Library Technology Guides

Statistical Report for Polaris

2013 Survey Results	2012 Survey Results	2011 Survey Results	2010 Survey Results	2009 Survey Results	2008 Survey Results	2007 Survey Results
Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 138 1 9 10 34 49 35 8 7.63 8 ILS Functionality 138 3 6 12 36 51 30 8 7.54 8 Print Functionality 136 2 2 2 8 7 19 52 44 8 7.65 8 Electronic Functionality 136 3 3 3 6 8 19 22 22 36 14 8 6.28 7 Company Satisfaction 136 1 1 11 7 27 46 43 8 7.70 8 Support Satisfaction 137 3 2 11 9 30 41 41 8 7.54 8 Support Improvement 135 1 1 4 2 32 15 22 27 31 5 6.83 7 Company Loyalty 137 2 1 3 3 8 8 23 29 60 9 7.62 8 Open Source Interest 134 60 18 20 8 5 13 3 5 2 0 1.78 1 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 143 1 0.70% Considering new Interface 143 15 10.49% System Installed on time? 143 131 91.61% Average Collection size: 532870 Type Count Public 118 Academic 11 School 1 Consortia 0 Special 1 Size Category Count [1] Under 10,000 2 [2] 10,001-100,000 57 [3] 100,001-250,000 42 [4] 250,001-1,000,000 18 [5] 1,000,001-10,000,000 16 [6] over 10,000,001 1	Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 152 2 4 8 29 64 45 8 7.87 8 ILS Functionality 152 1 1 4 8 54 51 33 7 7.62 8 Print Functionality 0 0 7.62 Electronic Functionality 0 0 7.62 Company Satisfaction 151 2 2 1 6 9 17 60 54 8 7.83 8 Support Satisfaction 152 1 3 2 5 11 44 44 42 7 7.52 8 Support Improvement 144 2 3 8 50 19 17 16 29 5 6.37 6 Company Loyalty 152 1 1 2 14 3 21 24 86 9 7.97 9 Open Source Interest 149 50 19 23 22 12 10 8 3 1 1 0 2.11 2 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 161 2 1.24% Considering new Interface 161 6 3.73% System Installed on time? 161 150 93.17% Average Collection size: 411671 Type Count Public 140 Academic 8 School 1 Consortia 0 Special 2 Size Category Count [1] Under 10,000 2 [2] 10,001-100,000 54 [3] 100,001-250,000 43 [4] 250,001-1,000,000 27 [5] 1,000,001-10,000,000 27 [6] over 10,000,001 0	Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 102 4 1 3 3 19 37 35 8 7.77 8 ILS Functionality 102 1 4 8 20 46 23 8 7.71 8 Print Functionality 0 0 7.71 Electronic Functionality 0 0 7.71 Company Satisfaction 100 1 2 3 2 4 15 36 37 9 7.80 8 Support Satisfaction 100 2 2 4 2 6 22 29 33 9 7.55 8 Support Improvement 97 3 1 2 2 6 23 10 12 18 20 5 6.37 7 Company Loyalty 100 1 2 2 2 2 2 9 28 52 9 7.95 9 Open Source Interest 99 46 12 20 8 2 6 3 1 1 0 1.48 1 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 106 2 1.89% Considering new Interface 106 8 7.55% System Installed on time? 106 101 95.28% Average Collection size: 541249 Type Count Public 91 Academic 3 School 1 Consortia 0 Special 1 Size Category Count [1] Under 10,000 4 [2] 10,001-100,000 39 [3] 100,001-250,000 22 [4] 250,001-1,000,000 20 [5] 1,000,001-10,000,000 15 [6] over 10,000,001 1	Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 101 1 3 2 1 3 17 42 32 8 7.77 8 ILS Functionality 0 0 7.77 Print Functionality 0 0 7.77 Electronic Functionality 0 0 7.77 Company Satisfaction 100 2 2 6 3 14 32 41 9 7.83 8 Support Satisfaction 101 1 4 1 4 3 18 30 40 9 7.74 8 Support Improvement 100 1 1 2 3 17 11 6 33 26 8 7.11 8 Company Loyalty 100 1 1 1 2 4 6 8 25 52 9 7.92 9 Open Source Interest 100 41 13 17 6 6 5 5 4 1 2 0 1.98 1 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 104 6 5.77% Considering new Interface 104 10 9.62% System Installed on time? 104 99 95.19% Average Collection size: 356804 Type Count Public 92 Academic 6 School 0 Consortia 0 Special 0 Size Category Count [1] Under 10,000 2 [2] 10,001-100,000 33 [3] 100,001-250,000 20 [4] 250,001-1,000,000 17 [5] 1,000,001-10,000,000 9 [6] over 10,000,001 0	Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 92 1 1 2 1 1 13 52 21 8 7.79 8 ILS Functionality 0 0 7.79 Print Functionality 0 0 7.79 Electronic Functionality 0 0 7.79 Company Satisfaction 92 1 1 1 4 4 6 48 27 8 7.80 8 Support Satisfaction 91 2 1 2 1 1 17 45 22 8 7.68 8 Support Improvement 87 3 1 1 3 13 12 8 29 17 8 6.83 8 Company Loyalty 91 3 1 1 1 5 2 5 37 36 8 7.68 8 Open Source Interest 90 27 21 13 2 6 10 4 3 3 1 0 2.28 1 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 92 6 6.52% Considering new Interface 92 6 6.52% System Installed on time? 92 85 92.39%	Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 51 2 3 4 5 21 16 8 7.73 8 ILS Functionality 0 0 7.73 Print Functionality 0 0 7.73 Electronic Functionality 0 0 7.73 Company Satisfaction 51 4 3 2 5 15 22 9 7.76 8 Support Satisfaction 51 1 4 4 3 8 11 20 9 7.41 8 Support Improvement 0 not applicable Company Loyalty 52 3 1 1 2 1 2 3 14 25 9 7.33 8 Open Source Interest 51 15 13 6 3 2 7 1 1 3 0 2.29 1 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 53 5 9.43% Considering new Interface 53 3 5.66% System Installed on time? 53 48 90.57%	Product: Polaris Response Distribution Statistics Category Responses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mode Mean Median ILS Satisfaction 59 1 1 1 5 12 18 21 9 7.78 8 ILS Functionality 0 0 7.78 Print Functionality 0 0 7.78 Electronic Functionality 0 0 7.78 Company Satisfaction 64 1 1 3 2 11 20 26 9 7.89 8 Support Satisfaction 64 1 3 2 8 17 33 9 8.11 9 Support Improvement 0 not applicable Company Loyalty 63 2 2 2 3 5 7 18 24 9 7.49 8 Open Source Interest 62 20 11 11 3 5 4 2 3 1 2 0 2.27 2 Category Total Yes percent Considering new ILS 64 1 1.56% Considering new Interface 64 2 3.13% System Installed on time? 64 1 1.56%

Comments

- (Type: Public)

I take [...] advice as expert, if the recommended any changes, I would go with their decisions completely. (Type: Public)

87,700 items are ebooks (Type: Academic)

Polaris Library Systems has managed to increase their staff and customer support and maintained their core values to the benefit of the customers. (Type: Consortium)

2010 census says population chartered to serve is 50,947 (Type: Public)

We just started with Polaris, have not been live a week, so our satisfaction is not graded upon Polaris really but upon training and how good we are getting along with it. We came from Follett, so Polaris is like moving to Mars, it's great, but nobody knows anything here yet. :) I wish we could have afforded more training. We are going into some areas (reports and overdues, notices, etc. totally blind, but our coordinator is supreme and helps us patiently and completely.) They are VERY good over there. I may have sunk ourselves with this decision and gone too big too fast. (Type: Public)

Consortium not considering changing ILS. If we were forced to, though, would consider both closed and open source ILS products. But not SirsiDynix; never again. I'm not sure I've ever seen a bridge burned quite so thoroughly in all of my days. (Type: Public)

We use Polaris, but don't host it ourselves. This causes significant lags due to the remote connection. Most of our problems comes from the lags. The product itself is fine, though not the most user friendly. (Type: Public)

We just migrated to Polaris [...] (Type: Public)

Polaris is managed by the [...] , utilized and supported by the [...] . I have nothing to do with the company or the contract. (Type: Public)

We are very happy that we've migrated from Horizon to Polaris. The management at SirsiDynix, after we selected Polaris, acted in a completely despicable manner, send emails and PowerPoints to our mayor and board. I highly recommend anyone considering SirsiDynix to reconsider. Their behavior has been deplorable at best threatening at worst. (Type: Public)

Open Source is not an option without a full-time programmer to customize such an ILS. Having the necessary staff with this level of technical expertise is not an option in the forseeable budget. (Type: Public)

Very very impressed with Polaris. (Type: Academic)

The [...] relies heavily on Polaris's customer service and technical support. Only with additional staff funding could we truly consider switching to an open source ILS solution. (Type: Public)

Left Sirsi. Never looked back. (Type: Public)

[...] (Type: Public)

Offsite authentications is an issue for the college. As the interface between our ILS and authentication system, EZ Proxy, is very cumbersome. The college is currently looking for a more streamlined process to give offsite access to resources. (Type: Medical)

Polaris continues to support us in a timely manner. They also are introducing new products that will enable us to check out materials to citizens remotely, which is something we anticipate eagerly. Integration with 3M ebooks into the catalog was a little challenging, but it is now functioning smoothly. (Type: Public)

We added our ebooks and e-audiobooks to our catalog. (Type: Public)

[...] (Type: Public)

New support tools seems to be helping improve customer support. Better handling of difficult problems and real issues more likely to be classified as bugs when appropriate. (Type: Consortium)

We had the worst launch of an ILS I have ever encountered. On "go live" day a number of crucial 3rd party applications did not work. We were given bad information by the sales team about what additional products (Polaris, not 3rd party) would work with a hosted site. It has been a long battle to get everything up and working correctly. (Type: Public)

We just migrated to Polaris on April 3, 2013. Our new link to our catalog is [...] We are no longer a member of the [...] consortium. (Type: Public)

[...] provides Polaris support internally. (Type: Public)

We personally do not run the system, our library head quarter does that... they also put the system into place, we only benefit from it and wouldn't choose to use anything different from what they use for us. We couldn't ever find our own provider. So what HQ does is fine with us. And it is them that look after us, not the provider of the ILS. (Type: Public)

- (Type: Public)

The library migrated from the homegrown Endeca discovery platform (website/catalog combo) to a SharePoint 2013 website and the Polaris PowerPAC on September 30, 2013. (Type: Public)

We migrated in October 2013, and so far have been pleased with our change. Polaris is more cost effective for our size of library, and offers more functionality than our previous ILS. (Type: Public)

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Library Technology Guides is a service provided by Marshall Breeding, independent consultant, author, and speaker.