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Evergreen’s code is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.

Evergreen release timeline

Release	Date
1.0	September 2006
1.2	July 2007
1.4	January 2009
1.6.0	November 2009
1.6.1	June 2010
2.0	January 2011

Steady pace of releases featuring enhancements over time; so what’s not in 2.0?

Configurable - Blessing / Curse

Before you ask, almost everything in Evergreen is configurable; too configurable, perhaps…

Public catalogue features

Added content (cover images, reviews, etc) from many sources:
- OpenLibrary (default, cover images, tables of content)
- ChiliFresh (reviews)
- ContentCafe (reviews)
- Syndetic (cover images, reviews, author biographies, notes)
- Google Books (full or partial previews)
- Amazon (cover images)
Improved faceting:
- Displays record counts for each facet
- Selection is ANDed to current search
- Facets derived predictably from records returned in search results

Public catalogue - Basic search

Public catalogue - Advanced search

Search with truncation operators ("child*")
Search with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Public catalogue - Features (2)

Display of arbitrary MARC data (BibTemplate) in search results and record details

Patrons can update their own contact information, reset their passwords
Call number browse normalized to per-library classification scheme (Dewey and LC supported out of the box)
Missing: a full-featured catalogue suitable for low-bandwidth connections or Internet Explorer
- There is agreement in principle amongst developers that addressing this is a high priority
Missing: significant social features such as patron-generated reviews, ratings
- There is some exploratory code in this area outside of 2.0; see this Access 2010 presentation

Cataloguing - Authorities

Categories of authorities:
- Author: 100‡a, 110‡a, 111‡a
- Subject: 148‡a, 150‡a, 151‡a, 155‡a
- Title: 130‡a
- Topic: 150‡a
Changes to an authority propagate to linked bibliographic records
A script is available to link bibliographic records against authorities

Importing authorities

Authorities in MARC or MARCXML format can be imported via the MARC Batch Import/Export tool
Duplicate authorities are prevented by default

Managing authorities

Editing an authority record

Actions → Edit opens the authority record in a MARC editor:

Editing an authority record: result

Merging authority records

Action → Merge enables you to merge two or more authority records
Linked bibliographic records get linked to the master authority record

Controlling fields manually

Fields in bibliographic records that are controlled by an authority record will be linked via a $0 subfield per MARC rules
Right-clicking a field in the MARC Editor triggers an alphabetical browse of available authority records, including 4xx and 5xx matches
Ability to create an authority record on the fly
Missing: linkage between authority records (5xx)

Browsing authority records

The classic MARC editor offers an authority browser on controllable fields

Cataloguing - Serials

Not just one, but two user-friendly interfaces for predicting and receiving serials
- And one raw MFHD interface for the hardcore
Procedure:
1. Create a subscription
2. Add the captions and patterns for the serial
3. Add a distribution with a copy attribute template
4. Create one issuance for that combination of subscription and distribution
5. Generate predictions starting from that issuance
6. Receive the issues

Serials - Enumeration wizard

Serials - Chronology wizard

Serials - Frequency wizard

images/serial_pattern_compress_frequency.png

Serials - Predictions

Once you have a pattern, you can generate predictions!

Serials - Check in

Once you have predicted issues and created a copy template, you can receive serials

Serials - Missing in action

Some important functionality is still missing in action:

Serials claiming has not yet been implemented
Display of records with hundreds of barcoded issues is a problem (Art Rhyno has provided a workaround)
Placing holds on specific issues is only available to staff by default; see also display of records with hundreds of barcoded issues

Cataloguing - Flat-text MARC editor

Switch between flat-text MARC editor and classic editor on the fly

Cataloging - Classification and call numbers

Configurable classification scheme defines default call number selection per library (Dewey, LC, and generic out of the box)
Spine labels
- Configurable call number prefix & suffix per shelving location
- Configurable font and label sizes per library

Copy location editor

Spine label editor

Circulation - Patron registration

Circulation - Rules

Staff client interface for defining duration and fine rules based on criteria including:
- item circulation modifier
- item type, format, videorecording format
- owning library
- circulating library
- reference state
- type of patron
- age of patron

Circulation - Multi-item sets

Missing: ability to catalogue multiple items as a single set (for example, Play harmonica today! consisting of a book, CD, and harmonica)
- Current workaround is to assign just a single barcode to the complete set
Some support, via Mark Missing Pieces at check-in (albeit for only a single barcode)
- Changes item status to 'Damaged'
- Prints an item slip
- Prints a notification letter
- Adds a note to the patron’s record
- Item remains checked out to patron’s account until resolved

Circulation - Mark Missing Pieces

Circulation - Missing pieces (confirm and note)

Circulation - Missing pieces patron note

images/mark_missing_pieces_patron_notes.png

Circulation - Bound-withs

The inverse of the multi-part item is two or more separate works bound together in a single item. For example:
- Collections of pamphlets in a single bound volume
- tête-bêche - popular for Canadian bilingual governement documents
- Thousands of books on a single e-reader
Missing: Evergreen currently provides no support for separate bibliographic records that can be linked to a single barcode

Circulation - Hard due dates

Most loan durations are expressed as an interval of time ("2 weeks", "4 hours")
Academics needed a way to set "End of term" due dates, so now hard due dates enable you to
- Set a ceiling for regular loan durations
- Or set due dates for all affected items to the hard due date

Circulation - Holds

Optional first-in, first algorithm (new) vs. classic "minimize transit distance" algorithm
Patrons can:
- See estimated wait time, hold queue details
- Cancel and recreate holds
- Change pickup location before the hold is ready for pickup
- Place holds on on-order items
- Create holds from bookbags (KCLS skin?)
Staff can:
- Add custom notes to hold slips
- Force a patron to the front of the queue (for example, if the held item was damaged)
System can be configured to disallow holds for items that are on the shelf

Circulation - Notifications

Out of the box, email, print, and telephone notification is supported (Asterisk PBX server not included)
Pre-defined events that trigger notification include:
- Holds are available or expiring
- Pre-overdue reminders
- Items are overdue or marked as lost
- Password resets
- Self-checkout receipts
- Results of a patron request (ordered, received, cancelled, rejected)

Circulation - Other

Booking
Sets of items
Transaction logging (who accepted payment for what?)
Merge patrons
Delete patrons (anonymizing all transaction history)
Amnesty mode
Built-in self-check supports credit card payments (Canadian usage unknown)
Backdated check-ins retain actual check-in time as well as backdate
Missing: Academic reserves
- But see Syrup for a reserves system implemented by the University of Windsor

Acquisitions

In preview mode since 1.6.0, acquisitions has been unleashed in 2.0.0:
- Funding sources and funds
- Multiple currencies and exchange rates
- Provider (vendor) management

Acquisitions - Funding sources

Acquisitions - Funds

Acquisitions - Providers

Acquisitions - Ordering

There are a number of ways of ordering in Evergreen:
- Manually creating selection lists and invoices
- Generating an EDI ORDERS message (the provider’s ORDRSP can be used to update price and status information)
- Using the provider’s selection interface and loading their MARC order records
EDI has been tested so far with:
- Baker & Taylor
- Brodart
- Midwest Tapes
- Ingram
Missing: Good (any?) documentation on how to use most of the advanced features in acquisitions

Integration

Z39.50 client for copy cataloguing
SRU and Z39.50 server interfaces for external clients
SIP server support for self-checkout and authentication
OpenURL support:
- Basic SFX target parser
- Cached SFX lookups for electronic resource display in search results (post-2.0 but available now)
Missing: ability to delegate authentication to an external service (LDAP, OpenID, Shibboleth, etc)

Documentation

Team co-led by Robert Soulliere at Mohawk College has produced a solid draft for 1.6.0
- Full HTML and PDF versions available
Staff client supports separate help page for each staff client interface
Missing:
- 2.0 documentation
- Actual help content

Support channels

A number of commercial companies offer support, hosting, and custom development services
The mailing lists are quite active for general questions, some technical support. In the past year:
- 1,717 general messages
- 1,103 development-oriented messages
The Internet Relay Channel is a good source of hardcore technical support
Third annual conference is being held in Atlanta, Georgia in April 2011

Independence and governance

Development team features a more diverse mix of active committers:
- Currently 4/9 from outside of Equinox (arguably 2/7)
Increasing quantity of patches contributed by, and bugs opened and answered by, the community
Community has self-organized into a number of ad-hoc teams / committees:
- Developer team
- Communications / Web team
- Documentation team
- Reports committee
- Conference committee
Governance committee was struck at the 2010 Evergreen Conference
- Currently working on forming a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the Software Freedom Conservancy
- Has also held healthy debates about how the governance committee should renew itself, what membership means, etc

Evergreen 2.0: what doesn’t it have?