Evergreen Newsletter, April 2009

The newsletter for Evergreen open source library software 

Volume 2, Issue 4 — April, 2009

April Means it’s Almost May!

And you know what that means — it’s less than 50 days to the first-ever Evergreen International Conference! Read more about it below.

As a reminder, we will also post this newsletter to the Evergreen general discussion list (see all Evergreen lists) and to the Evergreen blog. Cross-posting and forwarding is encouraged.

In This Issue…

Evergreen Out and About, Evergreen 1.4.0.4 Released, Evergreen Conference Highlights, Lyrasis Evergreen Classes, Documentation Update, Planet Evergreen, 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!

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! 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: The Computers in Libraries panel was a big success. It featured Ruth Dukelow of Michigan Evergreen, Karen Collier and Andrea Buntz-Neiman of Kent County Library, and Karen Schneider of Equinox Software, and we were all magnificent! The VTLS Users Group was also a fine event, and thanks again to VTLS for the opportunity to share about open source. Meanwhile, Equinox Software had a grand old time at the Texas Library Association conference, and many current and possibly future Evergreeners stopped by to say hi or share their Evergreen stories.

Evergreen 1.4.0.4 Released

Evergreen 1.4.0.4 (the latest in the 1.4.0* series) was released March 26, 2009 (see the feature list). 

Kent County, which is running a patched version of 1.4.0.3, played an instrumental role in testing the code that became 1.4.0.4. Kent is a relatively small Evergreen site, and their willingness to be guinea pigs helps everyone.

Karen Collier says, “There were two factors that prompted our early upgrade to the 1.4.x series. First, we wanted Vandelay, the new MARC importer feature within the staff client. Our Technical Services Librarian already loves the new capabilities. Secondly, we wanted a Z39.50 server so we could fully participate in our state’s resource sharing network. There’s a little more development required before that happens, but the Z server is a big step toward that goal.” A big thank you to Kent!

See the Evergreen 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 — a 1.4 staff client will not work with a 1.2 series server.

Evergreen International Conference, May 20-22, 2009

Register at http://www.lyrasis.org/evergreen

Also see the growing conference wiki where you can sign up for dine-arounds, table talks, etc.! 

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. Outstanding program lineup! You can see the full track on the conference wiki 

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. 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.

5. Wednesday, 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 high-level discussion on documentation, and possibly a “survival skills” camp for sysadmins.

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. Sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities abound — sponsor at a specific level (Gold, Silver, Platinum), sponsor one of our many events, or just exhibit!

8. Add to all this, affordable accommodations in a very attractive walking town, superb local meal values, and free wifi at the Classic Center!

The 2009 Evergreen Conference is jointly coordinated by Georgia Public Library Service, Equinox Software, and Lyrasis. Also, special thanks to Karen Collier at Kent County Library, Maryland, for participating in the program review process.

Lyrasis Rolls Out More Evergreen Training Classes

Evergreen classes are being offered online by Lyrasis (nee Solinet) on the following dates and times:

May 6-7th Evergreen Cataloging Module. Two hours each day at 10:00am-12:00pm EST

May 27th Evergreen Guided Tour and Demo (Free).

June 4th Evergreen Admin and Stats Module. Two hours from 10:00am-12:00pm

Since October, Lyrasis, formerly known as SOLINET and PALINET, has taught close to 25 Evergreen classes with over 100 students! Lyrasis is dedicated to training and instructing Evergreen and welcomes your comments and suggestions for courses. All of our current course offerings are continuously updated and we plan on adding more courses to our catalog on future topics. Feel free to contact Lyrasis Instructors at Jennifer.bielewski@lyrasis.org or Jenny.Liberatore@lyrasis.org for comments or questions about Evergreen courses. We will be at the Evergreen Conference in Athens, GA and are excited to meet those of you attending!

Planet Evergreen

Can’t get enough news about Evergreen open source software? Subscribe to (or just read) Planet Evergreen, an aggregator for Evergreen-related posts, at http://planet.evergreen-ils.org . Have a blog that talks about Evergreen? To add your blog (or blog subset) to the Planet Evergreen blog aggregator, send email to Dan Scott at dan@coffeecode.net

Documentation Update

McMaster University intern Betty Ing has produced draft documentation for an Evergreen style manual and reserves documentation (yes! reserves is in work, along with serials and acquisitions). She produced this in Docbook XML. Karen Schneider will walk people through these proofs-of-concept at the conference “hackfest” on the afternoon of May 20.

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 280 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. Dan Scott from Laurentian just added a video about reports.

Evergreen also has a Flickr set (don’t miss Bob Molyneux posing with two giant cats at TXLA): 

New Evergreen Libraries: Welcome Aboard!

This is a surprisingly quiet month for migrations, but hang on — there’s more coming down the pike! Also see the growing list of Evergreen libraries 

Self-implemented Sites:

William Jessup University, Rocklin, California (go Golden State!)

Up and Coming:

Evergreen open source library software will power SC LENDs (South Carolina Library Evergreen Network Delivery System), a statewide consortium for a massive shared catalog and other services spearheaded by the South Carolina State Library. 11 libraries will go live in 2011, making SC LENDS the second-largest Evergreen consortium. As noted earlier, King County Library System (in Washington State), Natural Resources Canada, and North Texas Regional Library System have signed contracts with Equinox. Welcome aboard!

Newsletter Administrivia

Feel free to forward, share, etc.!

The deadline for the Evergreen newsletter is the last working day before the first of the month… feel free to submit items earlier. The co-wranglers for this newsletter are Karen Schneider, Equinox Community Librarian and John Fink, Digital Technologies Development librarian at McMaster University.