CR2 Blog

ByWater Solutions, America’s forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced today that they will be a sponsor at the 2021 Tenn-Share Datafest Conference, Prepare to Pivot. The event will be held virtually on October 27th-28th. This is the second virtual DataFest and Fall Conference. Tenn-Share wants to celebrate their successes and share how the community can continue to build their shared knowledge and shared innovations together.

Presentation
Jessica Zairo will be presenting at Tenn-Share on October 28th from 3:05-3:35 PM (CT) on Empowering Libraries with Open Source Solutions.

About Tenn-Share
Mission: Tenn-Share is a member-driven organization serving Tennessee libraries by providing cost-effective resources and services that help them better serve their communities. (updated February 2019)

Vision: Leading innovation, sparking creative ideas that transform Tennessee libraries. (February 2019)

Values:

Excellence
Professionalism
Innovation
Collaboration
Commitment to service
Read More at https://www.tenn-share.org/datafest

About ByWater Solutions
ByWater Solutions is a full-service, high-quality Open Source support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their systems than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in the first-rate implementation and support services with library systems of all sizes for the Koha ILS, Aspen Discovery, Folio LSP, Coral ERM, and Libki PC Management.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions not only lowers the cost of implementation and maintenance of OSS 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
Director of Library Sales & Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944

Each month, ByWater Solutions selects one library to be awarded $500. These funds are meant to support libraries and their communities and fill gaps in funding to further library goals.

We are excited to announce our October 2021 winner of the ByWater Community Giveback, the Corona Public Library in Corona, California. https://catalog.corona.bywatersolutions.com/

The Corona Public Library welcomes and supports all people in the enjoyment of reading and pursuit of lifelong learning. Working together, they strive to provide access to information, ideas and knowledge through books, technology, programs, services and other resources. They believe in the freedom to read, to learn and to discover.

The funds from the ByWater Community Giveback will be used to help diversify Corona Public Library's collections. The Corona Public Library is without Interlibrary Loan services after budget cuts brought the program to an end more than 10 years ago. In 2018, the library was able to bridge the gap created by a lack of ILL services, through the California State Library’s Zip Book program. The Zip Books Grant Program is patron driven and allows Corona Public Library to purchase patron requested books and audio books. The material is sent directly to the patron and when they are finished with the material they return it to library for potential inclusion in the collection.

Upon reviewing the types of Zip Book requests received over the last three years, Corona Public Library realized that there was need within the community for a more diverse collection. Earlier in September 2021, the Corona Public Library contracted with Baker & Taylor for CollectionHQ’s DEI Analysis service to identify gaps in the collection. Thanks to Enica Davis at ByWater Solutions, a full MARC file of their collection is currently with CollectionHQ for analysis.

The ByWater Community Giveback funds and matching funds from the Friends of the Corona Public Library will be the seed money for diversifying their collection based on the analysis results. The Corona Public Library is striving to create a collection that contains a variety of ideas, information, and experiences that reflect the diversity of their community.

"On behalf of the Corona Public Library, Friends, and community - THANK YOU!! I’m so thrilled! ByWater is always so supportive. Your organization has taken us to the next level in diversifying our collection and allowed us to include our Friends in the process." - Jennifer Marlatt, Corona Public Library

About the ByWater Community Giveback
We will select one library a month to donate $500 to their Non-profit 501c3 organization such as Friends of the Library, Library Foundation, or other funding entity. These funds are meant to support libraries and their communities and fill gaps in funding to further library goals. We LOVE libraries. Our team is made up of librarians and library fanatics. We're always looking for ways to give back and create opportunities where we can to support libraries. This is a small token of thanks for all the hard work libraries do in their communities every day.

Learn More About the Program and How to Apply: https://bywatersolutions.com/news/bywater-solutions-announces-community-...

If you have more questions, please contact: Outreach@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions, America’s forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced today that they are providing support and hosting services for the Aspen Open Source Discovery system for Henry Carter Hull in Clinton, CT. The Henry Carter Hull Public Library has been a Koha and ByWater partner since 2013. We are excited to expand our partnership!

You can view Henry Carter Hulls's Aspen Discovery interface by visiting: https://catalog.hchlibrary.org/

Morgan Daigneault of the Aspen Implementation Team recently commented, "Henry Carter Hull was my first training as a part of the Aspen Implementation Team. I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful and engaged group to work with. The HCH team is creative and innovative and they have a lot of fun with their brand. They often edit the Henry Carter Hull image to wear sunglasses, masks, and other accessories to promote new programs or initiatives. They were equally creative when getting into Aspen and making it themed and customized. They have made beautiful placards and I can’t wait to see what they do with the Website Builder!"

About Henry Carter Hull Library
The mission of the Henry Carter Hull Library is to provide an inviting and dynamic environment, where all members of the community may discover both information and inspiration.

Learn more about the full history of the Henry Carter Hull Library here:

https://hchlibrary.org/aboutus/history/

About ByWater Solutions
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality Open Source support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their systems than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate implementation and support services with library systems of all sizes for the Koha ILS, Aspen Discovery, Folio LSP, Coral ERM, and Libki PC Management.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions not only lowers the cost of implementation and maintenance of OSS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: https://bywatersolutions.com.

About Aspen Discovery
Aspen is a full-featured Discovery System that integrates with e-content and other 3rd party providers, giving your patrons comprehensive access to all of your materials in one place. Aspen combines your library catalog with e-content, digital archives and enrichment from all major third party providers, improves relevancy and ease of use, provides native reading recommendations, displays all formats of titles within one result (FRBR) and much more. Aspen was created to give users an improved experience over other Discovery systems with less of an impact on library budgets. For more information about Aspen please visit: https://bywatersolutions.com/projects/aspen-discovery

For More Information
Jessica Zairo
Director of Library Sales & Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944

"In this release we focused on addressing our partner's most common requests. In total, we addressed over 60 requests and enhancements to make Aspen easier to use for both library patrons and staff."-Mark Noble, Aspen Discovery Lead Developer

We're excited to announce the release of Aspen Discovery 21.13!

As of last week, the Aspen Discovery companion app, Aspen LiDA, is now officially available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play store for you to download! This app is just out of beta testing so there is still a lot of functionality that we are working on building in. But, we have made searching easier and more visually engaging, especially when displaying the different formats available. Users can easily sort through beautiful browse categories to discover new materials. Users can access their library account, library card, and place holds on items. Libraries will love that their catalog and app have a seamless look and feel. We will have an official launch party for the app on November 4th- so stay tuned for that!

If you want to seem a live demo of the app, we are also hosting a free Aspen LiDA Webinar tomorrow October 14 at 2pm. Register here: https://bit.ly/3iZRv7z

A little less glamorous, but still important feature of the 21.13 release, is we cleaned up Overdrive and general indexing for performance. We have made it easier for patrons to find materials available at their library and make it more clear to them which location an item is available at when accessing a library system that has multiple branches/locations. All Aspen libraries should notice faster performance and nightly indexing as well!

We love to see the creative placards that libraries create to promote their collections, databases, programs, and resources. We are increasingly working to make Aspen more accessible for all library users. In this release, the ability to add alt-text to placards was added, so that placards can be used with screen readers.

Finally, we have seen over the last couple years the demand for online self registration increasing across libraries. Library staff and users want the self registration to be simple and painless for new library users. In this release, we have made the self registration form and fields more customizable by given the library the ability to use css to tailor these fields to meet their community's needs.

We hope you enjoy the new enhancements in Aspen Discovery 21.13!

Read full release notes: https://bit.ly/2X6S9Iv
Watch demo video of release: https://youtu.be/y-2VSkzzKkM

About Aspen Discovery
Aspen is a full-featured Discovery System that integrates with e-content and other 3rd party providers, giving your patrons comprehensive access to all of your materials in one place. Aspen combines your library catalog with e-content, digital archives, and enrichment from all major third-party providers improves relevancy and ease of use, provides native reading recommendations, displays all formats of titles within one result (FRBR/record grouping) and much more. Aspen was created to give users an improved experience over other Discovery systems with less of an impact on library budgets. For more information about Aspen please visit https://bywatersolutions.com/projects/aspen-discovery.

For More Information
Jessica Zairo
Director of Library Sales and Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944

ByWater Solutions, America’s forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced that Marion County Library System in Florida is now live on Koha!

The catalog can be viewed here: https://librarycat.marionfl.org/

ByWater completed the transition of the library’s over 270,000 bibs from Horizon and continues to provide support services for Koha.

Donna Bachowski of ByWater's Education Team recently commented on Marion's migration, "The staff at Marion County Library System was a delight to work with during the implementation of Koha. I admire how they focused, not just on what was best for staff and streamlining their workflows, but also what was best for their patrons. It is always exciting to see a library so dedicated to their users! I am proud to have been involved in their migration to Koha."

About Marion County Library System
The Library System offers a collection of more than half-a-million volumes in eight library locations. A broad-based print and non-print collection makes the Marion County Public Library, Headquarters-Ocala the major public library resource in the Library System. The smaller collections of the community branch libraries are planned to satisfy the most general and frequent needs of the residents. Public access computers and Wi-Fi are available at each public library branch.

Learn more about the library here: https://library.marionfl.org/services/library-info/library-history

About ByWater Solutions
ByWater Solutions is a full service, high-quality Open Source support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their systems than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in the first-rate implementation and support services with library systems of all sizes for the Koha ILS, Aspen Discovery, Folio LSP, Coral ERM, and Libki PC Management.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions not only lowers the cost of implementation and maintenance of OSS but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit https://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, 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.

For More Information
Jessica Zairo
Director of Library Sales & Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944