Nashua
Library
July 27, 2019
TO: Board of Trustees
FROM: Jennifer McCormack, Director
RE: ILS selection
The RFP for our new ILS was released on 5/20/2019; it was posted on the city’s website
and sent directly to 5 vendors. We received proposals from 6 vendors on or before the
deadline of 6/20/2019 and these were evaluated over the next several weeks using the
following process:
First round: Jenn and | evaluated hosting capabilities (Security, disaster recovery,
capacity) and the strength of the migration and implementation plans. 3 proposals
were eliminated from consideration during this phase.
Second round: A team of 7 senior staff (including the Director and Assistant Director)
observed full day in-person demos of each proposed software solution. Each of these
demos was scored using the attached grid and staff also submitted written comments
and final recommendation to the Director. An additional vendor was eliminated during
this phase, leaving only Innovative (iii) and Sirsi under consideration. Innovative received
higher scores higher than Sirsi which was expected since we are a current Sirsi customer
and they didn’t do in-depth demonstrations of the modules that we are already using.
Overall the team was split fairly evenly regarding which system was recommended at
the conclusion of this evaluation phase. .
Third round: The Director and Assistant Director called references for Innovative. For
this piece we chose 2 NH librarians that we know well, one of whom was suggested by
Innovative and one who was not. Asummary of our notes from these conversations is
attached: both of these conversations gave us concern about the level of support
provided by Innovative. Additionally we learned the Innovative is in the process of
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