On the 22nd February 2006, Bankstown Council’s Deputy Mayor, Clr Tania Mihailuk, launched the city’s new, state-of-the art Library system, Libero, which will take Bankstown’s libraries into people’s homes.
“On behalf of the Mayor of Bankstown, Councillor Helen Westwood AM, and all Bankstown City councillors and staff, I am honoured to ‘cut the ribbon’ and officially launch Libero – taking our libraries to our community!” said Clr Mihailuk to an enthusiastic crowd.
Over and above the standard Libero Library Management System, Bankstown City Library had a number of integration requirements as well as specific functional enhancements.
For Bankstown Council this important change over was a demonstration of good planning, skill and great team work between all parties involved.
“Changing a library collection of 266,476 items on to a new system – while keeping general business running, does not happen overnight,” said Richard Colley, General Manager of Bankstown Council.
Over and above the standard Libero Library Management System, Bankstown had a number of integration requirements as well as specific functional enhancements.
Bankstown IT Manager, Maria Cabrera, has taken a wholistic approach to the implementation of information systems at Bankstown. Her vision for the future includes single enterprise wide systems for common functions such as cash management and people’s demographic details. “A great outcome” said Mara, “I was very pleased to be able to work with a vendor who not only understood the specialized requirements of our libraries, but also understood how to best integrate the library management system with our enterprise systems.”
The implementation of their new system was done with almost no impact on the operational activities of the library. There was only a short period of a few hours during which the system was not available as the data from the legacy system was converted to the Libero system.
“This was an incredible achievement”, said Claude Wetsteyn, the project manager for the implementation of Libero. “I was delighted not only with the minimal downtime we experienced but I was also very impressed with the way Insight Informatics were able to implement our specific requirements. I doubt whether any other vendor could have delivered the results we achieved with them”.
While this is an important develop for Council’s library services, the installation of this software is also an important one for Insight Informatics. This is one of the largest installations in Australia, and one, which the company is keen to showcase to other existing and potential clients. Modifications and expansions of the system were developed, at the request of, and in concert with Council’s Library staff and IT services.
This has meant Bankstown’s libraries have additional features including mind-mapping search functionality, a picture icon-based WebOpac for the children, and a fully integrated point of sale system.
“We are very pleased to welcome Bankstown City as a new Libero Customer” said Santo Cavallaro, General Manager of Insight Informatics, “And we are looking forward to working closely with them as we continue to build our next generation library system”.