Derby Public Library Chooses Koha ZOOM and YakPac

The Library's database of over 85,000 items will be hosted off-site at one of LibLime's secure data centers. The Library has also contracted with LibLime for data migration, support and training on their Koha system.

Named a "Top 10 Town for Families" by Family Circle magazine and a "Best Place to Retire" by U.S. News & World Report (2007), Derby is home to over 22,000 residents.

"Koha puts us on the cutting edge of technology in library automation software," says Debbie Thomas, User Support Services Coordinator for the library.

Debbie identifies several other factors that led their library to choose Koha ZOOM: "With Koha, we aren’t getting a 'one size fits all' product. Koha is adaptable to our needs and preferences. Koha's web-based interfaces were a must, as was the option to have LibLime update and maintain our system for us. Finally, Koha is affordable."  

The Library has also selected YakPac , an innovative 'kids only' OPAC that features a safe chat for kids and an integrated meta-search that retrieves 'kid safe' websites from a human-edited database.

"We currently have a kids' catalog and it is used heavily by our young patrons.  It was imperative that our new system have this feature," Debbie explains.

She adds: "We are excited about the new look for our catalog that will be available to our library patrons by the end of 2008."

About Derby Public Library

Located in the southeast Wichita metropolitan area, Derby is home to over 22,000 residents and a wide range of retail, service and manufacturing businesses. Well-known for its outstanding school system and great recreational programs, Derby offers the best of small-town values combined with the resources of a growing community. In 2007, Derby was named a "Top 10 Town for Families" by Family Circle magazine and a "Best Place to Retire" by U.S. News & World Report.  Construction on new library building will begin soon.  The new library will be 4 times the current space to meet the needs of the library's growing community.  The additional space will allow room for new collections and programming space along with a computer lab and study rooms. 

About Koha ZOOM

Koha ZOOM is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source integrated library system. Notably, it includes a powerful search engine based on Zebra, a high-performance indexing and retrieval engine. Koha ZOOM's search engine can read structured records in practically any input format (e.g., email, XML, MARC) and allows access to them through exact boolean search expressions and relevance-ranked free-text queries. It supports large databases (more than ten gigabytes of data, tens of millions of records) as well as incremental, safe database updates on live systems.

To try out Koha ZOOM for yourself, visit LibLime's demos:

http://liblime.com/demos

About YakPac

Created by Index Data, YakPac achieves fun and functionality that go well beyond any other kid's OPAC currently available. YakPac's innovative 'safe chat'  was developed in response to analysis that indicated that kids were more likely to consult with peer groups to find information than use a standard library catalog. The chat even shows what other users are searching at the moment, and highlights interesting search terms in the chat window. YakPac features a fun interactive interface and tools for organization and self-expression like Book Shelves and Book Reviews.  YakPac can be adapted to work with any Integrated Library System.

To try out YakPac for yourself, visit the demo:
http://yakpac.liblime.com/

About LibLime

LibLime is the global leader in open-source solutions for libraries, with a mission to make open source accessible to libraries. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, LibLime educates libraries about the benefits of open source, enabling them to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. LibLime then facilitates implementation of open-source in libraries by providing outstanding development, customization, support and training solutions--solutions tailored to each library's needs. For more information, see http://liblime.com.

Use of open source not only lowers the per-library cost of running software, it also empowers libraries with a higher level of control over customization and the overall direction of software development.

Press Contact:

Tina Burger

Vice President, Marketing LibLime

(888)Koha ILS (564-2457)

tnb@liblime.com