Chronology of Events
Last Revised: 20 October 2009

GALILEO Interconnected Libraries Chronology:

  • 20 October 2009
    After 3 years and several Voyager upgrades, the GIL Universal Catalog has been reloaded. The GIL UC now contains 5,028,505 bibliographic records and 11,472,292 MFHD (holding) records, along with 7,530,192 Authority records... as of 20 Ocotber 2009.

  • 21 September 2009
    New Courier Service for GIL Express: Stat Courier: After a long process we have been able to piggyback onto the agreement that GPLS uses for courier services among the PINES libraries. We will use STAT Courier for GIL Express (and USG ILL). Our target date for beginning deliveries and pickups is October 12. While we are using the same agreement for service, our agreement for service covers only the USG libraries. The big change is that instead of using UPS we will be using STAT Courier.

    STAT Courier is based in St. Louis, Missouri but they cover all of Georgia. They have two primary sorting locations (Duluth and Albany) and one driver exchange location (Macon). STAT Courier has learned a lot from their initial experiences in working with GPLS/PINES, and GIL Express will benefit from those lessons.

    This model changes our per transaction model that was used with UPS and will allow us to more effectively budget for GIL Express and hopefully be able to continue this valuable service into the future.

    Thank you for your continued support of GIL Express. I know the students and faculty appreciate it!

  • 24 August 2009
    For the last year the GIL OPAC Committee been testing VuFind, and has launched a live Beta link for this alternative catalog interface called GIL-Find, on the local GIL web sites at the pilot sites. Faculty, students, and staff can try GIL-Find through a link on their Classic GIL interface.

    The GIL OPAC Committee initiated its GIL-Find Pilot Project at 8 pilot USG Libraries. MCG will continue in test mode for the immediate future, and Georgia Tech has placed its version of GIL-Find into production. Two websites have been setup to help explain GIL-Find: About GIL and GIL-Find vs Classic GIL.

    The GIL-Find Project URLs are:

  • GIL-Find@GCSU - Georgia College & State University
  • GIL-Find@GaTech - Georgia Institute of Technology (in production)
  • GIL-Find@GaSouthern - Georgia Southern University
  • GIL-Find@GaState - Georgia State University`
  • GIL-Find@MCG - Medical College of Georgia
  • GIL-Find@SGC - South Georgia College
  • GIL-Find@UGA - University of Georgia
  • GIL-Find@VSU - Valdosta State University

  • 21 May 2009
    GUGM 2009 was held throughout Georgia using Are We Virtual Yet? as the theme. Joy Garman, Chair of the GUGM Planning Committee, and the various GUGM Committee members worked hard on the first transformation of GUGM from a face-to-face conference to a virtual conference using webcast and Wimba.

    With over 330 registered participants scattered among various locations, GUGM initiated its first virtual user conference. The morning session's Keynote Speakers were Dr. Susan Herbst, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer for the University System of Georgia, and Mr. Carl Grant, President of Ex Libris North America.

    Being the first time GUGM has been organized and held virtually, there were only 4 afternoon sessions. Other than comments about missing the "box lunch" gathering, the initial comments have been positive.

  • 04-09 May 2009
    The initial feedback from ELUNA 2009 which was held in Richmond, VA. has been very positive. Several Voyager libraries in Georgia were able to send representatives up the coast to Richmond. From the perspective of GIL, Bob Trotter, the lead Service Site Coordinator for the GIL Service Sites, who is on the ELUNA Steering Committee was elected as the Vice-Chair of ELUNA for the coming year. This position will elevate Bob to Chair of ELUNA for the following year. ...CONGRATULATIONS to Bob!

    Some of the leading topics at ELUNA 2009 include:

    ELUNA 2010 will be held in Fort Worth, Texas during May 2010.

  • 08 May 2009
    Ex Libris has expanded its communication opportunities with its users through the introduction of:
        - The Ex Libris Blog.
        - The Ex Libris Twitter.
        - The Ex Libris Initiatives.
    Read about, comment on, and learn what is happening in the world of Ex Libris.

  • 08 Apr 2009
    It was announced at the UGA Library that Tom Frieling would be retiring on 1 July 2009. But like several before him he could not stop working "cold turkey". Therefore, Tom will continue to work part-time until the dust settles and a new Head of Access Services is settled in the position.

  • 01 Apr 2009
    The GIL Support area of the Georgia State Service Site has officially migrated to the University of Georgia Main Library. The System Administration of the Voyager servers is being split between the UGA GIL staff and the Georgia State IT department. Kelly Robinson has elected to remain on staff in the Georgia State IS&T Department. Cynthia Ragin has moved her office to Athens and will continue to support the GIL Libraries. She has an office in the UGA Main Library with the UGA Service Site staff. The following information can now be used to contact Cynthia - please update your records: E-mail: lragin@uga.edu Phone: 706-542-0598

    With Kelly's decision to stay at Georgia State, Bob Trotter has assumed the position of Service Site Coordinator for the Georgia State Service Site.

  • 02 Jan 2009
    GIL Express services are now back online with Voyager 7.

  • 22 Dec 2008
    The Service Sites have completed the installation of the Voyager 7 upgrade on all GIL servers. The OPAC currently uses the Classic Webvoyage however research and testing continues for WebVoyage 7 and VuFind as possible solutions for a new web interface.

  • 03 Nov 2008
    A VUFind overview and presentation was given to the RACL group by Bill Clayton, Bob Trotter, Rebecca Drummond, Larry Hansard and Lori Critz. The presentation was given via the Wimba Classroom portal and highlighed the current VuFind pilot for GIL. The powerpoint can be downloaded from the following link: RACL VuFind Presentation. The archive of the session can also be accessed through Wimba Classroom. Please note that a participant login is necessary to view the archive.

  • 22-24 Oct 2008
    The USG 2008 Rock Eagle Computing Conference has concluded and there were over 600 attendees. Richard N. Katz, Educause, gave the keynote address about "Information Technology in the Future of Higher Education." There was not a fireworks display this year, however there were many other fun activities such as the Sock Hop at the Rock Dance and the Rock Eagle Casino Night. The conference will be held next year on Oct. 21-23, 2009.

  • 30 Sept 2008
    The GIL Express Suspension which was originally scheduled to begin October 1, 2008 has been postponed. The GIL Express service will be continuing through the end of the Fall Semester with the expressed intent of finding a way to support this service going forward. Thanks to all who have voiced concerns about the loss of GIL Express.

  • 12 Aug 2008
    The Oracle10g upgrade has been completed on the servers for all supported USG libraries. The documentation for Oracle10g ODBC client installation can be found on the     GIL Download Site .

  • 30 June 2008
    ExLibris announces the General Release of Voyager 7.0.1. This release includes a full set of new clients and requires an upgrade to Oracle10g. The University System of Georgia participated in field testing for the Voyager 7 release. The servers for the GIL Libraries will be upgraded to Oracle10g prior to the beginning of the 2008 Fall semester. The upgrade to Voyager 7 is scheduled to be performed during the winter holidays in Decemmber 2008. For more information concerning this release, please visit Support Web: Voyager Release Notes.

  • 30 May 2008
    Phil Williams, Director of Virtual Library Support, retired today after many years of service to Georgia's library community. His contributions to GIL and GALILEO will be sorely missed.

  • 23 May 2008
    Kelly Robinson has been elected to the ELUNA Voyager Product Group's Leadership Team for a 2-year term starting at ELUNA 2008 (August 2008). Kelly, along with Bob Trotter, will be the GIL's representatives in the ELUNA structure. The full VPG Leadership Team includes:
  • Ellie Briscoe - National Geographic Society, Chair
  • Julia McGinnis - University of Pennsylvannia, Enhancement Chair
  • Sherrie Kristin - Purdue University Calumet, Co-Program Coordinator
  • Melissa Wisner - Yale University, Co-Program Coordinator
  • Michael Doran - University of Texas at Arlington, Leader-at-Large (1 year)
  • Michael North - Kansas State University, Leader-at-Large (1 year)
  • Kelly Robinson - University System of Georgia, Leader-at-LArge (2 years)
  • Sharon Yang - Rider University, Leader-at-Large (2 years)
  • Ed Corrado - College of New Jersey, Ex Officio from the ELUNA Steering Committee
  • Laura Guy - Colorado School of Mines, Ex Officio from the ELUNA Steering Committee
  • Bob Trotter - University System of Georgia , Ex Officio from the ELUNA Steering Committee

  • 19 May 2008
    There have been several personnel changes at Ex Libris. Of importance to the Voyager community: Kathryn Harnish, who last year had overall supervisory responsibility for both Aleph and Voyager, with both product managers reporting to her, has shifted responsibility this year to lead the URM (Unified Resource Management) product management efforts. While all the product managers will be involved with URM, Kathryn will have a dedicated focus in this area.

    To ensure that we maintain an overall ILS systems focus, Karen Groves has assumed supervisory responsibility for both Aleph and Voyager, in addition to her responsibilities as the MetaLib product manager. Mike Dicus, the Voyager product manager, and Jo Richardson, the Aleph product manager, are now reporting directly to Karen.

  • 15 May 2008
    GUGM 2008 is now history, but it is hoped that what was learned and the associations that were made will continue to grow through the years. The Conference was opened by Fred Smith and Carol Bray, and their introductions included presentations to Randall Cravey and Phil Williams who retired in April and May respectively. Peter Morville, President of Semantic Studios, provided a very interesting keynote address. There were 272 registered attendees. Fort Vally State University offered a lovely facility and beautiful weather. Make sure you keep your eyes open later this year for the ELUNA Grant announcement - remember ELUNA 2009 is in Richmond, VA. This year's winner was Denita Hampton from Georgia State University. Many of the GUGM 2008 Presentations can be found at http://gil.usg.edu/html/GUGM2008.html

  • 13 May 2008
    ELUNA 2009 and ELUNA 2010 Conference Venues Announced!

  • 30 April 2008
    Randall Cravey, the Georgia State GIL Service Site Coordinator, retired today after many years of service to Georgia's library community.

  • 1 April 2008
    Registration is now open for the 2008 ELUNA Conference!
    The Annual ELUNA Conference will be hosted by California State University, Office of the Chancellor in Long Beach, California on July 30 - August 1, 2008 and the Technical Pre-Conference is July 27-29. This year will mark the merging of the annual EndUser and ELUNA meetings providing a richer learning experience for Ex Libris customers. The three day Conference will include a company update, strategic direction overview, product updates, more than 80 customer presentations, poster sessions, and meetings of the Product Groups, Special Interest Groups, and Regional Users Groups. More than 120 sessions are planned so there will be something for everyone!

    To see the complete Agenda and the offering at the Pre-Conference, get hotel and travel information, and register for the Conference, please visit http://www.regonline.com/ELUNA2008.
    From: Wil Frost and Margery Tibbetts - Co-Chairs of the ELUNA 2008 Planning Committee.

  • 17 March 2008
    Downtown Atlanta was hit Friday evening by an F2 tornado. Extensive damage was done to the World Congress Center, the Georgia Dome where the SEC Tournament was going on, and the Omni Hotel and CNN complex. Additionally several tall buildings in the immediate downtown area had windows blown out. Fortunately, no one was killed and the majority of the injuries were minor. While the Georgia State University Libraries had to close on Saturday and Sunday, the GIL Service Site's Computer Operations Area remained online, and GIL services were not interrupted to the Service Site's Supported GIL Libraries or the Universal Catalog.

  • 15 February 2008
    The GIL ELUNA Bon Voyage Grant Application Form is now available for download on the GIL Project Homepage.

  • 29 January 2008
    GIL Express received one of twelve Governor Commendations for customer service. "This commendation recognizes meritorious actions that enhance the public image of customer service or improve the way customer serive is provided in Georgia." Merryll Penson accepted the award on behalf of all USG Libraries.

  • 8 January 2008
    The GIL Service Site Coordinators and their staffs have completed the installation of the Voyager 6.5.3 Patch on all GIL servers. While this Patch was suppose to be version neutral we did have some problems the first week in Janaury with GIL Express transactions. It seems that this part of the Patch was version sensitive. However, all GIL Express services are now back online with Voyager 6.5.3. The Voyager 6.5.4 Patch will be Field Tested in early February and Voyager 7 is making its way through the development cycle for release later this year.

  • 7 January 2008
    Ex Libris announced their new eService to support their various products. All GIL contacts should have received a new UserID and Password to access eService. The easy to use Web portal is now available for use. Visit eService at http://support.exlibrisgroup.com. If there are any questions please contact Ex Libris Customer Support.

  • 4 December 2007
    Ex Libris announced the General Release of Voyager 6.5.3 and there is a planned Voyager 6.5.4 in early 2008. Voyager 6.5.3 is primarily a "bug fix" patch. To gain information concerning this patch please visit SupportWeb: Voyager Release Notes. This web page also includes information about the planned features for Voyager 7. Voyager 7 will require an upgrade to Oracle 10g. The GIL Libraries will be upgraded to Voyager 6.5.3 by the end of January 2008. The GIL Service Site Coordinators will be coordinating this Patch installation for their supported GIL Libraries.

  • 13 November 2007
    Today Chancellor Davis announced at the November meeting of the Board of Regents the first Customer Service Awards. I wanted to let everyone know that Library Services: GIL Express won the Gold Level Team Award. Merryll Penson accepted on behalf of all of the USG Libraries. (Also in attendance were Claire Colombo, Tom Freiling, Bob Trotter, Randall Cravey and Phil Williams.) There were a total of 34 awards but having GIL Express singled out among the manu University System of Georgia projects is a testament to the dedication and committment of the many USG Library staffs who provide this sevice to their patrons.

    The recognition for this really comes from the faculty and students in recognition of the service provided to them by GIL Express Merryll sends to all a heart felt "Thank you for helping to make the research process - faster, friendlier and easier".

  • 24-26 October 2007
    The USG 2007 Rock Eagle Computing Conference has concluded with attendeance down to just over 600 because of the conflict with EDUCAUSE. Planners knew it was going to be a rough choice for many - Seattle, or Eatonton? The highlights outside of the vendor areas included the rtraditional fireworks display which was in question until the rain on Wednesday dampened the area, and a "Texas Hold'em" tournament. Next year Rock Eagle will be held 22-24 October 2008...make your plans now.

  • 23 August 2007
    Laura Guy, ELUNA Liaison to Special Interest Groups, has announced that the 2007 EndUser Special Interest Group minutes, handouts and the answers to questions posed by the SIGs to Ex Libris have been posted (SupportWeb UserName/Password required) to: https://support.endinfosys.com/cust/community/vgroup/index_2007.html#sig

    As we transition from EndUser to ELUNA, Laura has been updating the ELUNA Interest Group webpage found here (open site): http://www.elu-na.org/interestgroups.asp

    If you take a moment to visit it, you'll see we now have nearly 40 Interest Groups - 16 of which are Voyager specific! Content is still being added to this page, and over the next few months there will likely be some merging of a few of the groups, but many of these will no doubt meet next summer at ELUNA 2008 in Long Beach, CA.

  • 23 August 2007
    Del Hamilton, the ELUNA Voyager Product Group (VPG) Chair, announced the results of the election by North American Voyager customers of the remaining Voyager Product Group leadership positions.

    The following have been elected to represent the NA Voyager customers in the coming years.:

  • Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Ellie Briscoe - National Geographic Society
  • Leaders At Large:
        - Michael Doran - University of Texas at Arlington - 2 yr term
        - Michael North - Kansas State University - 2 yr term
        - Emily Batista - University of Pennsylvania - 1 yr term
        - Phil Williams - University System of Georgia- 1 yr term
     Del reflected in her announcement that this is an excellent group of people to join the Programming Chairs: Sherrie Kristin and Melissa Wisner; the Enhancement Chair: Julia McGinnis; and the Voyager Product Group Chair: Del Hamilton - Slippery Rock University to form the VPG leadership team.

    As a reminder, Bob Trotter, the University of Georgia Service Site Coordinator, was elected to the ELUNA Steering Committee in May and is their Voyager Product Group Liaison.

  • 10 August 2007
    Tom Maier, the USG CIO, announced part of an OIIT re-organization plan with the promotion of Dr. Kris Biesinger to Associate Vice-Chancellor for Services. Reporting to Dr. Biesinger under the re-organization will be the Executive Director for Library Services, Merryll Penson, the Executive Director for Customer Support, Marie Steed, the Executive Director for Instructional Support, Jessica Somers, and the Executive Director for Resource Management, Denise Samples.

  • 9 August 2007
    The GIL Libraries completed their upgrade to Voyager 2006.5.1. One of the primary advantages obtained in this Patch is the implementation of the "Global Block Service" which will replace the process developed by Bob Trotter, the UGA Service Site Coordinator, to support global blocking for GIL Express. There were few problems following the upgrade, and only a minor problem with the Circulation Client remains outstanding. Through cooperation of the various GIL Libraries and coordination by the Service Site Coordinators the upgrade was accomplished with minimal interruption in Library services.

  • 20 June 2007
    EndUser has arrived at ELUNA!
    The following is a list of members of the ELUNA 2007/2008 Steering Committee:
    (* New Members)     (**Former EndUser Board Members)        
  • Christina Meyer (University of Minnesota) - Chair
  • Janet Lute */** (Princeton University - Voyager) - Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
  • Suzanne Julich (University of Iowa) - Treasurer
  • Janet Higgins * (Idaho State University - Voyager) - Secretary
  • Margery Tibbetts (California Digital Library) - Liaison to the Verde Product Group; Co-Program Chair ELUNA 2008; Past Chair
  • Dale Flecker (Harvard University) - IGeLU Liaison
  • Pascal Calarco * (University of Notre Dame) - Liaison to the Digitool Product Group
  • Jim Corey (Florida Center for Library Automation) - Liaison to the Aleph Product Group
  • Weiling Liu (University of Louisville - Voyager) - Liaison to the SFX/Metalib Product Group
  • Bob Trotter * (University of Georgia - Voyager)- Liaison to the Voyager Product Group
  • Edward Corrado ** (College of New Jersey - Voyager) - Liaison to the Voyager Regional User Groups
  • Wil Frost ** (University of Hawaii - Voyager) - Co-Program Chair ELUNA 2008
  • Laura Guy ** (Colorado School of Mines - Voyager) - Liaison to the Special Interest Groups
  • Del Hamilton ** (Slippery Rock University - Voyager)

  • 18 June 2007
    USG members of ELUNA as of 18 June 2007:
  • Augusta State University
  • Dalton State College
  • Georgia Highlands College
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Georgia Southern University
  • Georgia State University
  • South Georgia College
  • University of Georgia
  • University of West Georgia
  • Valdosta State University
  • GALILEO Consortium
  • GIL Consortium

  • 13 June 2007
    E-mail announcement from Simon Huggard about EndUser dissolution:
    Hello all. This is an email to inform you of the results of the Voting for the Motion to Dissolve the EndUser Group.

    As outlined in the emails publicizing the voting and explaining the changes after EndUser (see below), the motion to vote on the dissolution of the group has been put forward and the actual voting itself has now passed the deadline of 11 June.

    The results are as follows:
        YES : 87.3% (330 votes)
        NO : 12.7% (48 votes)
        TOTAL NUMBER OF VOTES: 378

    I think that you will agree that an 87% yes vote is a clear majority of users who agree that we should dissolve the EndUser Group.

    So as President, I formally accept the vote and proceed officially to dissolve the EndUser Group as of today.

    It clearly is a sad day for the end of a wonderful, collaborative user group that has achieved a lot over the 10 or 11 year span of its existence. We have a lot of history and a lot of great work that we can be proud of.

    I am confident with the new structures in place and the involvement of many of the same people and with new members, that we have a lot of great collaboration and work we can do in the future and build upon our great history.

    Many thanks to all of your who participated in the voting, and provided us with a clear endorsement of the way forward through a newly merged structure for the ELUNA and IGeLU user groups.

    Thanks everyone. Please do not hesitate to contact any of your official IGeLU or ELUNA representatives and I look forward to the continuing involvement of everyone in the user community in the future.

    Regards,
    Simon Huggard
    Former EndUser President
    Member of the IGeLU Steering Committee

  • 8 June 2007
    The annual ELUNA Conference has concluded in Spearfish, South Dakota with over 385 attendees. Of interest to Voyager users was the creation of the Voyager Product Group within ELUNA (see below). In addition, the following individuals from Voyager sites have been elected to the ELUNA Steering Committee. Janet Lute (Princeton), Janet Higgins (Idaho State University), and Bob Trotter (University of Georgia). The other newly elected Steering Committee member is Pascal Calarco from Notre Dame. Jumping right into the "swing of things" Janet Lute will also be serving as the ELUNA Vice-Chair/Chair elect for next year; Wil Frost (University of Hawaii) will be Co-Chairing the ELUNA 2008 Planning Committee with Margery Tibbits; and Bob Trotter will be the Liaison to the Voyager Product Group. In planning for next year it was announced that ELUNA 2008 will be held in Long Beach, CA. July 28 to August 1, 2008...note the 2008 ELUNA Conference will be held in FY2009, and it is possible that ELUNA 2009 will also be in FY2009. Please make sure that your Library's Administrative Department is aware that ELUNA, unlike EndUser, will be at a different location each year instead of being anchored in Chicago.

    The Voyager Product Group was created at a meeting of Voyager customers who gathered in Spearfish and voted unanimously to officially form the Voyager Product Group as defined in the ELUNA By-Laws. Full minutes of the meeting and actions will follow later, however, Del Hamilton, Chair of the Voyager Product Group provided the following highlights: a) Julia McGinnis (California University of PA) was appointed through unanimous vote to be the Enhancement Chair for the next two years - she will be working with Ex Libris Product Management to finalize and enact the new Enhancement process; and b) Sherrie Kristin (Purdue-Calumet) and Melissa Wisner (Yale) have agreed to become the Voyager Product Group's 2008 ELUNA Programming Co-Chairs - they will be joining the 2008 ELUNA Programming Committee and will be responsible for the planning of a Voyager related program track. They will be seeking volunteers for a Voyager Programming Committee in the near future...talk with your Surpervisor or Director about getting involved in this new experience.

    Del also announced the establishment of a governance structure for the Voyager Product Group leadership team. This team will consist of a Chair, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, 4 Members at Large, the Enhancement Chair and the Programming Co-Chairs. Laura Guy (Colorado School of Mines) will be chairing a Nominating Committee which will be established in the next week or so and will be seeking nominations for the Vice-Chair and Members at Large slots. The election will be held as soon as possible. Anyone running for these slots will have to be from an institution that is an ELUNA member, however every Voyager site in North America will be entitled to cast a ballot for these positions. Institutions will still need to be members to cast a ballot for the overall ELUNA Steering Committee, but since this is a Product Group election ALL SITES may vote. Del will send out additional information on Voyager-L as information becomes available.

  • 17 May 2007
    GUGM 2007: a License to GIL" was a big success. With the facilities at Fort Valley State University we were able to expand our registration and keep all activities in one building. There were over 285 registrants this year and we are hoping for even more in 2008. The Pettigrew Farm and Community Center auditorium provided a location where could all sit together with plenty of room to spare. Chancellor Davis provided the keynote address this year. His remarks praised the efforts of the USG Libraries in being leaders in cooperative endeavors within the USG. He also gave multiple examples of his interactions with Merryll, and her desire to acquire support for various library oriented initiatives.

    Following the Chancellor's address the rest of the day was filled with presentations on various topics dealing with topics from acquisitions to wikipedia Click here for the GUGM 2007 presentations. If you do not see a topic of interest, start planning now to be a presentor at GUGM 2008. Thanks to the GUGM 2007 Planning Committee for all their efforts.

  • 11 May 2007
    A merger announcement from representatives of the EndUser Board, and the IGeLU and ELUNA Steering Committees has been distributed to Library Contacts. Click here to see the User Group Merger Announcement. In order to be heard and have an impact, you will have to join one of the User Groups which have a $150 annual membership fee. However, using either your GALILEO or your GIL consortium membership you can still qualify for a member discount for the annual conference.

  • 26-28 April 2007
    The LAST EndUser Conference was held at the new Renaissance Conference Center in Schaumburg, IL. As with past EndUser meetings there were useful customer provided sessions where experiences, problems and solutions, and innovations were shared. Also, Mike Dicus, the Voyager Product Manager, provided a Voyager Update into 2009. Click here to review Mike's PowerPoint (for USG Libraries only; SupportWeb UserID/Password required). In addition, the EndUser Board announced a number of significant changes for the user group which will take effect after EndUser. These changes have been necessary due to the merger of Ex Libris and Endeavor, and the reality that this is the end of the role of the EndUser Group in its current form.

    The major changes involve the merging of the EndUser Group with the various Ex Libris User Groups - IGeLU: International Group of ex Libris Users and ELUNA: Ex Libris Users of North America, and a request that the EndUser members vote to enact the dissolution of the EndUser Group itself.

    With the dissolution of the EndUser group all GIL Libraries are being encouraged to join ELUNA which is the Ex Libris Users of North America User Group and the group through which Voyager users in Georgia can be involved as Ex Libris customers. Unlike EndUser ELUNA has an annual membership fee of $150, but there is a discount when 1 person registers for the annual conference which will cover the Membership fee. The ELUNA website is http://www.elu-na.org, and the ELUNA 2007 Conference website is http://www.sdln.net/eluna2007/?mode=eluna2007.

  • 9 March 2007
    Modified letter to Voyager customers from Matti Shem Tov, President & CEO of Ex Libris Group
    Dear Voyager users,
    Three eventful months have elapsed since Voyager has become an intrinsic part of the enriched Ex Libris product suite. During this period, the Voyager product management and development teams have been busy with exciting upcoming product releases. Our Voyager development team is focused on ensuring that Voyager continues to provide excellent solutions to meet your evolving library needs.

    We are pleased to report that Voyager 6.5 programming efforts are nearing completion. This new product version addresses important functional requirements, many of which were evaluated as top priority by our customers in the 2006 enhancement process.

    Another important milestone on the horizon is Voyager integration with Primo--the new Ex Libris solution for the discovery and delivery of all types of local and remote institutional resources. Voyager integration with Verde will follow integration with Primo.

    Voyager version 7 will address additional enhancement requests stemming from the 2006 enhancement process, such as "look and feel" improvements for WebVoyage, extending support for standards like NCIP and EDI, and more.

    Mike Dicus, the Ex Libris Voyager product manager, will contact you shortly with a preview of some Voyager version 6.5 highlights and high-level plans for version 7.

    I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize how important our Voyager customers are to us, and to assure you that Ex Libris will continue to support and enhance Voyager with the same level of dedication as the rest of our product suite.

    I hope that you will join us at the upcoming EndUser 2007 Conference, which will take place April 26-28. At EndUser, we will showcase the complete Ex Libris product suite--focusing on Voyager developments and the future product roadmap.

  • 4 March 2007
    All of the production GIL servers have been upgraded to Voyager 2006.2.1. To see a ReadMe file on this Patch click here - a UserID and Password are required to access this SupportWeb site.

  • 22-24 February 2007
    The Georgia Institute of Technology hosted the 2007 Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference at the Georgia Tech Global Learning and Conference Center. Over 300 attendees from around the world were exposed to a wide range of topics dealing with the delivery, usage and maintenance of electronic resources.

  • 21 February 2007
    While Ted Koppell from Ex Libris was in Atlanta for the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference at Georgia Tech, the Georgia State University Library hosted a demonstration of Verde - the Ex Libris ERM - where Ted was able to provide 4 hours of an introduction to Verde for Librarians attending the Conference.

  • 8 February 2007
    GIL has added a new institution to its consortium list...DeKalb Technical College. DeKalb Tech becomes the first DTAE institution to move to Voyager and the third non-USG Library - along with the Atlanta History Center and the state of Georgia Department of Archives & History. DeKalb Tech has also been added to the GIL Universal Catalog, although at this time its holdings are not available for GIL Express Requests. The URL for GIL@DTC is http://gil.dekalbtech.edu.

  • 31 January 2007
    ACRL has announced their 2007 Excellence is Academic Libraries Award and in the University Category the winner is the Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center. Georgia Tech "was selected for its impressive five-year transformation into the heart and soul of the community." Click here to read the Press Release. Congratulations to the staff at the Georgia Tech Library and Information Center.

  • 19-22 January 2007
    ALA Mid-Winter was the first ALA Conference where Ex Libris represented the combined customer-base of both Endeavor and Ex Libris. There was one Customer Reception at the Pacific Science Center, one Booth on the Exhibition floor - with both Ex Libris and former Endeavor staff fielding questions - and one set of demonstrations where Voyager customers were made welcome. There were several presentations where Ex Libris presented their new products and were solicitous of input from their Voyager customers. Of special interest were presentation and customer feedback concerning PRIMO (the new web interface for the OPAC which is similar to Endeca) and VERDE which is the ERM which is replacing Meridian. Click here to go to the Ex Libris website to learn more about other Ex Libris products. At EndUser 2007 Ex Libris plans to introduce itself to the attendees and describe many of the Ex Libris products that may be in out future. So make plans to attend and learn more about some of the options that the USG Libraries will have before them.

  • 12 January 2007
    And the winner of the Georgia Bon Voyage Grant Award is....are: Michele James and Scott Giles from Georgia Gwinnett College. Michele and Scott submitted an institutional entry. There were a total of 6 applications for this year's - the first - Georgia Bon Voyage Grant Award. This included an entry from Cathy Jeffrey at Clayton State University which was one of the winners of the national EndUser Bon Voyage Grant Awards. Once again...CONGRATULATIONS!

  • 2 January 2007
    The GIL servers were all been upgraded to Voyager 6.1 over the Winter Break period. Voyager 6 is the current base product for the Voyager ILS system. In addition, the migration of the MCG Service Site to the UGA Service Site was finalized during this period.

  • 22 December 2006
    The acquisition of Endeavor by Ex Libris and Francisco Partners has been finalized. Click here for the press release. At ALA Mid-Winter in Seattle there will be a joint customer reception with both Ex Libraris and Endeavor customers. In addition, at EndUser 2007 Ex Libris will provide customers with product updates and information about the direction that Ex Libris will pursue.

  • 30 November 2006
    The President of the 2006-2007 Endeavor Users Group Board has announced the EndUser 2007 Bon Voyage Grant winners. Congratulations are extended to Cathy Jeffrey from the Clayton State University Library for being one of the 6 North American winners. Cathy is one of the 10 overall Bon Voyage Grant winners for EndUser 2007. This year there were 32 applications submitted for the 10 available grants.

    In addition, we would also like to thank Li Chen from Southern Polytechnic State University for being a part of the User Group Bon Voyage Nominating Committee.

  • 21 November 2006
    Today is a significant day in the history of both GIL and Endeavor. It was announced today at 2:30pm EST that Elsevier has sold 100% of its interest in Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. to the Francisco Partners financial group which also owns Ex Libris among other technology-oriented service companies. Endeavor and Ex Libris will be merged under the Ex Libris Group name with Matti Shem Tov, the head of Ex Libris, as the president and CEO of the merged company - the Ex Libris Group. The Ex Libris press release provides additional information. (Click here for the Endeavor press release.)

  • 8 November 2006
    The date for the USG 2007 Rock Eagle Computing Conference has been set for 24-26 October 2007. Mark your calendars now and make sure there is a line item in the FY2008 budget for this conference.

  • 27 October 2006
    Celebrating its 35th Anniversary over 700 participants and vendors gathered at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center for the University System of Georgia's Annual Computer Conference with the theme of Technology Supporting Educational Excellence. Chancellor Erroll Davis, Jr. presented the Keynote address for the Conference. In addition, the cook-out, dance, dessert party, Putt-Putt tournament, fireworks, hypnotist, and Rock Eagle Toast made for a wonderful 35th Anniversary.

  • 27 October 2006
    Julia Tan, the Service Site Coordinator at MCG has moved to the hospital side of MCG's IT environment.

  • 18 October 2006
    The GIL EndUser Bon Voyage Grant Application Form was made available today. This Application is for a Grant of up to $1,200 to a USG Library employee who has never attended EndUser and submitted and EndUser Bon Voyager Grant Application. Its purpose is to help cover the costs of attending EndUser07 in the Village of Schaumburg, IL on 19-21 April 2007.

  • 29 September 2006
    Fact sheets have now been published by OIIT concerning the GALILEO database access, the Digital Library of Georgia and GIL projects.
  • GALILEO Database Access
  • Digital Library of Georgia
  • GIL

  • 28 September 2006
    Members of the DTAE Library Council made a presentation to the DTAE Presidents' Committee, and the DTAE Vice-Presidents of Instruction group voted to give their endorsement to the DTAE Libraries becoming part of GIL. To see the DTAE GIL presentation click here and then click on the "books" to view the presentation after it is opened. (Audio is included in the presentation.) The DTAE Presidents will view this presentation at their October meeting.

  • 31 August 2006
    DeKalb Technical College has signed a contract with Endeavor becoming the first Technical College to join GIL. DeKalb Tech will be supported by the UGA GIL Service Site. Next month the DTAE Library Council will make a presentation encouraging the DTAE Presidents' Committee to follow DeKalb Tech's lead.

  • 17 August 2006
    The GIL Universal Catalog rebuild has been completed and put into production. The latest rebuild provided an opportunity to cleanup some duplicate records that had been deposited in the GIL UC. The current version starts with a base of 4,505,921 bibliographic records and 9,831,769 MFHD records which represent records in local GIL catalogs.

  • 19 May 2006
    Because of the success of the Content Cafe test, the test period has been extended to 19 August 2006. In addition, a notice is being sent to Voyager-L letting other Voyager users know that Baker & Taylor's Content Cafe services work with Voyager. We will be asking for feedback from other Voyager users concerning Content Cafe. Following this extended test period USG will discuss pricing with Baker & Taylor if there is a desire from the GIL Library Directors to move forward.

  • 18 May 2006
    Congratulations to Sherrida Crawford with support from Eva Lauteman on a wonderful meeting. They built on the work of Crit Stuart, and we had our most successful conference with over 240 registrations. Over 30 presentations were made on various topics. Thank you presenters, moderators and facilitators. We are fortunate to have so many talented people in our libraries who are interested in finding better ways to serve students and faculty. As always we enjoyed the support from Endeavor for the meeting. This year we had support from SUN MicroSystems which allowed us to have Lolly Gassaway speak on copyright issues.

    We also had two representatives from the Southeastern Voyager Users Group (SEVUG) in attendance to see how Georgia does it and to invite folks to the SEVUG meeting in Atlanta at the CDC on 1-2 March 2007. Those of you who presented might consider updating your presentations for that meeting or next year's EndUser. Click here for the GUGM2006 presentations. And those of you who didn't present, be prepared when Eva calls for next year's sessions, to step up and share something you have been doing!

  • 20-21 April 2006
    The Endeavor EndUser Conference was held in Chicago with 20 of the 900+ participants representing the GIL Libraries. Claire Colombo was the chair of the Universal Borrowing SIG. Bob Trotter did a session on GIL Web Reports for GIL Express (Universal Borrowing). Randall Cravey introduced many to the features of VRS. Ross Singer did a session on Z-server and Voyager.

    It was announced that next year the EndUser Conference will be held at the new (opening in July 2006) Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Conference Center. To see some of the features of this new facility go to URL: www.meet-schaumburg.com. i I am sure there are those that will wish for a return to the Marriott O'Hare, but ......

  • 11 April 2006
    Baker & Taylor agreed to let the GIL Universal Catalog be a test site for using their Content Cafe services with Voyager. Content Cafe is similar to Syndetics so we concluded that the coding Endeavor created to support Syndetics would also work for Content Cafe. The initial trial period will conclude on 11 May 2006. Following this test period where the GIL Librarians can review Content Cafe, USG may request a proposal from Baker & Taylor about their Content Cafe services.

  • 6 Janaury 2006
    GIL Express re-activated through the GIL Universal Catalog following the GIL upgrade to Voyager 5.

  • 5 Janaury 2006
    The GIL Universal Catalog has been upgraded to Voyager 5 and has been brought back into production. It will be tested and GIL Express through the GIL Universal Catalog will be re-activated during the evening of 6 January.

  • 2 January 2006
    Abraham Baldwin Argricultural College, Clayton State University, Dalton State College, Fort Valley State University, Georgia Highlands College, Gordon College, Kennesaw State University, Macon State College, Middle Georgia College, North Georgia College & State University and Southern Polytechnic State University have all been updated to Voyager 5.

  • 31 December 2005
    The Voyager 5 upgrade for Albany State University, Atlanta Metropolitan College, Georgia College & State University, Georgia Southwestern State University, South Georgia College and Valdosta State University has been completed. Over the next few weeks their staffs will be evaluating and implementing various Voyager 5 enhanncements.

  • 30 December 2005
    Georgia State University has completed its upgrade to Voyager 5 on Service Site side. Following the break the Library staff will work at implementing Voyager 5 enhancements.

  • 29 December 2005
    The Atlanta History Center, Darton College and the University of West Georgia have completed their upgrade to Voyager 5 on Service Site side. Following the break the Library staffs will work at implementing some of the Voyager 5 enhancements.

  • 28 December 2005
    The Voyager 5 upgrade for Armstrong Atlantic State University, the state of Georgia Department of Archives & History and Waycross College has been completed.

  • 27 December 2005
    East Georgia College, Georgia Gwinnett College and Georgia Southern University have had their upgrade to Voyager 5 completed, and they have been brought back into production.

  • 23 December 2005
    The Georgia Institute of Technology has completed its upgrade to Voyager 5 on Service Site side. Following the break the Library staff will work to activate several of the new features in Voyager 5.

  • 22 December 2005
    Bainbridge College, Coastal Georgia Community College, Columbus State University and the Medical College of Georgia have had the upgrade to Voyager 5 completed by their GIL Service Site. Customization of the new Voyager 5 features 5 will take several days.

  • 20 December 2005
    Augusta State University, Gainesville State College and Savannah State University have completed the upgrade to Voyager 5 on Service Site side. Customization of the new features in Voyager 5 will take several days.

  • 19 December 2005
    The University of Georgia was the first GIL Library to upgrade to Voyager 5. Their upgrade took several days but they are now in production. It will take all of the staffs several days to get everything back in shape for normal production. The current plan is to have all GIL Libraries fully operation by 7 January 2006.

  • 3 December 2005
    The GIL Libraries are planning to upgrade to Voyager 5 during the University System of Georgia's Winter Break period. Plans call for the basic upgrade to be completed by 7 January 2006.

  • 26-28 October 2005
    The University system of Georgia's 34th Annual Computing Conference was held at the Rock Eagle 4-H Camp. Over 700 attendees and vendors participating in this years Conference. Take a moment and see what you missed...visit the Conference's website: http://www.usg.edu/oiit/re/re05. We hope to see you next year.

  • 12-14 October 2005
    The Georgia Council of Media Organizations held its 2005 Conference - COMO XVII - at the Ironworks Convention & Trade Center in Columbus, Georgia.

  • 11 October 2005
    "Gainesville College" has adopted new name - "Gainesville State College". Please be aware that the new domain name for "Gainesville State College" is "gsc.edu" and you will start seeing e-mails from folks at "Gainesville State College" using their new e-mail address. The GIL address has not changed at this time and remains: http://gil.gc.peachnet.edu. The old domain will remain active for a period of time while the institution makes the transfer to the new domain name.

  • 1 September 2005
    Wendy Ellis, for many years the Service Site Coordinator at the Medical College of Georgia, has moved to the position of Digital Information Librarian at the Greenblatt Library after receiving her MLIS degree. Wendy is beng followed in her SSC position by Julia Tan. Julia was previously at the University of Virginia Library where she worked with the Digital Library Production Service.

  • 30 August 2005
    The GIL Universal Catalog was successfully reloaded and has been placed into production. In addition the netLibrary records were once again added to the UC collection. The reload process to a total of 13 days to load over 4,480,000 bibliographic records and over 9,720,000 MFHD records.

  • 18-19 July 2005
    GIL Express was the primary topic of discussion for GIL Circulation Librarians at a meeting at Macon State. A review of the GIL Express service was very encouraging with several Librarians voicing positive comments from both faculty and students. Some topices of discussion including the UPS and CampusShip, e-mail notices, callslip problems, fines, error messages, etc. Action items will be developed from each of the one day sessions.

  • 14 July 2005
    After months of planning and working with OIIT to build a relationship with GeoTrust the GIL Service Sites have completed installing SSL (secure socket layer) Certificates on all of the USG GIL WebVoyage production sites. The SSL Certificates are used to help secure information passed between the GIL web-server and the patron's web browser.

  • 13 July 2005
    Collection management has long been a topic of discussion among GIL Libraries. At the OIIT offices in Athens a group of GIL Librarians from various sized libraries gathered to discuss what reports the GIL Service Sites could provide to help the collection management efforts. The meeting reviewed both the Voyager reporting System - VRS and the GIL Web Reports. Continued to discussions and some web based information is going to be made avialble along with a listserv and a blog for discussion purposes.

  • 27 June 2005
    Endeavor's new marketing group provided a very different and entertaining Customer Reception for ALA in Chicago. The Reception was held at the "Howl At The Moon" Bar & Cafe. The hits for the evening - in addition to "The World's Most Dangerous Rock N' Roll Dueling Piano Show" - included the Endeavor leadership team leading the Customers in a song that everyone could sing and participate, and Alan Manifold singing his newest song: "Now That I'm Mature" (based on a Voyager-L conversation thread).

  • 17 June 2005
    RACL (Regents Academic Committee on Libraries) has voted to dissolve the GIL Steering Committee which was composed mainly of GIL Library Directors or their repersentatives, and replace it with the GIL Coordinating Committee which will be composed of the GIL Functional Committee Chairs, RACL representatives and BOR representatives. The membership of the GIL Coordinating Committee will be posted by 1 July 2005 on the GIL Project website.

    The GIL Steering Committee was put in place in April 1999 by the GIL Governance Structure document approved by RACL to oversee and guide the implementation of Voyager for the University System of Georgia. The GIL Coordinating Committee will assume many of the tasks of the GIL Steering Committee and will guide the oversite of USG's use of Voyager and associated products into the future.

  • 16 June 2005
    The GUGM (GIL Users Group Meeting) 2005 presentations' webpage has been put in place with the known presentations. If there are other presentations available please send them to Phil Williams at phil.williams@usg.edu. The GUGM Presentations can be viewed at http://gil.usg.edu/html/GUGM2005.html

  • 27 May 2005
    Two USG institutions have officially changed their name, and the transition will occur over the next several months. So you will begin to "Clayton State University" instead of "Clayton College & State University" more and more. In addition, "Floyd College" has adopted "Georgia Highlands College" as its new name as it expands its facilities outside of Floyd County. Please be aware that the new domain name for "Georgia Highlands College" is "highlands.edu" and you will start seeing e-mails from folks at "Georgia Highlands College" using their new e-mail address.

  • 19 May 2005
    It was a day of many successes for GUGM 2005 starting with the Keynote address by Dr. Kris Biesinger on "GAcollege 411". The GUGM 2005 Committee did an excellent job in planning, coordinating and executing this year's Conference. The use of the new Jones Building at Macon State College (host site) was a surprise change from the MSC facility of years past. There were over 250 participants at this year's Conference - a GUGM record. The variety of concurrent sessions (click here to review the Conference and view several of the sessions) was planned to meet the various interests of the attendees. It is noted that GUGM remains one of Endeavor's largest user group meetings.

  • 2 May 2005
    The Endeavor EndUser 2005 Conference was held in Chicago 28-30 April. With over 900 attendees from around the world, the sessions were informative and thought provoking. A great deal of discussion dealt with the Enhancement process created by the EndUser Board. Please note: Enhancement Requests for all products/modules are to be submitted by 1 June 2005. Go to SupportWeb for session descriptions and PowerPoints/PDFs.

  • 1 March 2005
    After the record breaking number of page requests made in the UC in January 2005 (150,662 requests), the month of February followed to break that record with 168,745 page requests. Click here to see Web Statistics for the GIL Universal Catalog. There is also a link from the GIL Initiative home page below the map of Georgia - click on Cummulative UC Web Statistics.

  • 16 February 2005
    After a trial run in the GIL Universal Catalog, the GIL OPAC Committee has now offered - as a local option - the implementation of a "More Like This" button for the local GIL catalogs. This option collects into one location the Author, Title and Subject links that are found in the Brief and Full record displays.

  • 31 January 2005
    A new feature has been added to the GIL Universal Catalog which will help patrons in locating material similar to their current search. This feature is called "More Like This", and provides additional search options to patrons based upon their last displayed result of their search. This feature is similar to the "Similar pages" feature of Google, but provides the patron the choice of concentrating on the author(s), subject(s) or title(s) as the topic for finding more information.

  • 9 January 2005
    The GIL Universal Catalog had a great deal of activity during the latter half of 2004. Since 4 February 2004 there have been over 536,000 requests processed through the GIL Universal Catalog. Click here for more detailed 2004 usage statistics - hourly, daily, monthly and by search query - for the GIL Universal Catalog.

    In addition, GIL Express has continued to meet with approval by USG Patrons. During calendar year 2004 when GIL Express went live during the Fall Semester, there were 32,848 GIL Express associated charges. These GIL Express charges (click here for detailed GIL Express usage by institution) were made by USG Patrons because of a request initiated in the GIL Universal Catalog (11,894 charges from 15,687 requests) or by doing walk-up requests at a USG Circulation Desk (20,954 charges).

  • 1 January 2005
    In place of doing the Voyager Unicode upgrade, GIL ran through a rebuild process for the GIL Universal Catalog. This action corrected a problem with the post search sorting which required the UC to be rebuilt. All local catalog updates are now being forwarded to the GIL Universal Catalog for processing.

  • 15 December 2004
    GIL postpones its Voyager Unicode upgrade. It has been decided, for various reasons, to not upgrade the University System of Georgia's GIL initiative over the 2004 winter break period. Another update opportunity will arise latter in 2005 and plans to upgrade to Voyager Unicode will be made at that time. An announcement was distributed to RACL on 13 December 2004 concerning the Unicode upgrade postponement.

  • 11 November 2004
    GIL announces plans for Voyager Unicode upgrade, pending the outcome of this month's GIL Express testing. To read more about the GIL Unicode upgrade click here.

  • 30 October 2004
    DO NOT TAKE DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING FOR GRANTED. The University of Hawai‘i Monoa Campus in Honolulu suffered a flash flood which caught everyone off-guard. The water level rose 6-8 feet in a short period of time and did a great deal of damage to the Hamilton Library. Click here to see some pictures of the damage and take note. The Government Documents and Map collections were severally damaged. In addition, the computer room where their Voyager and mail servers were housed was also flooded...they did have off-site back-ups. The force of the flood waters was strong enough to move walls, break windows and topple shelving. This (click here) article was posted on CNN.com concerning the flood and the damage to the Library. The Honolulu Advertiser provided this (click here) overview of the damage suffered by the Saturday evening flash flood.

  • 27 October 2004
    GIL Express Gives USG Library Patrons Access to More Than Four Million Titles is the title of an article that appeared in The Douglas Enterprise of Douglas, Georgia to promote a service that GIL provides to USG faculty, staff and students. This article is based upon a press release issued by Bede Mitchell, Chair of the GIL Steering Committee and Dean of the Library at Georgia Southern University. It was submitted to the Douglas paper by Marilyn Miller, the Director of the Smith Library at South Georgia College. Click here to read this article which is in PDF format.

  • 20-22 October 2004
    Following the COMO Conference in beautiful Athens, the University System of Georgia's Annual Computing Conference gathered its 681 registrants in the pastoral settings of Eatonton at the Rock Eagle 4-H Camp. The session provided by Merryll Penson (OIIT) and Bob Trotter (UGA) introduced attendees to both the GIL Universal Catalog and GIL Express. Many came by the GIL/GALILEO Booth in the vendor area for a "test drive" of GIL Express. For those who missed Rock Eagle this year, click here for a picture album of the "happenings" at Rock Eagle 2004 - including the fireworks.

  • 13-15 October 2004
    Librarians from across Georgia gathered in Athens for the Georgia Library Association's Annual Conference. The theme for this year's Conference - COMO XVI - was "L = A4 Libraries = Academic, Achievement, Access, Athens". The vendor area offered exposure to many "opportunities" and GALILEO was a popular spot to visit.

  • 30 September 2004
    GIL Express Gives USG Library Patrons Access to More Than Four Million Titles is the title of a press release issued by Bede Mitchell, Chair of the GIL Steering Committee and Dean of the Library at Georgia Southern University. Click here to read this press release which is in PDF format or click here to read this press release in Word format.

  • 17 August 2004
    Endeavor hosted a Universal Borrowing Task Force meeting which discussed the future of the Universal Catalog and Universal Borrowing. Claire Colombo from the University of Georgia and Chair of the GIL UCUB Committee, represented GIL at this conference. Claire has also been appointed Chair of the new Voyager Universal Borrowing Task Force. This meeting represented the beginning of the next phase in the development of Universal Borrowing - GIL Express.

  • 5 August 2004
    GIL made available to all users a Universal Catalog Record Error Report Status webpage based upon institution. This webpage includes a link to UC record being reported, the Service Site assigned the Error Report, and the Status of the Report.

  • 28 July 2004
    GIL made available to all users a GIL Status Information webpage based upon institution. This webpage includes status information about status of the GIL servers and the status of local catalog updates to the Universal Catalog. Access to this Status Information webpage is from the "About GIL" homepage in the left-hand column.

  • 18 June 2004
    GIL Express and the GIL Universal Catalog go into production with a move to a soft launch phase. During the summer the soft launch will allow GIL Libraries the opportunity to establish workflow and review policy issues prior to the beginning of the fall semester. For additional information on GIL Express click here.

  • 20 May 2004
    USG Librarians and other Voyager customers in Georgia met at Macon State College for GUGM 2004. The Keynote this year was presented by Julia Zimmerman, Dean of Libraries at Ohio University, and former Associate Director of Libraries at Georgia Tech. There were over 230 participants at this year's Conference. There were a variety of concurrent sessions (click here to review the Conference and view the various sessions) to meet the interests of the attendees. It was noted that GUGM has grown to be one of Endeavor's largest user group meeting.

  • 28 April 2004
    The GIL Universal Catalog and GIL Express (universal borrowing) continue moving forward with testing of final changes for the Voyager 2001.2 version of UC/UB. The testing has been provided by the Library staffs at Georgia College & State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and the University of Georgia.

  • 15-17 April 2004
    Nearly 1,000 Endeavor customers met in Chicago for EndUser 2004. There were some very good sessions on various Voyager topics presented by both customers and the Endeavor staff. If you were not able to attend EndUser, check-out sessions of interest under Tracks in the Users Group section of SupportWeb.

  • 1 April 2004
    Testing of GIL Express has moved into a new phase and recent changes in the code is being tested. There are but a few issues that need to be resolved before final "soft" launch plans can be finalized. The Universal Catalog will also be available to all users soon.

  • 1 March 2004
    The re-load of the GIL Universal Catalog has been completed. Testing will now begin for GIL Express and the UC maintenance process. It is anticipated that both the Universal Catalog and GIL Express will move towards production testing later this Spring.

  • 12 February 2004
    The Endeavor project to "clean" the USG Voyage databases has been completed. This project will allow the GIL Universal Catalog to better de-dupe incoming bibliographic records from the various GIL libraries.

  • 2 February 2004
    A meeting with OIIT PeopleSoft Support to discuss formalizing the PeopleSoft HR extract feed for Voyager was held in Athens. This extract will be similar to the ZORVLIB Banner extract currently in use by most of the USG Banner sites. Plans call for this extract script to be available following the current PeopleSoft upgrade. We hope this new Peoplesoft HR extract process will be in production by June 2004.

  • 30 January 2004
    Several GIL Libraries attended a GALILEO sponsored SFX Open House to set how SFX is meeting the needs of the SFX Pilot Project Libraries. The Libraries involved with the SFX Pilot are Emory University (Sirsi), Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. All 4 sites will be in production with SFX by 1 March 2004. For GALILEO and its member Libraries, SFX is meeting a database access need that has been identified by all consortium members.

  • 29 January 2004
    Both the RACL Executive Board and the GIL Steering Committee, along with the GIL Service Site Coordinators, met with Don Muccino, Vice-President of Customer Services at Endeavor, to discuss the future of both Voyager and Endeavor with respect to the University System of Georgia. This meeting included discussions about the new management team that is being put into place at Endeavor with an emphasis on the Customer Support and Product Development areas. The Universal Catalog and the Universal Borrowing as well as the upgrade to Voyager Unicode were also discussed.

  • 17 January 2004
    The loading of the USG Universal Catalog was completed and the UC was made available for testing. Following a review of the load by USG libraries, testing will begin for GIL Express. Finally, the UC Redirect option will be initiated and tested in selected libraries before being setup for all USG libraries.

  • 24 December 2003
    All of the USG databases have started the data cleanup process. We are hoping that shortly after the beginning of 2004 all databases will have been processed by Endeavor. The completion of this data cleanup process will allow for the building of a cleaner USG Universal Catalog.

  • 18 December 2003
    To keep track of the Data Cleanup Project that Endeavor is undertaking for the University System of Georgia, visit the Data Cleanup Update webpage. Go to URL: Data Cleanup Status Guide

  • 29 October 2003
    Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and South Georgia College have had the data cleanup process completed on their Voyager databases. The process has now started and will continue until all databases have been Processed by Endeavor. The outcome of this endeavor will be a clean Univeral Catalog that contains fewer duplicates and miss-matches between the Bib records and MFHDs.

  • 1 October 2003
    The Endeavor project to do data cleanup on the USG GIL databases has begun. The first database to start the process is South Georgia College. Within a week the SGC database will have those "disruptive", all numeric 035|a MARC tags deleted. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Columbus State University, Georgia College & State University, and South Georgia College are all part of the first group to do data cleanup. Endeavor will complete the data cleanup project by December. The result will be a cleaner USG Universal Catalog after the planned reload in December 2003.

  • 1-18 August 2003
    The USG Universal Catalog has gone through a reload and testing process for some new code provided by Endeavor to improve de-duping and to reduce false matches previously identified in the USG UC environment. The USG Universal Catalog will go into production at the end of August.

  • 27 July 2003
    All of the USG databases have been upgraded to Voyager 2001.2. See the Patch Status listing for the latest update concerning released Voyager patches on your server.

  • 22 May 2003
    GUGM 2003 was held at Macon State College and was a big success this year. Over 225 people attended the Conference from all over the state. Support from both Endeavor and Marcive provided food and snacks to keep everyone energized during the fast paced Concurrent Sessions. A very special thank you to the GUGM Planning Committee and to all of the presenters.
    Go to: GIL Users Group Meeting 2003 Presentation Materials to view some of the handouts. The SupportWeb userid/password is required to access the GIL Download Site.

  • 14 May 2003
    The Service Site Coordinators held their quarterly meeting at Georgia State University. Plans were discussed for upgrading to Voyager 2001.2 along with several patches that Endeavor will be providing for 2001.2 to aid with de-duping incoming bibliographic records. GUGM 2003 will be a good opportunity for library staff to talk with their Service Site Coordinator.

  • 24-26 April 2003
    EndUser 2003 (formerly VUGM) was a great success - including the weather, no snow. Over 900 academic and research library staff attended EndUser. There were many sessions which addressed topics of interest to the USG librarians including topics which covered such creative advances with Voyager as sending hold notice alerts to mobile phones, and integrating multilingual OPACs. "The sharing of technology usage, library experiences, and best practices is a key benefit of the EndUser Meeting," said Linda Voyles, Endeavor Customer Relations Manager. "It's very exciting to learn from Endeavor users who are progressively working with Endeavor's software solutions and who are so excited to share their knowledge and experience with their peers. EndUser is a real chance for Endeavor's customer base to shine, demonstrating their talent, creativity and truly exceptional use of Endeavor's flexible, scalable systems at institutions that range from the largest library in the world to those libraries with just one staff member."

    Many PowerPoint presentations from EndUser will be placed on SupportWeb soon. Check out the agenda and look for presentations of interest. Also, give serious thought to making a Presentation or doing a Poster Session at EndUser 2004. Start making your plans now and speak with your Library Directorabout presenting and attending EndUser next year. The EndUser 2003 Attendees list - in pdf format - is available on the GIL Download Site. USG had representation from the following institutions:
        ° Augusta State University
        ° Darton College
        ° Georgia Institute of Technology
        ° Georgia Perimeter College
        ° Georgia Southern University
        ° Georgia State University
        ° Medical College of Georgia
        ° University of Georgia
        ° Valdosta State University
        ° University System of Georgia.

  • 11 April 2003
    Plans are moving forward for launching both the Universal Catalog and GIL Express (Universal Borrowing) this summer, after a productive meeting with Endeavor to address some de-duping issues that are important to USG. The specific items discussed at this meeting will be addressed in a patch for Voyager 2001.2.

  • 31 December 2002
    Jane Burke, President of Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. announced her retirement. Jane has been a visionary in the area of library automation and has brought Endeavor from its introduction into the ILS marketplace to where it is a major player in the world of library automation. Thank you Jane for all of your efforts through the years. Your presence will be missed.

  • October-November 2002
    Various training sessions were held around the state to provide training associated with GIL Express (UniversalBorrowing) for the USG libraries.

  • 23-25 October 2002
    University System of Georgia Rock Eagle Computing Conference.

  • 10 September 2002
    All GIL Voyager databases have been upgraded to Voyager 2001.1.

  • 22-23July 2002
    The Southeastern Voyager User Group - SEVUG had its annual conference at Auburn University. There were 103 participants this year from various Voyager libraries in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee. Claire Colombo made an eye-opening presentation for those making plans for UB. And Gary Strawn was the Pre-Conference program with information about BatchCat and how he is using it to work with his catalog. The day-and-a-half conference also was supported by Endeavor with Verne Coppi, Keeley Sorokti, and Robin Davis attending. Volunteers will be needed for next year's SEVUGM so make plans to participate, present and/or attend.

  • June-July 2002
    Our plans are to upgrade to Voyager 2001.1 during June and July. The Service Site Coordinators will be in contact with their supported libraries to develop an upgrade schedule. We plan to have all libraries converted to Voyager 2001.1 by the end of July. In addition, as we move towards the implementation of the Unicode version of Voyager (end of 2002 or early 2003) please be aware of the Workstation Requirements with respect to PC Operating Systems.

  • 4-5 June 2002
    GIL Express provided training in the use of UPS CampusShip which allows both GIL Express and ILL staffs to more easily ship items between libraries using UPS. CampusShip is a relatively new service offered by UPS and GIL is glad to one of the earlier users.

  • 23 May 2002
    The GIL Users Group Meeting was held at Middle Georgia College in Cochran with over 200 in attendance. There were several sessions during the day which addressed functional areas. Conference Website

  • 25-27 April 2002
    VUGM 2002 was held in Chicago with a good representation from the Georgia Voyager sites. In addition, several sites presented Sessions on a variety of topics. For Voyager customers many of the sessions are available on Endeavor's SupportWeb.

  • 11 February 2002
    At the Universal Borrowing Task Force meeting in Chicago a tentative schedule for Future releases of Voyager was discussed. Currently the following in anticipated: Voyager 2001.1 - General release Spring 2002 Voyager 2001.2 - General release late Summer 2002 Voyager 2001.2- Unicode - General release late 2002 Voyager 2002.1 - General release Spring 2003 Please Note: Starting with Voyager 2001.1 Windows XP will be supported.

  • 11 February 2002
    As part of the Endeavor Universal Borrowing Task Force representatives from the University System of Georgia met in Chicago with fellow UB Task Force members from the University System of Wisconsin, representatives from Illinois, Finland, the Keystone Library Network in Pennsylvania, and members of the Endeavor development team. Our mission was to review Phase I of UB and discuss its implementation. Furthermore, we laid the groundwork for Phase II of UB which is currently planned for Spring of 2003. For USG we currently are planning to upgrade to Voyager 2001.1 in May 2002. 2001.1 is the production version of Voyager that includes Universal Borrowing. (2000.2 is the beta version of UB which the USG is currently testing.)

  • 1 January 2002
    The University System of Georgia libraries are beginning 2002 with plans for serving their patrons better:
  • Several libraries are moving forward with using or expanding their use of the Voyager Acquisitions module.
  • All USG libraries are developing plans for implementing Universal Borrowing later this year.
  • Final testing of the Universal Catalog is being done by Endeavor with a full loading of all USG libraries in early 2002.
  • The Service Sites are looking at doing Voyager upgrades during a semester break.
  • As library staffs become more comfortable with the basic Voyager modules, some are investigating the use of the Media Scheduling Module.
  • Currently the USG Voyager databases contain about 9,500,000 bibliographic records; over 11,150,000 item records, and over 310,500 patron records.

  • 13 November 2001
    The greater majority of the University System's GIL catalogs now contain netLibrary records for their users. The loading of these records compliments the bound collections. For a view of the impact of the netLibrary records Click here.

  • 31 October - 2 November 2001
    The COMO Conference was held at the Jekyll Island this year. There were several presentations concerning GALILEO, GIL and the Digatal Library of Georgia along with a vendor booth providing information on GALILEO and DLG for the attendees.

  • 24-26 October 2001
    The Rock Eagle Computing Conference was held at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center with several presentations concerning GALILEO, GIL and the Digital Library of Georgia. This year there was a GALILEO/GIL/DLG combined vendor booth.

  • 7 September 2001
    The University of System Georgia along with the other Beta partners for Universal Borrowing have completed the beta process. The UB task force is has setup training dates for the University System libraries to start full exposure to Universal Borrowing. There remain a few items that need to be resolved, but the direction of progress is forward.

  • 3-6 August 2001
    Both the University of Georgia and the Georgia State Service Sites upgraded their second Voyager servers to Voyager 2000.2. Following this upgrade each of the libraries on those servers will be configured for Universal Borrowing.

  • 30 July 2001
    After a few interruptions, the Universal Borrowing Training Session got underway. The sites will be at Albany State University, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Georgia College & State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Macon State College and the University of Georgia. The training will include an Overview Session, a Hands-on Session, and a Review-Q & A session. The last Review Session is scheduled for 14 November 2001.

  • 27-31 July 2001
    The Georgia State Service Site upgraded its first Voyager server to Voyager 2000.2. Following this upgrade each of the libraries will be configured for Universal Borrowing.

  • 4-5 June 2001
    The University System of Georgia's annual GIL Users Group Meeting was held at the University of Georgia Conference Center in Athens. There were just under 250 attendees. The opening General Session included a presentation by Jane Burke, President of Endeavor, and a presentation by George Gaumond, Chair of the GIL Steering Committee, to Jane for the completion of the University Systems migration to Voyager. The two day Conference included several functional area sessions, plus discussions of Universal Borrowing. Thanks to the GUGM working group for a fantastic meeting.

  • 18 May 2001
    We have made it! Voyager is the ILS for the entire University System of Georgia. Thank you to all of the Library staffs for the effort that you have made since June 26, 1998 to help move the University System forward in resource sharing. The implementation of Voyager throughout the University System plus the launching of Universal Borrowing this fall semester will help fulfill the promises made by the Chancellor when GALILEO was announced - "A Vision of One Statewide Library: GALILEO."

  • 18 May 2001
    Kennesaw State University announced that they have gone live with Voyager. KSU is working to also bring Acquisitions/Serials online, but Circulation and the OPAC are operational. Kennesaw State becomes the 35th (counting Gwinnett University Center) and final USG Library to migrate to Voyager.

  • 1 May 2001
    The Beta Libraries have moved into the final phase of testing Universal Borrowing. They will soon begin the process of shipping material via UPS to fulfill UB requests. We wish to thank the 5 Beta Libraries for all of their hard work and dealing with the inconveniences of weekly upgrades and downtime to support the Universal Borrowing project. Make sure someone from your Library attends the UB Information Sessions at GUGM in June.

  • 30 April 2001
    Savannah State University announced that they have gone live with Voyager. Savannah State was the final USG DRA Library to migrate, and the 34th University System Library to move to Voyager.

  • 18-21 April 2001
    The Voyager Users Group Meeting - VUGM 2001 - was held in Chicago. With over 1000 users in attendance the Conference was packed with sessions by both Voyager customers and the Endeavor staff. For the University System of Georgia 14 institutions (plus OIIT) were represented by 48 people who attended this years conference (Berry College in Rome was also represented). We are looking forward to an even larger GIL representation in 2002. Please visit SupportWeb and review the sessions/presentations. There are many PowerPoint and Word files discussing the various sessions at VUGM. See what was available this year and plan your budget to include sending some staff to VUGM in April 2002.

  • 16 March 2001
    The Georgia Institute of Technology announced that they have gone live with Voyager. Georgia Tech is the final USG Research University to migrate, and the 33rd University System Library to join the GIL family. USG is closing in on the completion of the Phase III migration to Voyager.

  • 8 March 2001
    The Universal Borrowing beta libraries met at the University of Georgia to review the UB process prior to moving the beta software to their production servers. Questions and problems were reported back to Endeavor. The beta libraries are planning to move UB onto their production servers either the 16th or 23rd of March. After UB is in place the Universal Catalog will be re-loaded with the beta library records first and then the process will start for adding the remaining USG libraries to UC.

  • 7 March 2001
    The first meeting of the Electronic Resources Access Study Group was hosted by the State University of West Georgia in Carrolton. While this is basically a GALILEO Study Group, its recommendations may impact GIL.

  • 31 January 2001
    Georgia Southern University has announced that they are live with Voyager. Georgia Southern has become the 32nd USG Library to move to Voyager.

  • 22 January 2001
    The Universal Borrowing training session for the Beta libraries was held at Macon State College. The next big event with UB will be the implementation of the UB software on the Beta libraries production databases in March 2001. The Beta Libraries are Bainbridge College, Coastal Georgia Community College, columbus State University, the Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia.

  • 21 January 2001
    All production GIL databases have been upgraded to Voyager 2000.1.2. This upgrade included many Acquisitions updates. New clients are avialble via the GIL download site.

  • 16 January 2001
    Valdosta State University has gone live with Voyager. Valdosta State is the second Phase III library to move from DRA to Voyager.

  • January 2001
    GIL website updated to configuration setup by the GIL OPAC sub-committee. New indexes and a new Fast Search option are now available.

  • 16 November 2000
    Armstrong Atlantic State University announced that they are live with Voyager. AASU is the first scheduled Phase III USG library to move to Voyager.

  • 25-26 September 2000
    The Universal Borrowing Beta Site representatives met in Chicago for a briefing by Endeavor on Universal Borrowing - Phase I. The initial introduction to Universal Borrowing and how it is to be setup and operated will be done in a test environment with movement to production by Beta Libraries in late October.

  • 9-13 August 2000
    The University of Georgia Service Center upgraded its two production Voyager server to Voyager 2000.

  • 3-13 August 2000
    The Georgia State Service Center upgraded its two production Voyager server to Voyager 2000.

  • 12 July 2000
    Augusta State University announced that they are live with Voyager. ASU is the last scheduled Phase II USG library to move to Voyager. Now it is on to the final 6 Phase III conversions.

    li>26 June 2000
    The State of Georgia's Department of Archives & History announced that they are live with Voyager.

  • 25 June 2000
    The Macon State College Library introduced it new mascot - Gil. Click here for an introductory photo.

  • 20 June 2000
    The Universal Borrowing Policy Task Force had a very productive meeting in Macon to start laying the groundwork for true universal borrowing within the University system of Georgia.

  • 16 June 2000
    Gwinnett University Center - GUC has become the newest site to join the growing family of University System of Georgia Voyager libraries. GUC was part of the GPC DRA consortium which supported several libraries in their automation endeavors.

  • 15 June 2000
    Gainesville College has become the 5th University System institution to migrate to Voyager from Sirsi.

  • 12 June 2000
    Georgia Perimeter College has completed its migration from DRA Classic to Voyager on schedule. It is the 6th DRA library to complete the Voyager migration. However, GPC has been a key player in four of the other five DRA libraries that have already made the move from DRA Classic to Voyager - AMC, Darton College, East Georgia College, and Waycross College. The remaining library hosted by GPC will go live with Voyager soon. Georgia Perimeter College has three campuses in the metro Altlanta area each near the Perimeter Highway - Clarkston, Decatur and Dunwoody.

  • 5-6 June 2000
    The University System of Georgia hosted the GIL Users Group Meeting at the UGA Conference Center in Athens. With over 200 attendees, there was a great deal of networking taking place as topics surrounding Voyager were discussed. Endeavor provided an update on the Universal Catalog and Universal Borrowing - both of which are on schedule to be in prodation at the beginning of 2001. The Conference provided a full schedule from 9:00am to 9:00pm on Monday and from 8:30am to 2:30pm on Tuesday. Click here to go to the list of presentation that have been made available.

  • 1 June 2000
    Merryll Penson, Chair of the GIL Steering Committee and Associate University Librarian for Public Service at the University of Georgia, has been appointed to the Voyager Users' Group Executive Board for a one year term. In addition, she has been asked to Chair a By-Laws Committee to investigate a model to be used by VUG to ensure appropriate representation for all groups.

  • 30 May 2000
    East Georgia College and Waycross College have completed their conversion from DRA Classic to Voyager. The staff at Georgia Perimeter College has been instrumental in moving the data for the Libraries supported on their DRA server to Voyager. GPC along with Gwinnett University Center will complete their migration in June.

  • 22 May 2000
    The upgrade of the last USG Voyager 98 production server to Voyager 99 was completed. The institutions involved are: Albany State University, Atlanta Metropolitan College, Darton College, Floyd College, Fort Valley State University, and the State University of West Georgia. The University system is now making plans to upgrade all of its production servers to Voyager 2000 in August. With the upgrade to Voyager 2000 the majority of the USG Voyager libraries will also become participants in the Universal Catalog.

  • 12 May 2000
    The quarterly Universal Borrowing Task Force meeting was held in Chicago with representatives from Endeavor, the University System of Wisconsin, and the Keystone Consortium. Representing the University System of Georgia were Claire Colombo, Sherrida Crawford, Bob Trotter, and Phil Williams. The USG will lead the way in testing Universal Borrowing beginning in late September 2000.

  • 11 May 2000
    An Authority Control Workshop was held for the Phase III libraries at Macon State College. Donna Smith from Endeavor and Joan Chapa from Marcive made presentations concerning the authority control processing from their respective viewpoints.

  • 10 May 2000
    The Welcome To Phase III meeting was held at Macon State College for the final 6 University System institutions moving to Voyager: Armstrong Atlanta State University, Georgia Southern University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Kennesaw State University, Savannah State University and Valdosta State University. Donna Smith and Linda Voyles from Endeavor made presentations along with Merryll Penson.

  • 11 April 2000
    The Universal Catalog Beta Sites had an introductory orientation to the world of UC. The beta process has begun. Phase I of the Universal Catalog will be completed by 30 June and Phase II will be finished by 31 December along with Universal Borrowing.

  • 7 April 2000
    Jane Burke, the President of Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., announced to the customers attending VUGM 2000 that Endeavor had merged with Elsevier Press. Biblio Tech Review calls this the Ultimate Integration.

  • 6-8 April 2000
    Voyager Users' Group Meeting - VUGM meeting in Chicago. University System of Georgia highlighted/recognized on several occassion. There were 32 people from the University System at VUGM. Hoping for more next year. Please check out SupportWeb when the PowerPoint presentations are available.

  • 30 March 2000
    Darton College announced its migration from DRA to Voyager.

  • 29 March 2000
    Endeavor announced its joint development of the Universal Catalog with the University System of Georgia as a creative solution for resource sharing.

  • 23 March 2000
    The Universal Catalog training session in Chicago for the Beta Service Site personnel was completed and the server has arrived. The Beta sites will receive an orientation on 11 April.

  • 15 March 2000
    The Georgia House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring 21 September 2000 as GALILEO Day. This day is significat because it is the day when GALILEO was launched for the University System of Georgia. Since that time it has expanded to all citizens of Georgia and now includes GIL - GALILEO Interconnected Libraries.

  • 25 January 2000
    The Universal Catalog update meeting was held in Atlanta. Discussion topics included beta testing and training. A Universal Catalog and Universal Borrowing update is planned for the USG Voyager Users Group meeting in June. UC Beta site training will be scheduled for April - after VUGM.

  • 7 January 2000
    Albany State University has migrated from DRA to production with Voyager. Albany State was the first USG Library to go live in 2000.

  • 1 January 2000
    Upgrades to Voyager 99.1 were accomplished for the Phase I GIL servers and the Phase II GIL server at UGA. The Phase II GIL server at Georgia State will be upgraded after all libraries on that server have completed their migration to Voyager 98.1.

  • 20 December 1999
    The State University of West Georgia became the third Sirsi library to go into production with Voyager.

  • 14 December 1999
    Fort Valley State Uniuersity has accepted their production load and will be live with Voyager in 2000. Fort Valley State University migrated from Sirsi.

  • 14 December 1999
    Albany State University has accepted its production load and will be live with Voyager in 2000.

  • 13 December 1999
    Atlanta Metropolitan College has accepted their production load and will be live in 2000 with Voyager. Atlanta Metro was using the DRA library system.

  • 19 November 1999
    Floyd College became the first Phase II library to go into production with Voyager. Floyd College migrated from the Sirsi library system.

  • 12 November 1999
    A meeting in Chicago between the Universal Borrower Task Groups of Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and Endeavor was held to discuss the Universal Borrowers Project and review specifications and timelines.

  • 3 November 1999
    A meeting in Atlanta between the Universal Catalog Task Group and Endeavor was held to discuss the Universal Catalog Project and review specifications and timelines.

  • 19 October 1999
    Endeavor presented an update on the Universal Catalog and Universal Borrower Projects at the October meeting of RACL. This meeting will be held at Macon State College. OITS will also provide GIL updates at this meeting to RACL members.

  • 5 October 1999
    Over 40 USG Circulation and ILL Librarians met at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville to discuss and review information concerning the Voyager Universal Borrowing module being developed with Endeavor, the University System of Wisconsin, and the Keystone Library Network in Pennsylvania.

  • 1 October 1999
    Both of the new Voyager Sun E4500 servers for supporting the Phase II libraries have been installed at the server sites. Endeavor has defined the databases and installed the ImageServer software on the UGA Voyager2 server.

  • 14-15 September 1999
    The Marcive/Endeavor Authority Control meeting was held at Macon State College -Phase I libraries on 14 September and Phase II Libraries on 15 September. This meeting reviewed the authority control processing of bibliographic records from both the Endeavor and Marcive perspectives.

  • 18 August 1999
    Union Catalog development meeting between the University System of Georgia and Endeavor was held in the Main Library at the University of Georgia. The results of this meeting refined the specifications and timeline process for the GIL Union Catalog. The GIL Union Catalog will be in full production by 31 December 2000.

  • 9-14 August
    The Voyager server supported by Georgia State University was upgraded to Voyager 98.1. This upgrade completed the University System's move to Voyager 98.1.

  • 3 August 1999
    Quarterly meeting between the University System of Georgia and Endeavor held in Atlanta.

  • 19 July 1999
    The Voyager server at the Medical College of Georgia was upgraded to Voyager 98.1.

  • 13-14 July 1999
    Universal Borrowing Task Force meeting between the University System of Georgia, the University System of Wisconsin, the Pennsylvania Keystone Project and Endeavor was held at Endeavor's headquarters in Chicago. This meeting continued the discussion of specifications for the universal borrowing component of GIL.

  • 6 July 1999
    The University of Georgia became last University System Library in the Phase I grouping to bring Voyager online.

  • 27 June 1999
    Phase II of the GALILEO Interconnected Libraries initiative started with Albany State University, Atlanta Metropolitan College, Floyd College, Fort Valley State University and the State University of West Georgia scheduled to be in production by the end of 1999.

  • 10 June 1999
    The Union Catalog/Universal Borrowing Committee met at Macon State College to discuss the proposal for the Union Catalog implementation.

  • 9 June 1999
    The Phase II GIL Libraries met at Macon State College for an introduction to Voyager and the GIL project from the perspective of planning and expectations for the next year. Merryll Penson, Chair of the GIL Steering Committee, opened the meeting with introductions and an historical background of the project. Tom Owens and Linda Voyles from Endeavor provided an overview of the Implementation Process and Training. The Service Site Coordinators from UGA and Georgia State were introduced - Bob Trotter and Randall Cravey respectively - and they provided brief biographical sketches for the group. In addition, Bill Clayton from UGA and Betsy Griffies from West Georgia made presentations on "Planning for Implementation" as a way of sharing ideas. Their talks covered among other items what might be done now to share information with the library staff and which areas could be addressed as a means of "cleaning-up" data before conversion.

  • 7 June 1999
    The Voyager server supported by the University of Georgia was upgraded to Voyager 98.1.

  • 4 June 1999
    GIL Users' Group Meeting was held at Middle Georgia College in Cochran, Georgia for University System librarians to report on the national Voyager Users Group meeting held May 22nd - 24th, in Chicago and discuss topics centered around the status and implementation of the Voyager Integrated Library System in University System libraries.

  • 25 May 1999
    Georgia Southwestern State University became the last University System PALS Library to bring Voyager online.

  • 24 May 1999
    Dalton State College went live with the Voyager OPAC.

  • 18 May 1999
    Gordon College made the announcement that they were live with Voyager.

  • 7 May 1999
    A GIL Update Presentation was made by the Director, Virtual Library Support for the OCLC/SOLINET Users' Group Meeting held at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.

  • 7 May 1999
    Georgia College & State University announced its conversion to Voyager, and is the thirteenth USG institution to move to Voyager.

  • 26 April 1999
    Middle Georgia College has announced its conversion to Voyager.

  • 23-24 April 1999
    University System Librarians attended the annual Voyager Users Group Meeting (VUGM) held in Chicago, Illinois. There were approximately 700 total attendees to VUGM 99. In addition, there was an organizational meeting for a Southeastern Voyager Users Group with attendees from Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, southern Virginia and Louisiana.

  • 13 April 1999
    Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College announced its conversion to Voyager. ABAC is the eleventh USG institution and the sixth PALS institution to move to Voyager.

  • 7 April 1999
    South Georgia College became the fifth PALS institution to bring-up the Voyager OPAC.

  • 29 March 1999
    Southern Polytechnic State University announced its conversion to Voyager.

  • 26 March 1999
    Coastal Georgia Community College became the first Sirsi Library to make the change-over to Voyager.

  • 12 March 1999
    North Georgia College & State Universtiy became the fourth PALS institution to make the change-over to Voyager.

  • 8 March 1999
    Clayton College & State University has made the change-over to Voyager. CCSU was a former Ameritech PALS library.

  • 4 March 1999
    Macon State College became the fifth University System institution to make the change-over to Voyager. Macon State was a former Ameritech PALS library.

  • February 19, 1999
    Georgia State University Libraries (The Pullen Library, The Law Library and the ITC (Instructional Technology Center) became the fourth institution in the University System to go live with Voyager. Georgia State University's library is a former PALS library.

  • January 25, 1999
    Bainbridge College Library became the third Library in the University System to go live with Voyager. Bainbridge College is a former DataTrek site.

  • January 4, 1999
    Columbus State University's Schwob Library became the first Library on the multi-library Voyager Server located at the University of Georgia to go into production with Voyager. Columbus State University is a former Notis Library.

  • December 14, 1998
    GALILEO Interconnected Libraries Project Update.

  • November 12, 1998
    The Medical College of Georgia's Greenblatt Library became the first Library in the University System of Georgia to go into production with Voyager. MCG is a former Georgetown Library System site.

  • October 21, 1998
    GALILEO Interconnected Libraries Project Update.

  • September 14, 1998
    Endeavor hosted the first Union Catalog/Universal Borrowers Conference at their Chicago Office. Members of the University System of Georgia's UCUB Committee and invited personnel from the Keystone Project in Pennsylvania attended this roundtable discussion.

  • August 1998
    The first Sun Server arrived at the Medical College of Georgia which had been designated as the first site to go into production with Voyager. A compressed schedule of planning and training was implemented during August and September 1998 for the MCG staff.

  • August 13, 1998
    The Universal Borrower/Union Catalog sub-committee from the COPERNICUS Planning Committee met to continue the discussion and formation of recommendations concerning these important issues to provide a continuity of thought for a similar sub-committee to be formed by the newly formed Steering Committee.

  • August 5, 1998
    A general meeting of University System librarians was held at Middle Georgia College in Cochran, Georgia to hear a presentation by Jane Burke, President of Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. and discuss topic centered around the implementation of the Voyager Integrated Library System over the next three years.

  • June 30, 1998
    $2 million in equipment and software had been ordered by OIIT for Phase I of the project. The first server sites will be the Medical College of Georgia (1 library), the University of Georgia (4 libraries) and Georgia State University (14 libraries).

  • June 26, 1998
    The University System of Georgia signed a contract with Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. to deploy their Voyager library system throughout the University System of Georgia. This three year project will replace the current automated library system being used by USG institutions with Voyager. The project is divided into three phases with over half of the USG libraries being converted in the first phase of this project.

  • June 15-17, 1998
    Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. - as one of the finalists - made a product demonstration and answered questions for the Copernicus Planning Committee (CPC).

  • June 8-10, 1998
    The SIRSI Corporation was invited - as one of the finalists - to make a product demontration and answer questions for the CPC.

  • May 21-28, 1998
    The responses to the RFP from four vendors were reviewed by the CPC.

  • April 30, 1998
    The CPC had completed a formal Request for Proposal which was executed by the State Purchasing Department for a single Interconnected Integrated Library System for the University System of Georgia.

  • October 1997
    The Regents' Academic Committee on Libraries (RACL) moved forward the plan for an integrated interconnected library system for the University System of Georgia by creating the Copernicus Planning Committee (CPC).

  • April 1997
    RACL sponsored a vendor presentation conference for University System library staffs to gather information about what was availabe in the marketplace with regards to automated library systems.

  • January 1997
    RACL formerly approved in principle the plan for an Integrated Interconnected Library System represented by the product of one library vendor.

  • December 1996
    A presentation was made to the Vice-Chancellor for Information and Instructional Technology by RACL representatives proposing a 3 year plan and a request for $10 million to purchase software, hardware, training and conversion services to implement an integrated interconnected library system.

  • November 1996
    Six library vendors made initial presentations at Macon College to RACL members on how their products might help the University System reach a goal of an integrated and interconnected libary system - even if multiple automated systems were used. The results of that meeting included a decision that multiple library systems could not be satisfactorily integrated and interconnected to meet the demands of the University System of Georgia. The final proposal therefore was to initiate a search for one vendor and one library system to meet the demands of an Integrated Interconnected Library System.

  • October 1996
    A White Paper on an Integrated Interconnected Library System was presented to and discussed by the Regents Advisory Committee on Libraries (RACL).

    • Please send comments to: merryll.penson@usg.edu