CONTACT:

Sacha Turpin
Director of Member Communications
800.999.8558, ext. 4829
sacha.turpin@lyrasis.org

LYRASIS Technology Services Program Rolls Out New Open Source Software Family of Services

Atlanta, GA, — June 1, 2011 — LYRASIS, the nation’s largest regional, non-profit membership organization for libraries, is pleased to announce that its new technology services program is now available to assist members and the broader library community with technology decisions and implementation.

LYRASIS Technology Services (LTS) is the latest addition to the extensive programs offered by the non-profit organization supporting librarians and information professionals. In keeping with the LYRASIS mission of “Collaboration, Creative Solutions and Leadership for Libraries”, LTS provides the support necessary for library staff to effectively plan, adopt and gain knowledge about a host of technology solutions, including the use of open source software and systems. LYRASIS Technology Services is leveraging staff and member library experience with a number of open source software options, including Evergreen, Drupal and DSpace.

“We have been developing this new suite of services for a number of months, culminating with a review by our seven-member advisory panel last month. We are excited about the opportunity to keep our members abreast of updates and developments in technology and work with them to ascertain and implement the system and software program options most appropriate for their institutions and users,” stated Peter Murray, Assistant Director of Technology Services Development.

LYRASIS Technology Services offers assistance in three primary areas:

• Decision-support services,
• Consulting, training and education services for general open source software principles and specific products, and
• Hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) implementation and support.

Within these areas, LTS is focused on:

• Improving the understanding and knowledge of open source systems and other software options,
• Helping libraries assess technology needs,
• Evaluating open source and other software products,
• Reviewing readiness and capacity for supporting open source and other software systems, and
• Planning for implementation and migration from legacy systems.

Through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, LYRASIS will

• Provide cloud-based library technology,
• Offer support for:
• Evergreen,
• D-Space, and
• Drupal, and
• Leverage existing, proven open source software that can evolve to support a full range of services for integrated library systems (ILS), including:
• Collaborative storage
• Management
• The preservation of digital collections, and
• Web site content management, including templates for common library pages.

“Helping our library members add value without sacrificing their budgets is our primary objective. LTS makes it possible for LYRASIS members to reap the benefits of cutting-edge systems without undertaking the financial burden of managing these systems,” added Tim Daniels, Manager, LYRASIS Technology Services.

For more information on how LYRASIS Technology Services can assist with your technology needs, please contact Tim Daniels.

About LYRASIS
Created in April 2009 by the merger of PALINET and SOLINET and joined shortly thereafter by NELINET, LYRASIS is the nation's largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals - providing opportunities for networking and collaboration, offering innovative solutions, and significant cost savings through group purchasing for products and services. For more information, please visit www.lyrasis.org.

Please do not reply to this email. If you need further assistance, please contact LYRASIS Member Support.

Save NYC Libraries Postcard Campaign and Urban Librarians Unite
www.savenyclibraries.org
savenyclibraries@gmail.com

For Immediate Release
May 18, 2010

Media Contacts: Christian Zabriskie 941.445.7114 and Lauren Comito 646.662.6209

Save NYC Libraries Postcard Campaign and Urban Librarians Unite Announce
A Flash Mob Library Hug

June 4, 2011
2:00pm

New York, New York -- May 2011 -- Save NYC Libraries Campaign and Urban Librarians Unite announce a massive library hug in support of New York City's public libraries. It will happen at 2:00 PM June 4, 2011, and will encircle the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 42 Street and 5th Avenue, New York, New York, USA. www.savenyclibraries.org

The Library Hug will bring together library supporters and staff to show love for the library and all that it does for our community. Supporters will surround this most historic and symbolic of libraries to show support for the our cultural repositories. This is also to symbolically protect the library from the devastating budget cuts that New York City’s Libraries are facing.

Mayor Bloomberg's Executive Budget for FY'11 calls for a reduction in funding of $25.5 million for Queens Library, $25.2 million for Brooklyn Public Library, and $40 million for New York Public Library. This represents a cumulative 40% decrease in funding since 2008. If enacted, the budget cuts will result in the closing of at least 28 libraries, almost 1500 library staff being laid off. Almost all libraries will be closed on the weekend with many neighborhood libraries being open 2-3 days a week. Unless the City Council votes to restore funding, libraries' ability to provide New Yorkers with job search help, afterschool tutoring, computer access and instruction, English classes, and research assistance will be devastated.

Last year the Save NYC Libraries’ Read-In had approximately 1200 attendees over the course of the 24 hours and received extensive coverage in print, radio, and television media. This year’s Library Hug is part of an aggressive activism campaign for libraries in the city which will culminate in a a 24 Hour Read-In on June 11th and 12th..

For more information on the Hug, please contact savenyclibraries@gmail.com
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DUBLIN, Ohio, May 31, 2011—WorldCat Local, the OCLC discovery service that offers users integrated access to more than 800 million items in libraries around the world, has added more databases and collections from leading publishers and other information providers to make content more accessible to library users through the Web.

WorldCat Local offers access to books, journals and databases from a variety of international publishers and information providers; the digital collections of groups like HathiTrust, OAIster and Google Books; open access materials; and the collective resources of libraries worldwide through WorldCat.

With these latest additions, libraries using WorldCat Local can now offer users access to 1,400 databases and collections, and more than 500 million articles.

This month, OCLC added databases and collections to the WorldCat Local central index, including:

• CrossRef, which provides bibliographic data and persistent links through Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for more than 35 million journal articles and other scholarly content.
• BioOne, which provides access to critical, peer-reviewed research in the biological, ecological and environmental sciences.
• Emerald Group Publishing, a leading scholarly publisher of journals and books in business and management with a strong and growing presence in disciplines including LIS, social sciences, engineering, linguistics and audiology.
• SA ePublications is the most comprehensive, searchable collection of full-text electronic South African and Southern African journals in the world, provided by Sabinet.
• BioMed Central, an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher that has pioneered the open access publishing model and includes a portfolio of 215 journals.
• InfoSci-Books, a fully searchable database providing access to chapters from every book and reference work IGI Global has published since the year 2000, and InfoSci-Journals, a rapidly expanding full-text collection of peer-reviewed journals that focus on specialized topics in over 200 disciplines relating to technology, business, medicine and engineering.
• LexisNexis Collection 2, LexisNexis Collection 3 and LexisNexis Collection 4, from Cassidy Cataloguing, which provides contract cataloguing to the law community.

OCLC added remote access to databases and collections to WorldCat Local from:
• LegalTrac, a comprehensive collection of major legal publications from Gale.

OCLC continues to negotiate access to critical library content on behalf of the cooperative to ensure access to libraries’ most popular resources. To view a full list of 1,400 databases and collections available through WorldCat Local, visit the website.

For more information, visit the WorldCat Local website.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.