UBLIN, Ohio, 31 May 2019. OCLC and Springshare have signed an agreement to transfer the QuestionPoint 24/7 Reference Cooperative and all active QuestionPoint subscriptions to Springshare, a recognized leader in the development of reference software for libraries worldwide.

QuestionPoint is the global industry leader in providing cooperative virtual reference services, including 24/7 reference back-up coverage from its team of experienced reference librarians. Through this acquisition, Springshare will extend its highly regarded LibAnswers virtual reference software to include the comprehensive QuestionPoint library reference cooperative with 24/7 coverage. QuestionPoint’s team of reference librarians will become part of Springshare and will continue to work from their current locations around the world.

“This agreement brings together Springshare’s full-featured, state-of-the-art reference software and the unparalleled professional reference coverage from QuestionPoint’s 24/7 Reference Cooperative that libraries count on,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. “We’re confident that this move will result in the best possible virtual reference service for libraries.”

Slaven Zivkovic, Founder & CEO of Springshare, added: “We are thrilled to welcome all QuestionPoint libraries and the QuestionPoint librarian reference team to the Springshare community. We see great potential for the Cooperative to include tens of thousands of libraries worldwide - all sharing librarian resources to ensure their users can get help online whenever needed. Today’s library users have 24/7 access to many non-library services. Our goal with the Cooperative is to ensure these users also have access to high-quality assistance from professional librarians, anytime, anywhere.”

Springshare has committed to further invest in enhancing the Cooperative by hiring more coop librarian staffers, providing additional training to the coop librarians, and devising more effective workflows to share knowledge and information between coop librarians and local admins. Mr. Zivkovic continued “In addition to our own ideas for taking the Cooperative to its new heights, we will seek feedback and suggestions from current QuestionPoint users. Springshare has built a tremendous reputation for listening and acting on customer feedback, and our approach here will be no different. We are very excited to start working on this project and we’re thankful to our partners at OCLC for entrusting Springshare to lead QuestionPoint’s next growth phase”.

Current QuestionPoint subscribers will maintain uninterrupted use of QuestionPoint while Springshare completes software upgrades to its LibAnswers platform to integrate the 24/7 library reference cooperative. Once the changes are completed, all current QuestionPoint subscribers will move to LibAnswers. At any point, QuestionPoint subscribers can attend free and unlimited training as well as request a LibAnswers Platform system install to learn and explore the system prior to service migration. Springshare will contact subscribers directly about timing and process for their transitions to LibAnswers. “OCLC and Springshare are working together to ensure uninterrupted support of libraries’ virtual reference service during the upcoming transition from QuestionPoint to LibAnswers,” said Nilges.

About Springshare
Springshare (https://springshare.com) software helps libraries engage with their communities and deepen relationships with users. Our SaaS suite is used by over 6,000 libraries in 80 countries around the world.

About OCLC
OCLC (https://oclc.og) is a nonprofit global library cooperative providing shared technology services, original research and community programs so that libraries can better fuel learning, research and innovation. Through OCLC, member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the most comprehensive global network of data about library collections and services.

OCLC, WorldCat and WorldCat.org are trademarks and/or service marks of OCLC, Inc. Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners.

The Koha Community, home of the world's first free and open source library system, announced this week that the Koha 19.05 release is available. This major release includes 15 new features, 246 enhancements, and 437 bugfixes. Full release notes are available at: https://koha-community.org/koha-19-05-release/.

Nick Clemens, 19.05 Release Manager and ByWater Solutions Developer, recently commented on the release:

This release (as always) is the work of many librarians, developers, and community members who donate their time and effort to the project. Their contributions help shape the release, and the project going forward. None of this would be possible without them, and my sincere thanks goes out to everyone who had a hand in the project.

Sponsorship of New Features
We thank the following ByWater Solutions' Partners who have sponsored new features in Koha!

Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS)
Self-check module highlighting (Bug 19458)
Email librarian when purchase suggestion made (Bug 5770)
Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC)
Branch transfer limits (Bugs 22330, 7614, 7534)
Portsmouth Public Library
Add holds and account information to self checkout module (Bug 21772)
Round Rock Public Library
Add language and ccode facets to Elasticsearch (Bugs 17169 and 18213)
Ability to check out items that are already checked-out without staff intervention (Bug 17171)
Carnegie Stout Public Library
Detailed description of charges on Accounting tab (Bug 19489)
“Edit as New” in Advanced Cataloging Editor (Bug 42090)
DoverNet Dover Public Library
Validate SMS numbers (Bug 22594)
Virginia Tech University Libraries
Patron password reset limited by patron category (Bug 21890)
Bedford Public Library
Add support for SIP2 field CM - Hold Pickup Date (Bug 19619)
Arcadia Public Library and Middletown Township Public Library
Mark Hold Items 'On hold' instead of 'Available' (Bug 15505)
Fargo Public Library
Holds rerouting dialog improvements (Bug 21346)
ByWater Solutions, an open source community contributor and America’s forefront provider of Koha support, is proud to be a part of the Koha Community.

Nick Clemens, 19.05 Release Manager and ByWater Solutions Developer, additionally adds

Extra thanks to all who helped me with this release, and with getting here to be the release manager for this version. I am so lucky to work with such a great team on a wonderful project and look forward to helping make Koha better on each release. Excelsior!

Access the Release
Koha 19.05.00 can be downloaded from:

Download
Installation instructions can be found at:

Koha Wiki
Full Documentation

Manual
Release Team
The release team for Koha 19.05.00 is

Release Manager: Nick Clemens
Release Manager assistants:
Tomás Cohen Arazi
Jonathan Druart
QA Manager: Katrin Fischer
QA Team:
Tomás Cohen Arazi
Alex Arnaud
Chris Cormack
Jonathan Druart
Kyle Hall
Julian Maurice
Josef Moravec
Martin Renvoize
Marcel de Rooy
Topic Experts:
REST API — Tomás Cohen Arazi
SIP2 — Colin Campbell
EDI — Colin Campbell
UI Design — Owen Leonard
Elasticsearch — Ere Maijala
Bug Wranglers:
Indranil Das Gupta
Jon Knight
Luis Moises Rojas
Packaging Manager: Mirko Tietgen
Documentation Manager: Caroline Cyr-La-Rose
Documentation Team:
David Nind
Lucy Vaux-Harvey
Translation Managers:
Indranil Das Gupta
Bernardo González Kriegel
Wiki curators:
Caroline Cyr-La-Rose
Release Maintainers:
18.05 — Lucas Gass
18.05 — Jesse Maseto
18.11 — Martin Renvoize
17.11 — Fridolin Somers
Release Maintainer assistants:
18.05 — Kyle Hall
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, HTML5, 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 Koha 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 for Koha support 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: https:bywatersolutions.com.

For more information
Jessica Zairo
Marketing & Outreach Coordinator
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944