The Public Information Network for Electronic Services (or PINES) is the nearly statewide library consortium and its online

library catalog A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliography, bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libra ...

of the Georgia Public Library Service. By June 2017, the catalog consisted of books from 284

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

facilities in 143

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

across the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

with a collection size of 10.6 million items, all of which are searchable by anyone with a PINES library card which can be obtained free of charge from any PINES-participating library. The PINES system effectively turns most of the state of Georgia into one huge library. PINES cardholders are able to request an

interlibrary loan Inter-library loan (abbreviated ILL, sometimes called document delivery, document supply, inter-lending, inter-library services, inter-loan, or resource sharing) is a service that enables patrons of one library to borrow materials that are held by ...

from any affiliated library, and the single statewide library card grants access to the hundreds of branches associated with the service. PINES also manages the booking of rooms, the use of remote self-check machines, allows automated search and retrieval, as well as supports

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...

and Schema.org standards. PINES developed the

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

, an

integrated library system An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS), is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed. An ILS is usually ...

which it and other library consortia use to manage their online catalogs.

History

PINES development

In 1998 a

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

was created exploring the feasibility of a statewide public library card for Georgia. As Georgia had consistently ranked among the lowest states in public library funding per capita it was agreed that a universal library card could be of great benefit to the residents of Georgia as long as the affiliated libraries were unified under one single

(ILS). It was also believed that by establishing a state-wide library cost to individual library systems would be lowered as they wouldn't need to maintain their own integrated library systems, and certain tasks could be centralized through the state saving additional time. By 1999 PINES became a reality, administered by the current Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS). It initially was used as a Y2K state-funded project to address needs of public libraries without Y2K-compliant ILS computer services. These libraries, mostly rural, were deemed not to have programs that would survive into the 21st century. Some libraries were still not automated as well. The PINES initiative would give these libraries access first, bringing their services into the modern era. Looking to complete the project before the year 2000, on April 8, 1999, the initial contract to develop the ILS was awarded to

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

partnered with the SIRSI Corporation and

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

. In December 1999 the new software was finished and ready for deployment. In that same month Phase 1 of PINES went live with 98 affiliated libraries. For the next two years other libraries saw the success of PINES, and rather than replace their outdated ILS with a new independent one, requested to join the statewide system. In 2001 Phase 2 of PINES went live with an addition 111 libraries joining the service.

Evergreen development

In 2004 the GPLS decided not to renew their contract with KPMG/Sirsi after being advised that under the current software no more libraries would be able to be added to the system. As a result, the GPLS explored the possibility of creating their own software, and on June 4, 2004, a press release by the state librarian outlined a two-year development plan for a new PINES ILS software called

. The new ILS was completed and ready to go live in September 2006. On September 1, the Sirsi ILS was taken offline, and by September 5 Evergreen was up and running. Due to the success of Evergreen it was awarded the Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration in 2007 by the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

. Since its initial release, Evergreen is now used in over 1,800 libraries around the world, including the highest-circulating library in the United States, the

King County Library System The King County Library System (KCLS) is a public library system serving most residents of King County, Washington, United States. It has 49 locations in the areas of the county around Seattle, which has a separate Seattle Public Library, city l ...

List of library systems within PINES

Athens Regional Library System The Athens Regional Library System (ARLS) is a consortium of 11 public library, public libraries across five counties, comprising the Athens – Clarke County metropolitan area as well as Franklin County, Georgia, Franklin County in northeast Geo ...

References

External links