Submitted by Steve Martin
On behalf of Sheridan Rotary Club
The Sheridan Rotary Club recently hosted Hannah Donaldson, a guest speaker from the Sheridan Public Library. Ms. Donaldson talked about and demonstrated the new ILS (Integrated Library System) recently installed at the library.
Evergreen Indiana is the name of the ILS, and it is a product of the Indiana State Library. Evergreen Indiana is based originally on a program developed in the State of Georgia and has been copied and instituted in several other states over the past 10 years or so under a variety of other names. The program here in Indiana goes by Evergreen Indiana, and currently some 129 Indiana libraries belong to the Evergreen group.
Evergreen offers several advantages to libraries, especially smaller libraries. First, because it is a state sponsored program, it is relatively inexpensive to install and maintain. Second, the holdings of each individual library are in the Evergreen Indiana database and gives all Evergreen Indiana library customers access to each other’s library collection materials. Currently that number adds up to 8 million collection items as opposed to Sheridan’s 46,000. Obviously, this type of collection sharing is a boon to Sheridan customers as well as to all Evergreen Indiana library customers.
In addition to providing library customers a first-rate automated library circulation system, Evergreen Indiana facilitates the use of inter-library loan transactions among member libraries. Inter-library loan services used to be a pain to accomplish, but with an ILS system like Evergreen Indiana it involves just a few clicks of your mouse to complete the task. As a result, Evergreen Indiana members now report large increases in their inter-library loan services because when you use the program at your local library, you also search all the Evergreen Indiana member libraries holdings. If you cannot find what you want in Sheridan’s collection, you can quite often find it in another member library’s collection and can ask to borrow it from that other library with a couple of clicks of your mouse.
So, Evergreen Indiana is good for local library patrons. It is a robust, full-service ILS software program. It facilitates borrowing materials from the local library as well as giving customers access to millions of library items from 129 other Indiana libraries. And Evergreen Indiana is one Indiana program that is an excellent use of your tax dollars, and we should all be glad Sheridan has decided to become an Evergreen Indiana library member.