CR2 Blog the knowledge blog
  • scissors
    June 2nd, 2010LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    June 2nd, 2010
    CONTACT:
    Nathan Curulla
    (888) 900-8944
    sales@bywatersolutions.com

    Richards Free Library Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Implementation

    ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that Richards Free Library, of Newport, NH has partnered with them for the installation and support of the official version of the Koha integrated library system.

    ByWater Solutions will provide the Richards Free Library with a full Koha Installation, data migration, customization of their staff and public interface, 24/7 comprehensive support, and hosting services.

    Andrea Thorpe, Director of Richards Free Library, commented on their decision to switch to Koha supported by ByWater Solutions:

    “I am a strong believer in collaboration and sharing. I have been reading about KOHA since it was first introduced in New Zealand and know that it has a strong world-wide community. I was looking for an ILS that would serve the needs of a small public library. I believe Koha will do that.”

    She continues; “The rave reviews from Lucinda Walker and Stephanie Chase of the Green Mountain Consortium and ByWater's willingness to work with a small public library with limited means were the two reasons why we chose ByWater Solutions.”

    Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater stated “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Andrea and her staff at Richards Free Library. It is exciting to see another New Hampshire library take the open source route and we hope to see this trend continue!”

    About Richards Free Library:

    Richards Free Library, of Newport, NH. serves a population of over 7,000 residents and maintains a collection of over 40,000 titles. The library in its role as a place to find up to date information utilizes books, microfilm, periodicals, historical archives, and the internet. They are also a member of the Green Mountain Library Consortium. For more information about the Richards Free Library, please visit www.newport.lib.nh.us

    About Koha:

    Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

    Koha’s OPAC, circ, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies--XHTML, CSS and Javascript--making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit www.koha-community.org

    About ByWater Solutions
    :
    With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com

  • scissors
    June 2nd, 2010LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    Kelley Armstrong, the bestselling author of the nine novels of the Women of the Otherworld series, is scheduled to do a reading to benefit World Literacy of Canada.

    On Wed. June 9th, at the UrbanSpace Gallery at 401 Richmond Street in downtown Toronto, Kelley will read to support literacy and community development projects in India and Canada. She will be reading from her latest release, Tales of the Otherworld. Tickets may be purchased through the World Literacy of Canada website.

    World Literacy Canada (WLC) is a modest, grassroots non-profit organization that uses literacy to fight poverty and advance the cause of social justice, especially for women and children. We support and deliver a range of community-based programs in South Asia and Canada that emphasize literacy skills and non-formal education for women and children.

  • scissors
    June 2nd, 2010LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    Technology Services Now Include Integrated Mobile and Messaging Solutions for Libraries to Add More Library Services to Mobile Devices, Increase Work Efficiencies and Improve Patron Relationship Management Functions.

    San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 1, 2010 -- Mosio, the leader in text messaging (SMS) solutions for libraries, today announced that over 500 academic and public libraries in the U.S. now use its text message reference solution, Text a Librarian, to service patrons and students.

    Mosio also announced an expansion of its mobile offerings for libraries to more than text messaging reference. The new services will assist libraries in “mobilizing”, including SMS text message alerts/notices/marketing, integration with ILS and catalog systems, mobile web pages, and email/chat functions with a mobile focus.

    “The success of Mosio’s Text a Librarian has come from a client services team fanatical about customer support and a development team that truly listens to the needs of librarians” said Jay Sachdev, Mosio’s CTO and Cofounder. “Our decision to offer these additional mobile and text messaging services was born from our experience in providing mobile solutions for clients outside of the library industry, in conjunction with library customers seeing the bigger potential of mobile technologies and asking about other ways we could help them engage patrons.”

    The company has started developing solutions with libraries on various projects, including OPAC and ILS systems integration, text message alerts for marketing or notices and seamless convergence with existing chat or instant messaging software.

    Mosio’s focus in designing mobile solutions is in improving communications, engagement and relationships between companies, organizations and their customers and employees. As a mobile carrier-approved technology, the company is able to augment the SMS technologies it has built with Text a Librarian, enabling libraries to utilize text messaging and the mobile web in further efforts to maintain great patron relationships.

    “Customer service, awareness and accessibility will always be essential in keeping libraries relevant in their communities” said Noel Chandler, Mosio CEO and Cofounder. “These additional services are one step further towards our goals for greater functionality in what we call ‘Patron Relationship Management’, using next generation mobile and messaging technologies to strengthen patron and library communications.”

    Text messaging is the most widely used form of mobile communication in the world. Americans are now texting more than twice as much as they are talking on their cell phones. Organizations interested in taking advantage of SMS technologies need to determine which mobile solutions best serve their audience, resources and budget. Services utilizing text messaging and mobile web technologies will enable libraries to provide easier accessibility and discovery for more patrons on-the-go. Mosio’s add-on mobile solutions for libraries are created on a case-by-base basis depending on specific library needs.

    About Mosio’s Text a Librarian
    Text a Librarian is a mobile reference service technology developed specifically for libraries. Built on Mosio’s award-winning mobile questions and answers platform, Text a Librarian enables libraries to reach more patrons on the go through their mobile phones. For more information regarding Text a Librarian, please visit http://www.textalibrarian.com

    About Mosio
    Mosio is a mobile technologies agency providing messaging and mobile web solutions for businesses and organizations to connect with customers, employees and partners who are on-the-go. Mosio provides interactive mobile strategy and development services utilizing text messaging and mobile web applications to amplify marketing programs, increase business efficiencies and drive information engagement. http://www.mosio.com