Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet?
I agree it's a good suggestion, and something that's been asked for again and again. If OCLC prices this reasonably, I can see a lot of small public and school libraries signing up. Also, nice mugshot, Jack: http://experimental.worldcat.org/lib/n/us.tn.loremville-public-library/home On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 7:10 PM, David Mayo pobo...@gmail.com wrote: It's so experimental, that it's having a Free *Trail*. That is a good suggestion, by the way - I'm just amused by the typo. It appears twice on this page, once on the sign-up page, and perhaps elsewhere. Also, absolutely is misspelled as absolutley on the sign-up page. - Dave Mayo On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Roy Tennant roytenn...@gmail.com wrote: Actually, I have an even better option from OCLC: Web Site for Small Libraries (WSSL) http://experimental.worldcat.org/lib/ It is really aimed at very small libraries, so it is very easy to use but still has some basic circulation capabilities. It's in free trial mode now, so take a look and see if it does what you need. Roy Tennant OCLC Research On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 12:22 AM, JONATHAN LEBRETON lebre...@temple.edu wrote: You may be able to do something with OCLCs so-called Web Management System whereby your OPAC (in the form of WorldCat local.) and circ functions are in the cloud.. Jonathan LeBreton Senior Associate University Librarian Temple University Libraries Philadelphia PA 19122 Voice: 215-204-3184 Fax: 215-204-5201 Mobile: 215-284-5070 lebre...@temple.edu jonat...@temple.edu - Original Message - From: rowan eisner [mailto:rowaneis...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 11:51 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet? Hi Dave It's an honesty system, card based, the way most community libraries used to work before computers. Because it's unstaffed about 15% of books aren't returned but we get a similar amount of donations. So we have that constant churn to take in and out of a card catalog manually. We need borrowers to be able to check out books. I was thinking maybe with a scanner attached to an iphone running an app. I didn't think librarything could do circulation. I thought it was just a catalog. What do you reckon? Cheers Rowan On 23 September 2011 21:34, David Mayo pobo...@gmail.com wrote: I think it's going to be difficult to find a solution that's entirely cloud based. What functionality do you need? If you have a very limited subset of ILS/OPAC functions in mind, theoretically a LibraryThing paid account or similar quasi-library service might suffice. I'm having trouble understanding how circulation works/is expected to work when librarians aren't present. Is there a sign-out sheet? How do you monitor for lossage? - Dave Mayo On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:42 PM, rowan eisner rowaneis...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks Esme No, the library is open all hours but volunteers just come in 2 hrs a week. I'm not sure how it could work but if we leave anything plugged in it will get stolen or struck by lightning. We're in cloud forest. With koha and open-ils do we have to run the software on a server or do we just get an account on an existing system? Running a system ourselves might take a lot for us to figure out. Cheers Rowan On 23 September 2011 16:38, Cowles, Esme escow...@ucsd.edu wrote: Rowan- Having a hosted catalog and circ system seems very easy to do. There are several open source library systems such as Koha and Evergreen that might suit your needs: http://www.koha.org/ http://open-ils.org/ Are there volunteers present the entire time the library is open to borrowers? Or are you counting on borrowers having smartphones to complete self-checkout? -Esme -- Esme Cowles escow...@ucsd.edu I don't need to be forgiven. -- The Who, Baba O'Reilly On Sep 23, 2011, at 3:27 PM, rowan eisner wrote: Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but if anyone can point me in the right direction... We have an unstaffed library and can't leave a computer in it. Is there a way to automate 1) with no computer - do circulation and catalog in the cloud. Volunteers bring in laptops to do circulation and clients access catalog with iphones 2) that doesn't cost a fortune Thanks so much Rowan
Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet?
Quoting Roy Tennant roytenn...@gmail.com: Actually, I have an even better option from OCLC: Web Site for Small Libraries (WSSL) http://experimental.worldcat.org/lib/ I wrote about an idea for an online service for small libraries when I got back from Kosovo. [1] It had the added (?) capability of social networking, where the social beings are libraries. It seemed to me that in many cases small libraries are more dependent on each other than large libraries are, and that in some communities (and some countries) it makes sense to allow the libraries to have a combined presence as well as separate catalogs. I didn't include circulation, in part because the libraries I had been viewing did not circulate books. But I still like the idea of a society of small libraries organized perhaps geographically as well as by collections. kc [1] http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2008/05/easy-online-social-library-catalog.html It is really aimed at very small libraries, so it is very easy to use but still has some basic circulation capabilities. It's in free trial mode now, so take a look and see if it does what you need. Roy Tennant OCLC Research On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 12:22 AM, JONATHAN LEBRETON lebre...@temple.edu wrote: You may be able to do something with OCLCs so-called Web Management System whereby your OPAC (in the form of WorldCat local.) and circ functions are in the cloud.. Jonathan LeBreton Senior Associate University Librarian Temple University Libraries Philadelphia PA 19122 Voice: 215-204-3184 Fax: 215-204-5201 Mobile: 215-284-5070 lebre...@temple.edu jonat...@temple.edu - Original Message - From: rowan eisner [mailto:rowaneis...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 11:51 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet? Hi Dave It's an honesty system, card based, the way most community libraries used to work before computers. Because it's unstaffed about 15% of books aren't returned but we get a similar amount of donations. So we have that constant churn to take in and out of a card catalog manually. We need borrowers to be able to check out books. I was thinking maybe with a scanner attached to an iphone running an app. I didn't think librarything could do circulation. I thought it was just a catalog. What do you reckon? Cheers Rowan On 23 September 2011 21:34, David Mayo pobo...@gmail.com wrote: I think it's going to be difficult to find a solution that's entirely cloud based. What functionality do you need? If you have a very limited subset of ILS/OPAC functions in mind, theoretically a LibraryThing paid account or similar quasi-library service might suffice. I'm having trouble understanding how circulation works/is expected to work when librarians aren't present. Is there a sign-out sheet? How do you monitor for lossage? - Dave Mayo On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:42 PM, rowan eisner rowaneis...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks Esme No, the library is open all hours but volunteers just come in 2 hrs a week. I'm not sure how it could work but if we leave anything plugged in it will get stolen or struck by lightning. We're in cloud forest. With koha and open-ils do we have to run the software on a server or do we just get an account on an existing system? Running a system ourselves might take a lot for us to figure out. Cheers Rowan On 23 September 2011 16:38, Cowles, Esme escow...@ucsd.edu wrote: Rowan- Having a hosted catalog and circ system seems very easy to do. There are several open source library systems such as Koha and Evergreen that might suit your needs: http://www.koha.org/ http://open-ils.org/ Are there volunteers present the entire time the library is open to borrowers? Or are you counting on borrowers having smartphones to complete self-checkout? -Esme -- Esme Cowles escow...@ucsd.edu I don't need to be forgiven. -- The Who, Baba O'Reilly On Sep 23, 2011, at 3:27 PM, rowan eisner wrote: Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but if anyone can point me in the right direction... We have an unstaffed library and can't leave a computer in it. Is there a way to automate 1) with no computer - do circulation and catalog in the cloud. Volunteers bring in laptops to do circulation and clients access catalog with iphones 2) that doesn't cost a fortune Thanks so much Rowan -- Karen Coyle kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net ph: 1-510-540-7596 m: 1-510-435-8234 skype: kcoylenet
Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet?
Salvete! I wrote about an idea for an online service for small libraries when I got back from Kosovo. [1] It had the added (?) capability of social networking, where the social beings are libraries. It seemed to me that in many cases small libraries are more dependent on each other than large libraries are, and that in some communities (and some countries) it makes sense to allow the libraries to have a combined presence as well as separate catalogs. I didn't include circulation, in part because the libraries I had been viewing did not circulate books. But I still like the idea of a society of small libraries organized perhaps geographically as well as by collections. I certainly agree that small Libraries tend to share more than large ones. A combined presence to me is the whole point of having a strong consortium. I applaud organisations like MassCat not only for banding together to save scant resources, but also because they have the courage to innovate. This is no small feat given the diversity of their membership. The historical pendulum swing between independence and heavy interaction fascinates me no end. There are certainly regional differences. Cheers, Brooke
Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet?
Ok, I tried to sign up for WSSL and you have to be in US. Also, if it will cost 'a cup of coffee a day' am I right that would be at least $700 a year? That's our entire annual budget. So probably only for first world countries anyway. And you're meant to have one or two full-time staff which we don't have. Still, I'll email them and see what they say. There are probably 1000s of 3rd world libraries doing everything manually still and if there are economies of scale we may be able to afford it. Cheers Rowan On 24 September 2011 17:10, David Mayo pobo...@gmail.com wrote: It's so experimental, that it's having a Free *Trail*. That is a good suggestion, by the way - I'm just amused by the typo. It appears twice on this page, once on the sign-up page, and perhaps elsewhere. Also, absolutely is misspelled as absolutley on the sign-up page. - Dave Mayo On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Roy Tennant roytenn...@gmail.com wrote: Actually, I have an even better option from OCLC: Web Site for Small Libraries (WSSL) http://experimental.worldcat.org/lib/ It is really aimed at very small libraries, so it is very easy to use but still has some basic circulation capabilities. It's in free trial mode now, so take a look and see if it does what you need. Roy Tennant OCLC Research On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 12:22 AM, JONATHAN LEBRETON lebre...@temple.edu wrote: You may be able to do something with OCLCs so-called Web Management System whereby your OPAC (in the form of WorldCat local.) and circ functions are in the cloud.. Jonathan LeBreton Senior Associate University Librarian Temple University Libraries Philadelphia PA 19122 Voice: 215-204-3184 Fax: 215-204-5201 Mobile: 215-284-5070 lebre...@temple.edu jonat...@temple.edu - Original Message - From: rowan eisner [mailto:rowaneis...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 11:51 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Can a library automate without a computer yet? Hi Dave It's an honesty system, card based, the way most community libraries used to work before computers. Because it's unstaffed about 15% of books aren't returned but we get a similar amount of donations. So we have that constant churn to take in and out of a card catalog manually. We need borrowers to be able to check out books. I was thinking maybe with a scanner attached to an iphone running an app. I didn't think librarything could do circulation. I thought it was just a catalog. What do you reckon? Cheers Rowan On 23 September 2011 21:34, David Mayo pobo...@gmail.com wrote: I think it's going to be difficult to find a solution that's entirely cloud based. What functionality do you need? If you have a very limited subset of ILS/OPAC functions in mind, theoretically a LibraryThing paid account or similar quasi-library service might suffice. I'm having trouble understanding how circulation works/is expected to work when librarians aren't present. Is there a sign-out sheet? How do you monitor for lossage? - Dave Mayo On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:42 PM, rowan eisner rowaneis...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks Esme No, the library is open all hours but volunteers just come in 2 hrs a week. I'm not sure how it could work but if we leave anything plugged in it will get stolen or struck by lightning. We're in cloud forest. With koha and open-ils do we have to run the software on a server or do we just get an account on an existing system? Running a system ourselves might take a lot for us to figure out. Cheers Rowan On 23 September 2011 16:38, Cowles, Esme escow...@ucsd.edu wrote: Rowan- Having a hosted catalog and circ system seems very easy to do. There are several open source library systems such as Koha and Evergreen that might suit your needs: http://www.koha.org/ http://open-ils.org/ Are there volunteers present the entire time the library is open to borrowers? Or are you counting on borrowers having smartphones to complete self-checkout? -Esme -- Esme Cowles escow...@ucsd.edu I don't need to be forgiven. -- The Who, Baba O'Reilly On Sep 23, 2011, at 3:27 PM, rowan eisner wrote: Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but if anyone can point me in the right direction... We have an unstaffed library and can't leave a computer in it. Is there a way to automate 1) with no computer - do circulation and catalog in the cloud. Volunteers bring in laptops to do circulation and clients access catalog with iphones 2) that doesn't cost a fortune Thanks so much Rowan
