TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute a five-year agreement with Innovative Interfaces, Inc. to provide hardware, software, supplies, installation, project management, training, and support for the Millennium Integrated Library System. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
An Integrated Library System (ILS) is critical to the systemwide operations of a modern library. It is used for maintaining patron records, circulation records, fines, fees, acquisition funds, and materials purchase cycle tracking. The public access catalog is the tool for staff as well as the public to search for materials, place holds, and check accounts.
The Library has exhausted the annual contract extensions and would need to enter into a new contract with our current vendor, SirsiDynix, by October 2009 to continue to use their system software, maintenance, and support. To continue this service, SirsiDynix insists that the new three-year contract contain language that will force a migration onto another system with fewer features, which will reduce the services we currently provide to the public. This migration is projected to cost in excess of $531,790 with an annual support cost of $205,538, which is nearly $54,000 more than our current annual software licensing and support rate. Following a merger and takeover by a venture capital group in 2007, SirsiDynix has provided Long Beach Public Library with reduced functionality and inadequate system support.
The Department of Library Services (Library) has spent over nine months investigating alternative vendors and systems for a replacement of the current ILS. The process of selecting a new I LS vendor involved initial evaluation of five major vendors including our current vendor's replacement product. The field was narrowed to two vendors which were evaluated over seven months with day-long presentations, question and answer sessions, as well as numerous hands-on demonstrations. Sixty percent of library staff participated in one o...
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