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    May 17th, 2011LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    May 17th, 2011
    CONTACT:
    Nathan Curulla
    (888) 900-8944
    sales@bywatersolutions.com

    The San Benito County Free Library Goes Live on Koha with ByWater Solutions

    ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that the San Benito County Free Library of Hollister, CA. is now live on their official Koha integrated library system.

    The San Benito County Free Library and the Open Source-Open Libraries Consortium have partnered with ByWater Solutions for their Koha implementation.

    The San Benito Country Free Library's Koha installation was successfully implemented and the library has partnered with ByWater Solutions for ongoing support and hosting services.

    Lori Ayre of the Open Source Open Libraries Consortium commented on San Benito's recent migration to Koha with ByWater Solutions:

    "At some libraries, the cost of migration makes it impossible to move to a new system even when that new system will save them a lot of money. This was the case for San Benito; But ByWater has bent over backwards to make it possible for San Benito to migrate to Koha and I'm delighted that they'll be saving almost $20,000 per year as result of this move."

    Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater added: "We constantly strive to offer our high levels of support to our customers at a lower cost. By streamlining our internal business processes and focusing our internal growth on bringing on multi talented support personnel we are able to achieve that goal."

    About San Benito Free Library:
    San Benito County Free Library provides more than 90,856 books, magazines, newspapers, DVD/VHS videos (in English, Japanese, and Spanish), compact discs, newsletters, college catalogs, CD-ROM computer programs, encyclopedias, and information brochures available for the public.

    About Open Source-Open Libraries:
    Open Source – Open Libraries is a consortia of libraries, library systems, and other organizations committed to pursuing Open Source Software alternatives for libraries. The primary focus of the project is on Open Source Library Systems as potential replacements for commercial, proprietary integrated library systems (ILS). The goal is to empower libraries and library consortia by encouraging participation and collaboration in software products generally, and encouraging them to consider an Open Source Library System such as Koha or Evergreen. Just as libraries provide opportunities for people to empower themselves, Open Source Software provides an opportunity for libraries to empower themselves by asserting more control over the software tools used to run their libraries. The project is funded by member contributions combined with support from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. For more information please visit: http://opensource.califa.org/

    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, circulation, 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: http://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: http://www.bywatersolutions.com

  • scissors
    May 17th, 2011LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    Interviews with the “Green Giants” of Our Time to be Available in GREENR

    Farmington Hills, Mich., May 16, 2011 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and TheGreenInterview.com, a Canadian subscription website offering unparalleled information on environmental subjects, today announced an agreement to enhance the content of GREENR, Gale’s electronic resource offering authoritative reference content in the area of sustainable development, the environment, energy and natural resources.

    TheGreenInterview.com will be providing Gale with video interviews covering a range of issues connected to our planet, humans on Earth, damage to our ecosystem, alternative development ideas, sustainability and more. Transcripts and audio (MP3) files of the video content and biographies of the interviewees in each video segment will also be available. Additional Green Interview content will be added to GREENR in the future, as it is produced. The agreement also licenses to Gale two blogs from TheGreenInterview.com that discuss current and past environmental topics and developments.

    “As a leading resource in a highly dynamic field, GREENR is the place-of-record for innovative global thinking about the environment,” said Jim Draper, vice president and publisher, Gale. “We are excited to bring this powerful and privileged content from our Canadian colleagues at TheGreenInterview.com to our GREENR customers.”

    TheGreenInterview.com, hosted by noted author, speaker and educator Silver Donald Cameron, provides an e-newsletter and video series that captures, in interview form, the ideas of the world’s most prominent advocates of sustainability and environmental protection. The shows are produced and directed by Chris Beckett, and released in association with Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

    “We’re delighted by this new relationship with Gale, who provides such great resources to the libraries of the world,” said Silver Donald Cameron, host and executive producer of TheGreenInterview.com. “Working with Gale puts our material into thousands of libraries that we could never reach on our own –and multiplies the impact of these great thinkers and activists immeasurably.”

    Launched in April 2010, TheGreenInterview.com seeks out leaders, the “green giants” of our time, for intense, searching conversations (running an hour or more), and makes those interviews available to its subscribing customers via its website. The goal of TheGreenInterview.com is to amass an unparalleled library of extended video and audio interviews with the world's environmental leaders. A few of the notable interviews currently available or in production include:
    • James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory, which holds that the Earth behaves like a single living organism. Lovelock's importance to science has been compared to that of Darwin.
    • Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the most powerful organization in the world in defense of whales, seals and sea life, and the hero of the hit TV series Whale Wars.
    • Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist, philosopher, environmental activist, eco-feminist, and author of numerous books on subjects like Biopiracy and Earth Democracy.
    • Dr. William Rees, who devised the famous “Ecological Footprint,” which measures the proportion of the Earth's resources any group of people is using – a single person, a village or region, or the entire human race.
    • The Honorable Jigme Yoser Thinley, the first democratically-elected Prime Minister of Bhutan, who is dedicated to improving Bhutan's Gross National Happiness as opposed to its Gross National Product.
    • Jane Goodall, the scientist whose studies with chimpanzees redefined the nature of human beings, and whose Jane Goodall Institute programs pursue habitat restoration and involve youth in ecological action.

    The complete list can be found online at http://www.thegreeninterview.com/interviews. TheGreenInterview.com content will be added to GREENR at no additional cost to current customers.

    For more information on this agreement, please visit the Gale booth (#7) at the Atlantic Provinces Library Association meeting taking place May 16-18 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. For more information or to set up a trial of GREENR, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com. For further information about The Green Interview, contact Silver Donald Cameron at sdc@thegreeninterview.com or phone (902) 446-5577.

    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.

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