Evergreen ILS is an open source “homegrown library system” that focuses on being user friendly for both library staff and patrons alike. One of the major shortcomings noted during ILS surveys, was a systems ability to meet the needs of the patrons, which is one of the character strengths of this system.
The system interfaces with Firefox and offers features such a spell-check for searches (as with other popular search engines), capability of allowing the use of multiple sites open at once, grouping of titles and formats (for the same) source information together, browsing by subjects, authors, and series to find related books easily from the title you’re currently viewing.
According to Library Journal, Evergreen’s catalog also allows access to Online Public Access Catalog improves patrons’ ability to manage their accounts. They can see which books are checked out, renew books and place holds, and create “bookbags,” reading lists that can be shared with others” (2006).
For staff functionalities, Wikipedia contends that Evergreen’s features include “Cataloging: add items to the library’s collection and input information, classifying and indexing those items. Acquisitions: for staff to keep track of those materials purchased; invoices, purchase orders, selection lists, etc. [and] Statistical Reporting: flexible, powerful reporting for retrieval of any statistical information stored in the database” (2011).
I would recommend Evergreen for a K-12 library as it is focused on moving forward with the concept of “cloud computing” as a company and is an open source ILS, which intuitively seems like a better choice than a proprietary ILS.
