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David Singleton, Deputy State Librarian
Julie Walker, PINES Program Director
Brad LaJeunesse, Systems Administrator
Mike Rylander, Development Consultant
Georgia Systems PINES Systems
PINES Anticipated Growth
PINES Today
• Y2k project started in 1999
• 44 public library systems
• 252 member libraries
• 123 counties
• 8.8 million items
• 1.6 million active cardholders from all 159 Georgia counties.
What Makes PINES Different?
• The PINES library card is free to any resident of Georgia, and may be obtained from any PINES library.
• The PINES library card can be used at any PINES facility as if at the home library.
• Materials may be returned to any PINES library.
What Makes PINES Different?
• Users may request materials delivered from any PINES library to local library, at no charge.
• In FY06, over 452,000 loans between PINES libraries.
• PINES libraries agree to a common set of policies, and procedures, with the goal that users have a consistent experience at any PINES library.
• Executive Committee: Nine (9) elected representatives (Library Directors) from member library systems.
• Function-specific subcommittees make policy recommendations.
• Executive Committee meets quarterly and as needed.
PINES Governance
What are the Benefits?
• For users: increased access to local library collections
• For libraries: the State of Georgia assumes the costs of the automation system.
• Access, not ownership, is the key.• Economy of scale:
PINES annual cost = approximately $1.6 million. Individual library automation systems = over $15 million + approximately $5 million per year to maintain those systems.
Services from PINES Central
• Training for 1,400 PINES staff in libraries across the state. Training is conducted regionally to reduce travel demands on libraries.
•Responsibility for printing and mailing of overdue notices for all PINES libraries
•Helpdesk via phone, email or web, available 24 hours/day.
• “It SIGNIFICANTLY expands the choices of books and other materials available to me. I appreciate this so much because I live in a rural part of the state with a very small local library.”
• “Allowing books to be checked out from other libraries is WONDERFUL. This way, the Pines System is like one gigantic library making available a tremendous selection of books regardless of where the books are physically housed.”
WHAT DO USERS LIKE BEST ABOUT PINES?
Comments from the PINES User Survey
The Evergreen Project• The 5-year software contract for PINES ended
in June 2005.• 2003-2004: PINES staff conducted a
comprehensive survey of the library automation marketplace
• At issue: the unique needs of a statewide consortium sharing a centralized database and utilizing a statewide library card.
• Is the software driving the policy/procedure, or is the policy/procedure driving the software?
The Evergreen Project• What do PINES libraries need?
Enterprise-class relational databaseFlexible system administrationGranular permissions structureA complex holds matrixAbility to treat member libraries as individual
entitiesReports designed to correspond to annual
reporting requirements
The Evergreen Project
• Evergreen Integrated Library System was developed using Open Source software.
• Released under General Public License (GPL).
• Alpha release (Online public access catalog, Cataloging, Circulation) debuted in July 2005.
• Beta release in early 2006.• All PINES libraries migrated to Evergreen
software on September 5, 2006.• Transactions, user records, and item records
were migrated from the former system.
Cost Comparison
24Local Tech Staff
$200,000/yr$0Software Licensing
$200,000/yr(included, 3 years)
Hardware Support
$1,500,000$350,000Server Hardware
Vendor ILSEvergreen
Fringe Benefits
• We’re self-sustaining and control our own destiny.– We decide on development priorities.– No more difficulty trying to convince a
vendor to develop important features for us (a minority customer in some ways).
• The users of the software have direct access to the developers.
Evergreen Online Catalog Features
• Streamlined searching from a single search box.• Google-like spell-checking and search suggestions.
• Ability to select specific material formats from the
online catalog’s front page.• Added content, including book cover images,
reviews, and excerpts. • Randomized holds that include geographic location
as a factor.• Scalability in anticipation of PINES growth.
Evergreen Online Catalog Features
• In ‘My Account’, patrons can: – change personal login name; – change password; – place, cancel, and view holds; – modify how they would like to be alerted of
available holds; – view fines; – view address information; and – view Bookbags (and share them)
Evergreen Core Technologies
Database: PostgreSQL Logic/glue languages: C and Perl,
Javascript Webserver: Apache mod_perl, C modules Client side software: XUL Server operating system: Linux Server hardware: x86-64 Messaging core: Jabber (Ejabberd)
Evergreen Design
Server-side software is designed to run on inexpensive commodity hardware with Linux as the operating system.
The software is designed to run in a clustered environment, giving it enterprise-level high availability and failover.
Evergreen's staff client is cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Open Application Plaform
The traditional ILS is A catalog An OPAC A circulation system Cataloging tools
We wanted more – we wanted a platform
Open Application PlatformWe need a framework that
is easy to cluster takes care of all the dirty work has very low overhead makes writing applications simple is built on open, standard protocols
Given this we can create components as they are needed to provide solutions on demand – we don't need to anticipate every problem!
OpenSRF: Features and BenefitsWe built a framework that can trivially scale from a single server to hundreds in
a tiered, redundant fashion manages everything but the application logic,
abstracting away everything to a consistent set of method calls
can easily handle hundreds of transactions per second, per server without any administrator tuning of the underlying components
turns writing applications, including entire ILS modules, into a matter of translating business logic into a set of simple Perl or C routines
Leverages existing open standards and open source software to avoid both duplication of effort and component lock-in
OpenSRF: The Pieces
OpenSRF consists of A Jabber server – PINES uses eJabberd, and has
tested jabber2d and an in-house custom server The OpenSRF Router – provides application load
balancing and failover services OpenSRF Application Infrastructure – libraries and
tools that turn simple business logic functions into seamless applications
OpenSRF Gateway – an Apache web server plugin that turns URLs into OpenSRF requests, and OpenSRF reponses into web-accesible content
OpenSRF DocGen – serves API documentation from the OpenSRF Introspection Service
Benefits to Evergreen
Dramatically decreased the time to go from service prototypes to production implementations
Allows developers to focus on core ILS issues Increase capacity as needed using any source – no
hardware vendor lock-in! No single point of failure for any critical system or
service Rolling Upgrades – no need to take the system offline
to upgrade backend services!
Where Do We Go from Here?• Migration of the six library systems waiting to
become part of PINES.
• Develop the Acquisitions and Serials modules.
• Work with others on a protocol to share information across automation systems (Open NCIP).
• Develop the children's portal for the online catalog.
Where Do We Go from Here?• Implement online bill pay for users.
• Enhance social aspects of the catalog: user ratings, reviews, and comments.
• Complete the Spanish translation for the online catalog.
Where do we go from here?
• Deep links into the GALILEO databases.
• Online catalog that can be used on mobile devices.
• Possible partnerships with other institutions.
PINES online catalog:gapines.org
Evergreen development: open-ils.org
