The ILS Toolkit¶
Tools for libraries to make the most of their ILS — the integrated library system, the software at the center of any modern library, library system or consortium. Each tool here has a full set of documentation: something to learn from, recipes for real work, facts to look up, and background on why it works the way it does.
The tools are built and used at the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL).
Which tool do you need?¶
Placing a lot of holds at once, from a spreadsheet → Bulk Holds. A command-line tool for Windows. Sierra only.
How these pages are organised¶
Every tool has the same five pages, so you always know where to look:
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Tutorial | Learning. A first run, start to finish, that cannot break anything. |
| How-to | Doing. Recipes for real jobs. |
| Reference | Looking up. Options, exit codes, file locations, contracts. |
| Explanation | Understanding. Why it works this way. |
| At your site | One deployment's specifics: codes, locations, who to ask. |
This is the Diátaxis structure, and the four modes are deliberately never mixed on one page.
New words are unpacked in the glossary.
Related¶
The Sierra REST API field guide is the sibling to this site: that one documents the API these tools are built on, this one documents the tools.