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    April 17th, 2013LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    The Code4Lib Journal editors are excited to bring you this latest issue with seven articles.   Issue #20 can be found at http://journal.code4lib.org/issues/issues/issue20

    The first set of articles show ways to manipulate metadata records.  In Workflow Tools for Digital Curation Andrew James Weidner and Daniel Gelaw Alemneh describe how they use AutoHotkey and Selenium IDE at the University of North Texas to automate various aspects of manipulating digital objects.  Heidi Frank show how to process MARC records from Archivists Toolkit in Augmenting the Cataloger’s Bag of Tricks; the techniques – using MarcEdit, Python, and PyMARC – are transferrable to other sources of records as well.  In Keeping up with Ebooks Kathryn Lybarger introduces a tool for updating batches of vendor-supplied records through a set of normalization routines.

    Jason Clark show how Montana State University is using YouTube as a digital video platform in Developing a Digital Video Library with the YouTube Data API. Getting users what they want without extraneous hits is always a challenge, and in Better Search Through Query Expansion Using Controlled Vocabularies and Apache Solr demonstrates how to configure SOLR to make the best use of a hierarchical controlled vocabulary.  In Breaking Up With CONTENTdm Heather Gilbert and Tyler Mobley lead us through the migration of a repository to Fedora Commons using Drupal, Blacklight and Rutgers’ OpenWMS software.  And for the hardware geeks, Tim Ribaric and Jonathan Younker describe how to build a simple desk counter tied to a Google Spreadsheet in Arduino-enabled Patron Interaction Counting.

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    April 17th, 2013LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    North Bethesda, MD, April 17, 2013- LibLime, a division of PTFS, announces that Rocky View School District is adding six more libraries to its district-wide LibLime Koha union catalog. Bow Valley High School, Bert Church High School, Prince of Peace Lutheran School, Nose Creek Elementary School, Mitford Middle School, and Banded Peak School will be the newest school libraries to join the Rocky View LibLime Koha union catalog.

    During the upcoming months, Rocky View School District will work with LibLime’s project management staff on data migration, system configuration, and training. As each of the six libraries is added, each of the libraries will enjoy the benefits of LibLime’s support and hosting in LibLime’s distributed computing cloud platform.

    About The Rocky View School District
    Rocky View Schools serves residents to the west, north and east of the City of Calgary. The jurisdiction provides educational services to over 18,000 public students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Rocky View Schools is the fifth-largest school board in Alberta, employing more than 2,000 staff.

    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.

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    April 17th, 2013LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    4/17/2013
    CONTACT:
    Nathan Curulla
    (888) 900-8944
    sales@bywatersolutions.com

    Sterling College Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

    ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

    ByWater Solutions completed the migration for Sterling College at the beginning of February and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for them.

    Petra Vogel, Librarian at Sterling College commented on the library’s decision to migrate to Koha:

    “I was excited about converting our library system to Koha with ByWater Solutions. However I was also somewhat nervous because, except for a very part-time coworker, our library is pretty much a one-woman operation. On top of that, just as I was working on sending our data, our campus IT person left to pursue another career. The folks at ByWater Solutions provided the training and support needed to make the migration a success. Overall it was a positive learning experience for me. I felt, and still feel, 100% supported by the team at ByWater.”

    “I had the pleasure of training Petra and her staff on their new Koha system.” Commented Nicole Engard, Vice President of Education at ByWater Solutions. “I love getting to visit libraries like the one at Sterling College. The team was excited about the change, eager to learn and ready to share their knowledge with others. That’s just the type of community member we love to welcome to Koha.”

    About Sterling College:

    Sterling College is a small, progressive, liberal arts college in northern Vermont, in the heart of a rural region called the Northeast Kingdom. Sterling is unique in many ways, among them our small size, our environmental focus, and our commitment to grassroots sustainability. The Sterling library collection focuses on environmental and resource issues and supports our areas of study: Conservation Ecology, Environmental Humanities, Natural History, Northern Studies, Outdoor Education & Leadership, and Sustainable Agriculture. The walls of the library serve as an art gallery featuring Vermont artists. For more information about Sterling College, please visit: http://www.sterlingcollege.edu/library.html

    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/

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    April 17th, 2013LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    PROVO, Utah, April 16, 2013 — Backstage Library Works, a provider of on-site services to libraries around the world, has placed its 5-millionth radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. With projects that range from applying and encoding 76,000 RFID labels for one library to tagging 1.6 million items across 35 branches for another, Backstage is leading the way in efficiency, speed and accuracy.

    Libraries and their patrons in North America and the United Kingdom are reaping the benefits of Backstage’s customized, time-saving RFID tagging services. Backstage provides personnel and other resources to quickly process tagging backlogs, often the final step to make an RFID system fully functional. Working with tags and hardware from a variety of suppliers, Backstage has assisted libraries of all types in transitioning from barcodes to RFID.

    John Reese, on-site services product manager for Backstage, explains:

    "Having Backstage tag the collection allows your library staff to focus on serving patrons. That's especially important as the new RFID checkout technology is coming online.

    "Meanwhile, a Backstage project manager is providing expertise in workflows and equipment, and our full-time tagging team is getting the project done, quickly and accurately.

    "When you put a price on internal resources — management and taggers from the library staff — then calculate the labor savings at the circulation desk when you have your collection tagged months sooner than would otherwise be possible, you will find, like so many of our clients, that the price for our tagging service is comparable to what it would cost you to do it yourself."

    Recent Backstage RFID projects include tagging at the Birmingham (U.K.) Public Library, and at the Peninsula Library System, in San Mateo, Calif.

     

    About Backstage Library Works

    Backstage's objective is to provide the most technologically advanced and efficient means for delivering professional library services. With over 25 years of experience, the company is known for its expertise in handling complex and unique projects. Backstage specializes in solutions for cataloging, authority control, digitization, preservation microfilm, and on-site needs. In providing services to more than a thousand libraries, large and small, public and private, and in locations across the globe, Backstage has cultivated an understanding of libraries, their mission, their operations, and the challenges they face. Backstage offices are located in Provo, Utah, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

    Contact
    Richard Covington | Marketing Manager
    Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
    Phone: 801.356.1852 | Fax: 801.356.8220
    news@bslw.com | www.bslw.com