Evergreen ILS
Open Source Library Software
It was snowy but warm in Denver — icy streets, snow that Brad claimed was going sideways (yeah, right…) and air cold enough to make our noses run. But it was also a warm experience, due to the many Evergreen users, followers, and interested folks who stopped by the booth or the Evergreen event.
More in the forthcoming newsletter!
The newsletter for Evergreen open source library software
Volume 2, Issue 1 — January, 2009
As a reminder, we will post this newsletter to the Evergreen general discussion list (see all Evergreen lists) and to the Evergreen blog. Cross-posting and forwarding is encouraged.
Evergreen Out and About, Evergreen 1.4.0 To Debut, New OPAC Skin on Demo, SOLINET Classes, Evergreen Conference, New Developers, New Evergreen Libraries, Documentation Update, Newsletter Administrivia.
Let us know and we’ll add your “out and about with Evergreen” events to this calendar!
ALA Midwinter 2009 (Denver, Jan 23 – 27): Visit Equinox Software at Booth 522, sit in on a demo, or mingle with fellow travelers at an Evergreen social function (informally called Birds of a Feather Nosh Together) Saturday, January 24, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, at a very nice locale near the Denver convention center. RSVP to events@esilibrary.com. See the Equinox booth and event demo schedule
Ontario Library Association 2009 (Toronto, Jan 28-31): Evergreen galore! Expect a Birds of a Feather get-together, plus enjoy the Evergreen-related programs. Dan Scott also has an excellent post describing the Evergreen programs at OLA.
Electronic Resources & Libraries (Los Angeles, Feb 9 -12): Hello, California! Equinox Community Librarian Karen Schneider will participate on an ILS discussion panel.
Code4Lib 2009 (Providence, Feb 23-26): Evergreen developer Mike Rylander and Community Librarian Karen Schneider will be at Code4Lib, as will other members of the Evergreen community. You can anticipate at at least one Birds of a Feather at this popular annual conference. Equinox Software Inc. is a proud sponsor of Code4Lib at the Silver level ($2,500).
Computers in Libraries (March 30 – April 1) will feature a rock-out, boffo panel of Evergreen Divas: Karen Schneider from Equinox, Ruth Dukelow from Michigan Library Consortium, and Karen Collier and Andrea Neiman of Kent County Library in Maryland.
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 global conference! See more about this exciting event below.
Evergreen 1.4.0 Gold (the official release for 1.4.0) will be released by the end of January.  We’ll post to the blog when the code, images, staff clients, logins etc. are available.
“Craftsman,” the new OPAC skin, a handsome rethinking of the design funded by Georgia Public Library Service, is now live on the Evergreen demo catalog — though you have to know where to look (the default directory is changed to craftsman).
Note that some functionality for “demo” may be missing when you look at it, because demo is running a more current version of Evergreen than was available when the OPAC redesign project began. But by early February we will have skins for both 1.2.3.* and 1.4.*
SOLINET continues to offer free online Evergreen demos, January 21st (2-3pm), February 12th (10-11am) and 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 February 3rd (10am-noon) and 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 January 29th-30th (2-4pm) and 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 February 4th (2-4pm) and March 25th (10am-noon).
To register for 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
Website up
! http://www.solinet.net/evergreen
Questions? Sponsorship and exhibits requests? Program submissions? Email events@evergreen-ils.org
The first-ever Evergreen International Conference is just around the corner!
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
2. Registration opens Wednesday, February 18, 2009, on the conference website http://www.solinet.net/evergreen
3. Call for programs closes 5 p.m. EST on March 2, 2009 — programs are on three tracks: Library Administration, Front-line Users, and Tech Topics.
4. May 20 is an all-day Hackfest (no additional registration fee) in the comfortable environs of the Classic Center
5. The conference kicks off the evening of May 21 with a no-conflict Vendor Reception
6. May 21 – 22 features fascinating programs, long breaks where you can network with peers, and a networking luncheon and Table Talk Breakfast
7. User-led 5-minute lightning talks will spark up the conference, while Birds of a Feather sessions offer even more opportunities to commune with like-minded peers about topics of interest.
8. Sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities abound — sponsor at a specific level (Gold, Silver, Platinum), sponsor one of our many events, or just exhibit!
9. Fascinating keynote speakers are being lined up now!
10. Affordable accommodations, superb local meal values, and the Classic Center has free wifi!
The 2009 Evergreen Conference is being jointly coordinated by Georgia Public Library Service, Equinox Software, SOLINET, and several others in the Evergreen community, including Catherine Lemmer of Indiana Evergreen.
Evergreen has a Facebook group with almost 250 members! 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. 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!
Since November, two new developers have joined the Equinox team of “Evergreen Experts”: Laura McFarland and Scott McKellar. You can read about Laura — Scott’s so new we haven’t interviewed him yet for the blog, though there is a press release.
Below are the newest Evergreen libraries — the Evergreen installations known to have taken place in December, 2008 or early January, 2009. Also see the growing list of Evergreen libraries.
Evergreen Indiana: Jennings County, Brownstown, Melton, Butler, Odon Winklepleck*, and Brazil Public Libraries
* Yes, we think that’s a cute name, too.
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.
Since November, we’ve seen some excellent cataloging documentation come out of Evergreen libraries (Indiana produced a great document originally developed by Michigan; a contract documentation specialist, and Vandelay documentation is getting a once-over. There have been bits and pieces written about acquisitions, and the reporting documentation is due a major edit. McMaster University also has a technical writing intern from Seneca College, Betty Ing.
Webinars and videos: Don’t forget the section on the Evergreen wiki devoted to community-contributed documentation and tutorials.
Evergreen 2.0: As noted earlier, development for Evergreen 2.0 (planned to include acquisitions, serials, and reserves) is on an intentionally slow track through early January while the Evergreen developers focus on other development priorities, but will resume production for a roll-out targeted by late May, 2009. In the meantime, if you haven’t done so already, see the Evergreen acquisitions roadmap.
Evergreen also has a Flickr set and Delicious bookmarks:
Delicious: http://delicious.com/evergreenils
Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/evergreen-ils/
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.
Attention, Evergreen users/followers/consider-ers! Step up to the plate and participate in the Perceptions 2008 International Library Automation Survey, produced by library-automation industry pundit Marshall Breeding.
Marshall’s 2007 survey received “a total of 1,779 individuals from 47 different countries.” That’s a good start, but this survey would benefit from higher turnout. While the latest survey doesn’t mention a due date, a conversation with Marshall indicated that he would be closing out the survey by mid-January (as in, two more weeks), so don’t let this slide.
A strength of Marshall’s survey is that it probes perceptions and attitudes — not simply the opaque body count of who’s using what, but the satisfaction levels with products and services. This means that the Perceptions survey can reach below the surface and pull up trends that may not be visible — such as libraries that may not be in a position to migrate to a new ILS today or tomorrow, especially if they are distracted by the train wreck of our current economy, but are strongly considering open source software in the future.
Happy New Year to all of us in the Evergreen community!
