From TUG to.....UG??

The LMS Transitional User Group (or TUG as it is affectionately known) met for the last time on Tuesday after working for the past two years to develop and support the fledgling LMS consortium.  This group of visionary and dedicated people have worked enthusiastically and diligently on behalf of the public library network to imagine the possible workings of a state-wide consortium and then turn these ideas into a reality.

It’s not an easy task to identify and negotiate a set of rules that can be consistently applied by more than 140 libraries, all with differing needs and expectations.  TUG has achieved this with a sense of purpose and a willingness to put aside individual needs to think like a consortium.  A shared sense of humour has helped at times too.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the councils, managers, and staff of the following libraries for their willingness to step up and lead the consortium on behalf of the network.  Some have been involved since the beginning, while others joined us for guest appearances, but the contribution made by all has been very much appreciated.

• Adelaide
• Alexandrina
• Campbelltown
• Charles Sturt
• Holdfast Bay
• Marion
• Mitcham
• Mt Barker
• Onkaparinga
• Playford
• Port Adelaide Enfield
• Salisbury
• Tea Tree Gully
• Unley

Having built a consortium of 59 library services, providing access to more than 3 million items to 750,000 registered customers, it is now time for TUG to pass the leadership torch to the newly forming LMS User Group.  I’m sure this group will come up with a suitable acronym – hopefully not UG!  Expressions of Interest to nominate for this group close on Monday so if you are thinking about getting involved please do so.  It’s an excellent opportunity to support the network and influence the direction of public libraries in SA.

Jo Freeman

A/Associate Director

Other libraries launching over recent weeks

A couple of other libraries that have recently launched are Wudinna and Karcultaby.

You can visit the Wudinna Enterprise site here & the Karcultaby site here.

We hope to have some photos to share with you soon from these great libraries.

Note that Wudinna has delayed its launch party until Wednesday 21st August. Have a blast guys!


Wudinna photos:

Wudinna had an afternoon tea on Wednesday 21 August. Volunteers, Board members, library staff and members of the community braved the windy and wet conditions to help celebrate Wudinna joining the One Card system.

Library Manager, Linda Heath presented all the volunteers and library staff with a gift to say 'Thank You' for all their hard work over the last 7 months.

The Wudinna library staff - Kylie Freak, Linda Heath & Nikki Payne

Some members of the Wudinna Library Board - Eleanor Scholz, Denise Vorstenbosh, Marlene Boylan & Nikki Payne

Three of the volunteers who help at the Wudinna Library - Terry Spence, Karen Scholz & Jean Spence

Karcultaby photos:



Students and community members present at the Karcultaby launch

Community members watching Karcultaby's Enterprise demonstration



Given that for a while so much of Karcultaby's preparation revolved around item barcodes, they thought that a BookMark barcode design was appropriate for their cake as they farewelled the old and welcomed the new! This delicious cake was created by their talented Home Economics teacher Wendy O'Brien

Karcultaby's two youngest students, Breea Feltus and Isobel Hedley-King, along with the two oldest students, Hayley Hutchings and Emma Brands, cut the cake as part of the launch celebrations

Karcultaby Area School's Principal, Dave Elson, welcomed everyone to the Launch celebrations. He then presented Library staff with their very own Merit Award, recognising the work that had been achieved

Early Adopters!

I don't want to jinx the One Card roll out timetable, as it has been something of a mark of success that the project team has managed to get every library to go "live" on their designated and published start date. This is quite an achievement in this complex and demanding project & I'm hoping that it will continue.  To achieve these deadlines each library works to a structured project plan with designated key milestone dates & lots of staff work really hard to keep things on track.

I caught up with PLS staff on Friday afternoon & was quite surprised & delighted to hear that 2 of our libraries have powered through their project plans and were able to go live slightly earlier than originally planned.

Ceduna went live on 7th August - 1 day early and Streaky Bay went live on 7th August too - 10 days early. Well done to all involved in the project teams at the libraries and their project leaders at PLS and SirsiDynix.

We're delighted to welcome these two libraries to the network, which now extends to the furtherest western library in the State!

You will find the Ceduna Enterprise site here & the Streaky Bay site here.

We'll chase up some local photos & drop them in here in coming days.

Great way to use local history photos

Someone sent me a link to an approach one council is using with their  historic photos of their local area.  They’ve been doing it to promote conversations about the neighbourhood, spark debate, attract new users to the council’s Facebook page (Redland City Council) and so much more.

The post talks about the thinking behind the idea, some examples of what they’ve done, some surprising outcomes, some tips for success & really good places to get images – libraries – not surprisingly.

Take a look here.  I think it has really great potential for all public libraries with a collection of local historic photos.  Is there anyone out there interested in trialing this locally? Or anyone who is doing something similar that they'd like to share?

RFID - things continue to evolve

PLS has been aware of ongoing changes in the RFID space for some time, so decided to meet with Alan Butters of Sybis who provided the advice for the development of our current RFID Interoperability specification.  Alan is a leading national and international expert on RFID for libraries, so his advice is authoritative and much appreciated.

Alan spent half a day with PLS staff providing us with an update of the changes in RFID and the emerging NFC (near field communication) ability of smart phones and how this may impact on library RFID.  We also looked RFID tagging for collections, the ability to “lock” certain fields on chips, new fields and how they could be used to support ILL movement without reference to the LMS while in transit, RFID sorters and other issues.

There is a lot for PLS staff to absorb in all that Alan has told us, and we have more research and modeling to do before we will be able to definitively update all libraries with where things are headed.  It is likely that the information we have received will see a revision / enhancement of the Interoperability Specification, to account for emerging changes.  In the meantime it is important that we give you an interim “heads up” if your library is in the process of going to the market for an RFID solution.  If you are in this position it would be prudent to talk to PLS staff about the emerging trends and what should be considered for inclusion in your tender specification.

As an aside Alan showed us and told us about all sorts of changes to how “chips” are being used to connect devices to content, download data and route items.  For those of us who travels a bit it was interesting to hear that many airlines are now including an RFID chip in the baggage destination slips added to cases & that this chip is programmed with all routing information needed to get your bag to its final destination.  So, even if the airline’s computer is offline the RIFD reader on the baggage conveyor belt can read and route your bag!  And as the reader does not have to refer back to the computer it is much faster in its routing.  This is a relatively boring – but vital use of such technologies.  Some of the other applications were very cool.  A range of such applications are written about here. 

Photos from recent launches

Over the school holidays the LMS team supported a number of libraries on the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas to do a "soft launch" of the One Card system in their libraries.  We're chasing up the libraries for photos of their opening day.  Once we have them we'll pop them up here. 

Congratulations to the libraries and communities in these locations on their go live!!

Coming soon we'll be featuring the launch photos from the following library services that have recently launched: Cleve, Kimba, Lock, Minlaton, Ardrossan, Yorketown and Maitland.

Central Yorke Peninsula (visit Enterprise catalogue)

• Maitland

Here's some great photos from the recent One Card launch at Central Yorke Peninsula Community Library, Maitland. 

Judy Gerschwitz assisted by Pearl Crawford and Emily Burrows cut the cake to celebrate the launch of One Card at Central Yorke Peninsula Community Library

Dee Moloney, librarian at the Central Yorke Peninsula Community Library thanks volunteers who helped in the re-cataloguing of over 10,000 items in order to  make the library ready for the launch of One Card

Karen Crawford and her children are all enthusiastic borrowers and look forward to making use of the additional benefits provided by the One Card network

Dee Moloney, librarian at the Central Yorke Peninsula Community Library presented a nectarine tree to Lee-Anne Breward who rose to the challenge and managed the bulk of the work to ensure the library was ready for the One Card launch

Cleve (visit Enterprise catalogue)

Marg Honan, Librarian at Cleve has written a great piece describing her 'go live' on July 4th. See also Cleve photos below.

"Happy Independence Day 4th July!! Cleve School Community Library became the first library on Eyre Peninsula to go-live, more by good luck than anything else. However, Marg took full advantage of the occasion and with Rina firmly holding her hand they launched themselves into 1LMS land with a huge party.

With biscuits, balloons and bookmarks for the whole school, followed by a FREE sausage sizzle at lunch (organised by the SRC) and the school band and CAS singers entertaining the kids, the rain held off long enough for it all to be held on the verandah and lawn at the front of the library.

With the assistance and support of the school and local Library Board the journey reached its end with the first transaction occurring at 11am with the charging out of a book to the previous Library manager Beth.

Marg organised a whole school assembly where: the school choir sang 2 songs from the Danny Allen suite, (story by Phil Cummings and music written by John Schumann); guest speakers from school, District Council and Library Board spoke and a presentation was made to Kate, the school student whose photo won the design-a-card competition.

After Beth was presented with her new borrowers card, the students were dismissed and the invited guests & visitors were invited into the library for the ribbon pulling, first issue and a splendid morning tea when THE CAKE was cut, all organised by the local Library Board.

Rina and Marg were then on hand to explain how the new system allowed access to the state’s resources and demonstrated the procedure to put a book on hold. Having the libraries large LCD TV screen connected to the school laptop and network meant they could share the new catalogue with those in the library.

It must have worked because the holds shelf list the next morning showed 2 customers had gone home and put 2 new books on hold and even changed their PIN.

The students are also having a great time putting their own holds on the books their classmates borrow; to the point where Marg allowed the kids access to the 3 community computers during class time as there were long queues at the 2 student OPACs.

They also had to figure out a system to give kids their numbers, as staff decided to keep the cards in the library as they have in the past. Marg & Rina made up small laminated cards to be kept in student’s diaries to allow access at home and then when in the library, staff are trialling a way of letting students have their real card to place holds.

Reminding students to LOG OUT is important as one Yr4 student discovered…he now has multiple holds on some books he doesn’t want to read!

They are still on their ‘L’s, though the principal did draw a P on the aprons! Checking the error reports and making their way through the shelf list was a daunting task but they managed and hopefully as you read this the library hasn’t collapsed around them."

Cleve School Community Library launched on 4th July with a whole school assembly, and the choir singing ‘Danny Allen’

Retired Librarian Beth was the first borrower and helped Marg Honan current Librarian ‘cut the ribbon’!!

Minlaton (visit Enterprise catalogue)

• Minlaton
• Curramulka
• Pt Vincent

Tessa Martin, Library Manager at Minlaton has provided us some great photos of Minlaton's launch held Wednesday, July 24th.

Cutting the cake - from left: Minlaton District School students, Esther Short and Ebony Coe, Minlaton Library Board of Management Chairperson, Joan Correll, Deputy Mayor, District Council of Yorke Peninsula, Brenda Bowman, Minlaton Library Community Library Assistant, Candy Johnson

Minlaton's cake made with plaque and chocolates from Minlaton Chocolaterie

Library Manager, Tessa Martin, speaking at the launch

Launch attendees hearing about the benefits of One Card to Minlaton customers

Minlaton Library staff Catherine Litster and Candy Johnson

Bron Scholes, District Council of YP Library liaison, Stewart Germaine, District Council of YP IT staff, Tessa Martin, Minlaton School Community Library Manager with a new YP Library Card

Lock (visit Enterprise catalogue)

• Lock
• Elliston
• Pt Kenny

Toni Sheridan, Librarian at the Lock School Community Library tells that library customers who attended the launch were given a demonstration of the new system and were shown how easy it is to look up and reserve items locally and across the state, via Lock’s new online Enterprise catalogue.

A group of students also attended and gave a fantastic performance of songs from Danny Allen.

To mark a truly special occasion, a delicious cake was ceremoniously cut and enjoyed by launch attendees!

Post launch, Toni has told PLS that the launch has gone well...and the library is certainly busier!

The ladies joining Jane and Toni (with L Plates) to cut the cake were all ex librarians or Library assistants.
L to R: Denise Laube, Corinne Dennis, Shirley Longmire (The original Community Library Assistant when we became a School Community Library in 1980), Jackie Crettenden, Toni Sheridan and Jane Taylor 

Students performed songs from Danny Allen

Stay tuned for photos from other launches!

Jo Freeman
A/Associate Director
Public Library Services