New System Improves Public Access at Mississippi Department of Archives and History

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, located in Jackson, Miss., went live in August with its installation of the Koha integrated library system in the state’s archives and historical library. ByWater Solutions will provide ongoing support for MDAH.


“MDAH is excited about our move to the Koha system,” said Julia Marks Young director of the Archives and Records Services Division. “We have already noticed that internet search engines are bringing up results from our catalog, which in turn increases public access and visibility of our collections.”

The Archives and Records Services Division collects, preserves, and provides access to the archival resources of the state of Mississippi. These resources span the days of prehistory and Native Americans to the Civil War, the Civil Rights era, and beyond. Holdings include more than 42,682 GB of electronic records, 70,000 cubic feet of state records and manuscript collections, 250,000 images, 72,000 published items, and 200 newspaper titles.

Founded in 1902, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History is the second-oldest state department of archives and history in the United States. The department collects, preserves, and provides access to the archival resources of the state, administers museums and historic sites across Mississippi, and oversees statewide programs for historic preservation, state and local government records management, and publications. The department is headquartered in the state-of-the-art William F. Winter Archives and History Building, located on the corner of North and Amite Streets in downtown Jackson. For more information visit www.mdah.state.ms.us.

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

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

DUBLIN, Ohio, August 26, 2011—Today marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of WorldCat, the world’s most comprehensive database of resources held in libraries around the globe.

On August 26, 1971, the OCLC Online Union Catalog and Shared Cataloging system (now known as WorldCat) began operation. That first day, from a single terminal, catalogers at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, cataloged 133 books online. Today, WorldCat comprises more than 240 million records representing more than 1.7 billion items in OCLC member libraries worldwide.

“We congratulate the thousands of librarians and catalogers around the world who have helped to build WorldCat over the past 40 years keystroke by keystroke, record by record,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. “We who work at OCLC are proud to have been a part of this remarkable story, and I want to thank our member institutions and employees for the years of dedicated effort that helped build this unique resource. Fred Kilgour’s vision – improving access to information through library cooperation -- is every bit as vital today as it was in 1971. This anniversary is an important milestone in a shared journey that, I believe, will continue for many decades to come.”

WorldCat is a database of bibliographic information built continuously by OCLC libraries around the world. Each record in the WorldCat database contains a bibliographic description of a single item or work and a list of institutions that hold the item. The institutions share these records, using them to create local catalogs, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work. Libraries contribute records for items not found in WorldCat using OCLC shared cataloging systems.

“In retrospect, I have to say that in those early days, I don’t think we really understood the enormity of the system that we were embarking upon, much less did we consider what the future possibilities might be,” said Lynne Lysiak, who had just started her career at Ohio University Libraries when WorldCat first went online, in a 2009 interview. “As OCLC forges ahead with WorldCat Local and cloud-computing developments, they are embarking on a new era and suite of services for libraries and their users. It’s an exciting time.”

“OCLC cataloging and resource sharing services and our library management systems continue to help libraries improve their productivity, save money and improve access to their collections,” said Mr. Jordan. “Against a backdrop of continuous technological change, WorldCat and the OCLC cooperative have continued to grow.”

Since 1971, 240 million records have been added to WorldCat, spanning more than 5,000 years of recorded knowledge, from about 3400 B.C. to the present. This unique collection of information encompasses records in a variety of formats—books, e-books, DVDs, digital resources, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials and computer files. Like the knowledge it describes, WorldCat grows steadily. Every second, library members add seven records to WorldCat.

Once records have been added to WorldCat, they are discoverable on the Web through popular search and partner sites, and through WorldCat.org.

Records entered into WorldCat since 1971 have been continuously migrated, reformatted and updated to conform to newly issued cataloging standards. They have been touched and enhanced hundreds of times by librarians around the world and by OCLC staff and automated systems.

The first OCLC cathode ray tube terminal was the Irascope Model LTE, which was manufactured by Spiras Systems. OCLC deployed 68 LTES, one of which is now on permanent display in the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and another in a new OCLC Museum dedicated today in Dublin, Ohio. The LTE was connected to OCLC via a dedicated, leased telephone line from AT&T; message traffic moved at the rate of 2400 baud (2,400 symbols per second).

People can now use their mobile phones to access WorldCat, where 4G wireless downloads are 2,500 times faster than the original OCLC network. Wired networks are now 416,000 times faster.

Find more about WorldCat on the OCLC website, and watch WorldCat grow as libraries around the world contribute to the database.

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Norcross, GA —August 25, 2011

Ducks Unlimited Canada has gone live with the open source integrated library system Koha. Equinox Software, Inc. provided services to migrate the library's data from their previous system and provides on-going hosting and support services for the new Koha-powered catalog which can be viewed at http://ducks.kohacatalog.com/.
Founded in 1938, Ducks Unlimited Canada is a private not-for-profit organization dedicated to wetland conservation and environmental research. DUC is active in every province and territory and is considered Canada’s most trusted and respected conservation organization.
Brad LaJeunesse, President of Equinox, commented, "Koha has proven itself to be flexible and quick-to-implement for libraries of many types, but in particular it has shown itself to be a very good fit for the special requirements of the Ducks Unlimited Canada."
Ian Glass, Librarian for Ducks Unlimited Canada, stated “I have been impressed with ease of the transition from our previous ILS, to Koha. The migration team that I worked with was very responsive to my library’s needs and concerns and has been a pleasure to work with. I look forward to working with the Equinox team in the future."

About Koha
Created in 1999 by Katipo Communications for the Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand, Koha is the first open source Integrated Library System to be used worldwide. The software is a full-featured ILS with a dual-database design (search engine and RDBMS) built to be compliant with library standards. Koha’s OPAC, staff, and self-checkout interfaces are all web applications. Distributed under the General Public License (GPL), libraries are free to use and install Koha themselves or to purchase support and development service.
For more information on Koha, please visit http://koha-community.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

~ Partnership with Oxford University Press Provides More Than 50,000 Music Articles and Biographies to EBSCO Discovery Service™ Users ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — September 25, 2011 — A recent agreement between EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) and Oxford University Press, Inc. (OUP) allows Grove Music Online to be searchable via EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS). Grove Music Online from OUP is one of the leading online resources for music research. This latest addition further expands the vast collection of music content available via EDS.

Covering all aspects of music, Grove Music Online offers more than 50,000 subject articles and biographies contributed by over 6,000 scholars from around the world. Grove Music Online also includes more than 500 audible music examples, annual contemporary composers update, composer work lists and timelines as well as topical guides to be used as study tools for teachers and students.

Grove Music Online adds to the growing collection of music resources available via EDS. Additional music resources available to mutual customers include Naxos Music Library, The Music Index, RILM, RIPM, RISM, and Index to Printed Music.

Oxford University Press in Oxford, England (OUP UK), and is the oldest and largest continuously operating university press in the world. EBSCO has worked with OUP to also make other resources available in EDS including: Oxford Scholarship Online, Handbooks Online and Reference Online.

OUP is part of a growing list of publishers and other content partners that are taking part in EDS to bring more visibility to their content. Partners include the world’s largest scholarly journal & book publishers including Elsevier, Wiley Blackwell, Springer Science & Business Media, Taylor & Francis Informa, Sage Publications, and thousands of others. Partners also include content providers, such as LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters (Web of Science), JSTOR, ARTstor, Credo Reference, World Book, ABC-CLIO, and many others.

The EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers (and growing) in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers, representing far more content providers and publishers than any other discovery service.

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.

EBSCO Discovery Service is quickly becoming the discovery selection for many libraries (www.ebscohost.com/discovery/eds-news), and an obvious partner for content providers. Because the service builds on the foundation provided by the EBSCOhost® platform, libraries gain a full user experience for discovering their collections/OPAC—which is not typical in the discovery space. Further still, in the many universities and other libraries where EBSCOhost is the most-used platform for premium research, users are not asked to change their pathways or habits for searching. There’s simply more to discover on the familiar EBSCOhost platform, and the same can be said for library administrators who can leverage their previous work with EBSCOadmin™.

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 eBooks. The company provides more than 350 databases and nearly 300,000 eBooks. 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 Director
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Bethesda, MD – August 24, 2011 – Upon completing a thorough RFP process, Huntsville Public Library, Ontario, Canada has selected LibLime as their vendor of choice to implement and support LibLime Koha, as their next generation, open development, Integrated Library System (ILS).
Deborah Duce, B.A., M.L.I.S, CEO/Chief Librarian of Huntsville Public Library is delighted with the opportunity to work with LibLime and to use LibLime Koha. “The migration to and integration of LibLime Koha is very exciting for Huntsville Public Library. It will allow us to think out of the box and embrace technologies and applications that will meet ever changing user needs now and in the future. Local elementary and secondary schools (Trillium Lakeland School District) have or will soon be making the move to LibLime Koha with the help of LibLime as well. Think of it – one community – one innovative ILS that is familiar to all! With the knowledge and support of LibLime Huntsville Public Library will be able to achieve of our goals of innovation, collaboration, sustainability and fiscal responsibility.”

About Huntsville Public Library
Celebrating 131 years of service to their community in 2011, Huntsville Public Library works to connect Huntsville and area residents to a world of imagination, information and discovery through its collections and services. Huntsville Ontario is the home of the University of Waterloo, the Algonquin Theatre, and is also the gateway to the Algonquin Provincial Park.

About LibLime - PTFS
LibLime – PTFS is the global leader in providing support for the Koha open source ILS. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, the PTFS LibLime Division educates libraries about the benefits of open source, enabling them to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. The PTFS LibLime Division then facilitates deployment of Koha in libraries by providing outstanding consulting, development, implementation, and support/hosting for libraries of all types and sizes. PTFS is also the developer of the world’s leading content management software, ArchivalWare, and specializes in meeting library personnel staffing requirements, digitization, and metadata keying services. For more information, see http://liblime.com or http://ptfs.com or http://archivalware.net.