| Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revision |
| phasefx:faq [2014/05/21 08:16] – [Installing Evergreen] phasefx | phasefx:faq [2022/02/10 13:34] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 |
|---|
| ====== Frequently Anticipated Questions ====== | ====== Frequently Anticipated Questions ====== |
| |
| This is a work in progress. If you have suggestions or would like a wiki account to help out, please send an email to <docs@evergreen-ils.org>. The [[faqs:evergreen_faq_1|original FAQ's]] are still available. If you have questions not covered here, please see Question #2. :-) | This is a work in progress. If you have suggestions or would like a wiki account to help out, please send an email to <docs@evergreen-ils.org>. The [[zzz:evergreen_faq_1|original FAQ's]] are still available. If you have questions not covered here, please see [[phasefx:faq#where_can_i_get_help_with_evergreen_have_questions_answered_etc|FAQ #2]]. :-) |
| | |
| | **Update:** We've used what's here as the basis for a [[http://evergreen-ils.org/frequently-anticipated-questions/|top-level F.A.Q.]] menu entry under About Us on the website. |
| |
| ===== About Evergreen ===== | ===== About Evergreen ===== |
| ==== 3. How is Evergreen different from the competition? ==== | ==== 3. How is Evergreen different from the competition? ==== |
| |
| All software has strengths and weaknesses, and there is no such thing as "feature complete" library automation. Every [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_library_system|ILS]] ((Integrated Library System)) or LMS ((Library Management Software)) has a set of features that is either aligned with the needs of the people using the software or not. | All software has strengths and weaknesses, and for non-trivial software there is no such thing as being "feature complete". Every library automation system (also referred to as an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_library_system|ILS]] ((Integrated Library System)) or LMS ((Library Management Software))) has a set of features that is either aligned with the needs of the people actually using the software or not, and comparing lists of such features may be comparing apples and oranges while calling both bananas. It's more important to see how the software works in practice. |
| |
| === Openness / Longevity === | === Openness / Longevity === |
| === Scalability / Designed to handle complexity === | === Scalability / Designed to handle complexity === |
| |
| Evergreen is a complicated piece of software, but that complexity allows it to handle and mask complexity in turn. It was originally designed for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PINES|PINES]] which, by some measures, is one of the largest public library consortia. Organizational units (whether they be physical or abstract) can be expressed in a tree-like hierarchy, where policy and other information can be defined at specific org units and inherited by descendants in the hierarchy. Certain functionality also allows you to arbitrarily group org units and other entities outside of that hierarchy. | Evergreen is a complicated piece of software, but that complexity allows it to handle and mask complexity in turn. It was originally designed for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PINES|PINES]] which, by some measures, is one of the largest public library consortia. Organizational units (whether they be physical or abstract) can be expressed in a tree-like hierarchy, where policy and other information can be defined at specific org units and inherited by descendants in the hierarchy. Certain functionality also allows you to arbitrarily group org units and other entities outside of that hierarchy. Hierarchies and inheritance also play a role with permissions. |
| |
| Evergreen can scale to meet the needs of load and performance, and is built with a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_oriented_architecture|service-oriented architecture]] ((SOA)) that can be configured in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_(computing)|clusters]]. It supported [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing|"cloud computing"]] before that became a buzz word. Evergreen can also scale down to a single library, and there are many small libraries using it. | Evergreen can scale to meet the needs of load and performance, and is built with a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_oriented_architecture|service-oriented architecture]] that can be configured in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_(computing)|clusters]]. It supported [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing|"cloud computing"]] before that became a buzz word. |
| |
| | Evergreen can also "scale down" (in terms of library complexity). There are many small and single branch libraries using it. |
| | |
| | It also supports different types of libraries: public, academic, research, K-12, special, corporate, music, church, personal, etc. |
| ==== 4. So I'm already familiar with ILS and library jargon. What standards and "modules" does Evergreen support? ==== | ==== 4. So I'm already familiar with ILS and library jargon. What standards and "modules" does Evergreen support? ==== |
| |
| Evergreen supports these standards and technologies: CODABAR, EDI, LDAP, MARC21, MFHD, OpenSearch, OpenURL, RDA, RSS, schema.org, SIP2, unAPI, Unicode, WCAG, Z39.50 | Evergreen supports these standards and technologies: CODABAR, EDI, LDAP, MARC21, MFHD, OpenSearch, OpenURL, RDA, RSS, schema.org, SIP2, unAPI, Unicode, WCAG, Z39.50 |
| |
| ===== Installing Evergreen ===== | ===== Installing and Configuring Evergreen ===== |
| | |
| | ==== 5. How do I install Evergreen? ==== |
| | |
| | Evergreen has a server component that in practice needs to be installed on a Linux server (preferably Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora). Installation is not turn-key and is best done by someone familiar with compiling programs (using //configure// and //make//) and editing text files in a Linux environment. There are commercial entities willing to do this for you and a volunteer community willing to help you do it yourself and improve the process based on your experience. Installation instructions are available on the [[http://evergreen-ils.org/egdownloads/|Downloads]] page and also in the official[[http://docs.evergreen-ils.org/|documentation]]. |
| | |
| | System requirements and multi-server configuration can be a complex topic that you may need to ask around about (see [[phasefx:faq#where_can_i_get_help_with_evergreen_have_questions_answered_etc|FAQ #2]]). For a single-server "test" system handling one or two concurrent users and 20k bibliographic records, a modern 2x2x5 server (2 cpu cores, 2 gigs of RAM, and 5 gigs of disk space) should be sufficient. |
| |
| Evergreen has a server component that in practice needs to be installed on a Linux server (preferably Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora). Installation is not turn-key, and is best done by someone familiar with compiling programs (using //configure// and //make//) and editing text files in a Linux environment. There are commercial entities willing to do this for you and a volunteer community willing to help you do it yourself and improve the process based on your experience. Installation instructions are available on the [[http://evergreen-ils.org/egdownloads/|Downloads]] page and also on the [[http://docs.evergreen-ils.org/|Documentation]] page. | Once installed, Evergreen serves web pages for patron interfaces. For staff interfaces, there is a separate client program that needs to be installed on staff workstations, though in the long run Evergreen is moving toward web-based interfaces for staff as well. A Windows build of the staff client is available on the [[http://evergreen-ils.org/egdownloads/|Downloads]] page. Mac and Linux builds are possible, but you'll need to ask around for those or build them yourself (see [[phasefx:faq#where_can_i_get_help_with_evergreen_have_questions_answered_etc|FAQ #2]]), as they're not built for every release. |
| |
| System requirements and multi-server configuration can be a complex topic that you may need to ask around about (see [[phasefx:faq#where_can_i_get_help_with_evergreen_have_questions_answered_etc|FAQ #2]]). For a single-server "test" system handling one or two concurrent users and 20k bibliographic records, a 2x2x5 server (2 cpu cores, 2 gigs of RAM, and 5 gigs of disk space) should be sufficient. | ==== 6. How do I configure Evergreen? ==== |
| |
| Once installed, Evergreen serves web pages for patron interfaces. For staff interfaces, there is a separate client program that needs to be installed on staff workstations, though in the long run Evergreen is moving toward web-based interfaces for staff as well. A Windows build of the staff client is available on the [[http://evergreen-ils.org/egdownloads/|Downloads]] page. Mac and Linux builds are possible, but you'll need to ask around for those (see [[phasefx:faq#where_can_i_get_help_with_evergreen_have_questions_answered_etc|FAQ #2]]), as they're not built for every release. | There is a good section on this in the [[http://docs.evergreen-ils.org/|documentation]], under **System Configuration and Customization**. There is also a book called [[books:evergreen_in_action|Evergreen in Action]], which, though dated, is a different take on some of the same information and may be useful. Most things like circulation and hold request policy and organization hierarchy can be configured through staff interfaces, though there is some functionality that can only be configured directly in the database or through configuration files (these settings don't change often), and org hierarchy changes do require that a server-side script (/openils/bin/autogen.sh) be ran to update some files. |
| | ===== Using Evergreen ===== |
| |
| ===== Running Evergreen ===== | ==== 7. How do I use Evergreen on a regular basis? ==== |
| |
| ===== Improving Evergreen ===== | ===== Improving Evergreen ===== |
