Michigan Evergreen

Last week, I demo’ed Michigan Evergreen at a presentation for PALnet and Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative in Flint.  There were about 30 librarians present from academic libraries and public libraries.

The academics at the Flint presentation indicated an interest in seeing how Evergreen works for the Canadian university libraries when they go live in early 2009.  Like the Conifer group, Michigan academic libraries who are considering Evergreen want to wait for serials and acquisitions functionality before deciding to migrate.

At the Flint program, it was good to be able to have the complete software working on the training server, so that I was able to show real-time OPAC, circ and cataloging functionality - much better than powerpoints.  And demos will be even better after August 4th when Branch District Library is up, and we’re able to show their real, live catalog!  Record-loading began yesterday, with all still on schedule for the August 4 date.  Our training for Branch District Library continues this week - Circ/OPAC yesterday and cataloging and admin training in the next couple days.  Pretty exciting stuff!

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We did our first Michigan Evergreen training session yesterday in Coldwater for the Branch District Library.  The library was closed for the day, and there were about 20 BDL staff attending the training.

We covered OPAC and Circulation functionality.  Here’s the initial feedback we heard from BDL:

“-the software seems so easy, you almost don’t need any training (up to that ILL part)
-the handouts handouts were very good, and make it easy to follow all the steps (even the ILL part)
-it was very nice having Evette and Elaine float around helping people”

Next week we return to Coldwater for three more days of training - another day on OPAC/Circ for staff who missed yesterday’s training, a day on copy cataloging, and a day on Admin issues.

For me, it was really exciting to see how easily the BDL staff picked up on how to use Evergreen.  The software is pretty intuitive which helps!  Once BDL goes live in a few weeks, it will be interesting to see how it works for them in real life.

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On Sunday June 29, I was part of a program at ALA Annual entitled “Planning for Open Source in Cooperatives and Consortia.” Monica Schultz and John Boggs of Peninsula Library System, a consortium of 35 libraries in the San Francisco bay area. Monica and John started out the program by providing an excellent overview of open source software and the pros and cons of using it. For my part, I described our Evergreen pilot project: our environment, why we chose Evergreen, how we got started, and where we are today. I ended with some thoughts about the future of the project. You can get a copy of my Powerpoint presention here.

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The Branch District Library is our first Michigan Evergreen pilot library scheduled to “go live” — their launch date is set for August 4. John Rucker from Branch, Bill Ott at GRPL, Evette Atkin from MLC, and the staff at Equinox are all working together to make it happen!

We begin training for Branch District Library staff next week with OPAC and Circulation training on July 14, followed by three more days of training the next week — Copy Cataloging, Admin, and another session of OPAC/Circ.  Our goal is to have Branch’s staff trained and ready to go prior to their August 4 “go live” date.

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The new Michigan Evergreen server is up and running at Grand Rapids Public Library! Pictures from left to right are Bill Erickson, our friendly Equinox trainer, our spiffy new server, and GRPL’s own, Bill Ott.

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Last week, I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, to talk to Nebraska libraries about the Michigan Evergreen project at an Open Source ILS symposium hosted by the Nebraska Library Commission.  There is interest among Nebraska libraries for a statewide ILS using open-source software.  I offered the Michigan Evergreen model as something Nebraska libraries might want to copy for their open-source ILS project, as well as inviting them to join our group if they choose Evergreen.

Other speakers at the symposium included Bob Molyneux from Equinox (Evergreen), Josh Ferraro from LibLime (Koha), Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia from GA Pines (Evergreen), and Kathy Rippel from Central Kansas Library System (Koha).

I’m looking forward to seeing what Nebraska and other states and provinces decide to do with open-source systems.  It looks like we’re part of a burgeoning trend!

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See Equinox’s web site for their press release about Michigan Evergreen.

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It’s official!  MLC has signed a contract with Equinox for our pilot libraries’ data conversion and migration to the Evergreen system.  Now the real work begins!

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The Michigan Evergreen pilot libraries met in Grand Rapids on April 9 to discuss cataloging and OPAC policies and “next steps” for the project. Questions and answers generated from the pilot meeting have been posted on the Michigan Evergreen wiki page. As policies are written, we’ll add them to the wiki page as well.

Our timeline is for the Branch, Niles, and TADL to go live this summer. After successful launch of the pilot libraries, we will open Michigan Evergreen to other libraries to join. If you are interested in having a demo of Michigan Evergreen at your library, please contact 800-530-9019 Evette Atkin (ext. 152), Elaine Ross (ext. 153), or Ruth Dukelow (ext. 121).

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We’ve added a Michigan Evergreen wiki page to the Michigan Libraries Wiki. We will post Michigan Evergreen policies, FAQs, and other project information on this wiki page.

The wiki page will also be used for posting questions about the Michigan Evergreen project and  for participating libraries’ discussion.

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