July 27, 2016, Watford, UK—In July of last summer, the LibrariesWest consortium grew to incorporate two new local authorities and achieve a ‘coast to coast’ service in South West England. As part of the evolution of LibrariesWest, the consortium concurrently chose to adopt SirsiDynix Symphony as their new library management system. Following a seamless migration, all authorities in the LibrariesWest Consortium are now live with Symphony and Enterprise.
LibrariesWest, a leading and well-established public library consortium, now comprises seven neighbouring authorities. The partnership enables library members to offer enhanced services and collections. The LibrariesWest infrastructure, which serves over 2.1 million individuals, is now supported by SirsiDynix’s industry-leading SaaS solution. The implementation of SaaS ensures the LibrariesWest authorities’ data is seamlessly connected and secure. In addition to data hosting, the LibrariesWest adoption of SirsiDynix solutions includes specialised BLUEcloud tools such as BLUEcloud Analytics and MobileCirc.
The migration process for LibrariesWest was completed to great success early in June. Commenting on the experience of the migration, SirsiDynix Professional Services VP Tim Hyde relayed, “It was a pleasure working with the skilled individuals of the LibrariesWest team. The collaboration with their highly competent and proactive team helped us accomplish a smooth and efficient migration.”
Sue Crowley, Chair of LibrariesWest Board, said, ”SirsiDynix were a responsive supplier to work with and ensured that LibrariesWest achieved our go-live date in June. Customers across LibrariesWest are delighted by the new web site. We look forward to working with SirsiDynix to continue to improve our public web presence and library management system functionality for staff.”
“LibrariesWest has proven itself a resilient and effective partnership, providing superior services to its users,” said Bill Davison, SirsiDynix CEO. “We are privileged at SirsiDynix to support LibrariesWest in their efforts to optimize the resources available to their region, while the consortium remains connected and strong through the responsiveness of SaaS.”
About LibrariesWest Consortium
LibrariesWest is a partnership of seven public library services in the south west of England. The services work together to share costs and offer enhanced services to customers. Dorset and Poole have joined existing members Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, Somerset and South Gloucestershire, resulting in a ‘coast to coast’ service.
LibrariesWest serves over 2.1 million people across an area of nearly 2,300 sq miles. Customers can use their membership card in any one of the 150+ libraries across the consortium to borrow, return, renew and reserve items, and use the computers to access the internet and office programmes. Customers can also access a joint catalogue of over 2.5 million items, which all customers can borrow from, including books, DVDs, CDs and talking books.
About SirsiDynix
SirsiDynix connects people with knowledge at more than 23,000 libraries around the world. Through library management technology and search and discovery tools, libraries using SirsiDynix technology bring relevant resources and the power of knowledge to their users and communities. SirsiDynix technology is architected to be open, scalable, and robust, offering a complete out-of-the-box solution and unparalleled flexibility through APIs and web services. Complemented by the most experienced training, consulting, and support staff in the industry, SirsiDynix helps libraries create tomorrow’s libraries, today.