Law Society of British Columbia Chooses an Open-Source ILS

According to a press release on the Equinox Software website, the Law Society of British Columbia has chosen Evergreen, an open source ILS (Integrated Library System) product.

From the release:

The Law Society of British Columbia has gone live with Evergreen, the consortial-quality open-source library automation software. Jeremy Buhler, a graduate student from SLAIS at UBS, did most of the work developing the main page and migrating data. Buhler has recently begun working with British Columbia SITKA as a trainer/help desk specialist. The Law Society of British Columbia is the governing body of the legal profession in BC. The LSBC Resource Centre is a legal research collection serving Law Society and staff with around 1400 bibliographic records in their database.

According to Christine Gergich, Records Analyst for the Law Society, "The switch to Evergreen has significantly improved access to and administration of our collection." Gergich added, "We are delighted to be part of a growing number of Evergreen users in British Columbia." "The ability of libraries such as the Law Society to 'go it alone' with Evergreen only proves the openness and ease of use of this software," said Brad LaJeunesse, Equinox company president. "The Law Society joins a growing stream of libraries moving toward Evergreen for its features, flexibility, and forward-looking development path."

Sounds like a great project! ... Even if poor Jeremy Buhler has to receive his Masters degree from "UBS"; and the Law Society is listed on the Evergreen website as: "Law Society of British Columbia is an Evergreen library in Ontario".

We can take a couple on the chin for the sake of innovation. :)