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The author pines for Georgia PINES
15 Nov 06
I realize it’s not very diplomatic to say so when I know so many people who live there, but I have always found Georgia a little bit ugly. Perhaps is because I read too much Flannery O’Connor before I ever went there, because I’m allergic to pine, or maybe it’s just because it took my baby away. But today I learned something beautiful about Georgia, and didn’t even have to leave Ontario to do it.
The University of Windsor’s Leddy Library (my employer) hosted a symposium today on the Future of the Integrated Library System. In case anyone runs across this who doesn’t know, an integrated library system (ILS) is basically a big ugly piece of software that libraries use to do everything from ordering and invoicing for new materials to searching for books to managing circulation, and so on. Art Rhyno started us off with some ruminations on the history of the ILS. I was once again reminded how lucky I am to work with a star like Art, who also organized the programme for the symposium and is an influential force behind a number of important library systems developments locally, nationally, internationally. Art was followed by Peter Murray of OHIOLink. Peter gave a funny and compelling talk on Applying the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Model to Libraries.
Then came the folks who, for me, were the stars of the show: Brad LaJeunesse, Mike Rylander, David Singleton, and Julie Walker of the PINES Consortium. PINES is a library consortium that serves almost all of Georgia’s public libraries, with more coming on board in the near future. The State has a remarkable borrowing policy that allows any resident to borrow materials from any public library in Georgia. I am deeply envious of my friends there, and I sincerely hope they know about and use this amazing resource. But more importantly, the folks from PINES have developed Evergreen, an open-source library catalogue. It’s attractive, it works, and it has great add-ons including faceted subject trees, a favourites-like feature called “book bags”, and a number of great account management tools for patrons (that you’d have to be a resident of Georgia with a PINES account to explore). It is impossible to overstate the importance of this: we are likely looking at the new face of libraries.
After a yummy buffet lunch, Alan Darnell of the Ontario Scholar’s Portal project gave a talk on Integrating E-Resources and Print Resources in the Next Generation OPAC/ILS, and the day finished with a panel discussion involving all of the day’s speakers. There was tremendous enthusiasm in the room, and more importantly, a fair number of people who not only see where we’re going but are actually in a position to get us there.
Posted by pzed on November 15, 2006 at 8.12pm
Categories: conferences, libraries
Comments on "The author pines for Georgia PINES"
[...] Peter Zimmerman’s notes [...]
Posted by ebyblog » Blog Archive » Future of the ILS Symposium on November 16, 2006 at 11.46pm :: link
Great post. This sounds like a great symposium– I can believe there was enthusiasm about OSS and Evergreen. A few weeks ago at the ALA LITA National Forum there was real interest and enthusiasm about Koha and Evergreen and getting out of the proprietary ILS box.
I agree with you– this is the future.
Posted by Roger Hiles on November 17, 2006 at 8.43pm :: link
