A New Catalog is Blooming!

Chelmsford Library has done a super job informing patrons of their upcoming new catalog and anticipating concerns they may have about it:

Should I print out copies of My Lists, My Holds and My Searches?
No, you shouldn’t need to. We’re confident that all this data will migrate to Evergreen just fine. But if it would make you feel more comfortable, then go ahead and print the information that is most important to you, such as items checked out, your holds list, My List titles, etc. in order to ensure that you have a backup of that information.

Why did you spend money on a new catalog during these tough economic times?
Since our old catalog was no longer supported, a change had to be made. MVLC and other library networks in Massachusetts formed MassLNC, and together we are all adopting the Evergreen catalog. The new open source software allows us to do that at significantly lower costs – it eliminates the costs of yearly software license renewals, distributes development costs amongst multiple library systems, and also puts us more in control of future developments. Which, in fact, is one of our primary concerns: Horizon was old and outdated, and Evergreen provides us with the ability to expand and update the catalog to meet patrons’ needs for many years to come.

I suppose it’s not too much of a surprise that libraries are sometimes poor at managing change. I like Chelmsford’s approach for going beyond just ‘this is happening’ to anticipating the specific questions people may have. Beyond that, I admire that they addressed the tough but inevitable money-question right up front in a clear, thoughtful, and non-dramatic way. I hope their migration to Evergreen goes smoothly and I am looking forward to test driving their new catalog.