From stephen.elfstrand at mnsu.edu Tue Dec 3 17:11:32 2013 From: stephen.elfstrand at mnsu.edu (Elfstrand, Stephen F) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:11:32 +0000 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Koha going Next Gen Message-ID: I saw this announcement in the Library Technology Guides published by Marshal Breeding. << 2013-11-09. US Federal Government awards multi-million dollar, multi-year contract to LibLime and PTFS for Koha. [PTFS] LibLime, a Division of PTFS, has been awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar prime government contract for the implementation, software development, and support of Academic Koha. Under this project, LibLime and PTFS will deploy a completely web-based next generation ILS platform that manages bibliographic and digital collections from a single dashboard. The discovery layer for this platform can search and retrieve on: metadata in a variety of formats; full-text documents (electronic content and OCR-generated content); geospatial coordinates; and unstructured data files. The presentation layer brings resources of various material formats from disparate collections quickly to the researcher's desktop. LibLime and PTFS specialists will work closely with government staff to replace their legacy commercial bibliographic cataloging system. LibLime has extensive experience in implementing, supporting, and developing on the Academic Koha platform. LibLime will implement Academic Koha and enhance functionality based upon specific requirements identified by the government. LibLime will then support the system over the five year period of performance of the contract and provide additional functional enhancements in future increments. Full Announcement: http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=18587 >> Evergreen competes with not only Koha but commercial systems as well. I have been advocating for some time that we need a product management strategy to develop Evergreen into a "Next Gen" system. A development agenda that goes beyond the needs of the existing user base and appeals to libraries of all types and sizes. One that integrates next gen features such as a Knowledge Base for OpenURL linking and ERM, a Discovery layer, etc. I have suggest that we work with OLE to incorporate their Open Knowledge Base, and Villanova to use VuFind as the Discovery Layer rather than create our own new OPAC. (It's fast, using SOLR, it integrates well with Summon or other Web-scale discovery services though APIs, and it's mobile friendly too!) Other suggestions include an NCIP gateway, a patron API and updating system for college libraries, and better Authority control. To accomplish this we need product strategy. My suggestion is that the Oversight Board is the body that should make this happen. To do so it will need funds to sponsor strategic development. I have suggested that a membership fee could be a source of these funds and that voting on community business should be tied to membership. As a public entity, I can pay a membership fee but I cannot just donate to worthy causes. The announcement shows that LibLime Koha is going "next gen". I think that Evergreen needs to as well. Most of the discussion on this has been on the EOB list so far. The response I've received to my ideas has been rather tepid, most seem to think that Evergreen is doing just fine. I think that the alternative to a forward-looking product management strategy is to have Evergreen stay in the "last gen" library system category, and be known as a good system for smaller and mostly public libraries that don't think they need all the bells and whistles of a next gen system. Eventually Evergreen could be eclipsed by OLE, Alma, Intota, and other next gen systems, and soon even by Koha. Stephen F. Elfstrand PALS Executive Director ML3022 Mn. St. Univ. - Mankato Mankato MN 56001 507.389.2000 http://www.mnpals.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rogan.hamby at gmail.com Wed Dec 4 13:35:56 2013 From: rogan.hamby at gmail.com (Rogan Hamby) Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2013 13:35:56 -0500 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Koha going Next Gen In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Stephen, I'm a bit perplexed by many of your comments. I know you're often inactive in the meetings and may have missed much of what is going on so I'd like to review a few things to make sure we're all on the same page. I also don't see your communications often between meetings so I'm glad to see you pop in. I've been an advocate for a more leadership role oriented board since I began and pushed quite heavily for a change in direction at the last conference. It's been less than a year and I've seen change. While I would like more progress than we've had I also recognize we have a lot of inertia to overcome and glad we have continued to make progress. For the record, the community doesn't need a board. I think the board can add a lot of value though. I think we can help the project achieve more including reaching new users. I think we can help remind people that what is not in their immediate interests (say integration of academic features) may be in their bigger picture interests. I've held a contrary opinion to some that we can do more than remind folks but also go after the grants and organize funding actively. In conversations with many of the board members both within and outside meetings I know this desire to have the board help the community and move the software as a project forward is fairly common if not universal. Kathy and I have both together and separate tackled looking at resource challenges. This work is still ongoing including looking at grant opportunities. I'm not going to rehash all of them here. At the last meeting Kathy also recruited more people to look at grants with us and I've recruited folks to look at merchandising opportunities - to be honest that is more for intangible benefits than revenue stream but it won't hurt. Conversations about how to best proceed with a leadership role led Ben to proposing the stakeholder meeting which has been broadly supported and sounds like a good avenue for you voicing your vision. I should also say that I share many of your interests there and have been vocal about them. I agree with many of the particulars. I have wanted the board to help the community lay out a long term vision for Evergreen and take an active role in making goals get accomplished. This is a radical change for the board. The laying of the road there may be slow but is getting laid. So, I agree on many points and I want to acknowledge good work that has been done by folks who have been present and contributing at every step. I point out Ben and Kathy because they are on the top of my mind but there are others as well. I'm not apologizing or justifying the slow pace. I often work 60 - 80 hour weeks. I know at least a few others do as well. Almost all of my community driven time is on my own time and unpaid. I've let things lapse on occasions and have always felt bad about it so I'm part of the things occasionally getting dropped but I'm here more often than I'm not and try to push things forward even if it's in a small way. And I suppose I do take some umbrage with the tone of your email. It's a bit incendiary. It's critical. And I don't see you putting into the community between your infrequent emails. I take umbrage for myself and others on this list. Now, we come to the details where I think I disagree with your position. I don't think it's the board's role to lay out that vision entirely itself. I do think we can be facilitators. I think we can help provide some shape. But we are a community driven open source project and only as powerful as our community engagement so anything we do must build on that and encourage it further. Analogies to PTFS, which is a company, and their contracts, for building what is essentially a closed source fork of an open source project are flawed at best. I hold this ground as firmly as I have the stance opposing a past proposal of your's to have the board appoint release managers. Sincerely, Rogan On Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Elfstrand, Stephen F < stephen.elfstrand at mnsu.edu> wrote: > I saw this announcement in the Library Technology Guides published by > Marshal Breeding. > > > > << 2013-11-09. US Federal Government awards multi-million dollar, > multi-year contract to LibLime and PTFS for Koha. [PTFS] LibLime, a > Division of PTFS, has been awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar prime > government contract for the implementation, software development, and > support of Academic Koha. Under this project, LibLime and PTFS will deploy > a *completely web-based next generation ILS platform that manages > bibliographic and digital collections from a single dashboard*. The > discovery layer for this platform can search and retrieve on: metadata in a > variety of formats; full-text documents (electronic content and > OCR-generated content); geospatial coordinates; and unstructured data > files. The presentation layer brings resources of various material formats > from disparate collections quickly to the researcher?s desktop. LibLime and > PTFS specialists will work closely with government staff to replace their > legacy commercial bibliographic cataloging system. LibLime has extensive > experience in implementing, supporting, and developing on the Academic Koha > platform. LibLime will implement Academic Koha and enhance functionality > based upon specific requirements identified by the government. LibLime will > then support the system over the five year period of performance of the > contract and provide additional functional enhancements in future > increments. > > Full Announcement: > > > > http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=18587 >> > > > > > > > > > > Evergreen competes with not only Koha but commercial systems as well. I > have been advocating for some time that we need a product management > strategy to develop Evergreen into a ?Next Gen? system. A development > agenda that goes beyond the needs of the existing user base and appeals to > libraries of all types and sizes. One that integrates next gen features > such as a Knowledge Base for OpenURL linking and ERM, a Discovery layer, > etc. > > > > I have suggest that we work with OLE to incorporate their Open Knowledge > Base, and Villanova to use VuFind as the Discovery Layer rather than create > our own new OPAC. (It?s fast, using SOLR, it integrates well with Summon or > other Web-scale discovery services though APIs, and it?s mobile friendly > too!) Other suggestions include an NCIP gateway, a patron API and updating > system for college libraries, and better Authority control. > > > > To accomplish this we need product strategy. My suggestion is that the > Oversight Board is the body that should make this happen. To do so it will > need funds to sponsor strategic development. I have suggested that a > membership fee could be a source of these funds and that voting on > community business should be tied to membership. As a public entity, I can > pay a membership fee but I cannot just donate to worthy causes. > > > > The announcement shows that LibLime Koha is going ?next gen?. I think > that Evergreen needs to as well. Most of the discussion on this has been on > the EOB list so far. The response I?ve received to my ideas has been rather > tepid, most seem to think that Evergreen is doing just fine. I think that > the alternative to a forward-looking product management strategy is to have > Evergreen stay in the ?last gen? library system category, and be known as a > good system for smaller and mostly public libraries that don?t think they > need all the bells and whistles of a next gen system. Eventually Evergreen > could be eclipsed by OLE, Alma, Intota, and other next gen systems, and > soon even by Koha. > > > > > > > > > > > > Stephen F. Elfstrand > > PALS Executive Director > > > > ML3022 > > Mn. St. Univ. - Mankato > > Mankato MN 56001 > > > > 507.389.2000 > > http://www.mnpals.org/ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > eg-oversight-board mailing list > eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org > http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eg-oversight-board > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From klussier at masslnc.org Thu Dec 5 16:00:45 2013 From: klussier at masslnc.org (Kathy Lussier) Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 16:00:45 -0500 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Web client grant funding project Message-ID: <52A0E97D.6060904@masslnc.org> Hi all, I just want to send along a reminder that, during the last EOB meeting, we had several volunteers to help work out the details of a UI project, but I think only one person (Rogan) volunteered to help identify/apply for grants that could help fund the web client project. If anyone else is interested, let me know! The UI group has a conference call scheduled for next week, but is beginning to discuss details via e-mail. We'll send periodic updates to this list as we progress. Thanks! Kathy -- Kathy Lussier Project Coordinator Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 klussier at masslnc.org Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier From klussier at masslnc.org Fri Dec 13 14:08:40 2013 From: klussier at masslnc.org (Kathy Lussier) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 14:08:40 -0500 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Update on UI project Message-ID: <52AB5B38.1030403@masslnc.org> Hi all, Yamil, Terran, Grace and I had a conference call yesterday to discuss the UI projects. At this time, we have two possible consultants we are considering for the project. We are hoping to schedule conference calls with each of them next week to see if one of the consultants comes across as a clear choice for the group. If so, we plan to engage in further discussions with the consultant to get us to the point where we can get a proposal for the project. We also identified some broad goals for the project that you can see at http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=scratchpad:ui:goals. Some points to make about these goals: * For the improvements to reach the greatest number of users in the Evergreen community, we agreed that the consultant should focus on the most-heavily used interfaces in circulation and cataloging. Although there are other interfaces that may have more usability concerns, we thought it was important to focus on the interfaces that got the most day-to-day use. We think the results from the Evergreen Use survey done as part of the QA project would be helpful in pinpointing the interfaces that are evaluated. http://nox.esilibrary.com/~jason/qareport/qa.html#_appendix_a_survey_results . * We also noted that we need to strike a balance between improving usability, ensuring that the web client project is done in a timely manner, and ensuring that staff do not need to be totally re-trained to use the new client. We also talked a bit about what kind of budget we should set for the project. Given the timeline, this is not a project that could be funded through a possible grant. However, there are several Evergreen sites that might be interested in contributing to this project. Grace said she would contact potential contributors to see if we could get a ballpark on what we may have available for funds. I will continue to post information about the project to http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=scratchpad:ui:start. If anyone has any questions or further comments, let me know. Have a nice weekend! Kathy -- Kathy Lussier Project Coordinator Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 klussier at masslnc.org Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier From ben.hyman at bc.libraries.coop Fri Dec 13 19:39:48 2013 From: ben.hyman at bc.libraries.coop (Ben Hyman) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 16:39:48 -0800 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Update on UI project In-Reply-To: <52AB5B38.1030403@masslnc.org> References: <52AB5B38.1030403@masslnc.org> Message-ID: +1 Kathy, Yamil & Grace On 2013-12-13, at 11:08 AM, Kathy Lussier wrote: > Hi all, > > Yamil, Terran, Grace and I had a conference call yesterday to discuss the UI projects. At this time, we have two possible consultants we are considering for the project. We are hoping to schedule conference calls with each of them next week to see if one of the consultants comes across as a clear choice for the group. If so, we plan to engage in further discussions with the consultant to get us to the point where we can get a proposal for the project. > > We also identified some broad goals for the project that you can see at http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=scratchpad:ui:goals. Some points to make about these goals: > > * For the improvements to reach the greatest number of users in the Evergreen community, we agreed that the consultant should focus on the most-heavily used interfaces in circulation and cataloging. Although there are other interfaces that may have more usability concerns, we thought it was important to focus on the interfaces that got the most day-to-day use. We think the results from the Evergreen Use survey done as part of the QA project would be helpful in pinpointing the interfaces that are evaluated. http://nox.esilibrary.com/~jason/qareport/qa.html#_appendix_a_survey_results . > > * We also noted that we need to strike a balance between improving usability, ensuring that the web client project is done in a timely manner, and ensuring that staff do not need to be totally re-trained to use the new client. > > We also talked a bit about what kind of budget we should set for the project. Given the timeline, this is not a project that could be funded through a possible grant. However, there are several Evergreen sites that might be interested in contributing to this project. Grace said she would contact potential contributors to see if we could get a ballpark on what we may have available for funds. > > I will continue to post information about the project to http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=scratchpad:ui:start. If anyone has any questions or further comments, let me know. > > Have a nice weekend! > Kathy > > -- > Kathy Lussier > Project Coordinator > Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative > (508) 343-0128 > klussier at masslnc.org > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier > > _______________________________________________ > eg-oversight-board mailing list > eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org > http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eg-oversight-board From rogan.hamby at gmail.com Mon Dec 16 16:44:08 2013 From: rogan.hamby at gmail.com (Rogan Hamby) Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 16:44:08 -0500 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] next meeting agenda Message-ID: I have two items for the agenda of the upcoming meeting. 1) Approve the Merchandising Committee. The volunteers consist of myself, Melissa Ceraso from Bibliomation, Rose Schooff from LVA and Ruth Frasur from Hagerstown-Jefferson Township Library. 2) I would like to have a discussion about changing the name of the Oversight Board to reflect our goals and role in the community. I know that we were created to be a body in charge of our trademarks and copyright and I think that is important. But I also want us to embrace the potential we have seen this year for being facilitators in the community. However, a name like "Oversight Board" can too easily be misinterpreted to mean "in charge of Evergreen" rather than serve a role with facilitating, organizing, gathering resources, etc... I don't want to have an action associated with this but want to gather thoughts and feedback from the board. If this discussion is productive over the next few months I would envision going to the wider community for feedback as well. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ben.hyman at bc.libraries.coop Wed Dec 18 19:40:43 2013 From: ben.hyman at bc.libraries.coop (Ben Hyman) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 16:40:43 -0800 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Resource allocator pre-conference - board update References: <52B065B0.5030300@masslnc.org> Message-ID: <8DCADA5F-01CF-4532-A335-BE9419CCBFD2@bc.libraries.coop> Hi all, First, +1 to the incomparable Kathy Lussier! -We are targeting Tuesday, March 18th, likely from 1300-1700, for this pre-conference. -Kathy is looking into a bump for the room block on Monday, March 17th, accordingly. -Likewise, Kathy is working to identify a suitable meeting room, but had at least one great idea for a venue in mind when we spoke recently. -Additionally, Kathy has identified a willing - and I think qualified - facilitator[1], for the cost of a couple of meals. Kathy speaks well of her, and that counts a lot with me. -IIRC, we are thinking no more than 30 participants, including the EOB. By my math, this means no more than 19 invitees. -pending venue, catering and A/V details, I'm still thinking we're looking at a ~$1500 budget. Depending on your feedback, thoughts or suggestions, I'll draft the invitation and invitee list in time for our next meeting. If you have specific thoughts about the invitee list, please do let me know. Cheers! Ben [1] Cindy Roach is the Head of Library Advisory and Development for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), which is the agency that authorized the grant that created MassLNC. She previously served as the administrator for the Southeastern Massachusetts Library System (SEMLS) where she often served in a consulting role for library directors and trustees and frequently facilitated planning sessions for these groups. Most of her experience is in libraries, not in open-source communities, but she does have a small bit of experience working in an open-source project. She was a member of the MassCat Steering Committee (a consortium of small public, special, and school libraries) when it selected Koha as its ILS. Her experience there was more administrative than hands-on open source work, but it gave her a view of some of the issues open source communities can face. From gmc at esilibrary.com Wed Dec 18 20:55:02 2013 From: gmc at esilibrary.com (Galen Charlton) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 17:55:02 -0800 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Evergreen Oversight Board meeting, 18 December 2013 Message-ID: Hi, The last EOB meeting of 2013 will take place on Thursday, 18 December 2013 starting at 2 p.m. Eastern in the #evergreen IRC channel. The agenda is: 1. Action items from previous meeting 2. Financial Report (Galen Charlton) 3. Evergreen 2.6 Release Manager's update (Dan Wells) 4. Evergreen 2014 Conference Committee Report (Kathy Lussier) 5. Resource allocator summit (Ben Hyman) A vote is expected on funding the summit based on the preliminary numbers. 6. Merchandising Committee (Rogan Hamby) A vote is expected on approving the formation of the committee. 7. Renaming the board (Rogan Hamby) If you have any additions you wish to make to the agenda, please reply to me directly. Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: gmc at esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org From aneiman at kent.lib.md.us Thu Dec 19 10:03:57 2013 From: aneiman at kent.lib.md.us (Andrea Buntz Neiman) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 10:03:57 -0500 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Evergreen Oversight Board meeting, 18 December 2013 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <52B30ADD.7000604@kent.lib.md.us> Hi all, We're very short staffed today (and then had someone call out) so I have to be on desk during the meeting. I will keep the IRC window open & try to keep an eye on it, but I will have to be assisting patrons as well. Thanks A. Andrea Buntz Neiman, MLS Librarian II, Public Services Kent County Public Library 408 High Street Chestertown, MD 21620 410-778-3636 x2115 www.kentcountylibrary.org On 12/18/2013 8:55 PM, Galen Charlton wrote: > Hi, > > The last EOB meeting of 2013 will take place on Thursday, 18 December > 2013 starting at 2 p.m. Eastern in the #evergreen IRC channel. > > The agenda is: > > 1. Action items from previous meeting > 2. Financial Report (Galen Charlton) > 3. Evergreen 2.6 Release Manager's update (Dan Wells) > 4. Evergreen 2014 Conference Committee Report (Kathy Lussier) > 5. Resource allocator summit (Ben Hyman) > > A vote is expected on funding the summit based on the preliminary numbers. > > 6. Merchandising Committee (Rogan Hamby) > > A vote is expected on approving the formation of the committee. > > 7. Renaming the board (Rogan Hamby) > > If you have any additions you wish to make to the agenda, please reply > to me directly. > > Regards, > > Galen From gmc at esilibrary.com Thu Dec 19 10:27:07 2013 From: gmc at esilibrary.com (Galen Charlton) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 07:27:07 -0800 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Evergreen Oversight Board meeting, 18 December 2013 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi, One item has been added to the agenda, which now stands as: 1. Action items from previous meeting 2. Financial Report (Galen Charlton) 3. Evergreen 2.6 Release Manager's update (Dan Wells) 4. Evergreen 2014 Conference Committee Report (Kathy Lussier) 5. Finding volunteer to update the Evergreen map (Shauna Borger) 6. Resource allocator summit (Ben Hyman) A vote is expected on funding the summit based on the preliminary numbers. 7. Merchandising Committee (Rogan Hamby) A vote is expected on approving the formation of the committee. 8. Renaming the board (Rogan Hamby) Regards, Galen On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 5:55 PM, Galen Charlton wrote: > Hi, > > The last EOB meeting of 2013 will take place on Thursday, 18 December > 2013 starting at 2 p.m. Eastern in the #evergreen IRC channel. > > The agenda is: > > 1. Action items from previous meeting > 2. Financial Report (Galen Charlton) > 3. Evergreen 2.6 Release Manager's update (Dan Wells) > 4. Evergreen 2014 Conference Committee Report (Kathy Lussier) > 5. Resource allocator summit (Ben Hyman) > > A vote is expected on funding the summit based on the preliminary numbers. > > 6. Merchandising Committee (Rogan Hamby) > > A vote is expected on approving the formation of the committee. > > 7. Renaming the board (Rogan Hamby) > > If you have any additions you wish to make to the agenda, please reply > to me directly. > > Regards, > > Galen > -- > Galen Charlton > Manager of Implementation > Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts > email: gmc at esilibrary.com > direct: +1 770-709-5581 > cell: +1 404-984-4366 > skype: gmcharlt > web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ > Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & > http://evergreen-ils.org -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: gmc at esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org & http://evergreen-ils.org From klussier at masslnc.org Thu Dec 19 15:20:54 2013 From: klussier at masslnc.org (Kathy Lussier) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:20:54 -0500 Subject: [Eg-oversight-board] Summary of December 19, 2013 Executive Board meeting Message-ID: <52B35526.2060405@masslnc.org> Hi all, The minutes from today's Executive Oversight Board meeting are available at http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2013/evergreen.2013-12-19-14.00.html. The following items were agreed upon by a formal vote of the Board: * To amend the EG Conference 2014 budget to add $1,500 for the resource allocator summit * To form the Merchandise Committee with initial membership of Rogan Hamby as chair, Melissa Ceraso, Rose Schooff, and Ruth Frasur Kathy Lussier Evergreen Executive Oversight Board Secretary -- Kathy Lussier Project Coordinator Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 klussier at masslnc.org Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: