The King County Library System’s switch to nonproprietary software put the system at the forefront of a national movement to free libraries from the poor service and high costs some feel they are getting from commercial vendors.
But for thousands of library patrons for whom using the online catalog became painfully slow, who couldn’t log on at all or who could no longer pay fines electronically, the switch to the new system has been an exercise in frustration.
Evergreen, the name of the software customized by the library system, is “open-source,” meaning users can use the underlying code without charge and adapt it to meet their needs.
Four months after the library system went live with Evergreen, officials say most of the bugs have been worked out and they are continuing to improve the system.
Patrons use the software to find books, put them on hold and check them in and out. Staffers use it to buy and catalog books and to send them from one library to another.
Since the new software went into operation, the library system’s technical staff has received more than 7,000 e-mails from patrons and staff members.
Information Technology System Director Jed Moffitt told library trustees in October complaints outnumbered other comments 30 to 1. So many people were upset that signs saying, “We’re working on it,” were posted in libraries and on the system’s website.
Problems were still severe in December, when Moffitt reported it was “inconvenient to impossible” for many patrons to access the catalog from home.
The idea behind the new system may have been great, but it was poorly executed, many patrons said.
That idea, said system Director Bill Ptacek, who defends its execution, was to free the library system from its dependence on commercial vendors, who charged high prices and weren’t responsive to libraries’ needs.
“It takes an act of God to get anything changed or upgraded or improved,” Ptacek said of the commercial vendors. “It’s old software. It’s proprietary.”
So instead of signing another contract with a vendor, King County and three library systems in California, Florida and Michigan obtained a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to adapt free, open-source software originally written by a Georgia library network in 2005.
King County, the lead partner, put up $1 million of its own to match the $1 million federal grant to fund the switch to the Evergreen software.
When the Sept. 23 changeover took place, check-in and checkout procedures became more difficult, PINs were changed, the electronic catalog slowed down and familiar features were dropped, and many patrons saw only a blank screen when they tried to access the catalog from home or work.
One patron responded to Library Journal’s online report on the project that there were “HUGE lines at the physical library checkout,” and another wrote that the online catalog “has been down more than it has been up.” “Didn’t Library staff test this application before going live?” the second patron asked.
Library staffers and consultants have been scrambling to fix bugs and restore features that patrons were accustomed to. That troubleshooting largely represented “just-in-time development,” one of the county’s consultants, Lori Bowen Ayre, wrote on an Evergreen-related website one day after startup.
Some of the software development wasn’t ready in time.
“Bill Ptacek has been pretty clear about being unwilling to push the go-live date and so they aren’t,” Ayre wrote. “And that means some things aren’t finished and so part of this go live process has been managing priorities without stopping progress.”
Since then, many of the initial problems have been resolved, managers say. Most patrons are again able to access the catalog online, searches are going faster, users can review their accounts remotely, and catalog access is better than ever from mobile devices.
Online bill-paying hasn’t yet been restored, but Ptacek said last week a fix was being tested. The project remains within budget, he said.
For all the glitches, Ptacek said, the process has gone more smoothly than when the county purchased a commercial system six years ago that didn’t work at all for several days and lacked some purported capabilities. The problems also don’t seem to have dampened patrons’ use of libraries. Circulation figures for December show the King County system overtaking what for years has been the nation’s busiest, Queens, New York.
“I know a lot of people are critical and feel we went too fast,” Ptacek said. ” … It’s like the people working on the Manhattan Project. We weren’t sure what would happen when we first launched it. Yeah, it was rough. For the public it’s not been convenient, but they’ve helped us learn what would make it better. I think going forward we’re just going to see positive things.”
Source:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014085833_library31m.html
