Slide 14 of 33
Notes:
The process of making the selection was complex and time-consuming. It was also a rewarding learning experience for many staff members who were taking crash courses in computer science. (At the same time, we took a 15% cut in operating i.e. salary budgets.)
In August 1995, the evaluation group recommended three vendors to the University Librarians:
- Endeavour Voyager
- Innovative Interfaces
- SIRSI Unicorn
The vendors visited Waterloo in December, 1995 and January 1996. Both marketing and technical staff from each vendor was available to the staff of the three libraries. During the visits, the evaluation group and other staff from all three libraries were able to carry out a more detailed examination of the three systems.
Seven functional subgroups were set up with responsibility for different aspects of the evaluation process. These groups were:
- Acquisitions and Serials
- Cataloguing
- Circulation and Reserve
- OPAC
- Systems Support
- Consortium Issues
- Vendor Issues
All three short-listed vendors held three-day seminars at the University of Waterloo. The evaluation groups, which included over 125 staff members from the three universities, completed an in-depth examination of the various components of each system. Each system was made available for about a week for faculty and student input into the evaluation and for some additional examination of staff modules.
In February, the Tri-University Evaluation Group met at the University of Guelph. The seven functional evaluation groups presented evaluation reports, explored concerns, and identified information still needed to enable consensus. At this point, the short-list was narrowed to Innovative Interfaces and Endeavor. Again, the two vendors were invited back for one-day follow-up visits to address questions and concerns.
Six members of the Systems Issues Group visited two sites running the Innovative Interfaces system - OhioLink, a large consortium operation based in Columbus, Ohio, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Five members of the Systems Issues Group and one member of the OPAC Group visited an Endeavor site - Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Staff gained valuable information from the three site visits.
On March 28, 1997, the Tri-University Evaluation Group met again at Wilfrid Laurier University to evaluate further both systems and to discuss remaining areas of concern. Group members made a unanimous recommendation to the three University Librarians for Endeavor Voyager.
A contract negotiating team was formed with representatives from the three universities from computing, finance, and the library. An Implementation Team was also appointed. There are eight implementation groups, with representatives from each institution. These are Acquisitions/Serials, Cataloguing, Circulation/Reserve, Public Access, Operations, System Management, a Fallback Group (in case it became necessary to look for another system), and a MIS (Management Information System) Co-ordinator.
On January 28 1997, the Tri-University Libraries and Endeavor Information Systems concluded their negotiations and signed the 32-page agreement to purchase the Voyager Library System for the three University Libraries. With this significant milestone accomplished, we began to implement Voyager almost immediately. In early February, the Voyager software was mounted on a server at the University of Waterloo.
