In this and future posts I’ll tell the story of how we selected VuFind from a list that included AquaBrowser, Encore, Drupal SOPAC, and WorldCat Local. I’ll write about testing and launching open source software originally developed at Villanova University. We might blaze a few interesting trails, taking software currently running in university libraries, and adapting it to our multi-type consortium on the Western Slope.

“We’re getting open source!”

VuFind was a very much a dark horse until a few stars aligned. When I joined Marmot last October, it was not clear we could implement let alone enhance an open source solution. When I visited Colorado State University to learn about the first implementation of VuFind with Millennium, I was encouraged that CSU could help Marmot get started. After we hired a new web developer, and identified a contract developer to expand our capacity for a few months, we had everything we needed to take VuFind seriously.

Lucene at the heart of VuFind is no stranger to supporting public and school libraries as well as academics. Lucene powers Encore by Innovative Interfaces, LS2 PAC by The Library Corporation, and many other web apps. The remarkable thing about VuFind for Marmot was how well it met overlapping and conflicting needs of 19 separate Marmot institutions in spite of its academic roots.

Mary Katherine told me how much fun she and CJ were having looking at the code where MARC tags and subfields get handled for indexing and faceting. “I can’t remember the last time I actually enjoyed reading MARC documentation and chasing down fixed field codes.”

Some of the fun comes from feeling in control, from the optimism of being able to solve unique local problems without waiting for a vendor to weigh our priorities with those of a thousand other ILS customers. Mary Katherine can see what’s happening inside the system instead of being shut out of a vendor’s black box. CJ can make changes without filing a bug report. Marmot library users will love the results.

Read a full review of The Maltese Falcon here. For a full list of books available from the SWIFT Book Club, look here.

Beginning Feb 1, they will all use the same web-based customer-support and communication technology, InstantService.

In the last few years, libraries have seen an explosion in online communication tools available for reaching and serving patrons. The use of IM, text messaging, online chat and related technologies are becoming embedded in the fabric of libraries’ online service offerings. Given this changing landscape in technology and the evolving need for libraries to flexibly serve their patrons, the AskColorado community and AskColorado Steering Committee have endorsed a migration to this new software platform, InstantService.

AskColorado

On February 1, Colorado’s statewide virtual reference provider will begin using the software developed by InstantService. In addition to serving some well-known companies across a range of industries, InstantService is currently used by Florida’s AskALibrarian virtual reference service. The Florida AskALibrarian service, which has 102 participating libraries of all types, has been using InstantService for nearly a year and raves about the company’s service. The AskColorado Software Selection Committee, which was comprised of library representatives from public, academic and school libraries from across the state, chose InstantService after reviewing several vendor options.

InstantService offers the expected, basic function of live chats with a librarian, but the (NEW!) integration of email to provide patrons with a communication option if the AskColorado service is busy or closed for a holiday IS A SIGNIFICANT improvement to the former software system.

Additional features and functions:

• fully integrated staff service module, which will allow libraries to offer different communication channels to their patrons while interacting with and responding to patrons at a single service point;
• entirely web-based, compatible with more operating systems and browser platforms than the previous software;
• works on both PCs and Macs;
• the ability for participating libraries to add an embedded IM widget box within their web sites, similar to Meebo.

Looking forward to the spring…text messaging will be added as an option so that patrons can communicate with the AskColorado library service using a handheld device like a cell phone.

If you have any questions, or would like further information about joining and supporting the AskColorado Collaboration, please feel free to contact Susie Whiteford [swhitefo@denverlibrary.org]of Denver Public Library, currently Chair of the AskColorado Steering Committee.

And if your library is already a member of AskColorado, welcome to a bright new era of virtual reference service and sophisticated electronic communications with your patrons!

New ALA report details economic trends in libraries and 2010 outlook
CHICAGO – At every turn, news reports and research indicate fairly dramatic changes in U.S. library funding, services and staffing – most occurring in the last 18 months. According to a new report prepared by the American Library Association (ALA), libraries of all types are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn while managing sky-high use.

Compiled from a broad range of available sources, The Condition of Libraries: 1999-2009 presents U.S. economic trends (2009), and summarizes trends in public, school and academic libraries across several library measures, including expenditures, staffing and services. The report also highlights trends in services provided to libraries by library cooperatives and consortia.

“This report was prepared to inform and assist library leaders as they plan in these very difficult times,” said ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. “It succinctly brings together diverse strands of data from the past decade to provide a useful benchmark for the library community and its advocates.”

As communities and academic campuses develop future fiscal plans, it is clear that all types of libraries are visibly hard hit. In a fall 2009 report prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 34 states had reported cuts to higher education, which impacts academic libraries; and 25 states had cut funding to K-12, which impacts school libraries. Total state budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2010 are $178 billion, and FY2011 are estimated to be roughly the same.

Public libraries also have been affected. While the full impact of the economic downturn remains fluid and the data challenging to assemble, what is known is that flat funding has been an obstacle – perhaps even a chronic problem – for many libraries this entire decade. Confirming evidence from a 2006 ALA study of public library funding, a 2009 survey conducted as part of the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study revealed a worsening of funding – about 20 percent reported flat funding continuing in FY2010 and a majority reported budget reductions. Of those with budget cuts, about 20 percent reported 5-to-10 percent reductions in FY2010 from FY2009.

Library trends include:

School Library Media Centers

• At a time when school enrollment (K-12) is growing, almost all schools reported in 2009 a decrease in funding for information resources, with a median per-student expenditure of just over $12; and
• Fewer school libraries served more students in the 2006-2007 school year compared with the 2002-2003 school year; and
• Total SLMC staff grew slightly, then declined in the 2006-2007 school year compared with 1999-2000.

College and University Libraries

• While student enrollment at colleges and universities has declined since 2004, library use continues to increase. During a typical week in 2008, academic libraries reported more than 20.3 million visits, up from 18.7 million in 2006. They also provided more than 498,000 informational services to groups attended by more than 8.9 million students and faculty, up from 471,000 sessions attended by 8.3 million in 2006;
• In fall 2008, 72 percent of academic libraries reported providing library reference service by e-mail or the Web, about the same as in 2006; and
• Operating expenditures rose modestly during the period 2002 to 2008.

Public libraries

• Total public library circulation and circulation of children’s materials continue to rise.  Circulation of children’s materials has accounted for between 32.9 and 35 percent of total circulation between FY2002 and FY2007. Total circulation of public library materials has grown each year – up to 7.4 items per capita from about 6.8 items in FY2002;
• Most public library Internet services have grown between 2006 and 2008, most notably audio and video content; and
• Total public library operating expenditures have varied little year-to-year and typically align with inflation rates. Staff account for the largest portion of expenditures, followed by “other” expenditures (technology, utilities, programming, etc.) and collections.

The full report is available at http://www.ala.org/ala/research/initiatives/Condition_of_Libraries_1999.20.pdf Individual reports by type of library are available at http://www.ala.org/ala/research/index.cfm.

Denise M. Davis
Director, ALA Office for Research & Statistics
50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611
dmdavis@ala.org | 312-280-4273 | fax 312-280-4392

We all know that Web 2.0 tools are essential for communicating and creating in today’s fast-paced world. If there are tools that you or your staff want to learn more about, or if you just need to brush up on the basics, please visit the Colorado Libraries 2.0 website.

Colorado Libraries 2.0 is a FREE learning program to help library staff become familiar with Web 2.0 tools. The program is designed in modules associated with categories of tools:

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Visual Communications
4. Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
5. Productivity Tools
6. A capstone project – Your PLE

Additional modules will be available in 2010.

Join with others from your library to get the most from the program !

Colorado Libraries 2.0 was created by Reach – Leading Learning in Libraries – a group of library staff members committed to sharing continuing education opportunities with others.

The Colorado Department of Education will hold a one day beginner E-rate training session on December 14, 2009 from 9am to 4pm.  The training session will cover the basics of E-rate from the history of E-rate to completing forms.  This training is open to anyone new to E-rate.

All participants are encouraged to come prepared to complete the Form 470 if one has not already been completed.  The following documents are needed to complete the Form 470 below:

•List of all area codes and prefixes for existing telephone lines
•List of services for which you are seeking discounts
•List of facilities for which you will be seeking discounts
•Any Requests For Proposals (RFP) or Requests For Information (RFI) that have been recently published
•Contact information if a new Entity number is needed (if you are not the contact person for the application)

The training will be at the Denver Public Library – Central Library 10 W. 14th Avenue Parkway.  A parking garage is located at Broadway and 12th Avenue for a fee.  There is free internet access in the Library and I would encourage participants to bring their laptop if possible.  Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
 
Additional training sessions will be delivered via Webinar.  Dates and times for the Webinars will be available soon.

Please RSVP to Tina Tamayo by December 11, 2009 at tamayo_t@cde.state.co.us if you plan to attend training on December 14, 2009.

Should you have any questions feel free to DeLilah Collins at Collins_D@cde.state.co.us.

The ASCC Consortium’s new integrated library system, Koha hosted by Liblime debuted last week. The new AspenCat catalog currently includes records from the seven pilot libraries.
Send out a big congratulations to:
Akron Public Library
Dolores Public Library
Manitou Springs Public Library
Nederland Community Library
Ouray Public Library
Wellington Public Library
West End Schools: Nucla and Naturita
They all worked extremely hard over the last several months and their diligence shows!
AspenCat includes over 100,000 items that are readily available to any patron in the participating communities. AspenCat will be growing to nearly 700,000 records from 22 more libraries by September 2010.
AspenCat can be viewed at www.aspencat.info.

The Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) recently honored the Colorado State Library’s Plinkit service with its “2009 Library Project of the Year Award” at the association’s annual conference in November.

This award recognizes a creative and innovative project which furthers library service within the state of Colorado.

Christine Kreger, Plinkit Service Coordinator said, “Libraries today are all about building community and being accessible to their patrons. I am honored to be a part of a project like Plinkit that offers small libraries across Colorado the opportunity to put their library online and to connect to their communities 24/7.”

Kreger shared the honor of accepting the award with two other staff members. Software developer and system administrator Stephen Gregory ensures that the Plinkit system is solid and humming. Service administrator Jim Duncan watches finances and guides with strategic direction.

At the award’s dinner, three other state library staffers were cited for their contributions and support of the Plinkit service: Mark Ferguson, Sharon Morris and Gene Hainer.

Two people meet in nonfiction and fall in love. A boy finds salvation in his local library and becomes the first in his family to attend college. A suburban mother of four relies on the library’s expert reference service to start her own business, and later is named “Entrepreneur of the Year.”

Come visit the State Library’s booth at the CAL exhibit hall to share YOUR story! You can write it, type it, or tell it (we will have flip cameras). Read fantastic stories of your colleagues and celebrate the many ways libraries transform lives.

Need more reason? Submit YOUR story and become eligible to win one of these fabulous prizes!

• A “flip” digital video camera
• Library stories journals
• A tricked-out messenger bag
• Summer Reading Fun Pack

State Library at CAL schedule (PDF)

• * Share with you the latest services and resources we can offer Colorado libraries
• * Hear how libraries have transformed your lives

CSL at CAL 2009 – Schedule (PDF)