August 2024 Librarian of the Month

by Elise Aiello on Aug 20, 2024

Every month ByWater Solutions recognizes a librarian that has made an impact on their library and community. We are happy to announce the August 2024 Librarian(s) of the Month are Shane Spears & Beth Cason of the Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County in Alabama! Shane and Beth were nominated by Teresa Kiser, Director of the Anniston-Calhoun County Library. Teresa praised Shane and Beth for their countless contributions to the library's successful implementation of Koha and the various projects they have been involved in. Teresa said,

They led the charge in migrating our ILS system to Koha in 2016 and quickly made customizations that helped the staff and patrons navigate the new system, which included a custom OPAC GUI for the patrons. When the Library received an LSTA grant in 2020 to start a Library of Things, Shane and Beth worked together to make the necessary system changes to Koha to incorporate this new collection, including local cover photos for every object. In 2021, as the Library's Bookmobile routes were revamped, Shane and Beth worked together to add Bookmobile Stops to patron records by using Koha's patron attribute types. This makes it incredibly simple to find patrons associated with specific stops to alert them to any delays or Bookmobile news. Most recently when patron application forms were updated, Shane and Beth again worked together to create a permission modal in Koha, which prompts staff to check if a child needs a parent present to check out materials (as indicated on the updated forms).

Thank you, Beth and Shane for all you do! And Congratulations!

Do you have a staff member at your branch that you would like to nominate for ByWater's Librarian of the Month? We love to feature library staff members that are impacting their patrons, are valued members of the library team, and who go the extra mile in the open source and library community. Email us and let us know who they are, brag about all their accomplishments and we'll share it!

About ByWater Solutions

ByWater Solutions is a full-service, high-quality Open Source support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their systems than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first-rate implementation and support services with library systems of all sizes for the Koha ILS, Aspen Discovery, Folio LSP, Coral ERM, and Libki PC Management.

Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions not only lowers the cost of implementation and maintenance of OSS but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit https://bywatersolutions.com.