The Pollard is going Green (Evergreen, That Is)

Since its St. Patrick's Day and we're all enjoying the color green we thought we might ask if you've heard the news that the Pollard Library, along with the other members of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium (MVLC) will soon move its library catalog and circulation system to Evergreen, an open-source integrated library system used by hundreds of libraries nationwide and in Canada.

This move is designed to improve services for you, our patrons. Some new features with the Evergreen system include a version of the catalog for use on mobile devices, more flexibility for you in creating user names and passwords to access and use the online catalog, and the ability for you to update your account information as well as to pay fines online. You will also have more flexibility and control over your catalog searches with Evergreen, including setting account preferences to automatically search the Pollard Library only or MVLC as a whole.

You may be familiar with Open Office which is another open source software system currently in use at the Pollard. Evergreen is a library-specific open-source software program originally developed by the Georgia Public Library. In case you're wondering what the big deal is about "open source" software, you should know that calling something open-source means that it is software that is mostly developed in a public, collaborative manner. This collaboration allows users to study, change, and improve the software as it is being used.

MVLC will be the first large library system in Massachusetts to move to Evergreen. The anticipated date for the changeover is May 2011. Stay tuned here at the PML Blog for updates and to learn about the new features Evergeen will bring. Go Green!