[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Evergreen Newsletter, November/December 2009
Jason Etheridge
jason at esilibrary.com
Mon Jan 4 12:32:31 EST 2010
Evergreen Newsletter, November/December 2009
*The newsletter for Evergreen open source library software*
*Volume 2, Issue 10 - November/December, 2009*
As a reminder, we post this newsletter to the Evergreen general discussion
list <http://evergreen-ils.org/listserv.php>, development list, and
the Evergreen
blog <http://evergreen-ils.org/blog>. Cross-posting and forwarding are
encouraged.
In This Issue
Evergreen Out and About, Evergreen Development and Documentation Update, A
Booking Module for Mohawk, Evergreen People, Evergreen Jobs, Lyrasis
Evergreen Classes, New Evergreen Libraries, Planet Evergreen, A Few
Reminders, Newsletter Administrivia
Out and About: An Evergreen Calendar
- Please come by and visit the Equinox team and learn more about
Evergreen during ALA
MidWinter<http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/upcoming/midwinter/2010/index.cfm>,
January 15-18, 2010, booth # 2064
- The 2010 Evergreen International Conference will be held April 21-23,
2010 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids Michigan. The Conference
website contains general information, schedule, exhibitor information,
sponsorship information, a link to the Grand Rapids Convention and Visitors
Bureau, a link to the Amway for online reservations, and a link to the
registration site. Please join us for an exciting 3 days of learning,
sharing, networking, and fun in Grand Rapids!
http://www.evergreen2010.org/
Do you know of Evergreen events you'd like to share here? Please contact us
at newsletter at evergreen-ils.org <mailto:newsletter at evergreen-ils.org>
Evergreen Development and Documentation Update
- *Evergreen 1.6.0.0 released!*
- Evergreen 1.6.0.0 was released in mid-November and is already in
production at a number of sites. There are many new
features<http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=feature_list_1_6_0>,
including Google Book Preview, easier OPAC customization with
BibTemplate,
located URIs, improvements to the Z39.50/SRU server, and a preview of
Acquisitions. You can find Evergreen 1.6.0.0 on the downloads
page<http://evergreen-ils.org/downloads.php>,
along with the newly-released OpenSRF 1.2.0 and a staff client build for
Windows.
- *Evergreen 1.4.0.7 released!*
- A new minor version of the 1.4.x series was also released. This
includes a number of
bugfixes<http://evergreen-ils.org/downloads/ChangeLog-1.4.0.6-1.4.0.7>and
is available on the downloads
page <http://evergreen-ils.org/downloads.php>.
- *New BuildBot*
- Shawn Boyette released a preview of a BuildBot to automate testing of
Evergreen and OpenSRF. See http://testing.esilibrary.com/ for a
preview (Warning: Firefox 3.5+, Chrome, or Safari required to
view site at
the moment).
- *Evergreen Developer Workshop Now Online*
- Dan Scott held an Evergreen Developer Workshop at FSOSS 2009 in
Toronto, Canada. Robert Soulliere from Mohawk College has uploaded
videos of the workshop to
Archive.org<http://www.archive.org/details/EvergreenDeveloperSeries-Fsoss2009>,
splitting the talk into 9 segments. Dan has also put his
workshop materials
online. There's an HTML
version<http://open-ils.org/%7Edenials/workshop.html>with written
details and, for the extra keen, there's a also a
tarball <http://open-ils.org/%7Edenials/workshop.tar.gz> that contains
the HTML version *plus* the code used in the examples and Dan's
slides. If you're a new developer that wants to obtain more in-depth
knowledge of Evergreen, this is a great place to start.
A Booking Module for Mohawk
Ever since Mike Rylander presented at the Ontario Library Association Super
Conference way back in 2006? 05? Mohawk has been eyeing Evergreen. We
finally went live with Evergreen in July 2009. BTW, the 2010 Super
Conference is full of Evergreen goodness: Dan Scott is leading a
pre-conference workshop for would be EG developers, and Robert Soulliere and
Cynthia Williamson will be presenting on the Mohawk experience.
Prior to going live, Mohawk belonged to an ILS consortium using SIRSI’s
Unicorn and felt constrained, to say the least. This article is not about
that experience but suffice it to say that after a long haul of sorting out
using a Linux server when no one else in the college does and figuring out
if we could do without the acquisitions and serials modules, we aimed to go
live in late spring or early summer of 2009.
Our big stumbling block was the inability to book video materials in
Evergreen. The Library @ Mohawk purchases and circulates all of the
audiovisual materials used by faculty to teach. In Unicorn, it was possible
for staff to book a video or DVD for a specific day and time so that
instructors could use them in class. The booking restricted circulation on
the booked video or DVD so that it would be available at the right time,
even if it had to be sent to another campus. EG did not have this feature.
We thought about using a separate calendar system and some modified circ
rules but in the end it seemed best to get things working in EG. We figured
out early on that Robert, our Systems Librarian would not be able to develop
the booking module himself. The next step was squeezing into the Equinox
development schedule – they are a busy bunch!
The joy of FOSS is that we were able to go live early in the final year of
our support contract with SIRSI and thus run both systems, something usually
impossible during a migration because it is almost financially impossible to
pay for a new system while continuing to pay for an old system. So we used
EG for most things but continued to book videos and DVDs in Unicorn.We
managed to get in to the Equinox development line-up with the promise that
the module will be ready for the end of 2009, a good 3 months before we turn
off Unicorn.
Originally, we envisioned the feature to work like an enhanced hold because
our current needs are strictly for bibliographic material bookings. However,
in our initial discussions with Equinox, it was clear that we could create a
more useful module if it is possible to book non-bibliographic items like
rooms, equipment, etc. Done! It is our hope that this module appeals to lots
of folks and will make EG even more “saleable”. Between it and serials and
acquisitions, EG is becoming quite the grown-up ILS.
We’re only part way through the development so we won’t share details here
now. We’re just about ready to test it, the module will be shared with
everyone and made available in 1.6. If you want to learn more about what
Mohawk is doing with EG please come to Toronto for the OLA Super Conference
and if you can’t, we’ll be sharing our presentation. Access our EG
implementation here: http://libcat.mohawkcollege.ca
Cynthia Williamson,
Collection Management Librarian,
Mohawk College, Hamilton ON
Evergreen People
Amy Terlaga, of Bibliomation, Inc., in Middlebury, CT, will have her
article, “Fear and Trembling in Connecticut (or 'How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love Open Source')”, published in the January/February 2010
issue of *Computers in Libraries.* She details her consortium's decision to
migrate their libraries to Evergreen, after an initial period of personal
open source angst. Amy can be reached at *terlaga at biblio.org*.
Evergreen Jobs
- Equinox Software has openings for Software Developers and a Chief
Operating Officer. Please visit http://esilibrary.com/esi/careers.php for
more information.
Do you know of Evergreen related jobs that you'd like to share here? Let us
know at newsletter at evergreen-ils.org <mailto:newsletter at evergreen-ils.org>
<mailto:newsletter at evergreen-ils.org>
Lyrasis Evergreen Classes
Lyrasis is offering several Evergreen classes in the near future:
Evergreen Circulation Module (Live Online)
2/4/2010, 10:00am-12:00pm EST
Evergreen Cataloging Module (Live Online)
3/3/2010-3/4/2010 2:00pm-4:00pm EST
Evergreen Administration and Reports Module (Live Online)
3/10/2010, 10:00am-12:00pm EST
To register, please see the Lyrasis website <http://www.lyrasis.org/>.
LYRASIS (created from a merger of SOLINET, PALINET and NELINET) has taught
dozens of Evergreen classes. Lyrasis is dedicated to training and
instructing Evergreen, and they welcome your comments and suggestions for
courses. All of their current course offerings are continuously updated, and
Lyrasis plans to add more courses in the future. For comments or questions,
contact Lyrasis instructors
Jennifer.Bielewski at lyrasis.org<mailto:Jennifer.Bielewski at lyrasis.org>or
Jenny.Liberatore at lyrasis.org <mailto:Jenny.Liberatore at lyrasis.org>
New Evergreen Libraries: Welcome Aboard!
- Evergreen Indiana <http://evergreen.lib.in.us/>
- Since the previous newsletter, six more library systems in Indiana
migrated to Evergreen: Culver-Union Public Township Library,
LaGrange Public
Library, Monticello-Union Township Public Library, Paoli Public Library,
Princeton-Patoka Township Library, Syracuse Turkey Creek Township Public
Library, Vermillion County Public Library, Waveland Brown Township Public
Library, West Lafayette Public Library, Westfield Washington
Public Library,
and Wolcott Community Public Library. These migrations bring the
number of Indiana
libraries online <http://evergreen.lib.in.us/> with Evergreen up to
53! For more information, see the press
release<http://www.esilibrary.com/esi/newsitem.php?id=119>
.
- BC SITKA <http://sitka.bclibrary.ca/>
- The Thompson-Nicola Regional District Library
System<http://tnrd.catalogue.bclibraries.ca/>became Sitka's 25th site.
With 13 branches and 1 bookmobile, TNRD is the
largest system on Sitka's instance of Evergreen so far.
- Hekman Library at Calvin College migrated to Evergreen in December,
2009.
Planet Evergreen
Can’t get enough news about Evergreen open source software? Subscribe to or
read Planet Evergreen <http://planet.evergreen-ils.org/>, an aggregator for
Evergreen-related posts. Have a blog that talks about Evergreen? To add your
blog to the Planet Evergreen blog aggregator, send email to Dan Scott at *
dan at coffeecode.net*
A Few Reminders
Evergreen has a Flickr <http://flickr.com/photos/evergreen-ils/> set and a
Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6396639614> group.
Newsletter Administrivia
Feel free to forward, share, etc.! The co-wranglers for this newsletter
(produced every month–sometimes earlier, sometimes later–what can we say!)
are …
Amy Terlaga, Bibliomation, Inc., terlaga at biblio.org
Jason Etheridge, Equinox Software Inc., jason at esilibrary.com
You can also reach us both at
newsletter at evergreen-ils.org<mailto:newsletter at evergreen-ils.org>
Licensing
For an Internet-distributed newsletter such as this, there's arguably an
implied license for what you can do with and how you can distribute the
newsletter. Going forward, we'd like to produce this newsletter under an
explicit license, the Creative Commons Attribution
Share-Alike<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>license,
which is an open “copy-left” license similar to that used by
Evergreen. If you contribute content that is copyrighted or copyrightable,
please let us know if you do not agree to have it released under this
license. Thanks!
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