Port Lincoln has joined the consortium this morning. I will post something about their project soon. However I thought I'd comment on our progress with the whole project to date, as this "go live" is a bit of a milestone for the project team.
We started off needing to do 77 database conversions, and with Port Lincoln going live we now have 19 databases left to convert. While the databases that we've had to work with have been of different size and complexity, on a measure of database conversions we're now 75% of the way through the project. From my perspective this is a remarkable achievement in less than 2 years & with a very small & hard-working project team.
However on the basis of population covered or councils using the system the figures are even higher.
We only have 12 of 68 councils to work with, and for some of them like Naracoorte Lucindale we have already done some of their libraries. So this metric puts us at over 85% of councils on the system.
And from a population covered perspective we've got well over 95% of the State covered - which is perhaps the best measure of progress from a library & customer perspective.
While it is not obvious from a "who is live" perspective it is also worth noting that libraries who are due to go live right through until May have received their training & are progressing towards their go live date.
If you're looking for the list of who goes live when you can see it here.
Thursday, 13 March 2014
Friday, 7 March 2014
Mallala goes live
Apologies to Mallala for the slightly late post regarding your "go live". You scheduled date was yesterday, but all systems were go on Tuesday. However I've had my head stuck in Libraries Board reports & other things & missed the opportunity to post about this.
While Mallala is live now, I know that they're holding off on doing their formal launch until the 25th. I'm looking forward to getting to the event.
In the meantime some may want to check out Mallala's Enterprise site here. It includes a nice welcome message & some succinct instructions about how to use the site. And they've put up a picture of their new library card, which looks great, along with a bunch of links and the opening hours of their main library and two depots.
I'm also interested to see that they've exploited the option to add more pages onto Enterprise to hold other content. The small white box at the top left has links to news & events and to Services. This is a great way to use the Enterprise technology to provide a more comprehensive library "web site."
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Update: 25 March
As I mentioned above Mallala decided to wait a few weeks after their "go live" before having a bit of a celebration. A few of us from PLS went to Mallala on Tuesday afternoon to join the staff, CEO, Mayor, volunteers & community members for a really nice celebration - along with a great cake from the local bakery and champagne. Below are a few "snaps" taken at the event.
While Mallala is live now, I know that they're holding off on doing their formal launch until the 25th. I'm looking forward to getting to the event.
In the meantime some may want to check out Mallala's Enterprise site here. It includes a nice welcome message & some succinct instructions about how to use the site. And they've put up a picture of their new library card, which looks great, along with a bunch of links and the opening hours of their main library and two depots.
I'm also interested to see that they've exploited the option to add more pages onto Enterprise to hold other content. The small white box at the top left has links to news & events and to Services. This is a great way to use the Enterprise technology to provide a more comprehensive library "web site."
_________
Update: 25 March
As I mentioned above Mallala decided to wait a few weeks after their "go live" before having a bit of a celebration. A few of us from PLS went to Mallala on Tuesday afternoon to join the staff, CEO, Mayor, volunteers & community members for a really nice celebration - along with a great cake from the local bakery and champagne. Below are a few "snaps" taken at the event.
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| Mayor Richard Kennington making the "opening" speech |
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| Leeanne from PLS along with library manager Anne, and library staff members Amanda & Di |
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| The cake - with a representation of the rural scene which is on the library's borrower card |
Friday, 28 February 2014
Murray Bridge launch hits the headlines
Today's online version of the Murray Valley Standard has a great article about Murray Bridge joining the One Card network. It includes a picture of the Mayor, Manager Carol Bath & an old friend known to many of us, who is now president of the Friends of the Library.
Given the reach of the paper it gives good coverage of which libraries are already part of the consortium & which libraries are still to join in a radius of about 80Kms from Murray Bridge.
You can see the article here.
Given the reach of the paper it gives good coverage of which libraries are already part of the consortium & which libraries are still to join in a radius of about 80Kms from Murray Bridge.
You can see the article here.
Thursday, 27 February 2014
2104 industry forecasts and more
I thought I'd provide links to a couple of articles which may be of interest to some.
A few times I have written about & linked to Marshall Breeding's excellent site called Library Technology Guides. Breeding keeps track of library automation issues, writes great articles on a range of topics for the American Library Journal and also does some general forecasting regarding trends. His 2014 trends paper published here on Information Today's site talks about what is trending for 2014 & makes for interesting reading. I would recommend poking around on the Breeding site as it contains lots of very useful information.
Breeding's 2014 forecasts include some interesting background information on the development of consortia around the world, as well as progress on the vexed issue of seamlessly integrating e-book lending into library discovery layers. It is well worth a read in the context of both what we're doing consortium-wise and the struggles we're having regarding seamless access to e-books. However it looks like this is a problem that we may have an answer to very soon. Watch this space!!
Another couple of articles worth looking at include one about the thinking behind the transformation of the Chattanooga Public Library - with funds and a space of 1,300 sq M quickly shifting from "really high end research materials" to a maker space with laser and vinyl cutters, sewing machines and the obligatory 3D printers.
Here is an interesting quote about the philosophy driving this change:
A few times I have written about & linked to Marshall Breeding's excellent site called Library Technology Guides. Breeding keeps track of library automation issues, writes great articles on a range of topics for the American Library Journal and also does some general forecasting regarding trends. His 2014 trends paper published here on Information Today's site talks about what is trending for 2014 & makes for interesting reading. I would recommend poking around on the Breeding site as it contains lots of very useful information.
Breeding's 2014 forecasts include some interesting background information on the development of consortia around the world, as well as progress on the vexed issue of seamlessly integrating e-book lending into library discovery layers. It is well worth a read in the context of both what we're doing consortium-wise and the struggles we're having regarding seamless access to e-books. However it looks like this is a problem that we may have an answer to very soon. Watch this space!!
Another couple of articles worth looking at include one about the thinking behind the transformation of the Chattanooga Public Library - with funds and a space of 1,300 sq M quickly shifting from "really high end research materials" to a maker space with laser and vinyl cutters, sewing machines and the obligatory 3D printers.
Here is an interesting quote about the philosophy driving this change:
“With this space, what we’re trying to do is acknowledge that access to the commons is no longer a read-only environment,” says Meg Backus, who runs the library’s fourth floor.
Backus says libraries should find instruction in the evolution of the Internet—which started as a place to post static pages and now is a thoroughly collaborative environment. “There needs to be production capabilities for true access to happen,” she says. “That means the ability to create a video, the ability to learn how to make a website, to have access to the software that can create these 3-D files.”
An interesting article about sharing all sorts of items and skills to save money includes reference to an inner-suburban Tool Library in Melbourne's Brunswick. This is an interesting concept & may be something that a local library may want to consider. I know that I'd be a customer if it was fairly close to home.
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
How far have we come?
PLS provides the Libraries Board with a monthly status report on the One Card project. As the end of February report has just come across my desk I thought I would share a few of the statistics from it with you.
With Burnside and Murray Bridge joining the consortium during February the system now covers 94% of the State's population; with 55 of the State's 68 councils are now included in the coverage. This represents 72 separate library services which used to run on 56 different databases.
The system has 981,609 registered borrowers and 3,657,919 items listed in the catalogue. To date the consortium has not done a great deal of work on de-duplicating the borrower file. Therefore the number of registered borrowers is somewhat inflated & will be addressed as we move forward. As the user group decided that any customer de-duplication would require negotiations with customers this will be a relatively slow process.
PLS is planning a major de-duplication of the bibliographic database (i.e. the catalogue - aka Enterprise). Our early assessment is that approximately 100,000 bib records will be merged when the next de-duplication takes place in April. While some of the de-duplication work can be automated, there will be an ongoing need for staff in libraries to continue to work on specific records to ensure that we work towards having a clean and accurate database.
The inclusion of Mallala and two of SA's larger regional towns in Whyalla and Pt Lincoln in March will continue the spread of the consortium to another 42,000 residents.
With Burnside and Murray Bridge joining the consortium during February the system now covers 94% of the State's population; with 55 of the State's 68 councils are now included in the coverage. This represents 72 separate library services which used to run on 56 different databases.
The system has 981,609 registered borrowers and 3,657,919 items listed in the catalogue. To date the consortium has not done a great deal of work on de-duplicating the borrower file. Therefore the number of registered borrowers is somewhat inflated & will be addressed as we move forward. As the user group decided that any customer de-duplication would require negotiations with customers this will be a relatively slow process.
PLS is planning a major de-duplication of the bibliographic database (i.e. the catalogue - aka Enterprise). Our early assessment is that approximately 100,000 bib records will be merged when the next de-duplication takes place in April. While some of the de-duplication work can be automated, there will be an ongoing need for staff in libraries to continue to work on specific records to ensure that we work towards having a clean and accurate database.
The inclusion of Mallala and two of SA's larger regional towns in Whyalla and Pt Lincoln in March will continue the spread of the consortium to another 42,000 residents.
Thursday, 20 February 2014
Murray Bridge joins the party
Because we had a relatively longer period over Christmas / New Year where we did not have any libraries go live we've managed to schedule 2 go live sites in 8 days - with Murray Bridge going live today. In fact they went live late yesterday - slightly ahead of schedule.
The Murray Bridge Enterprise site is here. You will note that their Enterprise iteration includes links to information about library operations such as opening hours etc, as well as links to other content options and a copy of their local library newsletter Amongst the Shelves. This is featured on the front page using the issuu software, which I really like.
The Murray Bridge Council shares boundaries with five councils, three of whom (Karoonda East Murray, Mt Barker & Alexandrina) are already consortium members. We're looking forward to filling in more of the map by adding the Mid-Murray and Coorong councils to the network in coming months.
The Murray Bridge Enterprise site is here. You will note that their Enterprise iteration includes links to information about library operations such as opening hours etc, as well as links to other content options and a copy of their local library newsletter Amongst the Shelves. This is featured on the front page using the issuu software, which I really like.
The Murray Bridge Council shares boundaries with five councils, three of whom (Karoonda East Murray, Mt Barker & Alexandrina) are already consortium members. We're looking forward to filling in more of the map by adding the Mid-Murray and Coorong councils to the network in coming months.
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Burnside Launch - colouring in the map
Last Friday Burnside had their public celebration of their One Card go live. While it was very wet day outside, the warm atmosphere & buzz of excitement was palpable. The team had asked for 14 February as their public go live date - as it was Library Lovers Day - not to mention Valentines Day. And the Mayor reminded us that momentous things happen on 14 February - from Australia taking on decimal currency in 1966 to Burnside joining the One Card consortium.
It was great to see a few local library managers in attendance along with councillors & council staff as well as Libraries Board member Ann Short & PLS staff. Library Manager Lindy made particular mention of her neighbouring libraries who had been so helpful to Burnside as they transitioned to the new system. This sense of camaraderie and professional support has been a hallmark of this project.
The mayor made specific reference to Burnside being the last metropolitan library to go live, saying that his natural scepticism led the council to hold back. However he was very positive about the benefits for Burnside residents, stating that he had found & reserved a book from another library which he'd been trying to find for ages.
With Burnside joining the consortium we can now say that all of metro Adelaide is on the system. In fact as we continue the roll out it is great to be able to colour in the map of councils across the State which are "on". The gaps are now the minority of the map, which is very encouraging for the PLS project team & indicates that over 90% of the State's population now have access to the system.
Below are some photos of the event, taken by Burnside's resident photographer.
It was great to see a few local library managers in attendance along with councillors & council staff as well as Libraries Board member Ann Short & PLS staff. Library Manager Lindy made particular mention of her neighbouring libraries who had been so helpful to Burnside as they transitioned to the new system. This sense of camaraderie and professional support has been a hallmark of this project.
The mayor made specific reference to Burnside being the last metropolitan library to go live, saying that his natural scepticism led the council to hold back. However he was very positive about the benefits for Burnside residents, stating that he had found & reserved a book from another library which he'd been trying to find for ages.
With Burnside joining the consortium we can now say that all of metro Adelaide is on the system. In fact as we continue the roll out it is great to be able to colour in the map of councils across the State which are "on". The gaps are now the minority of the map, which is very encouraging for the PLS project team & indicates that over 90% of the State's population now have access to the system.
Below are some photos of the event, taken by Burnside's resident photographer.
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| Mayor David Parkin & Library Manager Lindy Burford, with the Burnside cake! Note David's sash "Going live 14 February". This had been stuck on the front door leading up until Friday |
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| Some of the happy & proud Burnside staff |
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| Cutting the cake - note the number of supervisors |
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| Burnside style - catering for the crowd |
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| And the trio who entertained the crowd before & after the formalities |
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