Ipswich City Council has adopted a new library management system which will improve the experience for customers.
Libraries and Tourism Committee Chairperson Cr David Pahlke said Ipswich Libraries had reviewed the existing suite of business systems and identified areas that needed significant improvement in order to deliver its strategic priorities.
These included the visibility of books in search engines, customer search results that integrate physical items, e-resources, article-level content from reference database subscriptions, and improved reporting from the library management system.
The investigation of options resulted in the inclusion of the requirement to improve the user interface of the LMS to facilitate roaming and remote customer service.
Cr Pahlke said the new system will provide simplified and streamlined workflows and significantly improved business efficiencies.
“It will make Ipswich Libraries’ resources and services discoverable and accessible working seamlessly with third-party resource vendors; providing a responsive, configurable, and modern interface for the public and facilitating resource discovery through external search engines,” he said.
“The new LMS will enable Ipswich Libraries to unite the Picture Ipswich and other collections within one search interface for customers and staff. This will enhance the visibility of the Picture Ipswich collection and provide a more convenient and intuitive discovery experience for customers.
“The ability to reserve and access the public access computers will also be available and there are plans to move the event management and event booking functions into this single online service point.
“For the first time customers will be able to join online and borrow immediately (functionality that has been considered standard in public libraries for over 10 years but has not been available to Ipswich Libraries customers).”
Cr Pahlke said commissioning of the new system would begin this month with a go-live date in mid-2018.
