Community contributions are critical to the success and sustainability of the Evergreen project. Most of these contributions are expected to come from employees of Evergreen libraries, consortia and service providers, but other work responsibilities often take priority, leading to inconsistent work on the project. How can managers build a culture where open-source contributions are valued and encouraged? In this session, leaders from Bibliomation, Georgia PINES, and NOBLE will share their methods for encouraging staff to be active participants in the Evergreen community. Attendees are invited to bring their own tips and ideas for ensuring their organizations are actively working with the community.
New Features in Evergreen 3.11+ (The Ruth and Andrea Show version 5.0)
Come hear about all the latest & greatest in Evergreen with your favorite guides to the world of Evergreen, Andrea & Ruth, in their 5th annual rundown of new features. We’ll talk about what went into Evergreen for 3.11 and 3.12 in 2023, as well as what’s potentially coming in 2024 (which may also be the year for Evergreen 4.0!) We promise there will be lots of exciting screenshots and probably a few bad jokes.
2024 Lightning Talks
2024 State of the Project / Developer’s Update
Adventures in Running an Evergreen Support Desk
A panel discussion including representatives from four different Evergreen consortia and their support desk experiences.
Just a Bit of Git
If you’re reading this, you’re likely well acquainted with Evergreen, and you’ve likely heard talk about Git. Git is a powerful tool that is used to manage changes in the Evergreen code. Even if you don’t write code, or barely (or never) even look at code, having a basic understanding of what Git is, what it can do and how it applies to Evergreen can be valuable to anyone involved with the Evergreen community. In this session, we’ll take a few steps back from the command line and look at some broad concepts and basics to get you more familiar with the power and usefulness of git.
Batches, Baskets, Buckets, and Bookbags
Overview of the different ways to work with batches of items and bibs in Evergreen, including item status batches, item and record buckets, My Lists/Bookbags, and carousels with lots of examples, tips and tricks, and future development.
Help Your Patrons Discover More with Evergreen and Aspen
In this panel presentation, libraries using Aspen Discovery will discuss topics such as why they chose to implement Aspen, what benefits patrons and libraries get from a discovery layer in addition to Evergreen, and feedback on Aspen from library patrons and staff.
Modify a Million MARC a Month
In this presentation we’ll walk through the process we used to update 2.2 million bib records over the course of two months using database queries to identify records for editing, exporting with Evergreen, modifying with MarcEdit and then re-ingesting using the Blake Bib Magic ingest tool discussed at the last conference. We’ll discuss tips for finding records, things we’ve learned about using MarcEdit, how we do quality control on the records, and the reingest process. We’ll describe how this can be done without any special tools or technology for your instance of Evergreen or how you can reproduce what we’ve done.
MarcEdit
Terry Reese will make a special appearance as an invited expert speaker to discuss the power of MarcEdit and how it can be used to streamline and enhance the care and maintenance of bib records in Evergreen. MarcEdit is a metadata suite that is used by tens of thousands of librarians annually from around the world. Find out more about Terry Reese and his work at reeset.net.
2024 Welcome and Keynote Address – Richard Littauer
Richard Littauer is an organizer of SustainOSS and the host of the Sustain Podcast. As a full-stack developer and open source community consultant, he has contributed to thousands of different open source projects, and worked with dozens of communities. He also likes birds. Richard will be speaking on sustainability in open source projects with time for Q&A after his presentation.
Tip of the Iceberg: Uncovering Accessibility Issues through UI Testing
What looks like a small bug in the Evergreen user interface can actually be a larger issue underneath! Learn how little UI glitches can be clues to hidden accessibility problems that have big consequences. Bad alignment, weird colors, and unexpected pointer styles–no bug is too small to report. We’ll describe what to look for and discuss how these little details can add up to big problems for people with visual, mobility, or cognitive impairments. We’ll also demonstrate how to find these issues proactively with some five-minute accessibility tests that you can do using only your keyboard and a browser extension or two.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Hold Targeter Geolocation Follow-up
In previous conference sessions, I presented about work that NC Cardinal was undertaking to implement geo-location services into Evergreen’s hold targeter. Since that time, we’ve rolled the code out into our production environment, entered in all of the new data that was required, and enabled the feature across the consortium. All of our holds are now having their potential targets chosen based on their physical distance from their pickup libraries and not by random chance. I would like to follow up on the effects that we’ve seen, our implementation process, and changes that needed to be made after reviewing our resource sharing process.
A Beginner’s Guide to Evergreen Permissions
A back-to-basics session that will go over how permissions and permission groups work in Evergreen, hopefully demystifying some of the many complexities of permissions. This session will cover topics such as creating permissions and permission groups, assigning permissions to users, and how depth and grantability work.
I’ll Have what MARC’s Having
We developed an alternate Regex-based MARC search and replace interface at King County. I’d like to demo the new interface, discuss some of the implementation details, and maybe take requests!
2024 Exhibitor Lightning Talks
Using Aspen as your Evergreen OPAC
Join Rogan and Ruth to discuss the pros, cons, challenges and delights of using Aspen as an alternative discovery experience for library users. We will look at Evergreen specific considerations when implementing Aspen, share experiences from a large consortium implementation and collect feedback for the larger Aspen community. Bring your questions, ideas, and wish lists!
Series, Serials, Pieces and Parts
How does your library handle different types of serials? Do you always use serial records or do you use monograph records — there are pros and cons of each approach. Do you use parts to manage sets that individual libraries circulate differently? Hear two different approaches from to these issues from NOBLE and C/W MARS.
On the Same Page: Standards, Expectations, and Automation in Consortium Catalog Training
Two years ago, Missouri Evergreen implemented a cataloging certification program using a pdf document, YouTube, and the test server. Although consortium catalogers were able to complete the process and earn their certifications the program was clunky – labor intensive and difficult to update along with software upgrades. In order to streamline the process and prepare for a bi-annual recertification process it was decided the program was in need of a complete overhaul. In this session I will discuss how we created our certification program, set standards, managed expectations, and automated the process with an LMS.
Meet the List Maker
The List Maker is a homegrown tool that NOBLE libraries use to make all kinds of lists of bibliographic and item records, based on searches performed directly in the List Maker or starting with lists of barcodes, record IDs, or ISBNs, and also works titles selected in the catalog and added to baskets and buckets. The List Maker provides several types of output: HTML and JSON for adding to websites; Excel or CSV for collection analysis; and weeding, inventory and shelf checking items with Missing, Lost and other statues. It also creates and interacts with record and item buckets and carousels. Lists can be run once or set to run automatically on a regular schedule. It’s easy to use and popular with a wide variety of staff for all sorts of projects.