Making the link from a statewide project to something more:
LibLime is one option for libraries outside Georgia interested in Evergreen. Joshua Ferraro, LibLime president, said they provide “hosting, data migration, installation, training, and technical support” to libraries looking to switch to Evergreen. LibLime was retained by the PINES project during development to provide Quality Assurance and National Circulation Interface Protocol (NCIP) support.
Ferraro said, “[PINES] librarians are happy because both circulation and holds are up. Plus, suggestions are sometimes implemented within hours.” One benefit of open-source projects is the visibility of the bug list, where enhancements and problems can be openly tracked.
LibLime currently has four employees and partners with ten subcontractors, and is hiring another four employees for development and support with expectations of hiring four more in the near future. The company has 50 clients, including public libraries in Ohio and libraries in France, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Canada, and interest from large public library systems.
The company’s origins are in the Koha project, an open-source ILS developed for New Zealand libraries. Ferraro became familiar with Koha when he implemented it with Stephen Hedges, then-director at the Nelsonville Public Library, OH, and he was chosen as release manager for Koha version 3.