Library Catalog Migration

Kenrick, along with its MOBIUS partners, is moving to a new ILS: an integrated library system, which oversees many of the library's operations, including cataloging, circulation, and acquisitions.  No modern library could function without an ILS. 

The ILS that both Kenrick and MOBIUS have used for nearly 20 years, Sierra, has served us very well.  However, its programming is increasingly obsolete.  The company that owns Sierra has a vested interest in no longer upgrading it, in order to drive current customers to a much more expensive ILS--one that would be financially ruinous for many libraries in MOBIUS.

On August 15, 2022, after reviewing proposals from several vendors, the MOBIUS Consortium selected FOLIO for its new ILS, with a go-live date of May 22, 2024.  FOLIO represents the next generation of library systems, ensuring that our libraries will not have to migrate again for many years or even decades to come.  Additionally, FOLIO is an open-source, non-proprietary system: it is supported by a range of not-for-profit and corporate partners, making FOLIO users much less vulnerable to the dictates and whims of a single, for-profit corporation.  This arrangement will also result in a net financial savings for Kenrick and other MOBIUS institutions.      

These advantages have made FOLIO extremely attractive to the library world as a whole.  Besides MOBIUS, the GALILEO Consortium in Georgia and even the Library of Congress, the world's largest library, are adopting FOLIO.  FOLIO will offer patrons the same functionality as the old Sierra ILS, and will continue to facilitate shared borrowing among the MOBIUS Consortium, giving Kenrick direct access to 25 million volumes from across 80 different partner libraries.

The migration to FOLIO will impact Kenrick patrons in the following ways:

• MOBIUS borrowing will be offline for over a month (April 17 to May 22) during the system changeover.
• You must return ALL materials you borrowed through MOBIUS by the consortium-wide deadlines:
  • Audiovisual materials (CDs, DVDs) are due on April 29.
  • MOBIUS books are due on May 17.
  • Return MOBIUS materials to the library here at Kenrick.  We will send them back to their respective libraries on your behalf. 
• ALL books you borrow from Kenrick will be due on May 17.
  • If you need to keep any Kenrick books after that date (especially faculty and thesis writers), please let the library know, so we can manually record your possession of these books. 
• Any books you borrow from Kenrick between May 6 and May 22 will need to be manually recorded by a library staff member.  The checkout system will be offline during that period.
• The library login (allowing access to both your personal library account and remote access to library online resources) will be slightly different after May 22: the unique ID will remain the same, but you must also use a self-assigned 4-8-digit PIN.  The library will offer additional information and assistance once the new system is online to make this transition as seamless as possible.
• The old catalog, Sierra, will go offline on June 30.  Be advised that any bookmarks to Sierra that you may have will no longer function after that date.  

The short answer: it depends.

• If they are books you borrowed from Kenrick, then no, you do not have to return them.  However, you need to let the library know which books you intend to keep beyond May 17.
• If they are books you borrowed from other MOBIUS libraries, then YES, you must return them by May 17 (AV materials are due back even earlier, on April 29).  No renewals of MOBIUS items are possible and no checkouts of MOBIUS items can be done until the new system goes online on May 22.

Despite the migration, most things in the library will NOT change:

• You can still check out books from the library here at Kenrick, though the checkout and renewal process will look slightly different during the migration period between May 6 and May 22.
• Our books will not be changed or modified physically in any way.  They will continue to retain Dewey Decimal call numbers and will remain in the same order in which they have always been.
• You can continue to make book purchase requests during the migration.
• Your access to Kenrick's online resources will continue: remember that while the library holds 80,000 books and over 300 journal titles in print, we have access to over 320,000 books and 18,000 journal titles online.  The great majority of Kenrick's library resources are actually digital.
• The new catalog will look very much like the old one and have the same basic functionality, except for a more modern appearance.
• SouvaySearch will be essentially unaffected, and will continue to allow searching across all of Kenrick's print and digital collections.

If you are a Kenrick patron who also has library privileges at Saint Louis University, be advised that SLU is also part of the MOBIUS Consortium and is bound by the same timeline and constraints as we are at Kenrick. 

• All MOBIUS books you borrow as a SLU patron will need to be returned by May 17. 
• During the migration window, from April 17 to May 22, you will not be able to use the "Pick up from anywhere" option to check out books through SLU and have them delivered to Kenrick.  That functionality will only resume after the new system goes live on May 22.