Evergreen Newsletter, June 2009

The newsletter for Evergreen open source library software

Volume 2, Issue 6 — June, 2009

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

In This Issue…

Evergreen Out and About (including Evergreen at ALA Annual 2009), MFHD Webinar, Evergreen Conference Recap, MLA Honors Ruth Dukelow, Evergreen Development Update, Evergreen Jobs, Evergreen Hires, Lyrasis Evergreen Classes, Planet Evergreen, New Evergreen Libraries, Newsletter Administrivia

Out and About: An Evergreen Calendar

Also see: http://evergreen-ils.org/calendar

If you have Evergreen-related events to add (talks, conferences, etc.), just email events@evergreen-ils.org.

American Library Association Annual Conference (Chicago, Illinois, July 9-15). Evergreen folks from all over will be exhibiting, presenting, meeting with people, and so forth!

Some highlights:

• Equinox Software will be at the ALA exhibits at Booth # 4051 [note, this is a correction]. If you’d like to schedule an appointment for a one-on-one conversation about Evergreen, email events@esilibrary.com. Shae Tetterton will be demoing Evergreen a few times, and there might even be another slot for “Open Source Jeopardy.”
• Equinox Software is also hosting an Evergreen social function on Sunday, July 12, 5:30-7:30 at the Wine Cellar Room of the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant, 1401 S. Michigan Avenue. Please RSVP to events@esilibrary.com if you think you might show up so we have a good head count.
• In Chicago, at (but not part of) the ALA Annual 2009 Conference, there will be an open source unconference on Saturday, July 11, 9:30am-12:15pm. “This event is being put on by King County Library System and The Galecia Group who have been working together on some OS projects for the last year and a half. Our enthusiasm for Open Source Library System software continues to grow and we recognize that it is one of those “the more the merrier” kinds of situations. We want to hear what others are doing, tell people what we’re doing, and get more people involved.” Interested? Request an oss4pl2009 wiki account
• Also try to catch this program (Catherine Lemmer of Evergreen Indiana will be a panelist): Saturday, July 11, 1:30 – 3:00: What Can $930 Million Do for Library Services Nationwide? The Impact and Future Directions of LSTA. Sponsored by ASCLA SLAS. How do states use their LSTA dollars to improve library services? In an IMLS study, Himmel and Wilson examined all of the states’ five year evaluations, and reported on the observed major trends. A panel of speakers will present new directions of states’ projects.

WilsWorld (Madison, Wisconsin, July 28-29). Karen Schneider to do a plenary session and a couple other spots. Karen spoke at one of the earliest WilsWorld conferences and is excited to return!

Webinar: Evergreen ILS and MARC Format for Holdings Data (MFHD)

By popular demand — if you didn’t see this program at Evergreen International Conference, or you did but you’d like to see it again, here’s a live version to attend!

Presenter: David J. Fiander, Web Services Librarian, University of Western Ontario
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET
Reserve your Webinar seat now

This talk will provide some real-world examples of serial publication patterns that can be challenging to interpret, show how those patterns can be described using the MARC Format for Holdings Data, describe how most integrated library systems currently implement MFHD, and discuss the challenges faced in implementing MFHD for Evergreen open source library automation software.

Recap: Evergreen International Conference, May 20-22, 2009

Program slidesets and videos are on the Conference wiki. To date videos have been uploaded for the opening remarks and opening and closing keynotes.

These blog posts, tweets, and pictures also wrapped up events:

http://www.librarian.net/tag/eg09/
http://hashtags.org/tag/eg09
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/eg09/
http://evergreen-ils.org/?p=206

And the Documentation Interest Group was formed, and since then has developed a 90-day timeline with tasks, deliverables, and a lot of volunteers!

Ruth Dukelow Honored by Michigan Library Association

The Michigan Library Association 2009 Librarian of the Year is Ruth Dukelow, of the Michigan Library Consortium. MLA noted, “Ruth has been involved in many statewide projects.” Indeed, like Michigan Evergreen! Read more about Ruth’s successes on MLA’s Professional Awards page

Evergreen Development Update

Evergreen 1.6 is imminent, and it has some terrific features. Some of the highlights include shelving locations displayed in the copy summary; a new events and notifications framework; a toggle-able button bar in the staff client for common search functions; “fast item add” in the MARC editor; billing enhancements; a tool for exposing additional MARC elements in the OPAC record display; initial MARC Format for Holdings Data (MFHD) functionality; and much more.

Plus, Release 1.6 exposes the acquisitions functionality completed to date in the Admin menu, so you can explore, review, discuss, and provide feedback!

Also see the Evergreen Roadmap for a full list of enhancements in 1.6 and for a top-level view of what’s coming in 2.0.

Evergreen Jobs!

See this posting about several job openings for Evergreen-related work—all new positions! Have a listing? Share it with the newsletter or post it to the Evergreen list!

Evergreen People!

Equinox Software Inc., “The Evergreen Experts,” recently hired Steve Callender as a Technical Support Specialist and Grace Dunbar as a Project Manager. These are both new positions within Equinox. Steve is originally from Anaheim and has 8 years of experience in technical support and development. Grace has considerable library experience, most recently as the head librarian for Savannah College of Art and Design.

Lyrasis Rolls Out More Evergreen Training Classes

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

6/30/2009 10a.m.-11 a.m. Lyrasis Evergreen Guided Tour. FREE!

Since October, Lyrasis (created from a merger of SOLINET and PALINET) has taught close to 25 Evergreen classes, with over 100 students! Lyrasis is dedicated to training and instructing Evergreen, and they welcome your comments and suggestions for courses. All of their current course offerings are continuously updated, and Lyrasis plans to add more courses in the future. For comments or questions, contact Lyrasis instructors Jennifer.Bielewski@lyrasis.org or Jenny.Liberatore@lyrasis.org

Planet Evergreen

Can’t get enough news about Evergreen open source software? Subscribe to or 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 to the Planet Evergreen blog aggregator, send email to Dan Scott

Evergreen on Facebook

Evergreen has a growing Facebook group. We are post events to this group, well as press releases for new Evergreen libraries and systems and other related news. The group now has close to 300 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

New Evergreen Libraries: Welcome Aboard!

Also see the growing list of Evergreen libraries

Natural Resources Canada

• Calgary
• Edmonton
• Fredericton
• Ottawa
• Quebec
• Sault Ste. Marie
• Varennes
• Vancouver
• Victoria

SITKA (British Columbia)

Their first multibranch site, Lillooet Area Library Association, went live on May 26. It includes the Lillooet, Gold Bridge, Bridge River and a Book Bus.

Project Conifer

• Algoma University
• Laurentian University
• Northern Ontario School of Medicine
• University of Windsor
• And others

Michigan Evergreen:

Oscoda Public Library

Evergreen Indiana:

Huntington Public Library

South Carolina LENDS:

South Carolina State Library
Beaufort County Library
Union County Public Library
Columbia Bible College

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).

Newsletter Administrivia

Feel free to forward, share, etc.!

We try to get this out by mid-month (it’s still June, isn’t it?).

The co-wranglers for this newsletter are Karen Schneider, Equinox Community Librarian and John Fink, Digital Technologies Development Librarian at McMaster University.