6/14/2011
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Incarnate Word High School Goes Live on Koha with ByWater Solutions

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that the Incarnate Word High School of San Antonio, TX. is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

The library's Koha installation went live in early June, and ByWater Solutions will be providing ongoing support and hosting services for them.

Michiko Tonegawa, Librarian at the Incarnate Word High School, commented on their move to Koha with ByWater Solutions:

"We are very excited about Koha and the new features it brings to our catalog. The ByWater Solutions team has been most helpful in addressing our needs at each stage of the transition and we look forward to the continued support. Both the migration technical support and the on-site training went smoothly. Ruth and Nicole were thorough and focused on ways to improve our tasks and procedures. We will update our patron records this summer and be ready in August for the new school year. Thank you ByWater!"

Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater stated: "We are thrilled to have the chance to partner with Michiko and the rest of the team at Incarnate Word High. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with them and are happy to help bring more functionality to their library."

The Incarnate Word Library's customized online catalog can be viewed at:
http://catalog.iwhs.bywatersolutions.com/

About The Incarnate Word High School:
In a faith-based preparatory environment, Incarnate Word High School prepares confident young women dedicated to academic excellence, Christian service and social justice. Rooted in the mission of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, IWHS promotes a thorough knowledge of the Catholic faith. Through a faith-based intellectually rigorous curriculum, the school provides opportunities for each student to develop self-discipline and all the dimensions of her person: intellectual, spiritual, moral, social, athletic, and aesthetic. The school encourages young women to be confident and strong citizens of our nation as well as the global community. IWHS nurtures young women who will be sensitive to the mediated character of God's presence with us and to the needs of the poor. The school strives to develop leaders who promote human dignity; are committed to social justice; and, through their spirit of Christian service, represent the healing presence of God in today's world. For more information please visit: http://www.incarnatewordhs.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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Elaine M. Lasda Bergman (SLA Academic Division)

Tel.: 1(518) 442-3695

Email: ebergman@uamail.albany.edu
CONTACT:

Judith M. Pantich (Director of Library Communications, UNC Chapel Hill)

Tel. : 1(919) 962-9301

E-mail: panitch@email.unc.edu
UNC CHAPEL HILL LIBRARY IS PRESENTED WITH INNOVATION AWARD

The Academic Division of the Special Libraries Association is pleased to present the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the 2011 Springshare Innovation in Academic Libraries Award. This award is granted to a library which creates a new program or service which demonstrates an innovative approach to academic librarianship. The Division presented the award during the Academic Library Division Business Meeting at the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA.

Chad Haefele and Emily King, two staff members at the University Library at UNC Chapel Hill, led campus development of an interactive game called “Should Brandon and Nicole Get Engaged?” or ShBANGE. In this “alternate reality game,” actors staged a mock wedding proposal in a high-traffic area on campus. Many students saw this live or watched the YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/user/ShBANGE ) and followed a URL to participate in a learning-based online game. This game included a variety of seventeen puzzles for the students to complete, which helped them learn about a wide variety of topics in their academic curriculum. Additional puzzles were provided to the students using social networking tools and other media.
The Academic Division of the Special Libraries Association found Chapel Hill’s use of alternative gaming, technology, social networking, collaboration and communication to be a worthwhile and successful way to engage students on campus and help them build “information literacy” competencies, such as: locating and analyzing information, understanding different information formats, and using technology to both study the interaction of ideas and to create documents/images and use them in differing contexts. The SLA Academic Division felt that this “reality game” was forward-thinking in terms of creating an interactive format encouraging student participation while teaching the students essential skills for locating, understanding and utilizing information in today’s society.

In recognition for this outstanding achievement, the University Library of UNC Chapel Hill will receive $500, donated by Springshare (http://www.springshare.com/).