Innovative, Part of Clarivate™ announced that the Minuteman Library Network in Massachusetts has selected Sierra for a five-year renewal after evaluating available integrated library systems on the market through a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
The Minuteman Library Network is made up of 36 public libraries and 5 academic libraries in the metrowest region of Massachusetts. The consortium has been using the Sierra library services platform since 2013 as a shared system for the member libraries. In 2023, the library network released a formal RFP for a new integrated library system, as they felt it was time to evaluate the available options in market today. As a cooperative consortium of independently governed libraries, it was important to Minuteman to find a flexible solution to meet the needs of consortia, with the capability to meet all the functionality requirements, robust enough for heavy traffic.
Executive Director Philip McNulty felt Sierra’s functionality far surpassed the other systems. “Sierra definitely shines on cataloging; it makes cataloging very easy for our staff and for consortia. The permissions are quite nuanced and really enable us to empower individuals,” said McNulty. “The reporting structure, especially with CreateLists, stands out and doesn’t have a peer at the same level. Sierra is one of the few systems that can accommodate all our nuances. When we looked at other systems, their holds processes are just not workable for us. We really needed that maturity and development in Sierra.”
After a thorough evaluation, the team at Minuteman also felt that Clarivate provided the security protocols and processes that they could trust. After observing other libraries impacted by data breach, Minuteman had previously spent time with the teams at Innovative and Clarivate and were impressed by the amount of expertise and resources dedicated to security. This provided a comfort level for the consortium that other vendors couldn’t match.
Lastly, Minuteman felt that Sierra had many well-developed features that would contribute to Sierra’s longevity.
“The Sierra APIs are robust and keep getting improved,” said McNulty. “Those APIs really give Sierra legs into the future. There are so many products that use those APIs. Having a solution with such well-developed APIs is really great to empower our system for the future.”
The Minuteman Library Network ruled out two vendors at the Request for Information stage and reviewed three other systems during the RFP process.
The Sierra 6.2 release was published to general availability last month and includes multiple user-requested features, updates to the Sierra API, and foundational work for future releases. The Sierra roadmap is publicly available online and Sierra 6.3 is planned for release before the end of the year.
“Sierra is used by some of the world’s largest public libraries and that’s why we’re committed to continually developing Sierra for all of our customers,” said Yariv Kursh, General Manager and Senior Vice President for Innovative. “Our product and engineering teams work closely with our libraries to build features and releases that meet and exceed their needs.”
The Sierra library services platform supports multiple workflows — Circulation, Cataloging, Acquisitions, eResource Management, and more — within one interface to easily manage all of your library’s day-to-day activities and special initiatives, saving time for attending to the human side of library work.
Sierra includes integrations with LX Starter for patron email notices, Innovative Phone Alerts, Innovative Mobile, Vega Discover, Summon, Vega Promote, Vega Promote Web, Vega Program, and LibraryIQ. Sierra APIs offer access to data in your Sierra system to patron self-service functions and third-party solutions, including real-time status information. Sierra is open and ready to connect.
To learn more about Sierra, visit https://www.iii.com/products/sierra-ils/