Migration and Setup

Migration and Setup

Timeline

Establish a timeline with realistic goals and milestones. Carefully consider staff and volunteer time for both learning and implementing the system.

Weed Your Collection

The CREW Method provides guidance to librarians and staff in small and medium sized public libraries about how to cull outdated and no longer useful materials from their collections. Click here to visit the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Preparing Your Data

Barcodes

In Maine the practice is for all libraries to use 14 digit barcodes. Libraries reserve the 2nd through 4th digit for their own barcode (typically the zip code for their town). Reserve your barcode with the Maine Barcode Symbol Registry.

Technology Needs

Since the Evergreen program lives in the cloud it doesn’t demand much in the way of your local computers.

    • Internet connection Main School and Library Network (MSLN): http://www.msln.net/contact.php
    • Circulation computer with scanner
    • Cataloging computer with scanner
    • Public access computer (optional, but very useful)
    • Printer for staff
    • Printer for patrons (optional, but very useful)
    • Web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
    • Zoom (video conferencing software with screen sharing capabilities)
    • Spreadsheet program: Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, Google Sheets (this requires users to register for a Gmail email account)

We would be happy to discuss these in more detail with your local IT support person.

System Configurations

The Evergreen system allows for a lot of customization and configuration. Here are some things to think about and be prepared to implement:

 

Your library Information

Library Name
Hours of Operations
Phone
Email
Main Contact

Circulation Policies

Circulation policies pull together user, library, and item data to determine how library materials circulate, such as: which patrons, from what libraries can borrow what types of materials, for how long, and with what overdue fines.

Check out times and renewals
How long can an item be checked out?
How many renewals are permitted?

Fines
Will you charge fines?
What is the daily fine rate?
What is the maximum fine?

Patrons
Whether you will be migrating patron records from a previous system or entering them from scratch, best practices are to gather full names, physical address, phone number, and email. Evergreen will email your patrons when items are overdue, when holds ready for pickup, etc.

Patron Types:

    • Resident Adult
    • Non Resident Adult
    • Resident Juvenile
    • Non Resident Juvenile
    • Student
    • Faculty/Teacher
    • Staff

Locations

Shelving locations represent where in the library an item can be found and also how long items can circulate (ex: DVDs circulate for 1 week and are located in the DVD location). Public libraries are required to submit a Maine Public Libraries Annual Report with the Maine State Library. For that report, you will need to identify adult materials versus juvenile materials and print (books and journals) versus media (DVDs, audiobooks).

Many of our libraries use a location naming scheme like this:

    • Adult Fiction
    • Adult Non-Fiction
    • Juvenile Fiction
    • Juvenile Non-fiction
    • Adult DVD
    • Juvenile DVD
    • Adult audiobooks
    • Juvenile audiobooks
    • New

    1. Sign in to your Google Account.
    2. Click https://groups.google.com/a/maineinfonet.org/forum/#!forum/mainebalsam
      1. If you don’t have a Google Account, you can create anew account for free https://www.google.com/account/about/
      2. You can also use an existing email account to create a new Google Account https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/27441