I Luv Snacks: Closure

It is hard to believe that today is the end date of the ILS Implementation project. We started searching for a new ILS in late July of 2006. Two years later, we've transitioned from Geac PLUS to Innovative Millennium. What a long, strange trip it has been.

July 2006 - ILS Replacement Committee, led by Pam Skittino, meets for the first time
August 2006 - First vendor visits
September and October 2006 - ILS Committee visited libraries that use the ILSes we were considering
December 2006 - June 2007 - RFP (Request for Proposal) is prepared, written and submitted to vendors
June 19, 2007 - Board approves purchase of Innovative Millennium
June 2007 - The Information Distribution Team is formed and the I Luv Snacks blog is born!
July 10, 2007 - Brainstorming meeting to start planning staff education, communication and inspiration
August 10, 2007 - Contract with Innovative is signed
August 30, 2007 - First set of data sent to Innovative
October 11, 2007 - Word of the Week begins to teach staff more about essential ILS terms.
October 23, 2007 - Mr./Ms. Millennium contest begins!
December 2007 - Staff training begins with the Introduction to Millennium taught by the IDT Trainers
January 2008 - Things get serious. Training sessions and the important dates start filling up our calendars. We have a wake for the departing Geac PLUS system.
January - February 2008 - Training, training, and more training!
January 2008 - Go live with Serials and Cataloging
February 11, 2008 - We stop using Geac PLUS and begin using the Innovative migration system
February 12, 2008 - We go live with Millennium! What a week!
March 2008 - Go live with Acquisitions
March 11, 2008 - Deb Lindahl is crowned Ms. Millennium

During the entire project we also had a new Library Director, installed Express Checkout machines, reopened the Meeting Room, rearranged most of the library, and planned two new library buildings.

It's been a very busy two years and we're not even done yet! Here's what's still to come:

eCommerce set up so patron's can pay fines online with a credit card
Pathfinder Pro
Load Table Training - Barb Jarvis will learn how to change the way records load from outside the system
Modify statistics database to work with Millennium data
Future Innovative purchases: AirPac, LinkInn, etc.
Millennium Release 2007 - expected in April 2008 (think May, if we're lucky). This includes a lot of features we're waiting for like Syndetics (reviews, summaries in the catalog) and special printing abilities we don't have now.

We've progressed through this process pretty smoothly. Some bumps, bugs, and problems are to be expected. Hopefully you feel like you understood what was going on most of the time, felt prepared for the transition, and had a pretty good time along the way!

Your Information Distribution Team,

Katie Olsen
Mary Andrew
Heather Beverley
Deborah Gafka
Erin Maassen
and Andrea Johnson

PS Feel free to comment with suggestions or comments on how it can be done better next time!