Rockville, MD – March 1, 2011. Kelley Noone, an information technology and financial management specialist, has joined global information and asset management leader LAC Group, according to the company’s COO, Rob Corrao.

“With her significant expertise in government contracting and program management, and an outstanding background in financial management, we are confident Ms. Noone will help us surpass our government-sector clients’ expectations. Her ‘can-do’ attitude is right in line with our company culture and essential to our corporate oversight of those clients.”

Ms. Noone brings to LAC Group over 12 years of expertise as a program and project manager working with federal, state, local, and public entities. She has authored numerous award-winning solicitations and demonstrated operational and financial expertise in both nonprofit and corporate arenas. Noone received her MBA in Accounting from the John Sperling School of Business, University of Phoenix, and earned her BA from the University of Maryland, College Park.

“I am delighted to be joining the LAC Group team,” said the new program manager, who will be based in LAC Group’s Rockville, Maryland office. “LAC Group’s commitment to meeting and exceeding expectations for its clients is what attracted me to the organization. I know that here I’ll be encouraged to flex my leadership skills and achieve top-flight results for my program partners.”

Noted LAC Group CEO Deb Schwarz, “Kelley is just the latest example of the high caliber of skills and personal integrity we look for in our hires. We know she will be an invaluable resource for our clients.”

LAC Group is a leading global provider of library, legal, information/research staffing, consulting, project and asset management services, with clients in government/nonprofit, the Fortune 500, law, academia, biotechnology, and more. For additional information, visit www.lac-group.com or contact Erin Beekhuis at 323.302.9438 / erin@lac-group.com.

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SC LENDS Continues to Grow on Evergreen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Norcross, GA – March 1, 2011
SC LENDS, the South Carolina library resource sharing network powered by the open source integrated library system Evergreen, continues its rapid growth with the addition of four library systems. The Allendale-Hampton-Jasper Regional Library System, Colleton County Memorial Library, Kershaw County Library, and Williamsburg County Library are now live as part of the consortium.
Equinox provides Evergreen hosting and technical support for the entire SC LENDS consortium and performed the data migration for the implementation of the four new members of the consortium.
Rogan Hamby, Systems Librarian/ Program Manager for SCLENDS, says, "Evergreen has great benefits for libraries in South Carolina and we're excited about the new libraries that have joined SCLENDS and the services we continue to build. Equinox has been a wonderful partner during these new migrations and we look forward to continuing to work with their talented staff."

Brad LaJeunesse, CEO of Equinox Software, says, “We are really looking forward to working with the new libraries that have joined the SC LENDS consortium. Patrons and staff of the initial libraries have responded positively and really enjoy the benefits of a combined catalog.”

About Evergreen
Evergreen is a robust, open-source integrated library system best known for its unique ability to meet the needs of very large, high-transaction, multi-site consortia. However, it has also proven equally successful scaled down for even the smallest libraries.
Since its debut in September 2006, the software has sustained the 280-plus libraries of the Georgia PINES consortium. Evergreen has earned acclaim and praise from users worldwide, including a Technology Collaboration Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Evergreen now supports nearly 800 libraries of every type: public, academic, special, and school media centers. Evergreen’s rapidly expanding community includes libraries across 4 countries including 18 U.S. states and 8 Canadian provinces.
For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, see http://evergreen-ils.org.

About Equinox Software, Inc.
Founded by the original Evergreen designers and developers, Equinox Software is a growing team of skilled professionals who provide services for Evergreen and Koha. These services include software development, consulting, legacy data migration, 24x7 technical support, and system hosting. Equinox also engages and supports a rapidly expanding open source community.

For more information on Equinox Software, please visit http://www.esilibrary.com.

Press contact: Corinne Hall, corinne@esilibrary.com, 770-709-5571
Evergreen and Koha are open source software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL. Evergreen and the Evergreen logo are trademarks of the Georgia Public Library Service.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 28, 2011

WHATCOM -- Northwest Indian College’s library at the Lummi Campus, located near Bellingham, Washington, has gone live with Evergreen library software as their next generation Integrated Library System (ILS). Equinox Software oversaw the migration of data from the College’s previous system, provided staff training, and will continue to provide technical support.
“Evergreen provides great deal more functionality than our previous ILS, so much so that we are continuing to learn what it can do for us, which is a lot of fun,” said Lummi library director Valerie McBeth. “The people at Equinox have been friendly and responsive in accomplishing the migration, and we look forward to their continued support as we use our new system.”
Founded in 1983, Northwest Indian College is the only accredited tribal college in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. NWIC has full-service extended campuses at four Washington reservations (Tulalip, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Swinomish and Muckleshoot) and one in Idaho (Nez Perce). The College also offers courses through distance learning modalities at each of the 25 other Washington tribes and throughout the United States. During the 2008-09 academic year, NWIC served 1,254 students from more than 100 tribes. While the university’s focus remains on recruiting Native American Students, it maintains an open-door admissions policy. Lummi Library supports the university through research, informational and recreational resources. For more information on Northwest Indian College, visit www.nwic.edu.

CEO of Equinox Software Brad LaJeunesse said, “The faculty, staff and students that rely on Lummi Library have embraced the move to Evergreen with enthusiasm. We look forward to continuing our work with them and know they will be a great addition to the Evergreen community.”

About Evergreen
Evergreen is a robust, open-source integrated library system best known for its unique ability to meet the needs of large, high-transaction, multi-site consortia. It has also proven equally successful scaled down for even the smallest libraries.
Since its debut in September 2006, the software has sustained the 280-plus libraries of the Georgia PINES consortium. Evergreen has earned acclaim and praise from users worldwide, including a Technology Collaboration Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Evergreen now supports more than 700 libraries of every type - public, academic, special and school media centers. Evergreen’s rapidly expanding community includes libraries across four countries, including 18 U.S. states and eight Canadian provinces.
For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, visit http://evergreen-ils.org.

About Equinox Software, Inc.
Founded by the original Evergreen designers and developers, Equinox Software is a growing team of skilled professionals who provide services for Evergreen and Koha. These services include software development, consulting, legacy data migration, 24x7 technical support, and system hosting. Equinox also engages and supports a rapidly expanding open source community.

For more information on Equinox Software, please visit http://www.esilibrary.com.

Press contact: Corinne Hall, corinne@esilibrary.com, 770-709-5571
Evergreen and Koha are open-source software, freely licensed under the GNU General Public License. Evergreen and the Evergreen logo are trademarks of the Georgia Public Library Service.

Echoes Satisfaction Data for College Student Users

Farmington Hills, Mich., Feb. 28, 2011 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning, today announced results of independent customer satisfaction research and analysis revealing that high school students are more satisfied with the Gale In Context platform, which was designed based on user input and an in-depth study of student research processes.

“We began working with ForeSee Results to identify what drives end-user satisfaction so we could prioritize product improvements for the greatest impact. This feedback is integral to achieving our ultimate goal – creating products that users like and will use time and again,” said Frank Menchaca, executive vice president and publisher, Gale. “We are pleased to see that, as with previously announced college student satisfaction rates, this latest round of data shows high school students are more satisfied now with the transition to our In Context products.”

Previously known as Gale Resource Centers, the Gale In Context product line was completely transformed to combine web-like functionality and media rich features with high-quality information. ForeSee Results, Inc., an independent, international online customer satisfaction firm, evaluated the satisfaction of student users of both Gale Resource Centers and Gale In Context products. ForeSee Results satisfaction scores are based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the leading national indicator of customer satisfaction with goods and services in the U.S. economy, and a patented scientific approach to customer satisfaction measurement. ForeSee Results applies the ACSI methodology to the web to measure key elements of online satisfaction (site performance, navigation, etc.), and analyzes how these elements impact overall user satisfaction and future behavior.

Satisfaction scores are reported on a 0-100 scale with a score of 70 reflecting good satisfaction. ForeSee survey results show that high school student satisfaction with Gale In Context websites has increased to 71, four points higher than the satisfaction score for Gale Resource Centers (Fig.1) and shows a trend in the right direction.

Changes in satisfaction over time are also very meaningful. A sustained change of 2-3 points (up or down) is statistically significant and changes greater than 5 points are considered major events. ForeSee Results analysis reveals that high school students’ likelihood to recommend In Context products versus Resource Centers has increased by three points, a significant increase (Fig.1)

In addition, the results show that student satisfaction in all measured categories – content, look and feel, navigation, search, site performance, likelihood to return and likelihood to use as a primary resource – has increased with the updates made in the transformation to the In Context platform:
• Content – 74 (+1 point)
• Look & Feel – 71 (+6 points)
• Navigation – 70 (+2 points)
• Search – 69 (+2 points)
• Site Performance – 75 (+1 point)
• Likelihood to Return – 77 (+1 point)
• Likelihood to use as Primary Resource – 71 (+3 points)

The Gale In Context line of products includes:
• Biography in Context
• Canada in Context
• Opposing Viewpoints in Context
• Student Resources in Context
• Science in Context
• U.S. History in Context
• World History in Context

For more information or to set up a trial of Gale In Context products, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com.

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

Figure 1

ForeSee Survey results for the same time period (August 1, 2009 to February 21, 2010 vs. August 1, 2010 to February 21, 2011)

High School Student
Resource Centers In Context
Content 73 74
Look and Feel 65 71
Navigation 68 70
Search 67 69
Site Performance 74 75
Satisfaction 67 71
Likelihood to Return 76 77
Primary Resource 68 71
Recommend 66 69

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