[Evergreen-general] questions from a newbie

[Rogan Hamby]

To echo Jason it doesn't sound like Evergreen is the right match for you.
Perhaps a CMS of your choice with a good analytics tracking package like
Matomo would be a good fit.




On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 10:11 AM Jason Stephenson <jason at sigio.com> wrote:

> Hi, Diane!
>
> Thanks for your interest in Evergreen! I'm going to be blunt and tell
> you that Evergreen does not sound like the right tool for your use case.
>
> It is designed and implemented for a traditional library setting where
> physical items are circulated to patrons. It is not geared for managing
> collections of electronic materials or tracking their use. It requires
> that records for materials are entered in standard MARC format, familiar
> to libraries and alien everywhere else.
>
> It is difficult to set up and maintain. It requires a certain level of
> knowledge of GNU/Linux to be able to maintain an Evergreen system on
> one's own. That said, the knowledge can be acquired, and there are
> companies that will host an Evergreen installation and maintain it for
> you, albeit for a fee.
>
> You more likely want a dedicated electronic resource management system.
> I am not very familiar with the software in that area, though I was
> recently made aware of Archipelago. If you get past the marketing speak
> on the main page, it sounds like it might be what you're looking for:
> http://archipelago.nyc/
>
> Hope that Helps,
> Jason
>
>
> On 8/22/20 9:40 AM, Diane Silver wrote:
> > Dear Evergreen community --
> >
> > I stumbled upon Evergreen while researching options for web-development
> > software to create a small resource library for our organization.
> > It seems that Evergreen is far more powerful than what we need.  We're
> > not sure if that will be a hindrance (way too complex for our small
> > operation), or if it doesn't matter.
> >
> > We have a few basic questions, which I'm hoping someone can answer:
> >
> > 1) It looks like Evergreen is back-end software for a library catalog of
> > existing items. i.e., it helps you build your library catalog using
> > ISBNs of published books or works from the library of congress. It
> > doesn't look like it's intended for orgs who want to display _*their
> > own*_ materials. Is this right, or could we use it to create an online
> > library for our own documents, videos, powerpoints, etc.?
> >
> > 2) We don't need to manage circulation.  All of our resources are
> > electronic, and free.  Our users would just download each file.  We DO
> > want some analytics to track page views, number of downloads for each
> > item, searches, and similar usage. And we want access to the site to
> > require an authorized log-in, so it's not completely open to the
> > public.  Do you think Evergreen is the right tool?   I know Evergreen is
> > used by large public library systems.  Would all it's capability get in
> > the way of the much smaller scope of what we want to do, or could we
> > just ignore the functions we don't need (like circulation)?
> >
> > 3) It looks like getting set up is a bit complicated for non-tech-savvy
> > folks like me.  I took a peek at the documentation and quickly concluded
> > that we would need a system administrator to do this for us.  Is this a
> > function that can be contracted out?  Are there folks out there (maybe
> > on this list) who would be interested in such a role?  Would this list
> > be an appropriate place to post an RFP or would that violate the
> > community culture?  Could this be a discrete contract to set up the
> > back-end system, and maybe even build the front-end website, and then
> > once it's built, would it be simple enough to maintain ourselves (i.e.,
> > add new resources as they get developed, manage users, etc.)?  I imagine
> > the answer to that is, "it depends," so let's say it would be a library
> > of 100s but not 1000s of items, and maybe a few hundred users, and we're
> > pretty proficient at _*using*_ various systems, just not building them.
> > So I guess the question is, how much technical maintenance would it need?
> >
> > 4) What kind of time-frame (ballpark) would it take to set up an online
> > library with a few hundred items, for someone who has lots of experience
> > with Evergreen and wouldn't have the steep learning curve that we would?
> >
> > Thanks to anyone who can provide some insights for us.  We love the
> > spirit and intent of the Evergreen community.
> >
> > - Diane
> >
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> >
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