MLC Evergreen staff will demonstrate the Michigan Evergreen open-source ILS at the MLA Conference this week, Booth #7 in the MLA Exhibits.
Booth demos are scheduled for:
Wednesday, 2pm-5pm
Thursday, 7:30am-12noon
Also, MLC and GRPL Evergreen staff will present a program at MLA on Thursday, 1:30pm-2:45pm, in Room Prairies V.
If you’re interested in learning about the Michigan Evergreen project, please stop by the booth or come to our program!
October 20th, 2008
Photos from the 2008 Annual Meeting have been posted to MLC’s Flickr account. To see the new set, click here.
October 16th, 2008
At MLC’s annual meeting on October 3, I talked about the changes that our OCLC members will experience with the new service model that OCLC announced a couple weeks ago. If you work in a library that uses any OCLC service, the new service model will have an impact on you, and it will affect the range of services you’ve come to expect from MLC.
As the press release said, OCLC has adopted a new service model for support, training, marketing, and billing. The directors of the Regional Networks were informed of the changes at a meeting with OCLC staff on September 9. We were given documents that outline three areas for MLC and the other Regional Networks to continue working with OCLC: billing, marketing, and training/implementation. We were not given any options for other services that we currently provide, such as phone and email support for cataloging and ILL.
There are some details for OCLC to work out in the new program so we are not sure of the complete impact on you. However, we do know that beginning July 1, 2009 you will not contact MLC with your cataloging and ILL support questions, and we know that you will no longer contract with MLC for your OCLC cataloging and ILL services. Instead you will have a direct arrangement with OCLC.
Within the next couple of weeks, we need to tell OCLC whether we are interested in being their billing, marketing, and training agent. By early 2009, we will have an agreement with OCLC about how we will work together under the new model.
We want you to be fully informed about the extent of the changes that will come with the new program. We will use our normal communication channels – this blog, our website, the Communique blog, and News@MLC – to send regular updates. As always, we welcome your comments and questions.
October 7th, 2008
Congratulations to Director Nancy Studebaker and her staff at the Niles District Library (NDL)! MLC is pleased to announce that NDL went live on Michigan Evergreen yesterday, joining other pilot libraries, Branch District Library and Grand Rapids Public Library. The final four Michigan Evergreen pilot libraries will go live in November: Traverse Area District Library and its affiliates, Interlochen Public Library, Fife Lake Public Library and Peninsula Community Library.
As with the first two migrations, there were some minor problems to correct on the first couple days, but for the most part, the transition went smoothly. We’re lucky to be working with Equinox and GRPL who were standing ready to work with MLC staff to fix any migration problems fairly quickly.
For the Niles launch (like the Branch launch), we had Michigan Evergreen staff at the library and at MLC to handle troubleshooting on the first day. I spent the day working at NDL’s circ desk, while Evette Atkin stayed back at the ranch to act as “command central,” fielding Nancy’s and my calls from the front lines. I have to admit that it was really fun to spend the day working in a public library again. For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of working on the MIchigan Evergreen project has been the opportunity to visit public libraries and experience the real world of library service. We’re learning a lot during the pilot phase of this project, which is going to be helpful when we open up Michigan Evergreen to new libraries next year.
October 7th, 2008
