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What fun! :) Is it sad that I can't trust the subs in my district to teach library lessons so I have some back up library lesson tapes? Great story and must have made your day. :)

One of my assets as a librarian sub is being able to pick up their library lesson plans and go. Like you, most librarians in my district don't even get a sub if I'm not available. The downside is too great. I always end up doing their lessons "my way." I can't help myself.

This was fun because I'd never meshed storytelling and the library catalog before although even my standard delivery of this lesson is probably pretty ... different. It is the voices.

Sing it, sister! What a great way to connect to the class! I used to go in occasionally to read for my daughter's 4th, 5th, even 6th grade classes - long after the other parents had stopped. There were always stories to share and they (and I) loved it.

That's fascinating! Lovely post:)

Great post!

Our school librarian just cancels library time if she's out. I wish I could sub, but I'm just a volunteer.

LitLass,
I used to ask my volunteers to get on the sub list so they could sub for my aide (or me if they had a BA/BS.) It was a nice way to "payback" for their volunteer hours.

What a great post! An important reminder of the role of storytelling in teaching. And thanks for the link to the Kendall Haven book - I'll definitely have to take a look at Story Proof.

Well, yay for them for going F/OSS, but I’m not sure I agree that the release is wise. Especially that last sentence. You know “free as in kittens” and all. It looks a little short-sighted in regards to the costs — financial or otherwise — associated with rolling-your-own.

We don’t say it’s free. We say it’s reducing costs, which it is. There are still costs involved and the full press release makes that clear. —MHW, Howe Library Director

Congrats Howe!

Free as in kittens is a silly phrase that should die, if FOSS is free as in kittens, proprietary software is free as in an inbred purebreed cat. That costs thousands of dollars in vet bills every year and is slightly retarded.

As amusing as ‘free as in kittens’ is, it unfortunately makes the classic mistake of conflating gratis with libre.

Where did you guys start with the “free as in kittens” stuff? This move is going to save the taxpayers money which is a calculation they’ve already done. I decided to quote from the press release without including it all, but here it is for future reference…

Hanover, NH–In a technology move designed to cut taxpayer costs, Howe Library is pleased to announce it has moved its entire bibliographic catalog and circulation system to Evergreen, an open-source integrated library system used by hundreds of libraries nationwide and in Canada. Moving to Evergreen will save considerable taxpayer dollars, primarily in annual service fees and upgrades.

According to Howe Library Director Mary White, the library has used a proprietary integrated library system since 1995. “While it’s one of the best automated systems available, it’s also very expensive to maintain and upgrade so we decided to look at alternative options.” The result of that comprehensive investigation, headed by Head of Technical Services and Systems Librarian Pamela Smith, was the choice to go with Evergreen.

Evergreen is a library-specific open-source software program developed by the Georgia Public Library Services that allows users to study, change, and improve the software as it is being used. Open-source software is often developed in a public, collaborative manner, and Evergreen is no exception. “Because Evergreen is created collaboratively,” says Systems Librarian Smith, “new features and upgrades, such as enhancing the catalog, are free to participating libraries” and maintenance is far less expensive. Library Director White estimates that the cost of maintaining the open-source system will save the library–and the town of Hanover taxpayers–almost 70% in annual maintenance costs compared to Howe Library’s old system.

The library chose Equinox Software for data migration as well as for annual maintenance and hosting. Galen Charlton, Vice-President for Data Services at Equinox states, “It has been a true pleasure working with a group of librarians committed to open-source to implement Evergreen, and I am pleased to see the broad interest in open-source integrated library systems across New England. We at Equinox look forward to continuing to work with Howe Library and know that they will be strong members of the Evergreen community.”

Howe Library patrons will enjoy some new features with the Evergreen system, such as creating private lists of books they have read or want to read. Patrons will also have more flexibility and control over their bibliographic searches with the new system, including setting account preferences to search their home library only or both Howe and Etna libraries.

Howe is one of only three libraries in New Hampshire using an open-source option, and is the only library in New Hampshire to use Evergreen. “We hope other libraries in New Hampshire will follow our lead,” says White. “It would be great to have other libraries create a consortium of users. Pooling resources helps all of us, and ultimately offers our patrons far more than any individual library can on its own.”

For more information about Howe Library, please contact Mary White at 603-640-3251 or [email protected].

I was just responding to the ‘free as in kittens’ comment, mainly because 1/ it’s a false analogy and 2/ as you point out, has nothing to do with this.

That is how you make the words work best. That type of press release is exactly how MPOW explains the public computing experience we offer to our customers. The explanation is clear and concise. I feel that no further explanation is necessary for me to understand the choice of Evergreen as the new ILS.

Congrats on the switch! There are actually more libraries in your area moving to open source than you think. There is a collaborative of three NH libraries going live on Koha by the end of September, and another slated to go live mid October. A trend is definitely growing! Here is more information on those libraries:
http://bywatersolutions.com/?p=509
http://bywatersolutions.com/?p=517

I copied this excellent press release for use later myself… Mary, Pam, and the team at Howe did an amazing job researching options, and their move *IS* going to save a significant amount of taxpayer money. Congrats, Howe Library!

It is really a nice and worthy post by you. Keep it up.

I’m sure it is not a perfect solution, but I’ve been working on setting up a small library for the charter school my sons attend, and we are using libraryworld.com. It is only $365 a year and seems to have all the basic features that a small library would need (circulation, cataloging with Z39.50, an OPAC, etc. ). Another plus is that it is simple enough for anyone to understand and use. We are still cataloging and have only just begun circulating our collection so we will have to wait and see how it works for us, but so far I am pretty pleased.

What about ResourceMate (http://www.resourcemate.com/)? I work in a small college library and we recently purchased this product. You can purchase it for as little as $195 (one time fee). And what’s nice about it is that as your library grows, you can purchase add-ons as needed.

Hi Jessamyn

There are a couple of open source small library systems out there through Sourceforge.net

OpenBiblio
Senayan

Also Right On has a library automation program for small libraries though it’s gotten pricey.

http://www.rightonlibrarysoftware.com/

Hope this is helpful

Yes, cut all librarians before any cop. Protection from crime is a more essential task of the state — long, long before providing library services.

Of course, if we legalized drugs, we wouldn’t need as many cops, but that’s another issue….

I am in the process of setting up OpenBiblio for my church’s library (about 1,600 items). It has many shortcomings, but in general it provides a good platform for those needing cataloging and circulation functions for a small collection. I would guess that a collection of up to 5,000 items would pose no problems; not sure what the upper end would be.

It can run on a hosted web server, which an organization can obtain for less than $100 per year (and do quite a bit more with it as well – website, blog, wiki, etc.). It is as easy to install as WordPress, and configuring the software is fairly straightforward.

Strengths:
* MARC record importer
* Only need web browser and internet connection (no client software to install)
* Easy to create/edit patron and bibliographic records

Weaknesses:
* OPAC needs work (it is fairly limited – I am hoping to customize ours once we finish record clean-up)
* Report module is too complex for the average user (php/sql scripting required)
* No serials or acquisitions

Jessamyn – if you would like to look around the staff areas of our installation to see it for yourself, let me know and I can arrange for temporary access and a brief description of some of the things I’ve noticed while working with it.

[...] (via Jessamyn West [...]

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeff Scott, Koha Open Source ILS. Koha Open Source ILS said: #koha what happens when you don’t get what you pay for http://bit.ly/4H3Wgx !koha [...]

How do you feel about it? Do you have the same opinion?

Thanks,
– Ben

I really don’t know. I think if I had a contract with LibLime I’d mind. That said there are a lot of reasons people stick with vendors. We didn’t go with LibLime in Vermont because they were way too expensive for what we needed and what we could afford. I don’t know if they’re like that for other people. If I was going with an Open Source vendor I think I’d really want them to maintain their PS committment throughout, yeah, but I can’t second guess other folks’ motivations.

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by qadmon_rss and kaorunokimi. kaorunokimi said: An ILS lawsuit? I'd sooo like to file one. http://bit.ly/QNhu3 [...]

Is it wrong for me to be excited about this? It is, isn’t it.

No, I think it’s normal to be excited about it. From what I have heard in the past, big ILS vendors [I've heard iii mentioned a lot] play hardball with libraries — and keep in mind that’s the public’s money — over stuff that is only quasi-legally enforceable and gives them substandard service and products that seem decades older than they really are. There has been very little effort to try to make ILSes into anything that approaches what libraries actually want (reliable, with data you can get out and features you can build on yourself) and a whole lot of effort and marketing into feelgood spokespeople and feature creep without improving the core product. I’m just happy there’s a library that was big enough to call them on their antics.

Oh man. To say I am unsurprised by this would be a giant honking lie. I shall be watching this with interest, oh yes!

Steve, it’s not wrong at all. They are a terrible, terrible company – awful to both employees and (more importantly) customers. I hope they sue them out of existence.

Excellent. *polishes pitchfork*

So when they get sued into oblivion, what happens to my local public library’s catalog? They run it for a while as-is (unsupported) until they manage to hire the staff to maintain an open-source catalog? Or they are forced to go running into the arms of III (who has a better product, but a reputation for insane pricing)?

Steve: It’s not an either-or scenario. You also have the option of engaging with a support vendor for an open-source system, who can do everything from just giving you casual support, if you need it, to a full migration + hosted service. Both Koha and Evergreen have commercial support options; for example, Koha has vendors like Bywater Solutions, Catalyst, and PTFS, and Evergreen has vendors like Equinox, Bywater Solutions (again!), and PTFS-Europe. We have a support contract with Equinox, for example, and it’s really refreshing to see a company respond quickly and authoritatively to a support request.

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I’m not a big fan of the current Sirsi company management, but this is unfair:

There has been very little effort to try to make ILSes into anything that approaches what libraries actually want (reliable, with data you can get out and features you can build on yourself)

Sirsi Unicorn (or Symphony, as they renamed it to appease Dynix customers) is extremely reliable at the core, you can get your data out and you can change stuff and build on features yourself. It just takes a lot of unix knowledge to do so. And a lot of time. And institutional support. All of which are in short supply in public libraries.

That ILS software feels 20 years out of date is fair. Of course it does. The core of Unicorn is 20 years old, and other vendors aren’t doing any better. The problem that Queens Borough has with Sirsi is with sales and marketing, not with the software.

It’d be great if the open source ILSes force the traditional ILS vendors into improving, but the ILS market is a lot broader, with needs that vary far more than most people realize. The library in Buckland, MA has very different needs than the library at the World Bank.

I get what you’re saying Lissa — but I think until there’s some sort of a simple export for data it’s fair to say that this isn’t really a feature that the ILS offers. I’ll concede I may have been hyperbolic on the reliability factor, but not having a big red EXPORT button seems to be more of a case of ill-intent than the fact that this isn’t a feature libraries have been clamoring for for decades. It’s like, to me, cable TV. If there really were a market-driven set of economic factors affecting cable tv, we’d all have a la carte pricing. We don’t and I think it’s more because it affects the cable companies’ bottom line, not that it’s difficult or even expensive to provide this option.

That said, yeah QBPL is mostly arguing that claims were made that were not followed through on, so it will be interesting to see how that goes in its own right.

I have to ask what you want this “big red EXPORT button” to do? Our library is in the process of migrating to a new ILS and I haven’t had any trouble exporting anything (currently on Horizon). I didn’t have much difficulty exporting when I was on Unicorn (though I did have API training).

The problem is often importing on the other side and doing the scripting work necessary to put it into a format that the new vendor (or open source software) can make use of. As well, the problem can be that you often need detailed knowledge of your underlying data structure to extract your data properly.

I’d question whether data extraction (and importation) can ever be easy since only bibliographic records have a true standard.

Well, there is a big red export button for bibliographic data, the MARC Export Wizard. On the Util toolbar, been there for at least 8 versions. Getting patron data out requires API training (and then it is trivial).

I do think you’ve hit the hammer on the head with the pricing issue, though. Libraries just don’t have enough money to sling around to get what we all claim we want. That, or we’re all willing to settle.

People talk about III, which stuffs its data into a proprietary format. Unicorn doesn’t. It uses Oracle or CISAM. Both are well-documented. Sirsi doesn’t get credit for this, and they should. It is a very unixish system.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I just wish the case had been filed by someone with a stronger case, better lawyers and without a terminal case of St. Dynix Syndrome.

there is a very simple and reliable “export” button in sirsidynix’s online “director’s station.” it’s not as powerful as API, but it’s a lot easier to use. it is also a very expensive “add-on.”

Having never actually used Dynix products as a librarian, I can’t speak for how good or bad the product is. Queens seems to think that the ILS can do everything but sing “God bless America”.

From what I heard Dynix wasn’t that great. Someone at Queens should have checked references and listservs before signing. My boss says that he would send anyone asking for Dynix references his Dynix problem file (all 275 pages).

I knew when I heard the news of the merger that the Dynix software was going to disappear. If it was that obvious to me, a reference librarian from Montana, it should have been obvious to all those high powered librarians in New York.

Seriously – Where does the catalog live? Thankfully, your father has a wonderful guide to help him navigate the library but what about other patrons?

I have conversations like this with depressing regularity with non-librarians about our catalogs. Particularly for the public catalogs they use they tend to get frustrated with the interface. The most common complaints:

1) Highly popular, circulated, and talked about books don’t seem to float up. Imagine if we harvested popular words of the day out of several sources and included that in our rankins. (And also as some sort of side-bar…ie articles online that mention this resource).

2) If they put in a title, it doesn’t come up to the top.

3) Series, especially in public libraries, seem to be horribly treated. Popular series might be ok, but the person looking for volume 4 of “The Jedi TwiddleTwinkie Wars” may end up having a hard time. How about when viewing a book in the series, there’s information describing it’s place in the series and has links to the other books in the series elsewhere on the page….

4) Similar to above, finding out what books an author wrote and the original publication history of those books is frustrating. Is book x one of their early ones, or is it just the 20th year anniversary printing?

5) Where’s the Sexy Vampire Hunter subject? Mechs? How can it be that searching for subject words and Cooking doesn’t get any results?

Awesome. Forwarding this post to several at my library.

Your dad can (or at least, should) make a fortune doing usability testing.

I’m sure people reading this will assume I’m on the defensive. I hope that’s not the case.

We regularly survey our patrons to get a feel for where they need help in using the catalog and try to make changes within the limits of the software. The people we are surveying are probably not first time users of the catalog, so they know to select just their library, subject, etc. We also know people don’t use the online help, though it’s available. I’m sure when people use Amazon for the first time, they need to look around and see they can actually add a tag. But Amazon’s job is to sell. Though it sounds like the library your father got his card at was short-handed (big surprise these days), I’m sure they would have been happy to assist him over the phone, as you did.

Some of the other issues you point out are actually ones that we’re addressing in our upcoming SOPAC implementation. We will be able to sort by popularity, search by series, tags, etc. Hopefully make it a much more intuitive experience. Increasing the text size on a page is going to be a button. We already put in a third-party spell-checker.

Our intent is to make the use experience as intuitive as possible and are actively working toward that goal.

If http://www.sailsinc.org/ is the site we are talking about, the fonts are criminally small.

Laurie, you probably know this, and I don’t want to lecture, but I think surveys of “what do you want the catalog to do” are very different from usability testing where you give people tasks and see what they actually do and where they have problems.

I’m not unsympathetic, having spent plenty of time in the past banging my head against a recalcitrant OPAC from the administrator’s side.

Hiya Laurie — I didn’t mean to point fingers. I used the iBistro software at my old library and I think a lot of the presets are not great generally. Good for you for working on getting SOPAC running. You have a huge service area and I bet you’ll be able to get a lot of good data.

That said, some really basic changes like having a search box on the main page, making the fonts bigger (I’m on a mac, maybe that matters) and grouping the links so it’s obvious what is part of the catalog and what is extra SAILS stuff might go a long way to making what you have a lot more usable. Thanks for checking in.

Tom Blake: Ha! You’re right!

This catalog sounds a lot like the one at my public library. And thank god, you /can/ just enter your 14-character patron number once and for all on your own home computer.

A twist on that, though: A few times I have gone to use the public computers in the library — yes, to try to find titles of readalikes and ‘next in series’ via Google because they aren’t available via the library catalog and I haven’t done my research ahead of time — and sometimes I haven’t had my library card with me. The reference librarian has made it clear that I am only allowed one “look-up”, that is, one instance of the librarian looking up my number in the library’s system and writing it down for me on a piece of paper so I can take it 5 feet away, squint at it, and try to type it correctly into the public computer interface. So far, I’ve had two “look-ups,” about 6 months apart. Next time I come in without my card and wonder what other authors I might like, I’m apparently out of luck.

I understand that librarians don’t want to spent their time looking up patrons’ numbers. That does seem wasteful. But there must be a better way to handle this. A few years ago, we could just sign our names on a list in order to use the computers, no number needed.

What I want is one of those more convenient (for me) keychain ID cards but apparently I can’t get one unless I pay $1 for it, because my library card is not up for renewal for another year. New patrons get them now when they sign up. Nice.

this made me laugh and cry. thank you for sharing!

Well if you’re talking about the public SAILS site, the original intent was to point back to the libraries and give our libraries some forms, links & tools they could use for their own sites. We spend most of our time on our staff side of the site, since our member libraries are our real focus.

We finally realized that the public is going to us first, and most libraries are pointing to us, rather than right into the catalog. We never wanted to usurp our libraries connection to their patrons.

Knowing that we’re going to be going to SOPAC we held off on our public redesign, since getting a new public site for SAILS will be part of it, as well as being able to offer some of our libraries a new site as well. A few weeks ago I did a quick and dirty clean up. It used to be even more cluttered.

I’d love to be able to spend more time testing on different browsers, OS’s, etc. but my main focus is our catalog, not our public website. Soon it will be all the same!

Ye gods that’s painfully small font. (WinXP here.) The thing that my sweetie complains about with our library’s online catalog: he can’t get a list of new whatever (fiction, dvds, etc) like what you’d find in the physical library.

It seems like there should be a “persona” in designing this stuff that’s the generally internet-savvy, but not esp library-savvy person. That impatient guy who doesn’t ask for directions? :)

Elaine, I have Win Xp & IE. I don’t use a separate style sheet for Firefox, which I’m guessing you’re using? When I look at several sites in the latest version, they’re all rather small. I have the default be x-small, not a specific size, so people can change it in their browser. I actually don’t see that much of a difference with this site’s size & SAILS.

“I have the default be x-small, not a specific size, so people can change it in their browser.”

I think you should possibly reconsider this. I am not using any special stylesheet and the fonts on the SAILS page are much smaller than the fonts on this website when both are at their default sizes for the website. Compare:

SAILS site
librarian.net

Not everyone knows how to resize fonts in their browser or has the dexterity to do so. Additionally, if they make the font size larger to make this visible for the SAILS site, then they have to make it small again to go back to other sites. The default sizes should pretty much always be medium size fonts so that people have to do a minimum of adjustment to view your site.

M Wms, limiting patrons to one userID lookup sounds a bit draconian to me (I say this as someone who gives patrons their library number sometimes several times a week). Maybe they’re suffering severe staff shortages (more severe than ours)?

I’m really not seeing it as small as in your graphic and I see the fonts for this comment area smaller than the text on the SAILS site – home & at work, and not just my computers. Maybe it’s a Mac thing? Have to play around in an emulator – fun thing for a Friday.

[...] to Jessamyn for her post [...]

[...] can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...]

[…] can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here […]

[…] via Librarian.net […]

[…] Librarian.net expounds on comments she made in the Wall Street Journal story, while CaveatLector bestows humorous kudos on the WSJ reporter for his journalism: “Andrew LaVallee got librarianship right and is to be commended for it. No buns. No shushing. No covert sneers. No misogyny. … A real debate, not something trumped up out of nowhere.” […]

How cool! I just sent an e-mail offering up our unique local history records, and would encourage other out-of-the-way libraries with special collections to do the same. What a wonderful alternative to WorldCat!

its well * good

it is well & good

I interviewed at a library whose in-house catalog was not online (it might have been Follett, but I don’t remember). Anyway, I asked when they were planning to put it online. They said, “We’re not. Why would we want our catalog online?” I said, “Well, what if I’m at home at 10 pm and I want to see if you have a book so I can put a hold on it?” Blank stares. It’s hard to know how to respond at that point–so kudos to Kimball for at least getting as far as they did.

I have been asking ot do this for an age for the school library. I kept being to ld it couldn’t be done not I know it can so I just emailed it to our principal. If the tech guys can’t do I am pretty sure I know some 15 year olds who can.

just started to test it out - looks really good, and there is nothing quite like getting a personal recommendation for a book you might like through the catalog instead of through amazon.

i can’t tell you how glad I am to have an AADL library card!

Where can we find the source code?

There’s a link to the source code at the end of his post.