Author:Beth Lazarczyk

The Library Corporation has announced the availability of their latest round of development for the CARL product line with the release of CARL•X™ v9.5.1, CARL•Connect v1.4.3, CARL•Connect Discovery v3.3, and CARL APIs v1.9.

TLC maintains its longstanding tradition of being the library platform of choice for local development partnerships and product enhancements through CARL•X. Version 9.5.1 offers expanded integration options for CARL•X consortia customers and other libraries that use Branch Grouping for their library material acquisitions. This streamlines the electronic ordering process and expands capabilities between TLC and their third party vendor partners for meeting library needs. Updates were also made to create additional staff user security settings that allow ILS administrators even greater flexibility for rolling out features and providing the appropriate access to library staff.

TLC continues to build and improve upon its full featured API offerings as part of the core CARL product line. These APIs are employed for its own in-house ILS development as well, and significant work was completed in v1.9 and CARL•Connect v1.4.3 to further enrich the staff user experience. To that end, new
API options were developed to support full Item Maintenance and they are now available to provide new interactions within the web-based staff interface. These features include new APIs to support item lookup, item creation, item edit and item information, as well as details regarding items that are in a particular status.
This development also ties in with TLC’s new SMART PAC functionality, which provides a sophisticated bibliographic search interface for staff users, allowing them to search and select back records for item maintenance and cataloging directly within the CARL•Connect staff module.

CARL•Connect Discovery Mobile offers services that go beyond basic search and access. In v3.3 development was completed to provide more personalization options for users with the addition of enhanced search result filtering that was built with self-service in mind.

TLC has operated continuously under the same ownership since 1974 and employs over 200 people dedicated to delivering enterprise hardware and software solutions to public, school, academic, and special libraries worldwide. TLC’s cumulative products are deployed in more than 1,100 organizations, representing over 5,500 locations in North America. TLC is certified by the U.S. General Services Administration, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and the Women Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program. TLC is based in Inwood, W.Va., and has additional offices in Denver, Minnesota, Singapore, and Ontario, Canada.

The Library Corporation (TLC) is pleased to announce that the Nashville Public Library System (NPL) and Metro Nashville Public Schools are now live on a joint CARL•Solution® integrated library system. NPL migrated from Millennium by Innovative Interfaces Inc., while the Metro Nashville Schools moved to CARL•Solution from TLC’s Library•Solution for Schools®.

Key to the decision to bring both systems onto CARL•Solution was the need to truly consolidate the award winning Limitless Libraries partnership that began in 2009. Limitless Libraries is a cooperative program of NPL and Metro Nashville Schools with the goal of improving school libraries, fostering resource sharing between the two institutions, and improving student access to learning materials. Sharing a single ILS removes barriers to access and provides greater ease of use for the partnership. CARL•Solution was the best choice to simplify the management of library user accounts, as well as streamline circulation processes. Kent Oliver, NPL’s Library Director, agrees. “Nashville Public Library’s implementation of CARL•Solution will enable us to better serve all of our patrons, including students who borrow our materials from their school libraries through our Limitless Libraries partnership with Metro Nashville Schools. CARL•Solution provides greater operational connectivity between our library and Nashville’s school libraries. That means school librarians can assist students with borrowing and circulation more easily and have more time – once spent on administrative tasks – to spend with students.”

In addition to combining automation systems to support Limitless Libraries, TLC’s commitment to mobility was a significant factor in the selection of CARL. In fact, the Metro Nashville Schools will exclusively use the modern, intuitive CARL•Connect web-based product line at its 128 schools for staff and self-service interactions with the CARL ILS, further increasing efficiencies.

As the recent recipient of the 2017 Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year award, NPL was looking for a system that would partner with them to further identify and fulfill the needs of their diverse communities, and best showcase their vast programs, services and collections. Annette Harwood Murphy, Co-Founder, President/CEO of TLC shared, “TLC has enjoyed a successful collaboration with the Metro Nashville Public Schools for close to 15 years, and we are so honored to continue to work with them and the Nashville Public Library as they move forward on CARL•Solution. NPL and Metro Nashville Schools clearly understand the value of partnership through the celebrated Limitless Libraries and the scope of services they provide to their communities, and that makes them an excellent fit to our CARL family.”

The Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ) has selected TLC’s CARL•Solution as its next integrated library system after a competitive search of the marketplace and will be taking advantage of the fully hosted service model that TLC provides.

CARL’s modern, intuitive online catalog and powerful staff interfaces are the perfect choice for SCLSNJ, which circulate close to 3 million items to over 1.5 million annual visitors. Lynn Hoffman, SCLSNJ’s Director of Operations elaborated. “In addition to providing our users with the pleasant, easy-to-use CARL•Connect Discovery online catalog, that we know they will love, we’re also looking forward to working with TLC and the CARL team on exploring new ways to build on the foundation of our ILS. SCLSNJ staff have a history of working with our existing technology tools to create new products and solutions that help our user community, and between the robust CARL•Solution API suite and TLC’s commitment to development, we know this will be a great fit for the Library.”

Indeed, CARL•Solution is a true open system and TLC continues to be the library platform of choice for local development partnerships and product enhancements through its CARL product line. “Somerset County Library System of New Jersey strives to provide innovative user-driven services to its communities, and we are so pleased that they have selected TLC to help them achieve their mission to connect, to explore, to share and to discover,” shared Paul Leppert, TLC Denver’s VP & Managing Director. “We pride ourselves on a flexible development process and we work closely with our customers to create leading edge technologies that will set them apart. We look forward to embarking on this new partnership with SCLSNJ and working together for years to come.”

About Somerset County Library System of New Jersey
Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ) partners with you to connect, to explore, to share and to discover. Together we enrich lives, expand knowledge and strengthen communities. SCLSNJ branches can be found in Bridgewater, Bound Brook, Hillsborough, Manville, North Plainfield, Peapack & Gladstone, Rocky Hill at Mary Jacobs Memorial Library, Somerville, Warren Township, and Watchung. Additionally, there are two SCLSNJ reading stations in Branchburg and Washington Valley. Visit SCLSNJ.org for further information about library services offered at SCLSNJ.

TLC has operated continuously and under the same ownership since 1974, providing premier automation and cataloging services to more than 4,500 public, school, academic, and special libraries worldwide. The company is certified by the U.S. General Services Administration, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and the Women Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program. TLC is based in Inwood, W.Va., and has additional offices in Denver, Minnesota, Singapore, and Ontario, Canada. To learn more, visit TLCdelivers.com.

Monroe County Library System Selects TLC’s CARL ILS after Competitive Search

The Library Corporation (TLC) is pleased to announce that the Monroe County Library System (MCLS) in Rochester, NY has chosen to continue their partnership with TLC by selecting the CARL integrated library system. With this decision, MCLS will remain a valued member of the TLC family that includes thousands of other libraries worldwide using their premium services.

“The Monroe County Library System has come to rely on TLC to provide excellent service and innovative product development over the course of our relationship. We elected to examine the ILS marketplace in 2015-16 to see if we were missing anything. While we appreciated the time and effort all of the ILS vendors put into sharing their products, it was clear by the end of the process that TLC continues to be the best fit for MCLS. We look forward to working with TLC to better serve our customers through innovative and responsive products,” said Patricia Uttaro, Director of MCLS and the Rochester Public Library.

During the ILS selection process, MCLS was impressed with TLC’s continued commitment to improve and enhance both the library user and staff experience by taking the time to listen to their needs and provide unique solutions through their highly successful partnership model for developing new features and services, as well as third party integration opportunities. To that end, MCLS has been a key player in the advancement of the CARL•Connect product line that was designed with a focus on mobility and ease of use both inside and outside the library. Their focus on roving reference and outreach, as well as patron driven services, was essential to TLC’s development process and proved to be one of many successful collaborations between MCLS and TLC.

“We take our library relationships very seriously,” shared Paul Leppert, VP & Managing Director of Denver Operations. “Our goal is to help our libraries best showcase their collections and provide them with a flexible and configurable system that will adapt to their library and community needs for years to come. Our partnership with MCLS has been a success story for over 20 years, and we are proud to look toward the future together.”