Mossey Library is temporarily suspending the MeLCat interlibrary sharing service as it updates the library catalog to a new software for the fall semester.
These research services and sharing requests, previously available through https://lib.hillsdale.edu/search and https://encore.hillsdale.edu, allow students, staff, and faculty to access material from libraries across Michigan. The classic online catalog and the new Encore system have been provided by the same software company since 1995.
Library Director Maurine McCourry said the older systems gave Mossey access to a public integrated library system called Sierra.
“Mossey Library was the first Sierra site in the world, going live with the software in 2011,” McCourry said.
After the systems company was sold and changed management several times, resulting in instability and unresponsiveness to student needs, the library staff decided to investigate other software options, according to McCourry. They received software proposals from four companies, eventually going with ExLibris, which is used by several smaller college libraries in Michigan and larger libraries, such as Harvard University’s.
With the new system, the library staff will be able to better manage its current catalog materials found in Encore, McCourry said. The college’s digital archived material will also be significantly easier for the staff to manage and students to access, since it was previously stored in several systems and locations.
The entire migration is a very complex process, McCourry said, and will take several months to accomplish, as Mossey suspended MeLCat services on Sunday and will not launch them again until August, after the system transition is complete.
However, library staff said they will work to ensure that any material students might need for the rest of the semester and through the summer will be requested through inter-library loan.
Freshman library employee Elyse Hawkins said she has largely seen a positive response to the system change.
“We’ve had a few professors and students express frustration with the ending of MeLCat, but, overall, library patrons have seemed fairly understanding of the different system changes and updates that are being made,” Hawkins said.
McCourry said that this migration, while inconvenient, will be beneficial in the long term.
“The public, or ‘discovery’ side of the system will be much, much easier for students, faculty, and staff to use than our current systems,” she said.
