505 North - It's Been a Great Week at the Barrington Area Library

You might think, in this age of technological wonders, that changing from one library computer system to another would be a fairly simple act.

However, when the library is open seven days a week, with little downtime, and when people expect 24/7 library access via the Internet, moving hundreds of thousands of item records, patron account information and more becomes a daunting task. The Barrington Area Library planned for months so our system migration would go smoothly and - tada! The big day arrived December 1, 2011, with only a few small glitches.

The old computer system was shut down on Sunday, November 27, after closing time. We know it was frustrating for patrons when they couldn't look up or renew items, or check account information online. We can empathize because during that same downtime, all of the items you returned to us piled up. And up. And up. We couldn't check them in until we went live with the new system, so by the morning of December 1, more than 10,000 items awaited our Circulation staff for check in! Amazingly, 15-20 Circ staffers (and other staff persons who volunteered to help) got every last item checked in by late afternoon, an extraordinary feat. Just before 9 AM, the new catalog got plugged into the library Web site, and we tested and searched and fine-tuned the overall look and performance.

It really "takes a village" to run a library and also to manage its catalog - many of the services you use on our Web site are from third party providers. Paying library fines online, getting e-mail newsletters with new books and movies, seeing Lexile measurements in records, getting phone call reminders or renewing items by phone, and placing Interlibrary Loan requests are just a few of these third party solutions, and,  yes, we're still working some of them out with the various providers. Our goal is to have a fully functional online system by early next week and we'll keep working hard to make that happen for you.

If you haven't tried the new catalog yet, or if you haven't been to the library in a long time, check us out online. I'm always a little stunned when people say that public libraries haven't kept up with the times, because that certainly isn't the case here in Barrington. Our new catalog connects you to books, but also DVDs, music, devices like the Nook, Kindle and Flip cameras, laptops you can use in the library, and much more. Our Web site provides 24/7 research materials, our Media Lab is your personal high-tech creative space, and the new Zimmerman "Smart Room" can bring your meetings and programs into the 21st century. Thanks for your patience and support during our system migration, and in the coming weeks as we learn our new catalog together. Questions? Just ask!