For the next two days a group of 9 individuals from the Idaho library community came together in Boise to see presentations from the vendors that have submitted proposals for the renewal of the LiLI Databases. Six vendors submitted bids to include their products in the suite of LiLI Databases. The current contracts will remain in place until December 31st, 2006. At this time ICFL is in the review process to determine which databases will be added or continued in the LILI-D suite beginning January 1, 2007.

The LiLI Databases are available to all citizens of Idaho. That means all types of libraries, so it is important that as many voices as possible be heard during the full review process. The process began last week when an internal team did a review of the technical specifications.

The vendors are making presentations that cover 89 different products provided by their companies. This team will see demonstrations of the products today and tomorrow, and then review the products in more detail over the next six weeks.

Due to the nature of the types of resources that the LiLI Databases provide, it is important that the evaluation team have wide representation. The team includes representatives from academic, public, and school libraries. They also represent a variety of geographic locations around the state. The group brings with them a special expertise; a connection with the end users. We look to this group and the entire library community to provide us with input on the products based on their experience with users.

The evaluation team is charged with evaluating two very important aspects of the databases: their content and their ease of use.

Later in the process, the trials will be open to the entire library community to provide input on the selection for LiLI-D.