Volume 2, Issue 3 — March, 2009 … The newsletter for the Evergreen community!
Evergreen International Conference May 20-22, 2009
Evergreen: A Perfect Color for St. Patrick’s Day!
‘Tis the luck o’ the Irish to be an Evergreen user! As a reminder, we will post this newsletter to the Evergreen general discussion list (see all Evergreen lists). Cross-posting and forwarding is encouraged.
In This Issue…
Evergreen Out and About, Evergreen 1.4.0.3 Imminent, Evergreen Conference (Program Lineup now available!), Mark Jordan’s nifty Drupal tool, Evergreen Webinars, SOLINET Evergreen Classes, Documentation Update, New Evergreen Libraries, Newsletter Administrivia
Out and About: An Evergreen Calendar
Let us know and we’ll add your “out and about with Evergreen” events to this calendar!
VTLS Users Group (Blacksburg VA, March 19): Karen Schneider from Equinox will be keynoting about open source and creativity.
Computers in Libraries (D.C., March 30 – April 1): will feature a rock-out, boffo panel of Evergreen Divas: Karen Schneider from Equinox; Ruth Dukelow from Michigan Library Consortium; Karen Collier and Andrea Neiman from Kent County Library in Maryland.
Texas Library Association (Houston, March 31 – April 3): We’re exhibiting there, so scoot your boots over to booth 1115 and sit a spell with Shae, Karen, Bob, and Brad!
British Columbia Library Association (Burnaby, April 16-18) will feature a talk by Karen Schneider on creativity and open source.
Evergreen International Conference (Athens, Georgia, May 20 – 22, 2009): Our first conference! Joe Lucia and Jessamyn West will be keynoting! Program lineup now available! See more about this exciting event below.
American Library Association Annual Conference (Chicago, Illinois, July 9-15). We’ll be exhibiting, meeting with people, and so forth!
WilsWorld (Madison, Wisconsin, July 28-29). Karen Schneider to do a plenary session. Karen spoke at one of the earliest WilsWorld conferences and is excited to return!
Past Conferences: Code4Lib, for which Equinox was a Gold Sponsor, was a terrific event. Mike Rylander and Karen Schneider were there waving the Evergreen flag. Karen monitored one of the two camcorders, swapping out 18 tapes (can you tell she was a Campfire Girl?), and when the videos are up we’ll let you know.
Evergreen 1.4.0.3 Imminent!
Evergreen 1.4.0.3 (the latest in the 1.4.0*) series is imminent. See the 1.4.0 series feature list and the Evergreen software download page for source code, staff client, images, and more. Have fun with the MARC record importer-exporter, the locale picker, and other great features — it’s a blast!
Remember that the Evergreen staff client needs to match the server version.
Evergreen International Conference, May 20-22, 2009
See the official conference page where you can register for the conference and the growing conference wiki where you can sign up for dine-arounds, table talks, etc.!
Questions? Sponsorship and exhibits requests? Program submissions? Email events@evergreen-ils.org
The first-ever Evergreen International Conference is just two months away! Here are the top ten tidbits about this wonderful, can’t-miss conference:
1. Takes place May 20-22, 2009 at the Classic Center in Athens, Georgia, a very attractive university town with great restaurants and pubs, just one hour from the Atlanta airport. Accommodations are delightfully reasonable business hotels a comfy walking distance to the Classic Center.
2. Early Bird Registration continues through March 31, 2009 on the conference website — We are holding this conference to a comfortable 150 attendees, so spaces will fill fast — don’t delay!
3. Fascinating keynote speakers: Joe Lucia of Villanova University (and Vufind fame), and Jessamyn West, noted librarian, technology advocate, blogger/writer, and champion of open source!
4. Outstanding programs! Wow! We had great submissions. Please don’t forget you can also do a 5-minute lightning talk, a Birds of a Feather or breakfast table talk, or just hang with folks and discuss issues. (Dine-arounds will be great mingling opportunities as well.)
You can see the full track on the conference wiki, but here are the programs in a nutshell:
The Big Picture
Emily Almond, GPLS: You’re Live… Now What?
Evette Atkin, Michigan Library Consortium: Ready, Fire, Aim!
Lori Ayre, Galecia Group: Out of the Frying Pan
Bielewski-Gregory-Tetterton, SOLINET-PINES, Equinox. Migration Nation: Planning for Success
Elizabeth McKinney, GPLS: The Emotional Impact of Open Source
Karen Schneider, Equinox: TCO of Open Source Software
Front-Line Staff
Karen Collier, Kent County, MD: Evergreen and Small Libraries
Dawn Dale, GPLS: Evergreen: Easy to Learn, Easy to Use
Elaine Hardy, PINES: Bibliographic Database Integrity
Chris Sharp, GPLS: Voices of Experience
Jim Bartram Veatch, Trail Regional Library: Electronic Government Publications for PINES
Tigran Zargaryan, Fundamental Scientific Library, Armenia: Evergreen in Armenia
Technology Track
George Duimovich, NRCan: Electronic Resource Management
Bill Erickson, Equinox: Building New Interfaces
David Fiander, University of Western Ontario: Predicting the Future with MFHD
Grant Johnson, University of Prince Edward: Island Bits and Pieces
Mike Rylander, Equinox: OpenSRF and Jabber
Dan Scott, Conifer Project: Evergreen Globalization
5. May 20 is an all-day Hackfest (no additional registration fee) in the comfortable environs of the Classic Center. Don’t be dissuaded by the word “hack”! If you have an idea and want quiet, wired space to explore it it with other colleagues, just plan on it. We already have several happening–including at least a half-day session on documentation.
6. The conference kicks off the evening of May 21 with a Vendor Reception — just enough food to replenish you before you head out into the adorable environs of downtown Athens, with its pubs and restaurants. If you’re a vendor, note that the reception is a no-conflict event, so we can give your products lots of attention!
7. May 21 – 22 features fascinating programs, long breaks where you can network with peers, a Birds of a Feather luncheon (sign up in advance to sit with folks with common interests) and a Table Talk Breakfast.
8. User-led 5-minute lightning talks will spark up the conference, while Birds of a Feather sessions and breakfast Table Talks offer even more opportunities to commune with like-minded peers about topics of interest. Even if you don’t have a full 45-minute program to offer, you may have 5 minutes for sharing a great idea.
9. Sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities abound — sponsor at a specific level (Gold, Silver, Platinum), sponsor one of our many events, or just exhibit!
10. Affordable accommodations (we just lined up two great but also great-priced hotels within walking distance), superb local meal values, and the Classic Center has free wifi!
The 2009 Evergreen Conference is jointly coordinated by Georgia Public Library Service, Equinox Software, and SOLINET. Also, special thanks to Karen Collier at Kent County Library, Maryland, for participating in the program review process.
Drupal Module for Evergreen: ILS Authentication
Mark Jordan of Simon Fraser University Library in Burnaby, British Columbia has written a Drupal module called ILS Authentication that allows people to log into a Drupal website using their Evergreen credentials. The module is intended to make it as easy as possible to write drivers (simple PHP authentication scripts) for other library systems as well.
Mark commented about ILS Authentication, “What I find cool about this type of module is that it shows how easy it is for disparate apps to talk to each other if they are both open.” If you want to write a driver for your ILS, Mark would be happy to hear from you (mjordan@sfu.ca). For more information, visit http://drupalib.interoperating.info/ilsauthen .
Evergreen Webinar Update
Watch for a separate announcement on the lists and blogs, but due to popular demand, there will be two free half-hour webinars in March available to anyone who wants to attend:
Webinar on Webinars: This was a huge success! See the slides and video of the presentation.
There’s still room in Understanding Open Source, rescheduled to March 17, 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
SOLINET Rolls Out More Evergreen Training Classes
SOLINET continues to offer free online Evergreen demos! The next one is March 31st (11am-noon).These free demos provide overviews of Evergreen’s popular features and gives participants a chance to ask questions in a training environment.
SOLINET also offers three fee-based online classes on Evergreen modules. All class times are Eastern Standard:
Evergreen Circulation: OPAC searching, navigating the staff client, creating and maintaining patron accounts, using tools and options, check in/check out and other circulation procedures such as creating and maintaining holds. Offered March 31st (2-4pm).
Evergreen Cataloging: This is now a 2-day class that covers creating, editing and merging records; transferring items; using buckets; and importing/exporting records. Offered March 24th-25th (10am-noon).
Evergreen Local Administration and Statistics: A more advanced class that covers configuring Evergreen locally, setting user permissions, creating templates for printing receipts and running reports. Offered March 25th (10am-noon).
To register for SOLINET’s Evergreen training (including the free demo), just visit Solinet’s Educational Services Registration website
For questions, contact SOLINET trainers Jennifer Bielewski and Jenny Liberatore, 1-800-999-8558 or jbielewski@solinet.net
Documentation Update
McMaster University intern Betty Ing has been working closely with Karen Schneider of Equinox and John Fink of McMaster on a proof of concept for generating documentation in Docbook, an XML format. Watch for more about this on the list and the newsletter!
Evergreen on Facebook
Evergreen has a growing Facebook group. We are now posting events to this group, such as the Evergreen conference and the ALA Midwinter get-together, as well as press releases for new Evergreen libraries and systems and other related news. The group now has over 270 members. If you’re on Facebook, join our group. If you aren’t on Facebook and you don’t think you’re the Facebook “type,” give it a try. You might be surprised by who’s on Facebook!
A Few Reminders
Webinars and videos: Don’t forget the section on the Evergreen wiki devoted to community-contributed documentation and tutorials.
Evergreen also has a Flickr set recently updated with pictures from Code4Lib.
New Evergreen Libraries: Welcome Aboard!
Below are the newest Evergreen libraries – the Evergreen installations known to have taken place since our last newsletter in mid-January. Quite a batch! Also see the growing list of Evergreen libraries.
Evergreen Indiana:
Hagerstown Public Libraries
Madison-Jefferson County
Noble County
Otterbein
Thorntown
British Columbia SITKA:
Rossland Public Library
Salmo Public Library
Self-implemented Sites:
The Law Society of British Columbia has gone live with Evergreen. The bulk of the work was accomplished by Jeremy Buhler, a graduate student from the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. Buhler developed the main page and migrated the data. Buhler recently began working with British Columbia SITKA as a trainer/help desk specialist.
Up and Coming:
Natural Resources Canada and North Texas Regional Library System have both committed to migrating to Evergreen. Welcome aboard!
If you’d like to follow along as libraries join the Evergreen community, you can subscribe to the Equinox press release feed, which will announce most known Evergreen implementations (or follow the Facebook group mentioned above). The Equinox press release feed was recently tweaked to make it easier to track and share the releases.
Newsletter Administrivia
Feel free to forward, share, etc.
The deadline for the Evergreen newsletter is announced on the general Evergreen mailing list. The co-wranglers for this newsletter are Karen Schneider, Equinox Community Librarian and John Fink, Digital Technologies Development librarian at McMaster University.
Since November, two new developers have joined the Equinox team of “Evergreen Experts”: Laura McFarland and Scott McKellar. You can