The Evergreen Project is transitioning its governance into a self-administered not-for-profit organization. As a part of that change, the recently-formed Evergreen Project Board has requested that we create a new mailing list, board@list.evergreen-ils.org, and retire the eg-oversight-board list from active use. Public archives will remain available. Please visit http://list.evergreen-ils.org/
Mary Llewellyn: Evergreen Contributor of the Month
The Evergreen Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that May’s Contributor of the Month is Mary Llewellyn, the Database Manager at Bibliomation, a consortium of Evergreen libraries in Connecticut. Mary’s role at Bibliomation includes supporting Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Serials workflows for their member libraries.
Mary can often be found asking questions and sharing her knowledge on various Evergreen community listservs. “I like to go to the community to compare notes before I go file a bug — the listserv is a great point of entry, since there are others who may have the same issue,” Mary tells us. Since she works so closely with Cataloging, Serials, and Acquisitions, Mary is always willing to answer others’ questions in these areas.
Mary is also active in Launchpad, where she has reported 21 bugs and commented on 38 bugs.
As part of her job at Bibliomation Mary writes SQL queries to perform quality assurance & record checks, and she is always willing to share these queries with fellow Evergreen libraries. Some of the work she does with her queries include identifying vendor-level records to flag for upgraded cataloging, checking that records have a valid OCLC Title Control Number, looking for empty bib records, and finding old Acquisitions records that need to be removed or upgraded.
Mary notes that this kind of work is much easier to perform in an open source system, since they have access to system level data and can manipulate that data. “Listening at some of our meetings [with non-Evergreen libraries], it’s clear that not everyone has that door open for them,” she says. “I know how much friction that can add when you have to go through an intermediary.”
Bibliomation’s first libraries went live on Evergreen in 2010, and that’s when Mary started going to interest group meetings and communicating on the listservs. Mary has been to every Evergreen Conference since 2010’s Grand Rapids conference. “I’ve met great people at the Conferences,” Mary says. “The longer you’re in it, the better you can mesh in the community and the better you can improve your own organization and the community as a whole.”
Mary’s advice for newcomers is straightforward. “I would start by joining the listservs. Ask questions, and give others the opportunity to help you. That strengthens the bond, and someday you can return the favor!”
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Do you know someone in the community who deserves a bit of extra recognition? Please use this form to submit your nominations. We ask for your email in case we have any questions, but all nominations will be kept confidential.
Any questions can be directed to Andrea Buntz Neiman via abneiman@equinoxinitiative.org or abneiman in IRC.
Chauncey Montgomery: Evergreen Contributor of the Month
The Evergreen Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that April’s Contributor of the Month is Chauncey Montgomery. Chauncey serves as the Director and Fiscal Officer of the Sunbury Community Library in Ohio, which is part of COOL (Consortium of Ohio Libraries).
Chauncey was instrumental in forming COOL and encouraging Ohio libraries to adopt Evergreen. His interest in open source was initially spurred by cost concerns. He looked at using other open source software (GIMP, Libre Office) as well, but his ILS represented a large expense and that led him to consider Evergreen.
“It started as a financial decision, but as I got more into [Evergreen] the other benefits of open source became apparent,” Chauncey says. “Working in a public library, [open source] aligns so much with our views and philosophies. I feel like we have a responsibility to support open source initiatives.”
Chauncey has spoken to many libraries in Ohio about the benefits of open source and Evergreen. As a library director, he sees the patron services side as well as the library budget side which gives him an advantage when encouraging libraries to explore Evergreen.
“When people have troubleshooting questions, I really enjoy helping that way — it’s a nice overlap between library work and the Evergreen Community, and that’s really rewarding for me,” he says. He also encourages people to share what they’re learning with other libraries, both within Ohio as well as the larger Evergreen community.
Chauncey served on the Evergreen Oversight Board from 2013-2016 and is also a past chair of the COOL Oversight Board. He is currently vice chair of the COOL Board and slated to once again serve as chair next year. As chair, he would like to see COOL become more involved with Evergreen development. “Whether we are leading initiatives or supporting initiatives that we want to see happen, there is an opportunity there.”
Chauncey tells us, “I’m not a coder, but I’m a tinkerer — open source invites you to tinker. Open source lends itself to [a different] type of thinking — it does this, but can it also do this? Or can we change that? That, to me, is one of the most exciting things about open source. You can ask ‘What ELSE can it do?’”
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Do you know someone in the community who deserves a bit of extra recognition? Please use this form to submit your nominations. We ask for your email in case we have any questions, but all nominations will be kept confidential.
Any questions can be directed to Andrea Buntz Neiman via abneiman@equinoxinitiative.org or abneiman in IRC.