[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Seeking funding partners for upcoming development projects

Mon Sep 22 14:10:57 EDT 2014

Hi all,

I just wanted to announce that we have three new development partners 
for these two projects. Hagerstown-Jefferson Township Library (Indiana), 
Union County Public Library (Indiana) , and the Consortium of Ohio 
Libraries (COOL) have joined Georgia PINES to help MassLNC fund one or 
both of these projects: more control over Evergreen alerts and a message 
center in the catalog.

We're still a little short on our goal for both of these projects. If 
there are any other Evergreen sites that are interested in co-sponsoring 
these projects, let me know. Our development committee is meeting this 
week to decide whether to move forward on one or both of these projects.

Thank you!
Kathy

Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
#evergreen IRC: kmlussier

On 8/15/2014 10:06 AM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> The MassLNC Development Committee met earlier this week to ascertain 
> what we need to move forward with some of our development projects 
> this year. With PINES' assistance, we are close to moving forward with 
> two development projects, but we still need a small amount of funds 
> for each project.
>
> Alert development: This project has three components that give 
> Evergreen sites more control over their alerts: 1)The ability to 
> designate copy alerts as either checkin alerts or checkout alerts 
> 2)The ability to add temporary alerts to copies, primarily so that 
> staff in one library can add alerts to copies belonging to another 
> library (e.g. "patron says this DVD needs cleaning"), and 3)the 
> ability for a library to suppress some system alerts, such as the 
> alerts that tell staff they have checked in a lost, missing, long 
> overdue, or claims returned item.
>
> Our libraries believe this project is important because, although 
> alerts are sometimes necessary and relay critical information, many of 
> our libraries find that some alerts do not provide information they 
> need to know at certain points of the circ transaction. These alerts, 
> therefore, add unnecessary steps to the workflow. Although clicking 
> through one unnecessary alert may only add a couple of seconds to the 
> workflow, those seconds add up throughout the hundreds or thousands of 
> circ transactions that occur throughout the course of the day. Also, 
> if we remove the alerts that are unnecessary, staff are more likely to 
> pay closer attention to the alerts that provide important information.
>
> MassLNC needs just $5,000 to proceed with this development project.
>
> The Message Center project will provide a central area where patrons 
> can view library messages. An Evergreen site can configure which 
> notices will appear in the message center (e.g. overdues, cancelled 
> holds, pre-due notices). The center will also display any public notes 
> added to the patron record. These notes now display in the account 
> summary area, but can easily be missed if the patron isn't looking for 
> them. Logged-in users will get a visual cue, similar to those used in 
> many other web sites, that lets them know when they have a new message 
> (see mock-ups at http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2927).
>
> Our libraries believe this project is important because users have 
> come to expect web sites to provide important information, not just 
> through e-mail, but also through the user account area of the web 
> site. E-mail communication for notices is not always reliable, and the 
> message center provides another means for communicating important 
> information to the patron. This project also takes a piece of 
> information currently available in the patron account area (public 
> patron notes) and provides a needed visual cue that lets patrons know 
> the note is available.
>
> MassLNC just needs $2,900 to proceed with this development project.
>
> If your library is interested in either of these projects, but cannot 
> contribute the full amount required, please let me know. If we get 
> enough libraries that can only contribute a portion of the funds 
> required, those funds will quickly add up.
>
> Please contact me directly if you have any questions on either of 
> these projects.
>
> Thank you!
> Kathy
>
> Kathy Lussier
> Project Coordinator
> Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
> (508) 343-0128
> klussier at masslnc.org
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>
> On 7/25/2014 5:32 PM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm pleased to announce that Georgia PINES has joined MassLNC to help 
>> to fund the Enhancements to Evergreen Alerts and Message Center 
>> projects. Thank you Georgia PINES!
>>
>> We have also received some interest from Evergreen sites on the 
>> activity metric project.
>>
>> MassLNC would really love to see all three of these projects 
>> implemented in a future release of Evergreen. If anyone is interested 
>> in the projects and can contribute some funds, even if it's only a 
>> small amount of money, please feel free to contact me at 
>> klussier at masslnc.org with your questions.
>>
>> What do you get out of being a partner on one of these development 
>> projects? Putting funds to a development project is your opportunity 
>> to make a contribution to the future direction of Evergreen. It's a 
>> great feeling to see a new feature in Evergreen and to say to 
>> yourself "I helped to make that new feature happen." Budgets are 
>> tight everywhere, but by pooling our funds together, we can see some 
>> great new functionality at a lower cost for each partner. The recent 
>> MVC/CRA project (aka icon project)  is a great example of a 
>> development project where many small development contributions, 
>> combined with a couple of contributions from some larger sites, 
>> resulted in some nice improvements for the whole Evergreen community. 
>> Being a development partner also ensures that  you will be part of 
>> spec discussions and testing, allowing you to watch out for the needs 
>> of your users while the project is being shaped.
>>
>> But, wait, there's more! If you participate in a MassLNC development 
>> project, your organization will be added to the MassLNC Wall of Fame 
>> where we acknowledge and thank all of the sites that have worked with 
>> us on development projects over the years - 
>> http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/3067. The large number of libraries 
>> and consortia listed there is a testament to the great community we 
>> have and the fact that there are so many sites out there that want to 
>> contribute what they can to help make Evergreen better for everyone.
>>
>> But that's not all! For a limited time only, if your organization 
>> decides to help fund one of these projects, you will receive a batch 
>> of cookies made by MassLNC coordinator Kathy Lussier (that's me). The 
>> cookies will be hand-delivered to you at the next Evergreen 
>> conference (or, if we're both there, at the next Evergreen hack-a-way).
>>
>> Please take some time to look over these projects and let me know if 
>> you're interested.
>>
>> Have a nice weekend everyone!
>>
>> Kathy
>>
>> Kathy Lussier
>> Project Coordinator
>> Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
>> (508) 343-0128
>> klussier at masslnc.org
>> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>>
>> On 7/1/2014 2:45 PM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Today marks the first day of the new fiscal year for MassLNC, and 
>>> our development committee has identified a few new enhancements we 
>>> are hoping to sponsor over the next year.
>>>
>>> We have received proposals from Equinox for all three projects, but 
>>> MassLNC needs help to fund these projects. I am sending out this 
>>> e-mail to see if there are other Evergreen sites interested in 
>>> helping us fund any of these projects. For more details, you can 
>>> e-mail me directly at klussier at masslnc.org.
>>>
>>>
>>> Also, if you are already working on a similar project or just want 
>>> to provide some feedback for our proposed projects, please feel to 
>>> share your feedback on the list.
>>>
>>> These three projects are listed on the new Proposed Development 
>>> Projects wiki page at:
>>> http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_features:proposed_development_projects 
>>>
>>>
>>> ACTIVITY METRIC FOR RELEVANCE RANKING
>>> The goal of this project is for a title's activity (circulations, 
>>> number of holds, etc.) to affect the relevance of that title when 
>>> retrieving search results. Google and Amazon use popularity with 
>>> much success when ranking search results. I think Evergreen would 
>>> see similar success if it were to incorporate activity into its 
>>> relevance algorithm.
>>>
>>> As an example, if a user were conducting a keyword search on 
>>> "abraham lincoln,"  there are many books, movies, etc. in most US 
>>> libraries where the words "abraham lincoln" show up in the title. 
>>> There would be no way to tease out the titles that are getting the 
>>> most attention by readers. In fact, a title like "Team of Rivals" 
>>> ranks very low in our search results even though there is a fairly 
>>> high likelihood it is the title the patron is seeking.  By applying 
>>> a metric based on activity, we might be able to see those 
>>> more-recently popular titles floating higher in the search results 
>>> list.
>>>
>>> The current proposal is to make factors like circulation and hold 
>>> activity, record and item age, and item ownership counts available 
>>> as an activity metric. Each factor will embody a "popularity badge" 
>>> that a bib record can earn, and each badge will have a five-point 
>>> scale, where more points indicate a more popular record.
>>>
>>> The average of the badge points earned by each record will 
>>> constitute a "popularity star rating". The number and types of 
>>> badges will break ties for average popularity.
>>>
>>> A new sort axis of popularity will be created to sort first on the 
>>> cumulative popularity of each record, followed by the query-specific 
>>> relevance available today.
>>>
>>> ENHANCEMENTS TO EVERGREEN ALERTS
>>> I mentioned this project in the recent thread on problems with items 
>>> not checking in properly - 
>>> http://markmail.org/message/rnm5s7wdxjgy3tym.
>>>
>>> This project would give Evergreen sites more control over which 
>>> alerts appear during check-in and check-out. The project has three 
>>> components:
>>>
>>> - Separate checkin and checkout copy alerts
>>> - The ability to add temporary copy alerts from the checkin, 
>>> checkout, and item status screen
>>> - A library setting that allows sites to determine if some system 
>>> alerts should appear at checkin and checkout.
>>>
>>> MassLNC's full project requirements are available at 
>>> http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2764.
>>>
>>> This project is not slated to begin until Fall 2014 after sprint 1 
>>> of the web client project is complete.
>>>
>>> MESSAGE CENTER FOR THE PUBLIC CATALOG
>>> This project would create a message center that communicates 
>>> important messages to patrons. Public patron notes will display 
>>> here, and sites will have the ability to configure any 
>>> action/trigger notice to also deliver a notice to the message center.
>>>
>>> MassLNC's full project requirements are available at 
>>> http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2927.
>>>
>>> Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!
>>>
>>> Kathy
>>
>