Montgomery County Public Libraries Go Live on Aspen and Koha with ByWater Support

by Kalleen Marquise on Dec 1, 2021

ByWater Solutions, America’s forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced that Montgomery County Public Libraries in Maryland is now live on Aspen Discovery and Koha ILS with ByWater Support. ByWater migrated over 2 million item records from Symphony.

The customized OPAC for the library can be seen here: https://mcpl.aspendiscovery.org/

Anita Vassallo, Director, Montgomery County Public Libraries, recently commented:

Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) is very pleased to have signed with ByWater Solutions for both the Koha ILS and the Aspen Discovery layer. This was our first ILS migration since 1999, and its success resulted from effective collaboration between staff at all levels of our organization and the team at ByWater Solutions. We are proud to be the first multi-branch public library system in Maryland to switch to the Koha open source ILS, and we have already experienced significant benefits as a result of this decision. Our customer interface is much improved, especially on mobile, the support from ByWater is responsive, and the open source nature of both products has enabled us to improve upon the products to meet our needs and workflows."

Nate Curulla, CRO, ByWater Solutions, recently commented on the migration:

It was fantastic to work with everyone involved at MCPL on this large and complex migration. I truly believe that MCPL already is and will continue to be a positive change maker for Koha ILS and Aspen Discovery. They have already been instrumental in driving developments and expanding the reach of open source. We look forward to partnering with them for years to come!"

About Montgomery County Public Libraries

Montgomery County Public Libraries offers free and equal access to services and resources that connect the people of Montgomery County to ideas and information which sustain and enrich their lives. Montgomery County Public Libraries is made up of 22 library branches serving the greater Rockville, Maryland area.

Read more here: https://montgomerycountymd.gov/library/about/index.html

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 the 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.

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, circulation, management, and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies, HTML5, 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 http://koha-community.org.

About Aspen Discovery

Aspen is a full-featured Discovery System that integrates with eContent and other third-party providers, giving your patrons comprehensive access to all of your materials in one place. Aspen combines your library catalog with e-content, digital archives, and enrichment from all major third-party providers. It also improves relevancy and ease of use, provides native reading recommendations, displays all formats of titles within one result (record grouping), and much more. With included features like web builder and mobile app (Aspen LiDA), Aspen was created to give users an improved experience over other Discovery systems, with less impact on library budgets.

For more information about Aspen please visit: https://bywatersolutions.com/projects/aspen-discovery

For More Information

Jessica Zairo
Director of Library Sales & Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944