Sierra Go Live Date

The "go live" date for Sierra is the week of September 23!!! 
Once live on Sierra we will no longer perform operations such as acquisition, cataloging, or circulation in Voyager.  In addition, the OPAC, UNACAT, will no longer be in use.  It is possible that some data will be maintained on the Voyager server for a short time; however, given server issues there is no guarantee that any Voyager data will remain past the transition date. 

Getting to Know Innovative Interfaces

Innovative Interfaces Inc. (often referred to as III or “Triple I”) is an ILS vendor based in Emeryville, California.  Founded in 1978, III has a long, established reputation as a library software vendor.  Its Millennium product (think Voyager competitor) is used by thousands of libraries.  Some of the Alabama users include Athens State and Samford.  In Tennessee, for example, there are many Innovative customers including Memphis, MTSU, ETSU, etc. 

Sierra: Sierra is III’s most recent ILS iteration.  At its core is the functionality of the Millennium system; however, Sierra is more than an ILS it is a comprehensive Services Platform.  Sierra current and future features include an open database,  analytics, APIs, etc.  UNA

WebPAC Pro: III’s OPAC…think UNACAT. 

Encore:   III’s discovery platform.  This platform allows for the discovery of materials traditionally found in WebPAC Pro as well as harvested digital content, etc. 

Encore ES: III’s newest partnership, Encore ES, delivers the Encore discovery platform with EBSCO Discovery (EDS) content.  As UNA is already an EDS customer, we will adopt this version of Encore. 

Hosted: UNA’s Sierra implementation is hosted at III’s server farm in Oakland, Ca.  The great news here is that UNA does not have to maintain the hardware (servers) associated with Sierra.  Hosted offers redundancy and disaster recovery and it is all managed by III. 

Innovative Visit August 13-15

Please note that this initial visit will focus on implementation.  In my prior post I referred to it as a training visit: however, that is incorrect. 

Innovative will return in September to conduct "hands on" training.  I will post more information in the near future.

WebEx Overview

Innovative is offering a short (2 hour) WebEx session on Sierra from 10 am to noon on Friday, August 2.  The session will include a brief overview of the concepts related to Sierra in preparation for the first training visit later in the month.

Initial Innovative Training Dates

The initial training for Innovative Interface's Sierra will be August 13-15.  This will take place in the Library Classroom at Collier.  This training will be high-level to acclimate us to the product line, terminology, and basic functionality. The schedule is tentative so topics are subject to change.

Training Visit 1 August 13-15

Encore Searching: ½ day

Profile Evaluation: 1 day

Circulation Parameters: ½ day

Acquisitions Parameters: ½ day

Systems Administration: ½ day

Kick Off

Library Services at the University of North Alabama (UNA) is transitioning from the Ex Libris Voyager system to Innovative Interface's Sierra.  Sierra will provide needed new features such as Electronic Resource Management, Integration of the OPAC and EBSCO Discovery, etc.  In addition, the products are hosted at Innovative's newest server facilities in Oakland, California so we don't have to exhaust our IT resources on server maintenance, updates, etc.  Much of Sierra is based on the long standing Millennium platform but with an upgraded PostgreSQL backbone.  Some of the features, such as the integrated Encore/EDS patron side are only recently announced.  

The "Go Live" for Sierra is the week of September 23rd.  This makes for a compressed timeline and training schedule so I ask everyone to hold on as things may get a bit harried.