The power of the network

Even though I have worked as part of our network for several decades I'm still amazed at the amount energy, goodwill, commitment and skill that we have access to!! And I am doubly enthused to be surrounded by so many library staff willing to contribute to this next revolution in our network.

The last week or so has seen considerable activity by many from a range of libraries across the network & I want to recognise them and thank them in anticipation of their contribution to this project in coming months.

Over the last week more than 65 people attended one of 7 Subject Matter Expert (SME) Group briefings at PLS.  The SMEs are part of the LMS assessment team.  They will provide specific feedback about the performance of particular parts of the various Library Management Systems we will be evaluating.  SME members are currently developing scenarios which will assist vendors to demonstrate system functionality in a coherent manner. Thanks to all of you who are working to deliver these scenarios this month.

Following a vendor briefing session on 1 April vendors have provided additional questions, seeking clarification about the requirements in their response.  As some of the questions were quite technical a couple of the SMEs have provided input into the answers that have been provided.  Thanks to those of you who responded so quickly to our requests for advice.

The inaugural meeting of the Interim LMS User Group meeting occurred today, with a very keen group beginning to map all the points where one library’s practice intersects with others & where we need to reach agreement to ensure great outcomes for customers.  Members of the group were set some homework before the meeting, to collect and review all of the rules in their own libraries & consider how these may need to be reviewed to match the need of a consortium.  Again - thanks to all those in this group for their attention to this important part of the process.

The opportunity for companies to respond to the Request For Proposal closes next Monday (the 18^th).  Following a check that the responses meet the minimum requirements to be considered, the responses will be distributed to members of the Evaluation Team who meet again on 20 April.  I know what I will be doing for much of Easter – ploughing through the responses!!

And the Wide Area Network (WAN) group will meet on the 18^th as well.  This group of technical experts will be undertaking a review to ensure that the PLS WAN will be capable of effectively delivering the LMS to the far flung corners of the State. 

So, its all go for the project!!

And once again, if anyone has any questions or comments please comment here.