Ask a Librarian News!

A lot has been happening with Ask a Librarian in the past week. I thought this summary would be the easiest way to share all three pieces of news with all of you.

ITN (Invitation to Negotiate):

As previously announced, Ask a Librarian has issued an ITN for a new software platform to run Ask a Librarian. On Tuesday, we opened the five ITN responses we received from the following vendors: Altarama, Instant Service, Live Person, OCLC (QuestionPoint), and Tutor.com. We are reading through the responses and hope to have more information to you shortly.

Current software bought by another company:

Last week, Altarama (www.altarama.com) purchased VRLPlus from SirsiDynix. We were all surprised by this news! They are immediately taking over the operations of the product. We are excited about the news – especially the fact that they are bringing back some of the people who started Docutek with whom we have a long history.

What does this company change mean to you? Probably not too much. The most significant change – we hope – is that software issues should be fixed faster and the system should run better than before Altarama took over.

Jennifer Gregor is leaving Ask a Librarian:

As Jennifer let you know last week, she has accepted a position at St. Petersburg College. While I am sad she is leaving us, I am thrilled that she has this opportunity. She will remain with Ask a Librarian until the end of the month. To help us with the transition, she is trying to complete the desk schedules through October. Site Coordinators, please help with this goal by letting Jennifer know your library’s schedule – it will make the summer and fall much easier if the desk schedules are complete and accurate before Jennifer leaves. We will be posting an ad for the virtual reference coordinator position shortly, so we hope it will not be vacant long.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!