Innovative Announces 25 Development Partners and Early Adopters of Sierra ILS

Library automation company Innovative Interfaces (III) today announced agreements with 25 academic and public libraries to become partners in or early implementers of its Sierra Services Platform development initiative. Sierra is III's forthcoming integrated library system (ILS) platform, which includes open-source tools and potentially more customizability than its current Millennium ILS.

When the company first announced Sierra in April at the Innovative Users Group Annual Conference in San Francisco, the new ILS platform appeared to be responding to calls for more ILS openness. Though III will handle development of the Sierra platform in-house, it plans to roll out a "Developer's Sandbox" online environment with tools for outside developers to test applications against Sierra's application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as a forthcoming "Developer's Community." The initial release will also expose the platform's PostgreSQL database and Apache Lucene index structures, which are both open-source components.

The first stage of Sierra development, according to the new announcement, will focus on the platform's staff interface. Sierra's official beta launch is scheduled for late this year.

The following institutions were named in the announcement:

• Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, AR
• Council Bluffs Public Library, Council Bluffs, IA
• Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, NC
• The George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC
• Greene County Public Library, OH
• Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
• Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI
• Hope College, Holland, MI
• Indianhead Federated Library System, Eau Claire, WI
• Jefferson County Public Library, Lakewood, CO
• Lafayette College, Easton, PA
• London Public Library, London, ON, Canada
• Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
• Mentor Public Library, Mentor, OH
• Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
• Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY
• Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law Library, Houston, TX
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
• University of Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, IN
• Wright State University, Dayton, OH
• Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School, New Haven, CT
< <