Evergreen ILS

Open Source Library Software

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Evergreen Release Candidate 1.4 Available

On Friday, October 17, 2008, the Evergreen community released Evergreen 1.4, Release Candidate 1. It is linked on the project website downloads page.

As noted elsewhere, in software, a release candidate (or RC) is similar to a political candidate: it should have a strong platform, it should be more “walk” than “talk,” and it’s out there for evaluation.

RC 1.4 is suitable for testing new installations of Evergreen and trying out the great new features available in version 1.4. Partial upgrade instructions from the 1.2 series are available and will evolve throughout the Release Candidate process.

This will not be the last Release Candidate for 1.4, but barring major issues other than installation and upgrade cleanup, it is very close. We invite and encourage you to download and install this version for testing purposes but recommend that you wait until the final 1.4.0.0 release for production use. This version of Evergreen requires version 1.0 or greater of OpenSRF, also on the downloads page.

You can read more about 1.4 on the Evergreen Development Roadmap.

Also see this post from Equinox Software describing just two of 1.4’s features — courtesy notices and non-SIP self-check.

Here are a few of the outward-facing 1.4 features and the status of their development in RC 1.4:

  • Improved administrative interfaces for defining organizations and permissions — in place
  • New interface for circulation rules –the back-end is in place, the UI is imminent
  • Credit card payments — back-end completed, awaiting community discussion on interface
  • Multi-source Z39.50 search for staff — in place. The UI hasn’t been finished for configuring the Z targets, but these can still be set in the script.
  • Pre-overdue (reminder) notices — in place
  • SRU/Z39.50 server — in place
  • Publication date filtering in advanced OPAC search — in place
  • Preferred-language setting at both system and organizational level for search results is in place in the back-end, though we need a little more work to make this available in the UI.
  • Web-based batch record importer/exporter (Vandelay) — done, except for the UI for holdings import
  • Unrecovered debt — mostly done, with a little permissions work needed to wrap it up

Congratulations to the developers — and please do test this out and report back!

Save the Date! Evergreen Conference, May 20-22, 2009

We can now announce it! The first-ever Evergreen Conference will be May 20-22, 2009 at the Classic Center in Athens, Georgia, following the Georgia PINES annual meeting. The Classic Center is commodious and lovely, and Athens, just an hour from Atlanta, is a fun place with a nice downtown just in walking distance from the Center.

The Evergreen Conference is being planned by Georgia Public Library Service, SOLINET, and Equinox Software.

What to expect

The details are still being worked out, but expect a lively mix of speakers, lightning talks, Birds of a Feather (topic discussions organized on-site), and of course, a hackfest! To encourage mingling and sharing, plenty of time will be factored in for breaks and meals.

Hackfest joy!

Hackfest-types: it’s reasonable to assume that May 20 will be a full-day hackfest opportunity. (For those unfamiliar with this term, a “hackfest” is a time for developers to get together and work like mad on projects, like the Evergreen SOPAC and LibX projects worked on at Access 2008.) The hackfest may overlap with PINES meeting activities on the 20th, but we’re anticipating that’s not an issue.

Lightning Strikes — Twice, Thrice, Many Times!

Courtesy of BAHA ArchivesThe Evergreen Conference will also likely feature the increasingly-popular lightning talks (sometimes called Thunder Talks or Five-Minute Madness). This weekend at LITA Forum someone commented that she learned more from lightning talks than from longer sessions. Perhaps when people only have 5 minutes to present, they get focused.

The conference might also solicit lightning-talk topics online in advance, or offer a mix of pre-submitted topics and on-site reports. (Access 2008 did a particularly nice job of incorporating Hackfest reports into its schedule.)

What else? Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? Pecha Kucha? Time set aside for an Evergreen Maypole Dance?

Access 2008: the Fall Fashion Color was Evergreen!

Electropus 2

(Note: see the new Evergreen Flickr set and Delicious set for more linkalicious pleasure.)

Many good topics were discussed at Access 2008 in Hamilton, Ontario this past weekend, but Evergreen seemed to be every other word (the alternate word was LibX).

As you can see from the photo on the left (by Evergreener David Fiander), Access was a laptoppy sort of conference, whose attendees spent their days feverishly taking notes, chatting with one another online, and otherwise being at one with their geeky selves.

Access began with a day-long Hackfest (which is where developers gather and tackle projects). Evergreen figured in three of the Access Hackfest activities:

* A LibX connector. LibX is a library-resource browser plugin on steroids, led by Annette Bailey and Godmar Back of Virginia Tech. With Godmar’s help, LibX got a connector for Evergreen.

* Zotero. Dan Scott of Laurentian University (part of Project Conifer) led the way on this project to make Zotero, an open-source citation manager, work with Evergreen’s default OPAC. (Zotero already works with the Slimpac, Evergreen’s mobile/low-fi Interface.) Fabu! This functionality will be available in 1.4.

* SOPAC. Nick Ruest (McMaster) and Michael Vandenburg (Kingston Frontenac Public Libraries) spent a profitable 8 hours getting down and dirty with a SOPAC-Evergreen implementation.  SOPAC is an OPAC replacement–well, that’s not quite doing it justice; SOPAC is a user-engagement layer that also employs an open-data social software repository. Coolness indeed. Alas, the clock ran out before Nick and Michael could get entirely through this very complex project, but they made beaucoup headway.

During Access, the Robertson Library in UPEI announced that it had integrated Google Book Search into its Evergreen installation. Fascinating project! Check out the nifty examples and keep your eye on this as it evolves.

Hackfests last a day, and then people have to return to their usual commitments; but if you have interest in helping along any of these projects — the Evergreen “general” discussion list was abuzz this week! — there are many ways to reach the Evergreen community (including commenting on this blog).

We also heard word of a library developer working on a Vufind connector for Evergreen — a very Evergreen-ery idea indeed.

Meanwhile, several excellent presentations focused on Evergreen, such as these talks by John Fink and Dan Scott.

Finally, at the Evergreen Birds of a Feather, several people suggested using MarkMail for the Evergreen list archives. That is an idea that is happening right now — live posts are being archived, and the backfiles will be there soon, very soon. Thanks also to Jason at MarkMail!