Questionnaire for Vendors

Please note that the authorship, idea etc. belongs to Ojaswini Upasani and it is submitted as part of my ongoing thesis work, so nobody can use it in any form or shape.

Study of migration of Library Management Systems (LMS) in Western regional Indian libraries

Vendor Information

1. Name and address of Local vendor

______________________________________________________________________

2. Name and address of Parent company

______________________________________________________________________

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3. Name of the software package: ____________________________________________

4. How many years is your company in the LMS business?
a. 1-2 years [ ] c. 5-10 years [ ]
b. 2-5 years [ ] d. > 10 years [ ]

5. Approximately how many academic and research libraries are using present version of your LMS?
a. 1-25 [ ] c. 51-75 [ ]
b. 26-50 [ ] d. > 75 [ ]

6. As a part of LMS business, your company (Tick all that apply)
a. Has programmers to continue research in development [ ]
b. Has a support staff to meet current customer libraries [ ]
c. Provides training facilities for customer library staff and library users [ ]
d. Provides facility to provide documentation to customer library [ ]
e. Has branches in major cities in India [ ]
f. Facilitates news-letters or active User’s Group with which new library can [ ]
share information and questions about system help
g. Releases new versions of software frequently to address the points that [ ]
slip through testing
h. Provide online internet support or online tutorials from company sites [ ]

7. Please indicate the percent share of responsibilities between parent company and local vendor in providing various services.
Services Parent Company Local Vendor
% %
a. Software upgrade
b. Installation support
c. Migration support
d. Language support
e. Data conversion
f. Problem resolution
g. Maintenance
h. Training
i. Documentation

Customer details

8. Please fill the details for your present customer libraries.

Name of Library Address Contact person First Choice of LMS Migration in the year Probable reason of migration
















Migration and Data transfer

9. List the various data transfer problems your software rectified in your LMS.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

10. Who did data transfer for libraries?
a. Library staff [ ] b. Company staff [ ]
c. Contact vendors [ ]

11. Do you recommend contact vendors - outside software expert - for data transfer job?
a. Yes [ ] c. If require [ ]
b. No [ ] d. Not done yet [ ]

12. While doing LMS migration what is the role of your company? (Tick all that apply)
a) Marketing and delivering present LMS [ ]
b) Data transfer from old LMS to new LMS [ ]
c) Data Entry for previous database [ ]
d) Library Staff Orientation [ ]
e) User Orientation [ ]
f) Tailored modifications in LMS as per library [ ]
g) Post implementation troubleshooting [ ]
h) Free upgradation for specific time period [ ]
i) Please specify free service time in years ____________________________

13. Please mention minimum period for data transfer required for any standard library with your experience.
a. < 6 months [ ] c.1-2 years [ ]
b. 6 months – 1 year [ ] d. 2 years [ ]

Standard Bibliographic Data

14. According to you, which specific data type is better for smooth migration?

______________________________________________________________________


Features

15. Please mention the qualities / benefits and drawbacks of your LMS.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

16. What qualities, do you feel, should be there in the next version of the Software?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________


17. How often your software is upgraded? Or upgradation is only as per the particular client?

_____________________________________________________________________

18. Researcher intends to create a sharing platform on internet, a blog, to share migration experience with library professionals, vendors and technical experts. Would you like to share?
Yes [ ] No [ ]


General

Please feel free to add comments about your experience about LMS that might not have been covered in this survey.

Please let me know if you would like a summary of my findings. I have created a sharing platform, a blog, at http://ojas-lms.blogspot.com to share migration experience with library professionals, vendors and technical experts.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Thanking you for your valued time and support,


(Ojaswini Upasani)


Dear Sir / Madam,

May I request you to kindly provide me with the following details; if possible. I assure you the same will be kept as ‘Strictly Confidential’.


Name

Designation

Educational Qualification


Experience


Name & Address of Comapny






Thanking you for your kind co-operation and support.