Library Technology Guides

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Statistical Report for Horizon

2022 : gen: 6.51 company 7.00 loyalty 6.96 support 7.46

2021 : gen: 6.74 company 7.42 loyalty 7.19 support 7.79

2020 : gen: 6.89 company 7.43 loyalty 7.25 support 7.84

2019 : gen: 6.57 company 6.83 loyalty 6.75 support 7.38

2018 : gen: 6.28 company 6.49 loyalty 6.31 support 7.14

2017 : gen: 6.54 company 6.80 loyalty 6.29 support 7.01

2016 : gen: 6.76 company 7.01 loyalty 6.55 support 7.22

2015 : gen: 6.23 company 6.54 loyalty 6.13 support 6.82

2014 : gen: 5.81 company 6.04 loyalty 5.77 support 6.45

2013 : gen: 5.93 company 6.11 loyalty 5.64 support 6.60

2012 : gen: 5.81 company 5.80 loyalty 5.33 support 6.43

2011 : gen: 5.91 company 5.94 loyalty 5.72 support 6.55

2010 : gen: 5.99 company 5.31 loyalty 4.94 support 5.73

2009 : gen: 6.07 company 4.91 loyalty 4.75 support 5.77

2008 : gen: 5.68 company 4.32 loyalty 4.37 support 5.35

2007 : gen: 6.13 company 4.49 loyalty 4.35 support 5.89

Comments

Horizon has been a great system to work with over the years, and it is with regret that we will need to shortly move to another system. However, with e-resources now forming a prominent part of our collections we need workflows to deal much more effectively with online information. (Type: Academic)

[...] is currently a [...] beta site for Intota (Type: Academic)

I'm concerned about AquaBrowser's lack of ongoing development. The support is fine, but despite a long phone conversation a year or two ago about what enhancements we would like to see, nothing has happened. We went from an in-house server to SaaS this past year, which provided a couple of small enhancements but that has been it since we first installed it in 2008. (Type: Public)

We are using their remotely hosted option, SaaS, software as a service. This is working very well for us. They are responsible for backups and updates. We can focus on other things than running ILS servers. (Type: Public)

The relationship with SirsiDynix has greatly improved across time. The only feature I haven't implemented with them is the mobile version of the Opac because it would be an additional cost. However, I am negotiationg for OCLC WMS. Ther most serious reason for adopting specifically this product (if we'll be able to obtain it at a reasonable price), beyond reputation and reliability, is that it would let us make serious improvements in the workflow (most of our cataloging is on Connexion). (Type: Academic)

We will be replacing our ILS hardware early in 2015. Implementing a virtualized system. (Type: Public)

Our current installation of Horizon works quite well and does the job. The work involved in preparing for the tender process, product selection and implementation of a possible new software is costly and time consuming. Staff, time and money that we do not have at the moment. The recent announcement by SirsiDynix to implement a BLUECloud product suite gives me optimism that we would be able to get a web based software within the terms of our current support agreement. The funds saved will be used towards more important student success initiatives. (Type: Academic)

Would like to explore open source options, but limited due to Consortial arrangement and governance/IT structure. (Type: Public)

The company has committed to continuing development of Horizon which is good news. (Type: Academic)

Horizon was a good system for its time, but now it has fallen behind. SirsiDynix does their best to support it for us, but it just needs to be put out of its misery. (Type: Public)

Consortium arrangement - we are a smaller partner in this consortium (Type: Public)

We are pondering an ILS migration in 2016. Considering the shifting marketplace, we don't know which vendors/products we would consider. However, a possible list would include SirsiDynix Symphony, Polaris, Sierra, and Virtua from Innovative Interfaces, asn well as WorldShare from OCLC. Considering the recent spate of acquisitiions by Innovative, we cannot predict which products will actually be offered in two years. (Type: Public)

The product is pretty good - stable etc. However, it's overkill for us now. Being a special library our collection has shrunk considerably, particularly the physical collection. We keep 2 paper-based serials which does not justify keeping the serials module (and so we've saved over $1,000 this year by not having that!). I do like the EDS - how it brings together various library systems and subscriptions under one blanket search. (Type: Government Agency)

Use of the vendor's SAS is under consideration. (Type: Academic)

Much of this is handled at the Regional level vs our local library. (Type: Public)

SirsiDynix offers a lot of new product enhancements for their ILS, but we have not been able to afford all that we have wanted. (Type: Public)

Support from SD is quite limited. they are obviously very good at 'talking the talk' however not so good when it comes to supplying products or updates. I've been involved with them for several years and any time there was an upgrade something major went wrong that meant a drastic change in branch processes. They were never able to address these and fixes had to wait until the next upgrade release. They continually 'sell' things that are innovative, however are constantly delaying product releases. These products come with a substantial price tag, which also makes one think twice. When we are faced with IT restrictions for various reasons, having to constantly try and sell changes and upgrades to upper management based on what this vendor tells us, which is then delayed yet again, makes us look extremely unprofessional and undermines our credibility. (Type: Public)

We are mostly satisfied with Horizon, but we keep an eye on other options. Staff know how to use Horizon, though, and the OPAC works fine (mostly) for our patrons. SD is offering better mobile device support, and we're looking into that, as well. As a law library (heavy serials module use, plus we also use Acquisitions heavily), we are not seeing much in terms of Open Source products that would be useful for our purposes. We consider whether we may need to migrate to a different product, but at this point, we are not seeing anything that looks much better. That may change over time, although SD has become more responsive to their Horizon libraries these days. Some time ago, they kept threatening to stop supporting horizon. I think the investors started realizing that this wasn't feasible (eg, to push a lot of libraries to migrate all at once). (Type: Law)

We can do most of what we want to do with Horizon works, but have run into situations with other SirsiDynix products such as Enterprise that have more functionality with Symphony. (Type: Public)

Consortia e-book collections in addition to local collection (Type: Public)

While Horizon out of the box earned some mediocre marks in the first few questions (functionality, essentially), we generally love the system because it has a very open back end which we have leveraged with extensive in-house application development. Our enhanced version of Horizon actually meets our needs very well. (Type: Public)

[...] (Type: Public)

This response is not from a library, but from a consortium office representing [...] institutions and their libraries. (Type: Consortium)

[...] (Type: Public)

[...] is part of [...] shared system (3,438,099 items) which is fairly committed to migrate to Evergreen in late 2015/early 2016. (Type: Public)

[...] (Type: Public)

May switch to new vendor (Type: Public)

As a hosted system we have had great support from SirsiDynix. This year, because of a very good offer from our vendor, we upgraded to the Enterprise catalog and integrated our digital content with their eReference product. My only real complaint is that they have been extremely slow in their rollout of new products. (Type: Public)

The Republic of Ireland is about to implement a national LMS. Sierra has been chosen, and a contract has been signed. (Type: Public)

Following a recent visit from our Horizon representative, we found that Horizon had been greatly enhanced and much more user friendly. Customer support is improving, as well. (Type: Academic)

We are disappointed with the lack of support that we have received from OCLC in the management of their WorldCat Local discovery system. This experience, coupled with what seems to be fairly frequent down times, has given us pause and is hindering our ability to confidently move ahead with WMS. (Type: Academic)

The company has been slow to address some of their issues related to functionality, but are now showing signs of developing software that will improve functionality across both main platforms. This looks promising and we hope this is a sign of the company has been listening to the concerns of libraries. The only issue will be if they price new functionality to high for the majority of libraries to be able to purchase it. (Type: Public)

As our budget continues to shrink it has become critical to evaluate our ILS and the maintenance costs associated with it. We also have had the same ILS vendor since 1991, since that time, many more vendors and products are available and we need to investigate what's out there. (Type: Public)

Individual customer support staff are great to work with; however, overall product development and fixing of known issues is a very cumbersome and slow process. (Type: Consortium)

Great working relationship with [...] who handles the SirsiDynix Horizon issues (Type: Public)

SirsiDynix has been very slow to implement promised changes with their BlueCloud web based services. (Type: Public)

The closest we have to a "discovery interface" is NoveList with Goodreads. We are not likely to move to an open source ILS because we have a branch at a correctional facility where a threat & risk assessment must be done on the ILS. It takes a VERY long time for this and open source is probably not considered as secure as what we have now. (Type: Public)

The library looks forward to upgrading the ILS, but has had local obstacles to overcome in order to move forward. (Type: Public)

We just upgraded to Horizon 7.52 and HIP 3.23 (Type: Public)

[...] (Type: Academic)

We also have a second ILS, Ever Team's Loris.but will soon migrate the base to the Horizon one. (Type: Academic)

Horizon est un très bon produit pour gérer les ressources imprimés mais il ne sait pas gérer les ressources électroniques. Nous avons donc un projet de réinformatisation pour passer à un SGB de nouvelle génération dans le cloud. (Type: Academic)

ProQuest 's team for Summon is very responsive and quick moving. But there are many problems. It feels like they are trying to do the Google thing and just make changes and fixes on the fly, but they don't usually have a bug-free implementation. They jump on the problems, but they always have problems. It gives an uncertain/unstable feeling when other things constantly go wrong from a "fix" to what seems like a separate problem. Feels like a lack of planning. It is a good company and they seem to be giving it the right amount of resources and doing a lot of good things, but it's been very uneven. I expect they will get their balance, but it's been bumpy. SirsiDynix is more deliberate but moving in a good direction moving things over to Cloud based products. (Type: Academic)

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Library Technology Guides is a service provided by Marshall Breeding, independent consultant, author, and speaker.