http://www.open-ils.org/

Map of North American installations: http://www.molyneux.com/EGmaps/

List of Evergreen sites http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=evergreen_libraries

http://cooperative.bclibraries.ca/

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/documentation/copy_of_talking-points

KCLS is just one of many libraries participating in the development of Evergreen. KCLS is currently in production on a beta release of Evergreen version 2.x, and as soon as that version becomes a stable release, Sitka will upgrade to it (planned for late Q1, 2011). Here's a great, short (16 minute) video in which the KCLS Director outlines some of the decisions driving their decision to go with Evergreen.

Among Sitka's member libraries? Issues like this are resolved through regular meetings of the Sitka Business Function Group where moderated discussions are based on respectful debate, collaboration and shared vision. The cooperative and open-source models successfully combine self and mutual interest so accommodations can almost always be found.

In the unlikely event issues cannot be resolved in this way, there are formal dispute resolution processes that can be called upon within the Service Management Agreement, developed by the BC Library community.

http://cooperative.bclibraries.ca/governance/memo-and-rules-of-association-service-management-agreement-and-more/

This piece is critical: Evergreen is an open source initiative, meaning its code is not developed by a vendor. Sitka and the BC Libraries Cooperative are not vendors either. Worldwide, librarians and developers are improving the software in the interests of their end users and their institutions. Unlike a vendor software user group, the Evergreen community is empowered.

The Evergreen global community has numerous communication channels as does Sitka, which makes makes heavy use of its listservs and website. The Sitka BFG meets monthly as do its Working Groups; minutes are posted to the Sitka Website.

http://www.open-ils.org/listserv.php

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/news/sitka-talk-listserv/

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/governance/sitka-business-function-group/

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/governance/ils-working-groups/

Within Sitka, feature requests drive development. Continuous automated polling of the membership yields the most popular ideas and the Sitka Team actions the development at the top of the list if they are able. If not, Sitka partners with its jurisdictional partners or takes the development out to the community or to 3rd parties on behalf of the membership. But that's not all: members and future members can also sponsor development - again, Sitka coordinates this effort in part to ensure their is no duplication of effort and that the request is developed as soon as possible.

http://ideas.sitka.bclibraries.ca/node/1

http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:evergreen_feature_request_procedures

http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:evergreen_roadmap

Sitka's In-house Development and Development Partnerships bld_dev_final.pdf

See above. Additionally, all Sitka sites receive training as part of their migration project. In terms of cultivating community, that's what Sitka and the Co-op are all about!

Continuous polling - see above

For many smaller libraries, procurement decisions relating to Sitka will not be a major hurdle, largely because of the relatively small investment it represents for them. For other libraries, especially libraries in which ILS investmentis are significant and may involve municipal purchasing departments, there will be requirements for more rigour and transparency in the decision-making process and a greater need to show value for money.

While familiar Request for Proposal processes depend on a traditional vendor paradigm and like-to-like comparitors, the Sitka open-source solution and the Cooperative business model is something of a departure from that process and requires new approaches. Rather than asking outside vendors/organizations to provide quotes on established service delivery parameters, libraries considering Sitka are contemplating joining the BC Libraries Cooperative and becoming part of a collaborative solution, owned and operated by the members. Organizationally, this means that decision-making processes and the business model itself is local and under the members' control. This and the non-proprietary nature of open-source software differentiates Sitka from the vendor paradigm, but while much of this is new to BC libraries, it is not without precedent here and it is becoming increasingly common elsewhere in the world. Many jurisdictions, notably Great Britain and the European Union, New Zealand, Australia and others have embraced both open-source solutions and consortial, enterprise environments very much like that of the BC Libraries Cooperative. Purchasing departments in local governments are also becoming increasingly familiar with evalutation tools for open-source products and services and open-source products are gaining momentum.

Transparency demands a defensible process, but it certainly does not preclude fair evaluation of open-source solutions in cooperative consortium environments. The Cooperative will work with its members to develop a common procurement evaluation tool to assist libraries in showing due dilligence and empirical analysis of Sitka.

http://www.bellwethercorp.com/Portals/56204/docs/saas-purchasing-model.pdf

Libraries coming on to Sitka pay a single, first-year fee that includes a relatively modest migration cost and the first year of recurring fees (sometimes referred to as maintenance fees). In the year after implementing Sitka, a new library will pay only the pro-rated recurring fee determined by their go-live date relative to the Cooperative's fiscal year which ends March 31st. This means a library coming on to Sitka will not pay a full recurring fee until their third year on Sitka.

Fees are based on the costs of providing services, including captial and operating costs, allowing prudent allocations for hardware replacement, business continuity and contingency. Since the Cooperative is a not-for-profit organization, profit does not factor into fees. Sitka fees are determined by libraries using Sitka in consultation with Cooperative management and staff and approved by Members Council. Libraries comparing Sitka recurring fees to their current vendor maitenance costs should carefully consider the total cost of their ILS, including harware, maintenance and replacement, ongoing network, technical and support costs as well as human resource and soft (process) costs related to older, legacy-type systems. Libraries should also factor into this analysis the value of participating in a standards-based enterprise IT platform from which cost-effective, value-added solutions can be leveraged, including third-party solutions such as BiblioCommons.

Long-term savings for participants derive mainly from Sitka's cloud computing/thin-client model which enables libraries to divest themselves of costly servers, software upgrades, etc. The shared service model allows libraries to share (spread) technical, network and support costs, while reducing duplication of fixed costs. Potential exists also for fees to normalize downward in response to economies of scale as Sitka approaches broader uptake throughout the various library sectors. Finally, because Sitka is member owned and operated, there will always be downward pressure on fees. These last two points underline the dynamic at work in a Cooperative business model: they exist not to maximize their own profits, but to promote the economic success of their members. This economic linkage creates reciprocal incentives for the Cooperative to serve its members and for the members to patronize the Cooperative.

BC Libraries Cooperative members have access to the Sitka fee schedule through their secure member login on the BC Libraries Cooperative web site. If a prospective Sitka library is not already a member, it can obtain information about what their fees will be by contacting the Cooperative.

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/documentation/copy_of_talking-points

Like all consortia, Sitka has the advantage of economies of scale, shared resources and risk. Simply put, Sitka, through the BC Libraries Cooperative, allows participating libraries greater buying power, enhanced services and reduced risk. Just as importantly, Sitka provides an enterprise platform that allows authentication and communication between discrete integrated library systems. Realization of the Gateway vision (a single portal to all library products and services) articulated some time ago now by BC libraries, depends heavily on such a platform and a critical mass of participating libraries.

Most importantly of all, a consortial integrated library system means increased access to library servicves throughout the province. Indeed, the primary guiding principle of Sika is "…to benefit BC residents and visitors by providing equitable and seamless access to a rich and diverse range of library services and collections."

Other benefits of Sitka include:

• Greater database consistency, quality assurance and improved retrieval
• Better coordination and management of collections and resources and improved communication and cohesiveness amongst libraries
• User services enjoy increased visibility and familiarity of experience
• Insurance against volatile vendor market, even for those libraries that do not join
• Sitka is self-sustaining and in control of its own destiny and development prioritization; libraries have more control within the consortium, not less
• Software users have direct access to developers and the world-wide development community
• Frees IT staff to respond to other patron technology service demands

Migration of bibliographic, patron and transactional data to Evergreen; Project Management; Training and Support; Annual Fee includes…

• Hosting
• System backup and power redundancy
• Scheduled hardware replacement
• 24×7 system uptime outside of scheduled off-hour maintenance windows
• Highly qualified, dedicated support/development staff - Sitka Team
• Documentation and Training
• System Administration
• 7×5 HELP Desk
• Feature development
• Central uploads to Outlook Online
• Unlimited Access to shared Bibliographic Database as a Cataloguing Resource
• Access to external, approved bibliographic databases via Z39.50
• Unlimited SIP 2.0 license (integrates with PC Reservation, Self Check)
• ContentCafe enhanced content (cover art, reviews, table of contents, etc.)
• Real-time authentication for OverDrive subscribers
• Central, automated PLSB annual statistics reporting
• Regular Sitka BFG conference calls
• Co-ordinated development efforts with global Evergreen community
• Data conversions

Sitka uses a ticketing system to receive and track all support requests. Regular support is currently available 9×4; emergency after hours support is available 24x7x365.

Many of the Evergreen sites have developed excellent documentation including Sitka.

http://sitka.bclibraries.ca/documentation/sitka-evergreen-user-documentation/

The Sitka team contains several data conversion experts with data experience from all the major library vendors. Test loads are done to discover and fix any data conversion problems.

Maintenance windows are scheduled biweekly in off-hours; data backup is scheduled on a daily routine

Upgrades, patches, new releases etc are all tested on non-production server environments by the Team. Some development work may be beta-tested by sites on test servers, depending on test requirements.

Centrally managed, tested in non-production environments first. Sites are notified about planned off-hours service- impacting upgrades well in advance

Sitka strives for 99.999% uptime outside of planned off-hours service windows. Since January 2010, Sitka has had a total of 3 hours of unplanned system-wide outages, reflecting an average of 99.2% system-wide uptime based on typical open hours across the majority of Sitka sites.

See above. Scalability was a key piece to Sitka “going Evergreen” - GPLS demonstrated scalability very clearly, and we've further proven it (from 0 to 41 sites in 3 years). All servers are Dell - a Hardware renewal is being planned now for implementation in 2011. A network diagram of Sitka's hardware infrastructure is available.

See above. Sitka's infrastructure is located in a highly secure commercial data centre with redundant power supplies. Offsite storage routines are well developed and comprehensive.

Libraries connect to the servers via an SSL connection. The better your broadband, the better your mileage. Having said that, the vast majority of Sitka's sites are using lo-grade business connections (Shaw/Telus business). The staff client is <7mb installed; standard PC hardware is recommended. For data migration, we normally provide FTP access, however if you wish a more secure alternative, we can provide SFTP access and accomodate any major checksum or encryption method you wish to use.

None currently, though it is conceivable. Our infrastructure includes various redundancies on various physical servers and virtual servers. Our database is replicated onto a secondary server and backed up to a third server regularly. Aside from the database, we are also able to quickly provision a Sitka production-ready system from 3rd party source code repositories.

See above. The BC Libraries Cooperative recently established a Licensing Business Function Group to support the implementation of BiblioCommons in BC and to explore consortial purchasing of other products. Countless service offerings exist.

We'll be happy to on the 9th! In the meantime, here's a Team Organizational Chart org_chart.pdf

As a consortial ILS, Sitka's Privacy policy is necessarily very extensive and has been carefully considered. Main concerns revolve around ensuring that users have only authroized access to patron and staff information. Sitka conforms to the privacy protection provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and BC's Privacy Guidelines for Public Libraries. Access to staff and patron information is partitioned and role-based, conforming to the Need to Know principle. Libraries coming on to Sitka will not relinquish local access and privacy controls and we welcome input into the formation of consortium-wide privacy and security guidelines and policies.

http://docs.sitka.bclibraries.ca/Policy/current/html/ch03.html

We look forward to this conversation, and offer here just a few points:

• There are no dangers specifically related to a single-patron database that are not also shared by any database.
• As above, the database is partitioned and access is restricted according to library and role.
• Access to the system is protected by unique user ids and logins and transimissions are encrypted.
• Sitka employs industry standards for security controls and is fully compliant with the privacy protection provisions of the FOIPPA, especially as they relate to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
• A full Privacy Impact Assessment, including a review of security controls has been conducted.
• Sitka is hosted in a secure co-location facitility here in BC (your bank information may be stored in this same building). Likewise, support is provided by Sitka staff located here in BC - the Patriot Act is not a factor.
• The Cooperative is member-owned and operated. Members (and their boards) make their own decisions about such things as advertising and marketing - the open-source community is not built upon or supported by for-profit advertising.

We know that privacy and security concerns must be addressed before we can focus the converstation on the numerous benefits of a seamless library patron experience made possible only through a shared ILS like Sitka's.

You will find that Evergreen offers a great deal of local autonomy, and Sitka is always working to make sure libraries' needs are met. Concerns of local autonomy are usually the first thing we look for when assessing software upgrades. Its also important to consider the benefits of all Sitka sites having more uniform statuses, particularly in the OPAC display. For an OPAC-using patron, the terms "mending" or "bindery" or "damaged" on an item status are vague and aren't really meaningful. Similarly, library staff doing ILLs may also benefit from knowing what that statuses of other libraries mean.

• Currently non-configurable (same settings apply globally, although the settings themselves are adjustable at the global level):
  • patron type labels (how you use these types is up to you, however)
  • circ modifiers (but how you use them is up to you)
  • item statuses
  • Z39.50 servers
  • MARC templates
  • patron identification types (birth certificate, status card, etc)

• Globally-configurable settings that we plan on making locally-customizable:
  • grace period
  • email notification templates
  • billing types (this is currently possible but a GUI is added in 2.0, we need to migrate our settings)

• Locally customizable:
  • Circulation settings
    • loan periods and loan policies
    • fine amounts and fine limits
    • lost item and overdue charges
    • damaged item charges
    • lost/damaged item processing fee
    • default item price for lost items
    • generic "grocery" billing types
    • circ policies are completely local (but managed server-side, we are moving away from this in the future)
  • Patron management
    • patron standing penalties/blocks
    • patron notes and alerts
    • surveys
    • freeform "statistical category" fields
  • OPAC
    • OPAC logo and colours
    • Custom OPAC detail display (BibTemplate)
    • Custom OPAC results display (BibTemplate)
    • appearance and branding of your HTML-only SlimPAC
  • Cataloguing
    • non-catalogued item types
    • item shelving locations
    • shelving location display order
    • item setting templates
    • freeform "statistical category" fields
    • spine label styles
  • Misc
    • your library's closed dates and hours of operation
    • library's email reply-to address and phone number
    • juvenile age threshold
    • receipt templates
    • self-serve password reset timeouts
    • credit card transaction settings
  • Staff Client
    • font size
    • sound on/off
    • optional toolbar with buttons for common functions
    • most screens are highly customizable via "column pickers"
    • many screens have the option to remember your display settings

Evergreen was explicitly designed to be consortia friendly - to strike a balance between local autonomy and maximized system performance. This is but one reason why we're using Evergreen! Sitka's membership determines policy for the system. In fact, ultimately, Sitka will provide much more autonomy in the sense that the member libraries will be in complete control of their ILS, including feature development, bug fixes, support and maintenance.

With each consecutive release of the software, there is a clear trend towards more local control. In general, there is more local control and customization over patron billing and circulation functions, less control over search configuration – local indexes are not supported as the system tends to encourage a more uniform search experience. As of 2.0, Evergreen has the beginning of support for locally 'owned' bibliographic records, which will lead to more local control over cataloguing and search in the future. We also expect that OPAC development trends, both within Evergreen and in elsewhere in the market will drive an increasingly custom catalogue and search experience.

Evergreen is extremely adaptable in terms of circulation policy and patron management.

Under the hood, Sitka runs a shared instance of Evergreen. However, each site has control over their opac skins (local branding etc), loan periods, fines, various billing settings, third party integration, localized cataloguing control and more. Evergreen is enterprise-class consortial ILS software.

Evergreen offers complete control over circulation policies, currently using custom JavaScript objects for each site which are maintained by the Sitka team. The team is happy to make any modifications you wish, and we are able to support direct patch submissions for sites with developer talent who wish to modify the JavaScript directly. After Sitka upgrades to Evergreen 2.0, we plan to migrate to Evergreen's in-db circulation system which provides a policy editing GUI directly to library staff.

This is a nuanced question and requires a dynamic conversation - we hope to unpack this more on December 9th but a simple answer looks like this: customization can be initiated locally or globally, but it it is coordinated collaboratively. Cooperation and collaboration is the cornerstone of the open-source model. Sitka is running an Enterprise instance of Evergreen for Sitka's 40+ libraries, making it one of the largest ILS's in the province - soon to be the largest. The membership enjoys a great deal of localized customization currently, and we look forward to bringing the talents of more developers into our community as we go forward.

Evergreen version 2.0 brief feature list: http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=feature_list_2_0

Evergreen version 2.0 Checklist by module: http://www.rscel.org/evergreen/about/features

The second largest library system on the continent is using Evergreen (KCLS) - would they settle for '…a limited set of base features…”?

We couldn't agree more - and how about an intuitive, seamless interface for patrons too!

As you know, open-source software has an excellent security record with open-source applications such as Linux, Apache and Firefox all having superior security records to their closed-source counterparts. Evergreen has only ever had one reported vulnerability in over 3 years, and no site has ever reported any active attacks on the Evergreen system. Evergreen uses SSL encryption to encrypt patron data over HTTP . Our servers are maintained with a strict access policy, and are located in locked racks in a physically secure facility which is heavily monitored and requires keycard access.

Results are relevancy ranked, but can be sorted by title, author or publication date and filtered by available copies. Evergreen supports multi-index searching, and has sub-indexes (ie: subject|geographic) which can also be searched. Evergreen uses a stemming algorithm to capture similar terms (ie: golf, golfing, golfer). If no results are found, Evergreen offers a spell-check result, and offers the "see also" references from the authority file if available. Evergreen supports simple NOT operations, and in 2.0 will support OR operations as well.

Offline circulation is available - the offline system offers circulation and patron registration. It has a handy uploader which allows you to upload multiple sessions from different workstations.

http://docs.sitka.bclibraries.ca/Sitka/current/html/offline.html

TNRD is piloting outbound Telephony for Sitka now (notification); inbound telephony (renewals) is theoretically possible but not yet in development. Anyone interested in sponsoring this development? Evergreen's telephony functionality ulitizes asterisk:

http://www.asterisk.org/

Evergreen supports online payments, but Sitka has not yet entered into an agreement with a brokerage like Moneris:

http://www.moneris.com/

Yes - Sitka developed a full-featured mobile OPAC for KCLS and ourselves; we're currently working on prettying it up, but its swell and works on any modern device:

http://m.tnrd.catalogue.bclibraries.ca

http://catalog.kcls.org/opac/extras/mobile/

Sitka is running an Enterprise instance of the Evergreen consortial ILS - permissions structures reflect the scale.

This goes without saying; we look forward to the conversation.

The second largest library system on the continent is using it - would they settle for '…a limited set of base features…”? The vision is for a very strong, patron-focussed core foundation upon which localized, distinguished, patron-focussed services are offered

Yes, on a batch or per copy level, with version 2.0

Evergreen allows you to create bookbags which are essentially your own custom RSS feed of selected books. Evergreen can also provide an RSS feed of recently created records or recently added items for any library. Evergreen also supports RSS feeds of search results. Evergreen has a dynamic catalogue interface called SuperCat which can provide any search results, bookbag or new item list in RSS, atom feeds, MARCXML, MODS, Dublin Core, OAI and some basic HTML formats. New formats are relatively easy for us to develop based on XSLT templates.

There is no home service module yet; we are looking into development options.

This is supported.

Release 2.0 provides partial functionality of this kind.

We use a shared wildcard certificate for the ILS is included as part of the fee structure. You may still need to buy a certificate if you offer other services through your library's website.

Yes.

We are looking into this, pending available hardware. If you are an interested library in BC, we are also willing to do a test load of your existing data into Evergreen, please contact us for more details.

Acquisitions functionality will be included in version 2.0. Acquisitions is being developed and beta-tested by KCLS and the Sitka team will begin testing all 2.0 functionality in December and early in the first quarter of 2011. We will provide an update with answers to the questions below as our testing progresses.

Sitka is very excited about the new Acquisitions functionality being rolled out with Evergreen version 2.0. It goes without saying that this functionality is essential for many of you. We anticipate launching Acquistions in Q2 2011. Several libraries in the global Evergreen community are testing Acquisitions (and Serials) now.

http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=acq:timeline

http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=feature_list_2_0

We anticipate launching Acquisitions in Q2 2011 after the module is more fully documented and tested, and we have safely upgraded to Evergreen 2.0

see above

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) support for EDIFAC, Tradacoms, ANSI X12

There is no limit to the number of fund codes

Foreign currency rates are supported as global settings. Sitka has also requested development of the ability to support local taxes (e.g. HST).

Acquisitions is currently in beta. Ordering through Baker and Taylor and Ingram are currently supported. We have requested development of ordering through vendors used by many libraries in B.C., including: ULS, Coutts, Library Bound, S&B Books and Raincoast.

Sitka has requested development of fund management at all levels of the hierarchy.

=== Responses to questions below pending Sitka team's testing of new Acquisitions and Serials functionality ===

Serials functionality will be included in version 2.0. The Sitka team will begin testing all 2.0 functionality in December and early in the first quarter of 2011. We will provide an update with answers to the questions below as our testing progresses.

The Cataloguing Working Group has been keeping abreast of developments with RDA so that we can plan accordingly. Support for evolving standards such as Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Resource Description and Access (RDA) were included in KCLS's requirements, although these may not be integrated initially in 2.x. Evergreen has provided an updated version of the tag and subfield tooltips for the Evergreen MARC editor which includes the Library of Congress's MARC2 Update 11, which in turn includes the RDA tags.

Sitka's Cataloguing Working Group includes representatives from many of BC's libraries - both public and post secondary. This group developed a cataloguing policy for Sitka.

http://docs.sitka.bclibraries.ca/Policy/current/html/ch05.html

Evergreen has a flexible bibliographic record import/export tool which can be used for exports to Amicus and WorldCat. In addition, the Sitka support team exports records to Outlook online on behalf of Sitka libraries on a scheduled basis, according to member libraries' criteria.

Bibliographic records can be added to Buckets (in the staff client) or Bookbags (in the OPAC). Bookbags can be shared as RSS feeds, and holds can be placed from bookbag lists.

In the Evergreen 2.0 batch upload MARC interface there are customizable Holdings Import Profiles & Merge/Overlay Profiles. In the MARC order records interface, there are checkboxes: Create Purchase Order & Activate Purchase Order. Tina Nov 30

A 'Validate' button checks the bibliographic record for consistency with authority records with a single click. Relevant authority records are also accessible by hovering over their corresponding MARC fields in the bibliographic record.

Bib record and Copy record buckets can group titles and copies for batch processing purposes. For large groups of records the Sitka support team may be able to update records with SQL scripts. Tina Nov 30

Selection lists? Reading lists? Yes to both. In addition to selection lists in Acquisitions, Evergreen's bucket and bookbag features allow for public and staff-only lists. Public lists can be shared by RSS or as links to the catalogue

We are currently developing a process for loading these records. It will be an automated process done between the vendors and the Sitka support team and will ensure that records are only visible to patrons whose libraries subscribe to the service.

This is currently in development, pending some related cataloguing policy. Sitka is adapting a URL checker script originally developed by NRCan.

Import via Z39.50 is supported out of the box. The interface is simple to use and supports simultaneous searching of multiple Z39.50 targets.

The Cataloguing Working Group is investigating a third-party solution to add and maintain authorities.

In addition to deletiItem records can be deleted by cataloguing staff in several ways, either individually or in batches. To avoid orphaned records, empty call number and Bib records will be automatically deleted when the last attached copy is deleted.

Brief bib records can be used for generic catalogued items. Alternatively, Evergreen can circulate uncatalogued items using the quick 'pre-catalogued' function, which creates minimal records linked to temporary barcodes at check out.

A Link to the MARC record (View & Edit mode) is available on all screens where an item record is displayed.

Sitka has a set of MARC templates for various media types. Sites create their own item record templates.

OPAC visibility is controlled by item status, item shelving location & the "OPAC visibile?" attribute in item record. Each library controls the visibility of their own shelving locations and items.

Yes, this is one of the benefits of the Cooperative - purchasing power! The Cooperative has established a Licensing Business Function Group to explore these kinds of group purchases.

Evergreen has very powerful reporting functionality. It is possible to report on almost every field in every table in the database. The native Graphical User Interface (GUI ) reporting interface tries to make navigating the database structure easier by pointing at the main database tables. It is possible to join on any number of tables, crosstab queries are also possible.

http://docs.sitka.bclibraries.ca/Sitka/current/html/report.html

In short – yes. Evergreen's report builder is capable of generating almost any report you could need in XLS, HTML or plain-text format. It essentially builds an SQL query behind the scenes and is quite powerful. Reports are pre-scheduled to minimize system load.

Read-only SQL database access is planned for Q2 2011; Evergreen's native powerful Reports GUI provides real-time access now. Note that Sitka runs a shared instance of Evergreen, with a single shared database. For obvious reasons we cannot allow direct write SQL access, however the Sitka support team is happy to accomodate your data services needs.

Excel, CSV, and HTML output

The Sitka support team has had an evaluation process in place for Training for the past 2 years and the survey results have been largely positive. We've also received very constructive feedback from sites and have integrated these suggestions into our training procedures wherever possible. Feedback from sites on the migration piece has been more anecdotal, but suggestions for improvement have also been incorporated into our procedures. By obtaining legacy system data and detailed survey results well in advance of the launch date, we are able to provide sites with ample time to review their data in a test environment so that most major data conversion issues are addressed in advance of the launch.

PLSB annual stats are run as a courtesy by the Sitka Team; all other stats are accessible through the reports GUI .

Pull List for Hold Requests is generated on the fly when you access it. You can access & print anytime you like. Overnight un-captured holds may be re-targeted if a more suitable copy is available.

Evergreen supports email pre-overdue notices, print and email overdue notices, and email hold notices. The email notices are currently a standard shared template which loads in some localized details; the overdue notices are based on Python scripts which we custom-build for you.

Evergreen is fully UTF-8, so it supports a lot of diversity. The most complete translations are for French, Czech, Armenian and Russian, and there are less complete translations for Portugeuse, Spanish and German. With respect to CJK, there is a partial Chinese (simplified) translation, but the community could use some volunteers for other languages. A proof-of-concept project has been completed which enabled searching, indexing and Pinyin sorting in Chinese, so it would certainly be possible to bootstrap that functionality.

You could catalogue your local collection with 856 tags, so yes.

Ye, the OPAC is quite flexible and is more configurable with each upgrade.

Great idea! Hasn't been discussed yet, but let's have that conversation.

We have not recieved requests for this, but this would definitely be possible to integrate - UPEI library has done so.

http://islandpines.roblib.upei.ca/

Evergreen supports metabib (combined format and edition), title, volume and item level holds.

Coming with release 2.0; will integrate with Acquisitions

This is definitely planned for a future release but not available yet. In 2.0 patrons can update their own address which is then 'approved' by library staff.

This is definitely possible; the infrastructure for this kind of feature is already in place in 2.0.

http://open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:evergreen_roadmap

http://open-ils.org/dokuwiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=faqs:evergreen-compatible_products.pdf

This is already well supported within Sitka, as it needs to be; while their are obvious consortial savings and opportunities around 3rd party products, differentiation is well understood.

There is no approval process and Sitka will never turn down a request for interaction with a third party product, however we ask that you just let us know so that we can record your vendors for firewall and load management purposes.

Evergreen supports numerous products and adheres to major standards. Because Evergreen is open-source we can quickly adapt Evergreen to work with many kinds of equipment and software, and vendors such as Envisionware have been quite supportive of the community (Envisionware has been a sponsor of Evergreen conferences in the past). Several Sitka sites currently use Sentry, 3M (self check and RFID), EnvisionWare and Novelist Select. BiblioCommons is scheduled for Dec 2010. TNRD uses Asterisk telephony. The bottom line is Evergreen is open source - 3rd party integration is therefore not encumbered by vendor locks.

No charge, Evergreen API calls and SIP2 are supported.Amazing, hunh?!

Regardless of the production you migrate to, you'd need to re-engineer any homebrew internal applications anyway. We're happy to help you migrate your services to SIP or the Evergreen API .

Sitka site recurring fees INCLUDE Content Cafe. Wow!