Duluth, Ga., September 3, 2020: Equinox Open Library Initiative announces the availability of Curbside Pickup for libraries using Evergreen ILS. The latest feature was designed and developed by Equinox team members Sally Fortin, Andrea Buntz Neiman, Galen Charlton, and Mike Rylander. Development funding was provided by the Pennsylvania Integrated Library System (PaILS), which oversees SPARK, an Evergreen consortium in the state of Pennsylvania.

“Curbside for Evergreen was truly a team effort — from the initial concept to the community-ready pull request,” said Andrea Buntz Neiman, Project Manager for Software Development at Equinox. “Whether it was design, development, testing the feature, or creating training materials, almost every Equinox employee had a hand in making Curbside happen.”

Curbside Pickup extends existing functionality in Evergreen to coordinate curbside lending and expedite communications using the ILS. Patrons can select items in the catalog, place holds, arrange a pick up time, and notify the library upon arrival. A new tabbed interface will be available to library staff to help identify new holds for pickup, to view or modify delivery times, and to prepare and check out items to patrons. When patrons arrive at the library, they press or click a button in their library account to alert staff that they’re at the designated location for curbside delivery. Interested libraries may contact Equinox at info@equinoxinitiative.org for more information or for assistance activating or installing the new feature.

“Library staff are reimagining services, adapting programs, and addressing new challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Lisa Carlucci, Executive Director at Equinox Open Library Initiative. “At Equinox, we set a goal to design and deliver curbside pickup functionality to facilitate communication and coordination for curbside service at no additional cost to libraries. I’m incredibly proud of the Equinox team for accomplishing this goal and for their creativity and commitment to making these tools available to Evergreen and Koha libraries in record time.”

To learn more about the Curbside Pickup Feature as well as Equinox’s other resources please visit https://www.equinoxinitiative.org/resources .

About Equinox Open Library Initiative
Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc. is a nonprofit company engaging in literary, charitable, and educational endeavors serving cultural and knowledge institutions. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., Equinox carries forward more than a decade of service and experience with Evergreen ILS, Koha ILS, and other open source library software. At Equinox, we help you empower your library with open source technologies. To learn more, please visit https://www.equinoxinitiative.org/.

About Evergreen
Evergreen is an award-winning ILS developed to provide an open source product able to meet the diverse needs of consortia and high transaction public libraries. However, it has proven to be equally successful in smaller installations including special and academic libraries. Today, over 1500 libraries around the world are using Evergreen including NC Cardinal, SCLENDS, and B.C. Sitka. For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen libraries, see http://evergreen-ils.org.

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