Farmington Hills, Mich., June 7, 2011 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, and Library Journal magazine today announced that King County Library System in Issaquah, Washington has been named the 2011 Library of the Year. Each year this prestigious recognition goes to the public library in the United States that most profoundly demonstrates service to community, creativity, leadership and innovation in developing specific community programs, particularly programs that can be emulated by others. In addition to a cash award of $10,000, King County Library System (KCLS) will be featured as the cover story for the June 15, 2011, issue of Library Journal.

“King County Library System has a lot of fans at Library Journal, with good reason. We’ve watched KCLS lead the way for years in innovative service to their community,” said Francine Fialkoff, editor-in-chief, Library Journal. “This year, all their efforts aligned—from new buildings to new services to record-breaking usage—and we’re thrilled to name them Library of the Year.”

The King County Library System was founded in 1942 to serve rural areas and small towns. Now, nearly 70 years later, KCLS is one of the busiest libraries in the U.S., serving 1.3 million county residents with its 46 branches and 2,131 square miles of service area. Patrons have visited the library 10.2 million times in the last year, and KCLS’s unique marketing efforts and innovative programs have helped get them in the door. Some examples:
• “Take Time to READ” program encouraged community members to take time to read for fun, providing “Quick Read” books and chairs in the unlikeliest places, but often the busiest, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and the mall
• Focusing on the number one use of American public libraries – job and career assistance – KCLS implemented the “Look to Your Library” project, offering 46 workshops on job searching, resume writing and networking
• Bringing library resources direct-to-patrons with its “Library2Go” and “Digital Discovery Zone” vans, housing tools for creating computer graphics, games and animations for citizens of all ages

Over the last year, KCLS grossed more than 30 million website visits, driving traffic by:
• Redesigning its Web pages and expanding its digital downloads collection with new eBook titles
• Producing eReader information cards to answer questions about device compatibility and download procedures, and preparing “Get Started” videos and Facebook ads
• Revamping its book review blog “Book Talk” into a fantastic collection of reading recommendations from more than 60 librarians
• Creating a “Tell Me a Story Wiki” featuring filmed finger plays, songs, rhymes and links to materials, encouraging adults to share early literacy activities with children
• Creating Web pages in Spanish that offer access to materials, programs and services, ensuring a key service group can take advantage of the library’s many services

“Supporting libraries is always paramount to our daily work at Gale, and the contributions being made by King County Library System deserve our greatest support and recognition,” said Frank Menchaca, executive vice president and publisher, Gale. “Through its tailored career help programs, community reading programs and social media outreach, KCLS has reached new and underserved groups within the community while continuing to support and strengthen services its patrons have always relied on.”

“We’re delighted to receive this recognition from Gale and Library Journal,” said Bill Ptacek, director, King County Library System. “The Library of the Year Award is an honor for the entire community: for our patrons, who made their libraries the busiest in the nation; for the voters who made it possible through their continued support; and for our hard-working staff who continuously create innovative programs and services that best meet the needs of the communities we serve.”

Special mentions for Library of the Year were also given to Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY; San Diego County Library, San Diego, CA and Jefferson County Public Library, Lakewood, CO in recognition of their service philosophy and dedication to community.

The 2011 Library of the Year Award will be presented formally at a gala reception at the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans on June 26, 2011.

For more information, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com or Julie Brand at jbrand@kcls.org.

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.

About Library Journal
Library Journal is the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field. Considered to be the “bible” of the library world, Library Journal is read by over 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries. It is the single-most comprehensive publication for librarians, with groundbreaking features and analytical news reports covering technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns. Its hefty review sections evaluate nearly 7000 books annually, along with hundreds of audiobooks, videos, databases, web sites, and systems that libraries buy. For more information, visit www.libraryjournal.com. Library Journal is a publication of Media Source Inc., which also owns School Library Journal, Horn Book, and Junior Library Guild.

About King County Library System
KCLS is a large system: 46 libraries serving more than 1.3 million residents and 18 school districts over a 2,131 square mile area of cities, towns, farms, and forests. Administrative efficiencies have a broad impact, and patrons expect their libraries to provide quality service, comfortable and welcoming facilities, responsible environmental practices, and responsible stewardship of public assets. In 2010, KCLS libraries were busier than ever. Patrons checked out nearly 22.4 million items, a 5% increase over the 2009 record. Staff issued more than 100,000 new library cards. Web traffic reached 31 million visits; program attendance hit 77,000, and 10.2 million visitors came through the libraries’ doors.

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~ Single Search Entry, Speed and Ability to Search a Wide-Ranging Collection are Key Features in UNC Charlotte’s Decision to Choose EBSCO Discovery Service™~

IPSWICH, Mass. — June 7, 2011 — University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) has selected EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) as its discovery solution. UNC Charlotte was looking to enhance its library offerings and realized that the benefits of a discovery service would far exceed its current federated search. By implementing EBSCO Discovery Service into its library, UNC Charlotte has been able to deliver exactly what users were looking for: a robust pre-indexed system with a single search, speed and a service that exposed users to the entire array of the library’s collection.

EBSCO Discovery Service offers a truly integrated one-stop search experience for all of a library’s journals, magazines, books, special collections and OPAC. UNC Charlotte Assistant University Librarian for Information Technology Michael Winecoff says this type of search experience was exactly what they had in mind for a discovery service. “We were looking for one-stop shopping for journal articles and EDS was the right fit for our library and users. The ease of configuration and the EBSCOhost® familiarity with our users were also contributing factors to our decision to implement EDS.”

Winecoff says they also appreciate the consistent growth of content providers in EDS. He says EBSCO’s efforts to secure these partnerships help the library achieve its goals. “Continuing to work with vendors to integrate their content into EDS will make it even more robust. This will give our users an even better experience and help fulfill our mission to serve the needs of the community.”

UNC Charlotte is also taking advantage of some of the customizability options within EDS to tie the discovery service into the look and feel of the library. EDS offers many customizable options including the ability to change color combinations of the interface, a toolbar that is customizable, the opportunity to name the discovery service experience to the institutions liking and the option to import widgets.

EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box-searching made even more powerful because of the quality of metadata and depth and breadth of coverage.

The Base Index for EBSCO Discovery Service forms the foundation upon which each EDS subscribing library builds out its custom collection. Beginning with the Base Index, each institution extends the reach of EDS by adding appropriate resources including its catalog, institutional repositories, EBSCOhost and other databases, and additional content sources to which it subscribes. It is this combination that allows a single, comprehensive, custom solution for discovering the value of any library’s collection.

The EDS Base Index is comprised of metadata from the world’s foremost information providers. At present, the EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers. Although constantly growing, today the EDS Base Index provides metadata for nearly 50,000 magazines & journals, approximately 825,000 CDs & DVDs, nearly six million books, more than 100 million newspaper articles, more than 400,000 conference proceedings and hundreds of thousands of additional information sources from various source-types.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost®, the world’s premier for-fee online research service, including full-text databases, subject indexes, point-of-care medical reference, historical digital archives, and e-books. The company provides more than 300 databases and nearly 300,000 e-books. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), which provides each institution with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full-text searching of journals and magazines than any other discovery service (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com. EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Bethesda, MD – June 7, 2011 – LibLime is excited to be teaming with several of the other open source ILS vendors to sponsor a reception at ALA 2011. This first ever “Open Source ILS Gathering” will take place on Saturday, the 25th in New Orleans.

LibLime, Equinox, and ByWater provide support and development services for Koha and Evergreen in the North American marketplace. They are joined by other interested parties in sponsoring this reception that promises to offer intriguing discussion, refreshing cocktails, and delicious hor dourves.

If you are interested in learning more about open source ILS applications – whether you use one today or are considering one for tomorrow, this reception is for you.

RSVP details appear below – we look forward to seeing you there. LibLime will also be exhibiting, stop by booth 334.

The Bourbon House
144 Bourbon Street
Saturday, June 25th
8pm-11pm

RSVP to Amy Terlaga at Terlaga@biblio.org
Space is limited.

June 7th 2011
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Trinity County Library System Now Live on Koha with ByWater Solutions

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

Trinity County Library and the Open Source-Open Libraries Consortium have partnered with ByWater Solutions for their Koha implementation. The library system's Koha installation will be moved into the NorthNet union catalog which will be made up of several Northern California libraries who have chosen to move to Koha with support and implementation services provided by ByWater. The Trinity County Library System is made up of three branches.

Oresta Esquibel, County Librarian of the Trinity County Library, commented on their move to Koha and ByWater Solutions:

"The Trinity County Library is a small library system in rural Northern California offering service in a main library and two small branches. As a relative latecomer to automation in 2003, the Trinity County Library has been working on completing the cataloging of its collections for the last eight years. After automating in 2003, I thought we were done but with several very lean budget years and understanding that a brutal financial picture awaited us in the future, migrating to a product with a much lower technical support cost was easier to contemplate."

She continues: "When I heard about the grant opportunity offered to North State libraries through NorthNet, I knew that we would be migrating along with partner libraries to share in an eventual union catalog. I was further encouraged by the functionality offered by Koha and its ability to customize reports. Although I had to reschedule our migration date, everyone was accommodating and helpful: ByWater’s Ruth Bavousett, the lead migration specialist assigned to us, as well as the staff of Plumas and Del Norte County Libraries, our partner libraries, who have been so willing to share information and tips along the way. We migrated to Koha over the weekend of April 15-17, a "migration on steroids" to be sure, but we survived and are fast learning the features of our new system."

About the Trinity County Library:
The Trinity County Library seeks to make a positive impact on all county residents by offering quality resources, programs and exhibits in a variety of formats and by providing services that fill the informational, educational and recreational needs of its residents. To fulfill its mission, the Library employs a knowledgeable, well-trained staff committed to excellent service. For more information please visit: http://www.trinitycounty.org/departments/library/library.htm

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