Equinox/NELINET Offer Evergreen

Equinox Software has made a name for itself since late 2006 supporting and developing the consortial-level open source Evergreen ILS for libraries in Georgia, Michigan, and Indiana. Now, Equinox is lending its services to institutions in New England by way of a recent partnership with NELINET, a consortium of nearly 600 academic, public, and special libraries.

Tim Rivard, senior consultant in resource sharing for NELINET, said that a number of libraries have expressed interest in an open source ILS but that they often “lack the expertise or resources to implement it.” With the formal support services from Equinox and the expertise available through the NELINET membership community, more libraries in New England may reconsider both the costs and benefits of running an open source ILS with consortial support.

Just slightly closer to the Equinox base of operations in Norcross, GA, the North Texas Regional Library System (NTRLS), along with 13 pilot libraries, has also chosen Evergreen. The Texas group was attracted to the ILS because of “its inherent consortium functionality,” said Adam Wright, executive director of NTRLS. The pilot libraries are expected to go live in summer 2009.