Turning Patron into Partners When Choosing an Integrated Library System

Learn about the experience of choosing the Toas ILS and how UCLA got patrons to be active participants..."We knew, though, that it would be challenging to involve library patrons in system selection in any substantive way. Including a representative user or two on the evaluation team requires a level of commitment that few faculty members or students can afford. Also, their needs vary so much by discipline, research interest, and level that the views of one or two cannot represent the user community as a whole. But to us, involving faculty and students in the process was crucial. In this article, I want to share the techniques that we found most effective in turning patrons into partners."