Library Technology Guides

Evergreen ILS Community holds Fall Hack-a-Way. Evergreen developers and community members gathered for the annual hack-a-way retreat in mid-November. Organized by the Evergreen Outreach Committee, hack-a-way provides an opportunity for Evergreen stakeholders to collaborate on software improvements and hold discussions about future project directions. This year's hack-a-way was held at Endicott College in Beverly, MA and was hosted by North of Boston Library Exchange and CW MARS. Twenty-five community members representing 12 organizations attended in person, with several others from across North America and Europe attending remotely. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen release 3.14.0 focuses on accessibility, security, infrastructure. The Evergreen community and release team announced the latest major release of the Evergreen Integrated Library System. This release includes a total of twenty-two new features as well as 57 bugfixes and documentation updates. Fifty-two individuals representing thirteen organizations and three countries contributed to this release. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Community Announces Feature-Packed Release 3.12.0. The Evergreen community proudly unveils its latest feature release, version 3.12.0, a collaborative effort involving contributors and organizations from the United States, Canada, and Czechia. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Annual Conference Opens Registration. Registration is now open for the annual Evergreen International Conference, returning in-person April 26-29, 2023, in Worcester, Massachusetts, offering presentations and discussions for users of the Evergreen library management system and those interested in finding out more about the open source software and its community. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Supporters Collaborate on Software Improvements. Users and supporters of the Evergreen open source library system have been busy of late working together to improve the software for all to use at no cost. Seventy-four community members participated in the late October Hack-A-Way, held remotely this year. Attendees spent an average of almost 14 hours per person in the event, which included a discussion of future features and saw improvements to cataloging, reports, and documentation. Also included was an instructional session on the Git software repository. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Users Gather Online for 2022 Conference. The Evergreen International Conference 2022 drew 225 attendees for three days of presentations and discussions online in June. The conference featured two tracks with 31 sessions and was preceded by a day of in-depth pre-conference sessions. A virtual exhibit hall was also included. The average attendee participated in over nine sessions. [Full Announcement].

Localization is focus of new Evergreen ILS Release. New localization customizations to improve service and efficiency are the highlights of Evergreen's new Release 3.9, the latest semi-annual software update. Notices can now be generated based on the preferred language of the cardholder. Thirty-one individuals contributed code, translations, documentations, patches, and tests to this release of Evergreen, and 22 organizations supported or contributed to the release. [Full Announcement].

Shaping The Future at Evergreen Conference in June. The 2022 Evergreen International Online Conference will be held June 13 - 16, offering three days of presentations and discussions for users of the Evergreen system and those interested in finding out more about the software and its community. Registration is now open, with the early bird discount ending on April 18. Shaping the Future is the theme for this year's conference, fitting since librarians using Evergreen design and produce the open source system for the library community. [Full Announcement].

Usability Improvements in New Evergreen ILS Release. Usability and interface improvements highlight Evergreen's new Release 3.8, the latest semi-annual software update. Patron notes, messages and alerts are now in an improved consolidated interface for better service. Acquisitions also enjoys interface improvements via a more modern interface and other usability improvements including a new fund administration interface. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Users gather online for 2021 Conference. The Evergreen International Conference 2021 drew 326 attendees for three days of presentations and discussions online in late May. The conference featured two tracks with 31 sessions and was preceded by a day of in-depth pre-conference sessions. A virtual exhibit hall was also included. The average time spent by a conference attendee at the main conference was 20.5 hours, showing very high engagement in the topics. The conference's keynote address was by Becky Yoose, the founder of and Library Data Privacy Consultant for LDH Consulting Services. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Conference Registration Opens. The 2021 Evergreen International Conference will be held online May 25th through May 27th and registration is now open. The Evergreen community will gather for presentations and a virtual exhibit hall. A pre-conference with more intensive sessions will be held on May 24th. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Release Adds Curbside Pickup, Course Reserves. The largest new Evergreen release in years provides important new functionality for all types of libraries, including new curbside pickup and course materials modules. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Hack-A-Way moves online. The Evergreen community is proud to announce that the ninth annual Evergreen Hack-A-Way will be conducted entirely online using the Hopin (hopin.to) platform. More robust than a simple meeting platform, Hopin allows for participant-driven events that are both pre-planned and that allow attendees to create their own sessions on the fly. Traditionally the Hack-A-Way has been held in-person. The current COVID-19 situation has presented the community with an opportunity. [Full Announcement].

Curbside Pickup Now Available for Evergreen ILS. Equinox Open Library Initiative announces the availability of Curbside Pickup for libraries using Evergreen ILS. The latest feature was designed and developed by Equinox team members Sally Fortin, Andrea Buntz Neiman, Galen Charlton, and Mike Rylander. Development funding was provided by the Pennsylvania Integrated Library System (PaILS), which oversees SPARK, an Evergreen consortium in the state of Pennsylvania. [Full Announcement].

New Evergreen Release 3.5. Evergreen Release 3.5 is now available. The latest semi-annual release upgrades several important functions. [Full Announcement].

Online Evergreen Conference Expands Participation. The first Evergreen International Online Conference drew over 350 registrants for the June 9 through 11 event. Always quick to adapt, the open source community of Evergreen users moved to an online conference as a late substitution for the in-person Evergreen International Conference that had been scheduled for April in Atlanta but was cancelled due to the pandemic. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Helps Libraries Cope With Pandemic Changes. Features in the Evergreen library system software are assisting libraries using Evergreen cope with the evolving service landscape forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Evergreen’s Emergency Closing Handler enables libraries to quickly and easily shift due dates and hold shelf expiry dates to the next day the library is open and not increment fines while the library is closed. Settings can be different for different branches and locations in a library system. The Evergreen system can also extend patron expiration dates and hold expiration, presently requiring separate administrator actions, but targeted for adding to the Emergency Closing Handler in a later release. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Contributors of the Month. The Evergreen open source library system reflects the labor of thousands of library systems using it and improving it. Appropriately, each month the Evergreen community recognizes one of its contributors as Contributor of the Month. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen release adds new features, updates infrastructure. Evergreen Release 3.4 is now available, and the software update adds features for users as well as library staff. The most dramatic addition for users is the implementation of book carousels, displaying book cover images on the public catalog home page that can be animated or static, and can be updated manually or automatically maintained. [Full Announcement].

Evergreen Names New Core Committers. The Evergreen library system community named two new core committers at their recent Evergreen International Conference, Jane Sandberg of Linn-Benton Community College and Jason Boyer of the Indiana State Library. The 13 active core committers are entrusted with the responsibility of approving new code for Evergreen's semi-annual releases. [Full Announcement].