“It's great to be able to customize the Polaris checkout screen with patron data elements of our choice. It maximizes the efficiency of the checkout process. And with 15 agencies circulating over 7.1 million items per year, it matters.”
- Eva Calcagno, Manager, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Oregon
News and Events
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Click below for news and special events, to learn about various webinars and blogs, or to download our most recent newsletter.
Polaris Library Systems Announces New Team Members (July 10, 2008)
Polaris Announces Polaris Fusion ™ (June 24, 2008)
Polaris Library Systems Extends Partnership with EnvisionWare (June 3, 2008)
The Regional Automation Consortium (TRAC) Selects Polaris ILS (May 13, 2008)
Polaris Library Systems Partners with ChiliFresh.com (May 6, 2008)
Polaris Library Systems Announces New Team Members in Research & Development and Customer Service (April 29, 2008)
Ouachita Parish Public Library Selects Polaris ILS (February 26, 2008)
Polaris Library Systems Announces New Team Members (February 5, 2008)
Dallas Public Library Selects Polaris ILS (January 8, 2008)
Westmoreland County Federated Library System Selects Polaris ILS (December 19, 2007)
Phoenix Public Library System Selects Polaris ILS (November 28, 2007)
Integrated Technology Group Forms Strategic Alliance With Polaris Library Systems (October 24, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems Announces URL Detective (September 4, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems and ALA Partner on Capitol Hill (June 21, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems Reports Continued Growth (June 19, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems Announces ILS Version 3.3 (May 21, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems Launches SimplyReports, Web-based Report Writer (May 2, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems Announces Banner Year for ILS Sales (January 19, 2007)
Polaris Library Systems Announces Strong Close in Fourth Quarter (January 11, 2007)
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Syracuse, NY, May 21, 2007– Polaris Library Systems, a leading provider of library automation technology, announced today that version 3.3 of the Polaris Integrated Library System (ILS) is in production. Beta test partners include Pierce County Library System, Washington and Fayetteville Public Library, Arkansas. Version 3.3 offers a number of new features to enhance patron experience and save valuable staff time and resources. The new release includes built-in ‘did you mean?’ functionality, relevancy ranking and faceted search capabilities help to narrow and refine results. Version 3.3 also leverages AJAX technology to eliminate pop-up windows and save bandwidth by reducing the amount required per PAC page load. AJAX also allows for the display of enriched content selections in-line from The Content Café (Baker & Taylor), NoveList, and Syndetics, among others. In addition, PAC functionality includes the ability to display compressed holdings so that the user can quickly tell if an item is owned by the library, and the option for patrons to build persistent title lists that can be edited, printed or emailed. What's more, the new release includes the functionality to accept credit card payments for fines and fees, as well as donations. On the staff side, the powerful Polaris ILS Find Tool is enhanced to enable users to refine searches by adding filters based on almost any field in the database. The enriched Find Tool also enables the user to create on-the-fly reports and includes the ability to combine search terms, get counts for quick summary reports, save searches and copy the results of a search into a record set. For additional ad hoc reporting needs, a new preview screen allows the user to see not only a summary of all holdings and their status, but current and past year circulation statistics, as well as a popularity index to aid purchasing decisions. And a patron notification feature allows staff to see what has been sent to patrons recently and how the notices were sent to allow for a quick response to queries. Additional enhancements include expanded e-commerce functionality, the ability to create bulk items, making it easier for catalogers to add items for different locations and with different circulation policies in one step, as well as the ability to suppress and restrict serials holdings in the PAC. "This new release of Polaris gives patrons a more intuitive PAC experience that incorporates many of the features they're used to on commercial search engines and web sites," said Bill Schickling, president and CEO. "We've also listened and responded to customer needs to help streamline workflow and reporting so they have more time to focus on serving their patrons. More than 60% of the projects in version 3.3 came directly from customer input and enhancements voted on by the Polaris Users Group. We truly appreciate the insights and suggestions from our customer base that helped to shape the final release and look forward to delivering a quality product to the marketplace."### About Polaris Library Systems From its beginnings thirty years ago, Polaris Library Systems has served libraries with time-saving technology, from its first circulation system in the mid-1970s through its third-generation Polaris Integrated Library System. In addition to its library automation systems, Polaris Library Systems offers workflow analysis, database enhancement, wireless access and network services to libraries. For more information about Polaris Library Systems, visit http://www.polarislibrary.com/. |