April 5th 2010
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions’ Nicole C. Engard to Present at the Computers in Libraries 2010 Conference in Arlington VA.

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, is proud to announce that Nicole C. Engard will be presenting at this year’s Computers in Libraries Conference in Arlington Virginia.

Nicole will be part of two Workshops; Implementing Library Mashups, on Sunday 4/11 from 9am to 12pm, and New and Open Source Tools, on Wednesday, 4/14 from 10:30 to 11:30am.

In the Implementing Library Mashups workshop, attendees will learn what mashups are, how they can be used, and see examples from libraries around the world. Attendees will learn about tools they can use to mash up library data with content from the web to reach more patrons. By the end of the half-day workshop attendees will have hands on experience creating mashups for their libraries.

Later in the week, at the New and Open Source Tools workshop Nicole will present with Darlene Fichter listing free, open source and inexpensive tools that will save web content providers time, pain, or both. Many of the tools can be used by anyone regardless of their tech know-how. Nicole will emphasize open source tools, whose source code are made available for use or modification, and provides links to a toolbox full of freely available open source products to use in libraries.

Nicole will also be signing copies of her book, “Library Mashups: Exploring new ways to deliver library data” during the Opening Reception of the conference on April 12th from 5:00 to 5:45pm at the Information Today Booth (#822).

Nicole has been a pillar of the Koha community since 2008 and acts as documentation manager for the project. In 2009 Nicole signed on with ByWater Solutions as Director of Open Source Education, and is well known outside of the Koha community as a speaker, teacher and writer. She has also been recognized as one of Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers for 2007.

About CIL 2010:
The focus of the Computers in Libraries 2010 conference is on leading-edge technology that is building information fluency, transforming library operations, enabling information products and services, and redefining roles within all types and sizes of library and information services. The program presents hundreds of opportunities for librarians and information professionals to learn and develop cutting edge skills, highlighting exciting new online initiatives and innovations in all types of information enterprises. The multifaceted program is designed to meet the needs of librarians, information managers, systems professionals, webmasters and web managers content evaluators, intranet strategists, portal creators and information specialists. For more information, please visit: www.infotoday.com/cil2010/

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems such as Koha and Evergreen. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com

March 30th 2010
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions Welcomes Ian Walls as Lead Development Specialist

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company is proud to welcome Ian Walls as their Lead Development Specialist. Ian will be overseeing all in house and third party development projects, as well as assisting in the support of ByWater’s existing customers. He is an active participant in the Koha community and is currently the Vice President of the Koha users and developers group, KUDOS.

While earning his MLIS and MS in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island, Ian worked as a graduate assistant, both for the library school and for the Web Development Group, where he got his first exposure to open source software while working with WordPress Mu. During this time he also worked as a reference assistant at the URI Library.

In June 2008, Ian joined the NYU Health Sciences Libraries as their Systems Integration Librarian. “We had been unhappy with our existing ILS for some time” Ian stated, “and on Sept. 1, after a migration period of 3 months, we went live with our new catalogue, HSLCat. While I was able to do the configuration and migration myself, we needed some assistance with training our staff on how to use Koha. After getting a few quotes, we decided to go with ByWater Solutions. This was the beginning of my relationship with the company.”

Ian commented on his recent decision to join the ByWater Solutions team; “I’m very excited to be signing on with ByWater as their Lead Development Specialist. Not only will I get to work daily with the global community to make Koha better, but I get to do so with a company that really fits well with me personally. Their emphases on customer service as well as their fundamental belief in open source are things about ByWater that really appeal to me.”

“We are overjoyed to have Ian on board” stated Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater Solutions. “Ian’s enthusiasm for open source technology is contagious, and he impresses us on a daily basis with his skills as a developer. He has the ability to speak to customers about very technical issues at level everyone can understand regardless of their familiarity with the technology.”

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems such as Koha and Evergreen. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha and Evergreen communities for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha and Evergreen ILSs. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com

March 25th 2010
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

The American Alpine Club Library Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Implementation

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that the American Alpine Club, of Golden, CO. has partnered with them for the installation and support of the community version of the Koha integrated library system.

Beth Heller, Preservation Librarian and the American Alpine Club commented on their decision to switch to ByWater Solutions and Koha:

“Open source software provides us with the flexibility and agility to make our catalog responsive to our members’ needs, and to embed it within our new open-source-platform website, which is currently in development.”

“ByWater offered an affordable solution for migration, installation, hosting and support. The fact that key players at ByWater have been deeply involved with the Koha community creates trust that upgrades and trouble-shooting will be timely and effective.”

Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater Solutions stated:

“We are overjoyed to have the opportunity to partner with AAC. Many of us at ByWater are avid outdoors people, so to have the chance to work with such an important mountaineering library is very exciting! The collection they house is a real treasure and we cannot wait to use Koha and open source to organize and present it in the best way possible.”

About the American Alpine Club Library:
Established in 1916, the Henry S. Hall, Jr. American Alpine Club Library is one of the oldest alpine research facilities in the United States, and the largest outside of Europe. A circulating collection of nearly 20,000 books and videos devoted to mountaineering and rock climbing is available for members to borrow. Rare and non-circulating collections include the AAC archives, John M. Boyle Himalayan Library, manuscript collections, photographs, and rare books dating back to the 16th century. The Library has special strengths in American and foreign guidebooks, Mount Everest and the Himalayas, the Alps, and mountaineering history. The collection includes nearly 600 journals from all over the world, and over 500 videos and DVDs. The entire collection is cataloged online on HENRY, the library catalog. For more information, please visit: www.americanalpineclub.org

About Koha:
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circ, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–XHTML, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit
www.koha-community.org

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com