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December 2nd, 2008LISWireATHENS, OH --December 2, 2008-- LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries announced today that the Plano Independent School District (ISD) in Plano, Texas has selected a Koha ZOOM appliance solution for their next integrated library system.
Encompassing 68 schools, Plano ISD is nationally recognized for its education excellence. Twenty-four Plano schools have captured the prestigious National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence honor, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. Several Plano ISD schools have received the honor twice.
Plano ISD has selected LibLime as their partner for support and training of their Koha library system. In addition, LibLime is responsible for the data migration of their current collection of over 1 million items.
”We planned to upgrade or replace our current library automation system during the 2008-09 school year due to its announced end of life in terms of future enhancements.” says David Schuster, Library Technology Coordinator for the school district. “ After evaluating existing proprietary library systems along with a variety of open-source options, Koha ZOOM became the obvious choice due to its flexibility and promise of long-term development and support,” says Learning Media Services Director Diane Lutz.
LibLime became a key component in the Plano ISD decision due to its proven ability to add specific functionality to the Koha application and its willingness to work closely with the district in developing identified enhancements.
Many developers contribute to the improvement of the Koha ZOOM open-source code, so Plano ISD is confident that issues will be resolved and changes made quicker and more efficiently than with proprietary counterparts.
”The decision to seek out a web- based, open-source automation system was in line with our district's desire to use open-source whenever available," stated Mary Hewett, the district’s Executive Director for Instructional Technology.
About Plano Independent School District
Plano ISD (http://www.pisd.edu) serves the residents of approximately 100 square miles in southwest Collin County. This area includes the City of Plano, northern portions of cities of Dallas and Richardson, the city of Parker and parts of Allen and Murphy.
Plano schools have been the recipient of several state and national honors, including the National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence honor, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. Plano ISD recently received outstanding scores on the 2008 accountability ratings report given by The Texas Education Agency, scoring "exemplary" on 18 out of 25 academic indicators.
The school district's website and online instructional center have captured several top state and national awards for innovation in design and user-friendliness.
Plano ISD has also pioneered “University Ready”, collection of online tools and resources designed to engage students (prek-12) and parents in preparing for post-secondary education.
About Koha ZOOM
Koha ZOOM represents a generational leap in Koha's development. Notably, it includes a powerful search engine based on Zebra, a high-performance indexing and retrieval engine. Koha ZOOM's search engine can read structured records in practically any input format (eg. email, XML, MARC) and allows access to them through exact boolean search expressions and relevance-ranked free-text queries. It supports large databases (more than ten gigabytes of data, tens of millions of records) as well as incremental, safe database updates on live systems.
To try out Koha ZOOM for yourself, visit LibLime's demos:
About LibLime
As the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, LibLime offers a refreshing alternative to expensive proprietary software. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, LibLime promotes the benefits of open source, enabling libraries to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. LibLime enables libraries to use open-source software to its full potential by providing outstanding commercial support services - hosting, migration assistance, staff training, support, software maintenance, and development--solutions tailored to each customer's needs.
Use of open source not only lowers the per-library cost of running software, it also empowers libraries with a higher level of control over customization and the overall direction of software development.
Press Contact
Tina Burger
Vice President, Marketing LibLime
(888)Koha ILS (564-2457)
LibLime and the LibLime logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of LibLime. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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December 2nd, 2008LISWire
Plinkit was recognized with the 2008 ASCLA Leadership and Professional Achievement Award at ALA in Anaheim this year as an innovative, multi-state technology project with significant impact on libraries and communities across a broad section of America. The PLINKIT Collaborative is a pioneering initiative as it’s the first collaborative technology project of its kind among state library and regional agencies.
Plinkit is based on Plone, an open-source content management system. Library web sites are created and edited right through the web, using built-in text editors and other powerful features that make it easy for library staff to keep their content current. The Plinkit platform allows small libraries with limited funding to develop a professional looking website.
Michael Piper, the Executive Director of INCOLSA said, "Plinkit is ideally suited to help even the smallest libraries deliver compelling online services. With our partners, INCOLSA is delighted to join the award-winning Plinkit Collaborative. We look forward to working with the Collaborative to extend Plinkit to serve even more communities nationwide."
Tom Ceresini, PALINET's Technology Consultant, says, "PALINET is very pleased to join the Plinkit collaborative and offer this innovative project to public libraries in our membership. Plinkit is a great fit for libraries that want to offer web-based services to their users with a minimum of expense and technical expertise required."
Rod Wagner, Director of the Nebraska Library Commission, said “The Nebraska Library Commission appreciates the opportunity to join the Plinkit Collaborative and make available Plinkit's dynamic, easy to use and easy to update web site service. Plinkit will be a great resource for Nebraska libraries.”
The goal of the Plinkit Collaborative is to pool funds in support of software development, training, documentation, and marketing activities. For more information, visit www.Plinkit.org or email jshaffner@bcr.org.
Justine Shaffner, MLS
Plinkit Collaborative Coordinator
p: 303.751.6277 x140 -
December 2nd, 2008LISWire
Do you want to share your experience and expertise by encouraging and nurturing a future LLAMA leader?
Do you want to develop your leadership and management skills by learning from a current LLAMA leader?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you are just the right person to participate in an exciting 10 month formal mentoring program.
The LLAMA mentoring program is designed to encourage and nurture current and future leaders and to develop and promote outstanding leadership and management practices. Mentees in the program benefit from mentor experience in areas such as career planning, job assistance, shaping careers, and succession planning. Mentors provide training and guidance for mentees, sharing leadership and management skills and practices.
Mentees and mentors are supported as part of a formal and structured program that is designed with an eye on sustainability, legacy, realism, structure, expectations, and an emphasis on professional development. Data collection and evaluative instruments have been developed and are used to ensure that feedback from participants contributes to and improves the program.
Mentee participants must be current or potential LLAMA members. Candidates may self nominate or may be nominated by others. Mentees are required to attend the Annual Conference in Chicago to participate in the program’s formal orientation and to meet their mentor.
Mentor participants must be active members within LLAMA. Mentors are required to attend the Annual Conference in Chicago to participate in the program’s formal orientation and to meet their mentee.
Both mentors and mentees submit biographical and career information to assist in the matching process. Matched duos meet at a reception and orientation during the annual conference and continue their mentoring relationship throughout the 10 month period following the conference.
The program is limited to 25 mentee/mentor duos per year, so early application is encouraged.
Applications for mentee and mentor candidates are being accepted through Dec. 15, 2008 and can be accessed online or via this TinyURL: http://tiny.cc/LLAMAmentoring. For additional information, please contact Neely Tang, Chair of the Mentoring Committee, at nt243@cornell.edu.
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