Weekly Update – February 19, 2013
Mobile OPAC task force
Many staff in the Evergreen Indiana consortium and in other Evergreen consortia internationally have expressed a strong desire for a high functioning mobile OPAC. As many of our community members have stated, the OPAC is the face of the consortium to patrons and we want a fun mobile product with high usability that has the potential to drive usage back to our libraries. Since the mobile OPAC is high on our list of development priories, the Evergreen Indiana Executive Committee recommends putting together a task force of 5-7 Evergreen staff members who will be responsible for collaborating with the Evergreen Indiana helpdesk to create an RFQ. The task force is expected to require a commitment of 10-15 hours over a span of several weeks. Meetings will mostly be conducted over the phone and email. Once we are confident that the RFQ describes what our patrons desire in a mobile OPAC, we will solicit bids from various companies to begin the development process. The task force will most likely also be called upon to test and provide feedback once we receive a test product.
Please contact Adam Bowling if you are interested in participating or have any questions.
Freegal opportunity
The Evergreen Indiana consortium is offering a consortial discount for interested members who would like to purchase Freegal, a downloadable music service for library patrons. Freegal provides library patrons with access to millions of songs which are DRM-Free mp3 files that are compatible with most devices. There are no holds queues with Freegal as the service allows simultaneous access to files and those who sign up for the service automatically have access to the full catalog of music.
As has been approved by the Evergreen Indiana Executive Committee, a sales rep from Freegal will be contacting Evergreen Indiana library directors later this week with their quote for pricing and the opportunity for each to take advantage of a demo of Freegal.
More information here: http://www.libraryideas.com/freegal.html
eIndiana OverDrive Consortium
The eIndiana OverDrive Committee voted to increase the checkout limit for the consortium from 3 to 5. This went into effect on February 13, 2013.
Also, Content Reserve upgraded on February 14, 2013 and has a new look! Trainings are available.