0.64 | |
| Winnebago Spectrum | 33 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 4.91 | 5 | 1.22 |
Just as I did for the previous editions survey, I created an interactive tool for viewing the statistical summaries and comments. The main tables in the article show statistics only for those products that had more than 20 survey responses. You can use the ILS Product Report to view the statistics on any of the products mentioned in the survey and to read the comments about that system, even if the number of responses did not meet the threshold. The comments that display have been edited to remove any text that identifies the individual or institution, preserving the anonymity of the responders. The narrative data in the comments largely corroborate the statistical responses and makes for interesting reading.
Marshall Breeding Jan 22, 2010 12:00:16 Link to this thread
Caveat and Credit
Library Technology Guides was created and is edited by Marshall Breeding, the Director for Innovative Technologies and Research at the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University. He is solely responsible for all content on this site, and for any errors it may contain. Please notify him if you find any errors or omissions.
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