Great Lakes Library Service in New South Wales went live with the latest, web-based version of LIBERO this month.
A LIBERO client for more than 20 years, Great Lakes Library Service has a catalogue of over 75,000 items and 16,000 members across five branches. The Library’s team of staff have been pleasantly surprised with the ease of the recent upgrade process and new functionality available with Version 6.
“Generally speaking, the impact of the upgrade has been much lower than expected and a really positive experience,” said Great Lakes Library Manager Chris Jones.
In the lead up to ‘go live’ on July 4th, Version 6 was installed on a trial database at Great Lakes, allowing library staff a number of weeks to familiarise themselves with new functionality before training was performed by a LIBERO Consultant onsite.
“The training program was comprehensive and LIBERO’s team always meet high standards of customer service and professionalism,” said Chris Jones who has 24 years experience in library management/ the library industry, including 13 years at Great Lakes.
All five branches are now live on LIBERO Version 6. This, the latest version of the fully-integrated Library Management System is the result of more than 5 years research and development from production teams at LIBERO’s Brisbane and Gold Coast offices.
“We are now coming to terms with all the modules and new functionality – which is fantastic. There are new and exciting ways to perform common tasks, such as copy and transfer of member details, serial subscriptions and item holdings in Version 6.”
“There’s also a great range of new functionalities that benefit workflow efficiency and flexibility. LIBERO’s team is always at work to ensure I get the best from my library system; we appreciate the way they’re always looking to improve our workflows,” he said.
Great Lakes have implemented integration of RFID and the use of floating collections via LIBERO, which also facilitates rotating collections, interlibrary-loan and lending services for house-bound members.
“We have been using LIBERO for more than 20 years, so we can attribute all of our customer service developments to the solution. It’s a comprehensive, feature-rich solution that continues to evolve our library service. We’re currently investigating using automated SMS and email notification options – Version 6 simplifies this process,” he said.
The Great Lakes Library IT Coordinator, Peter Flemming is also impressed with the software upgrade. “Version 6 offers many new features, but the improvements in workflow efficiencies are outstanding – especially in the circulation environment. Working in the web-based environment with browser tabs and LIBERO’s Workflow Toolbar feature provides multiple avenues to functionality, according to how you like to use the system,” he said.
“Due to the quality of telecommunications infrastructure in regional areas, remote library services often have to rely on terminal services products to optimise system speed and performance of web-based systems. LIBERO’s responsiveness and performance working natively, in the browser environment offers some exciting opportunities,” said Flemming.
“Despite the fact we suffer low-quality internet connectivity, the performance gains using LIBERO over our terminal server were minimal. I can imagine many libraries who share challenges as a small, remote site could easily reduce reliance, or completely eliminate the cost and maintenance associated with terminal server products via LIBERO V6,” he said. “LIBERO’s Team have a very good understanding of the software and library operations, so their advice on improvements to service provision are always constructive.”
“We’re very happy with LIBERO – the product, the people behind it and the service range. The upgrade to Version 6 went well, with LIBERO’s staff being responsive to our needs,” said Jones.