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Is Michigan ready for Evergreen?

On and off over the past several years, I have fielded questions about whether MLC was interested in running a shared integrated library system. Up to now, we have declined to offer such a service. Lately the questions have become more numerous and with the added twist of whether we would consider running Evergreen, the open source ILS used by public libraries in Georgia.

Many of the libraries talking to us have implemented MeLCat and through that process realized that they wanted more than their current ILS was offering. Coupled with the recent surge of interest in open source software, we have begun to investigate whether the time is now right for MLC to offer libraries that have limited resources and choices an opportunity to join a shared system. In June, I took a small delegation to Atlanta to have a first-hand look at Evergreen and to talk to librarians actually using it. We came away impressed with what we saw and heard from users. (The delegation included Sheryl VanderWagen, Lakeland Library Cooperative, Bill Ott, Grand Rapids Public Library, and Debbi Schaubman, MLC.)

We have also had some informal talks with commercial vendors because we did not want to simply jump on a currently popular bandwagon without considering other options. Open source software offers some benefits but so do systems from established companies.

At this point, we have not made any final decisions about how or when to move forward but continue to examine our alternatives and weigh all the factors. We would love to hear from you. Are you looking for a new ILS? Would you consider an open source system that was shared among a number of other libraries? Are you more comfortable with a commercial system?