Grand County Public Library Library Chooses Koha
Aug 1st, 02:36 UTC
ATHENS, OH--July 31, 2008-- LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, announced today that the Grand County Public Library in Utah has selected a Koha Classic appliance solution for their next integrated library system.
Winner of the 2007 Best Small Library in America award (sponsored by Library Journal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), the Grand County Public Library services a county which sees around 1 million visitors a year.
Grand County Public Library's collection of 50,000 items will be hosted on a server on site at the library. The Library has also contracted with LibLime for data migration and support on their Koha system.
"We have chosen Koha for one simple reason; the ability to customize," says Library Director Carrie Valdes.
"Our current product is adequate but lacks the functionality needed especially as we receive new grants," Carrie explains. "Our current ILS simply lacks the ability to run the types of reports that grantees require and the company has little interest in "fixing" it."
"There isn't a public library in Utah that is running Koha and we are excited to be an example for others. However, we lack in-house programming skills. Cost is a huge issue for us and as I was researching options, the support from LibLime is very reasonable compared to paying proprietary systems for support," Carrie continues.
Library staff is most excited about accurate reporting that provides the details needed to understand circulation trends. Library patrons will benefit from an updated OPAC and enhanced content such as Amazon book covers and review capabilities.
About Grand County Public Library
Winner of the 2007 Best Small Library in America award (sponsored by Library Journal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Grand County Public Library serves a County which has about 10,000 residents but sees around 1 million visitors a year. The Library is surrounded by Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers.
In June 2006, Grand County Public Library moved into a new 15,000 square foot library (funded with a bond that passed with a 71% yes-vote!) The Library offers 55 public access computers with a T-1 connection. In 2007 they had 140,000 walk-ins, 135,000 checkouts and 75,000 computer sessions-- and do all this with a yearly budget of less than $500,000 and 10 full time employees.
About Koha
Since it was first put into production in early 2000, Koha has enabled new realities of open access, affordability, and free innovation for hundreds of libraries around the world. Koha has lived up to its name, which means `Gift' in the Maori language of New Zealand. From the outset, many libraries understood the power of this gift. They downloaded it, they installed it, they changed it, and they contributed their solutions back to the library community.
To learn more about the Koha project, visit:
http://koha.org
To try out Koha for yourself, visit LibLime's demos:
http://liblime.com/demos
About LibLime
LibLime is the global leader in open-source solutions for libraries, with a mission to make open source accessible to libraries. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, LibLime educates libraries about the benefits of open source, enabling them to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. LibLime then facilitates implementation of open-source in libraries by providing outstanding development, customization, support and training solutions--solutions tailored to each library's needs. For more information, see http://liblime.com.
Press Contact
Tina Burger
Vice President, Marketing LibLime
(888)Koha ILS (564-2457)
tnb@liblime.com
Contact Sales
Contact our sales department:
E-mail: sales@liblime.com
Phone: (888) Koha ILS (564-2457)
http://liblime.com
(Submitted by Tina Burger of LibLime)
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