6/8/2012
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

The Valley Automated Library Network Goes Live on Koha with ByWater Solutions

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.' forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that the Valley Automated Library Network (VALNet), a consortium of public, school, and academic libraries in Southeastern Washington and North Central Idaho, is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed their migration in late April and will be providing ongoing support and hosting services for them.

VALNet's Koha system houses a collection of over 300,000 books, videos, periodicals and electronic resources. The Valley Automated Library Network is made up of 55 library sites and serves a population of over 60,000 residents. The VALNet customized online catalog can be viewed here: http://catalog.valnet.bywatersolutions.com/

Directors from the Valley Automated Network's member libraries commented on their recent switch to Koha with ByWater Solutions:

"Throughout the process of migrating to a new ILS, ByWater Solutions understood our needs and, in Koha, offered us an ILS that helps us meet those needs. Throughout the migration process they worked with us to make the transition go as smoothly as possible for our staff and our patrons. ByWater Solutions has been a great partner throughout the migration and we hope will be our valued partner for years to come."

Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater commented on the new partnership:

"We are thrilled to be partnering with the Valley Automated Library Network for their initial and ongoing Koha needs. VALNet is another excellent illustration of the flexibility and scalability of both Koha and the companies who support it. We have enjoyed working with the staff of VALNet during the implementation process and look forward to more collaboration in the years to come."

About the Valley Automated Library Network:
VALNet, the Valley Automated Library Network, is a consortium of public, school, and academic libraries in Southeastern Washington and North Central Idaho working together to share resources and information services.
VALNet currently serves 60,000 patrons with over 630,000 items throughout 55 library sites.
In addition to cooperation among different types of libraries, VALNet promotes cooperation among city and county governmental units and school districts in two states. VALNet libraries cooperate in many ways to provide the best possible services to our users and to make optimal use of financial resources:
- Shared online patron access catalog 
- Shared check-out system 
- Daily courier picks up and delivers items to all VALNet libraries 
- Cooperative collection development 
- Cooperative grant writing 
- Shared staff development programs 
- Shared patron training programs
For more information about VALNet please visit: http://catalog.valnet.bywatersolutions.com/

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://koha-community.org/

About ByWater Solutions:
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their ILS than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate Koha implementation and support with library systems of all sizes. Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions to support Koha not only lowers the cost of implementing and maintaining an ILS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: http://bywatersolutions.com/