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In December Brackett Library officially made the transition to a new system, a process that had been in the works since July 2020. As part of the upgrade, the system has a new searching interface that allows users to search across all library resources at one time providing users the ability to renew books and place holds, all within one area.
The library had been on the previous system since 2001.
“Our old system was really built for print collections, but the new system is designed to work with both print and electronic resources,” said Jean Waldrop, library director.
Users’ library accounts will now work with their interlibrary loan account, allowing them to view their requests and renew books online. Additionally, if a user is unable to find a resource in the Brackett Library collection, they can broaden the search to include availability at other library locations.
In addition to the new features the system provides, managing day-to-day processes has drastically improved.
“The landscape has changed dramatically in the library world since we implemented our last library management system 20 years ago,” said Brenda Breezeel, library systems administrator. “We are no longer just managing books, we are managing electronic resources such as e-books, online journals and
databases. The new system allows us to manage all of these resources more efficiently, which in turn allows us to get those resources ready for students and faculty quicker.”
Breezeel says the transition and migration to a new system have been a success.
“Overall it has gone smoothly. We spent a lot of time in the spring and summer preparing for the migration, brainstorming project planning and doing data clean up to help make the transition easier.”
Harding School of Theology shares a library system with the University and participated in the migration process as well.
