Library Web Chic

My library has been using ILLiad for a couple years now and we initially chose to host it on a server on our campus. However, with recent changes in the library and internal staffing resources at the library and IT stretched, we have decided to host ILLiad off campus with Atlas Systems. At first, I was skeptical about this proposition because we have made some alterations to the ILLiad database (some to protect our users’ privacy, some to run particular reports) and I wasn’t sure that Atlas would take our modified database back. To my surprise, I got very little flack about the alterations when discussing hosting. (With the caveat that we acknowledged anything modifications we made were our problem and if they broken with an update we would have to deal with it.) The tech staff there are following up on a few technical questions I had, but overall it was a very pleasant conversation. The couple people I talked to were actually pretty interested in what I had done to our instance. So I’m waiting to final word but expect to be moving out ILLiad instance off campus within the next couple weeks. I’ll let you know how the process goes, but expect from my interactions thus far that it should go relatively smoothly.

On a related note I’ve gotten many emails about the modifications that SUNY Cortland made to the ILLiad database to protect user data but keep some statistical information. (I talked about this in an article in the June issue of Computers in Libraries.) For anyone who has been corresponding with me about this or wants to correspond with me. I suggest you use my email here, rather than at my SUNY Cortland email (job change and all). Just send me something via this site’s contact form and I’ll be in touch.