Duluth, Ga., June 23, 2021: Equinox Open Library Initiative is pleased to present the poster “Developing Open Source Tools To Support Libraries During COVID-19” at the 2021 American Library Association Annual Conference, June 23-29, 2021. The poster describes the programs, workflows, and software that Equinox designed to provide support to libraries and library staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Equinox team members Lisa Carlucci, Galen Charlton, Sally Fortin, Angela Kilsdonk, Andrea Buntz Neiman, and Mike Rylander contributed to the poster, with audio description by Sally Fortin. The digital poster presentation can be viewed on the ALA Annual Conference platform here: https://bit.ly/EquinoxALAAC21
“Equinox’s poster tells the story of an extraordinary moment in time. As libraries faced the unknowns of providing library services during the pandemic, we asked, ‘How can Equinox help?’” said Lisa Carlucci, Executive Director. “We reached out to our professional communities and partners to identify specific initiatives and to develop new ways to strengthen and expand our services. We shifted educational resources to remote platforms, created new professional development opportunities, and developed new workflows and tools for Evergreen and Koha.”
Equinox created the SubjectsPlus guide, “Developing Open Source Tools To Support Libraries During COVID-19,” to accompany the ALA Annual Conference poster presentation. Resources in the guide cover Koha ILS and Evergreen ILS topics including going fine free, handling unplanned closures, managing items in quarantine, and configuring and using the Evergreen ILS curbside pickup module. View the poster and enhanced collection of resources at: https://splus.equinoxoli.org/subjects/equinox_covid19tools. Equinox recently announced the launch of SubjectsPlus, a user-friendly, open source, content management system, and will be hosting a SubjectsPlus launch event immediately following the 2021 ALA Annual Conference on June 30, 2021 from 1:00pm-2:00pm (ET). Registration is now open: http://bit.ly/SubjectsPlus
“I am thankful we were able to provide educational resources to help our library communities safely transition to new working environments and new service models,” said Angela Kilsdonk, Product and Education Manager at Equinox. “It’s particularly heartening that the work we did during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the development of the equinoxEDU open educational program.”
The equinoxEDU program is now an ongoing educational initiative which delivers free and frequent opportunities for library and open source community members to learn about open source software, expand their skills, and network with library and information science professionals interested in open source software. The equinoxEDU program provides webinars, workshops, and an expanding video library. Learn more about equinoxEDU at https://www.equinoxoli.org/learn.
“Libraries provide essential services and this is especially true in times of crisis. Library staff ensure access to urgent and timely information, critically important technologies, and library collections, all of which are substantial supports during quarantine and beyond,” said Carlucci. “The Equinox team extends our gratitude to the many library staff and frontline information service providers delivering library services and supporting communities worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Laura Barry
Communications Coordinator
Equinox Open Library Initiative, Inc.
EquinoxOLI.org
laura.barry@equinoxOLI.org
877.OPEN.ILS (877.673.6457)
About Equinox Open Library Initiative
Equinox Open Library Initiative provides innovative open source software for libraries of all types and delivers extraordinary service at exceptional value. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., Equinox Open Library Initiative builds upon more than a decade of trusted service and technical expertise, providing consulting services, software development, hosting, training, and support for Evergreen ILS, Koha ILS, and other open source library software. To learn more, please visit https://www.equinoxOLI.org. For Equinox Library Services Canada, please visit https://www.equinoxOLI.ca.
About Evergreen
Evergreen Integrated Library System is an award winning and trusted library solution used by more than 1,800 libraries worldwide. Evergreen ILS is a web-based and mobile-friendly system which provides attractive, easy to use interfaces for library acquisitions, administration, cataloging, circulation, OPAC, reports, course reserves, and serials functionality.
Evergreen ILS is an enterprise level system designed to manage a scalable catalog shared across libraries, including large public and academic library consortia. While designed for large collections, Evergreen is suitable for libraries of any size and type from government libraries to museum and special library collections. Its flexibility enables libraries to configure policies and settings that work best for their communities and to maintain ownership of their library and systems data.
Evergreen differs from other library management systems in that there are no licensing fees. The software is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3.0 or higher. For more information about Evergreen: https://www.equinoxoli.org/products/evergreen/.
About Koha ILS
Created in 1999 by Katipo Communications for the Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand, Koha is the first open source Integrated Library System to be used worldwide. The software is a full-featured ILS with a dual-database design (search engine and RDBMS) built to be compliant with library standards. Koha’s OPAC, staff, and self-checkout interfaces are all web applications. Distributed under the General Public License (GPL), libraries are free to use and install Koha themselves or to purchase support and development services. For more information on Koha, please visit https://koha-community.org.
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