12/12/2012
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Nathan Curulla
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Samuel Merritt University Sponsors Hourly Loans and Course Reserves for Koha

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha (www.koha-community.org) support, is happy to thank the John A. Graziano Library and Samuel Merritt University for their sponsorship of both hourly loans and course reserves features for Koha.

Hourly loans was a major new feature in version 3.8 of Koha giving libraries the ability to lend items in both daily and hourly increments. Samuel Merritt University has also sponsored the development of a course reserves system for Koha.  The course reserves system is a new feature that has been eagerly anticipated by academic libraries in particular and will allow libraries to create courses in Koha, add instructors to the courses and put items on reserve for those courses.  The course reserves system is currently under development, with a targeted completion date in time for the release of version 3.12 in May 2013.

Marcus Banks, Director of Library/Academic & Instructional Innovation at Samuel Merritt University, says,

“Samuel Merritt University is pleased to have sponsored development of these enhancements to Koha. Hourly circulation assists the many libraries that lend items on a short-term basis, and the course reserves module enables academic libraries to efficiently manage items designated for use for particular courses. We’re gratified that these enhancements will benefit not only our own university, but the greater Koha community as well.”

About the John A. Graziano Library and Samuel Merritt University:

Founded in Oakland, California, in 1909, Samuel Merritt University is a fully accredited health sciences institution offering degrees in nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant, and podiatric medicine. SMU educates students to become highly skilled and compassionate healthcare professionals who positively transform the experience of care in diverse communities. The University’s John A. Graziano Memorial Library provides access to the largest collection of nursing and pediatric journals and monographs in the East Bay and is one of the best collections of these specialty areas in California. For more information about the John A. Graziano Library please visit, http://www.samuelmerritt.edu/library.

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/

~ Popular Current Events Resource Provides Moderated Discussion Forum for Students ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — December 11, 2012 — EBSCO Publishing’s (EBSCO) Points of View Debate Blog has proven itself as a valuable classroom resource once again. During the recent election season the blog, a popular forum for students to voice their opinions on current events, experienced unprecedented traffic with discussions fueled by a variety of topical themes and questions surrounding the politically-charged campaigns.

The blog is available as a free service from Points of View Reference Center™, EBSCO’s dynamic database containing a balance of materials from all viewpoints. Points of View Reference Center includes more than 1,300 essays, full-text articles from leading political magazines, newspapers, radio and TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books. Created to increase students’ level of engagement in the world around them, the Points of View Debate Blog offers the ability to read about and research topics, use the provided field to comment on and debate the issues with peers, share with Twitter and Facebook links and learn from each other through civil discourse.

As a teaching tool at the high school, junior college and college level, instructors can encourage students to submit their own topics for discussion. Experienced EBSCO editors select a new topic monthly and publish related entries throughout the month. Every thread is monitored and moderated to insure a safe, instructive environment. Through the blog, students learn to formulate intelligent opinions, exchange views with other students, keep pace with current events, and hone their persuasive writing skills.

Recent topics include:

• 2012 Presidential Election
• Arab Spring
• Debt Crisis
• Education
• Gun Control
• Gun Violence
• Israel
• Military Tribunals
• Occupy Wall Street
• Presidential Elections
• School Discipline
• School Violence

For more information about the Points of View Debate Blog and Points of View Reference Center, visit http://www.ebscohost.com/pov-blog.

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 350 databases and more than 350,000 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 Director
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com