North Star Library Consortium

Consortium History and Update - Oct 2008

Page history last edited by Ruth Solie 1 yr ago

The North Star Library Consortium

Serving Minnesota School and Special Libraries

http://nlln.org/northstar.html http://northstarcatalog.org

History

The North Star Library Consortium (NSLC) grew out of collaboration in 2003, between the Northern Lights Library Network (NLLN) and two small school districts in northwest Minnesota, looking for new approaches to effective media center management. In 2004, with the aid of an Enhancing Education Through Technology (E2T2) grant, the Consortium became a joint project of NLLN and Region 1 in Moorhead, MN to provide a web-based, centrally hosted, library management program for school and special libraries in the NLLN/Region 1 area. Follett’s Destiny was selected as the software to utilize for the Consortium and membership began to grow. At the end of the E2T2 grant in 2005, the Consortium had 63 member libraries on the Destiny system hosted at Region 1. The bibliographic and patron records for each library had been cleaned, converted, migrated and their staff had been trained in the use of Destiny in a collaborative learning environment.

Since that beginning, the Consortium has continued to grow in membership, with the members enjoying the benefits of ongoing training sessions and professional development, with software user support via a webpage, listserv, online technical help, Follett support, and staff development opportunities provided by NLLN. In addition, Region 1 provides a secure hosted environment for the members, with on-going data backup, state-of-the-art technology, and a highly trained technical staff. The Destiny software application is upgraded twice a year to ensure that members have access to the most comprehensive version available.

In April 2008, the Consortium had grown to 86 member libraries with a shared catalog containing over a million copy records and 46,000 patrons doing more than a million circulation transactions each year. While each member library customizes and maintains the look and feel of their Destiny application, the Consortium has created a community of users and an effective support network for professional growth and development.

Current Developments

In April 2008, another E2T2 grant was received by Region 1, NLLN, and CMLE. This grant will be used in FY09 and FY10 to:

1. Convert the Consortium from one large shared catalog, to a centrally administered, distributed system providing a shared catalog within each school district/special library in the Consortium. This conversion to the Follett Consortium model gives greater autonomy to individual school districts while still providing the cost effectiveness and technical support of a hosted software solution.

2. Membership was extended out from the NLLN/Region 1 area to include the schools and special libraries of the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE) area, based in St Cloud.

3. Grant funds will be used to underwrite Destiny licensing costs and training for all new Consortium members, and to provide a series of staff development opportunities for all Consortium members over the course of 2 years.

4. The Consortium has worked with Follett to establish Consortium pricing for Destiny licenses, for ongoing support, and for additional subscription services. These cost savings are available to all Consortium members.

5. The Consortium supports the staff in member libraries by means of frequent staff development opportunities, as well as a dedicated listserv, webpage, and other on-line resources.

Current Statistics (October 2008)

111 member libraries (58 Districts)

1.3 million copy records – and growing every day

Materials valued at $21 million +

63,104 patrons

Current Process for Joining the Consortium

1. Request a Letter of Understanding from Bob Wheeler at Region 1. This will give your district specific information about the initial costs of migrating to the Consortium, as well as hosting costs for Region 1 and ongoing Destiny software support costs from Follett. This information can be used to make your decision. Returning a signed Letter of Understanding to Region 1 will begin the process of joining the Consortium.

2. After the Letter of Understanding has been signed and returned to Region 1, Follett will follow up with a request to the District for a purchase order for Destiny.

3. Implementation will be done by Follett on a timeline established by Follett and the NSLC. Generally there will be 2 implementation cycles per year – one in Fall/Winter and one in Spring/Summer. Follett’s customer representative will contact the District and begin the process and outline the necessary steps that are involved for full implementation.

4. After a District’s bibliographic and patron records have been extracted, cleaned up, enhanced, converted, and migrated to Destiny at Region 1, a 2-day training will be conducted in use of the Destiny software. The cost of this training is included in the Consortium membership.

5. Libraries already using Destiny in the NLLN/CMLE regions who would like to join the Consortium will be migrated to the Region 1 site for a one-time fee and will be able to take advantage of the Consortium pricing for on-going Follett software support costs and additional subscriptions for enhanced Destiny services. Request a Letter of Understanding from Bob Wheeler at Region 1 to begin this process.

6. All staff in libraries using Destiny are invited to join the Destiny users listserv and to participate in the on-going staff development activities provided by NLLN and CMLE.

The Future of the NSLC

v We will continue adding new members to the Consortium from the NLLN, CMLE and Region1 areas. We currently have 111 participating libraries and plan to add an additional 30-40 libraries in school years 2009 and 2010.

v Grant funds will be used to lower the new license costs for members who are migrating to Destiny and the Consortium. This will be on a first-come basis and will go initially to districts in the NLLN and CMLE regions.

v We will allow districts in the 3 regions that are already using Destiny, to join the Consortium by migrating their bibliographic and patron databases to the NSLC Destiny software administered by Region 1. There is a one-time cost for the migration, and then on-going annual hosting and software support costs thereafter. This may be a desirable option for those users of Destiny who would like to move to a hosted environment.

v A timeline will be established for expanding the North Star Library Consortium beyond our current 3 regions. It is anticipated that will happen in mid- to late-2009.

Online Information about the North Star Library Consortium:

http://northstarcatalog.org

http://nlln.org/northstar.html

http://nslc.pbwiki.com

Contact information for the North Star Library Consortium

Bob Wheeler, Director of Region 1

bob@region1.k12.mn.us

800-450-2990 218-236-2990

Ruth Solie, Director of Northern Lights Library Network (NLLN)

rsolie@nlln.org

800-450-10132 218-487-2825

Patricia Post, Director of Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE)