Oliver v5

4.8 (19)
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School libraries come to life with Oliver

About Oliver v5

Oliver v5 is a cloud-based library automation solution, which helps small to large educational institutions manage student engagement, OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog), internal collaboration, and more. The platform offers various features such as drag-and-drop editing, reporting, task management, data security, and mobile access.


Key benefits of Oliver v5

Save time and increase productivity.

Promote your library, its resources and its contribution to the school community.

Build an engaging and welcoming library environment.


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Oliver v5

4.8 (19)
VS.

Starting Price

A$2,990.00
US$6,000.00
year

Pricing Options

Free version
Free trial
Free version
Free trial

Features

32
18

Integrations

1
No integrations found

Ease of Use

4.6 (19)
4.5 (15)

Value for Money

4.6 (19)
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Customer Service

4.9 (19)
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Green rating bars show the winning product based on the average rating and number of reviews.

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Reviews

Overall rating

4.8 /5
(19)
Value for Money
4.6/5
Features
4.6/5
Ease of Use
4.6/5
Customer Support
4.9/5

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Showing 5 reviews of 19
Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Oliver V5 is good at meeting the needs of learners

Reviewed on 2021/05/03

Oliver V5 has helped us to tailor our services in order to introduce children to the library and...

Oliver V5 has helped us to tailor our services in order to introduce children to the library and instill a reading culture in them.

We designed services that go along with information seeking behavior of young adults.

Pros

I helped to implement Oliver V5 in a community library which is designed to meet different needs of learners in the community. These are mainly primary school going children. Oliver 5's user-friendly interface connects the learners to streaming sites that reflects their age, ability, skills and culture

Oliver V5 has features that motivate children to use the library resources. We customised the interface to display appealing pictures of the books that the learners like. In so doing, the Learns begin to engage with the books.

We use the OPAC as a tool to communicate both parent and learners and promote the available services. The dynamic features in Oliver V5 has enabled us to constantly update and change the contents of OPAC in line with current events and festivals such as Christmas, Easter and Eid.

As a cloud-based application, Oliver V5 has helped the community library to do away with hardware and software installation, security, backup and upgrades.

Oliver V5 brings fun to the whole process of knowledge acquisition. Learners access the community library's collection using s hand held mobile devices, on top of the conventional PC.

With Oliver V5, reporting has been so easy. The a available templates enable us to create effective charts, graphs and tables that I form stakeholders on the extent of usage of the library along with the impact of the same on intellectual development of the learners.

Cons

I wish Oliver V5 connects learners to more websites that have local content for the community children.

Graham
Overall rating
  • Industry: Libraries
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

An unrivalled combination of user-friendliness, reliability and first-class support

Reviewed on 2019/09/19

I manage a large and busy library in a secondary school serving more than 1,000 students, so I want...

I manage a large and busy library in a secondary school serving more than 1,000 students, so I want my library management system to help me provide a professional service to students and staff. "Professional" in this context means being able to circulate books easily, quickly catalogue and curate content, and promote library resources and services in an effective manner. Oliver is that system. It offers an unrivalled combination of user-friendliness, reliability and first-class support.

Deciding which LMS to use is one of the most difficult decisions a school librarian has to make. I happily recommend Oliver to anyone and everyone who asks, because, based on my experience, I think it’s the best.

Pros

I particularly like three aspects of Oliver. First, I like its reliability, which I think is in large part due to its robust, platform-independent, browser-based management interface. In two years of using Oliver I’ve had only one occasion of downtime, which lasted all of thirty minutes. I cannot not say the same of the previous system at my school.

Second, I like Oliver because it's very user-friendly. Students and teachers. who won't hesitate to complain when something is frustrating them, frequently comment favourably on Oliver's Amazon-style interface. They they find it appealing and easy to use, whether they're searching for books or online resources on LearnPath (Oliver's optional content curation platform).

Third, I like Oliver because its support team is so responsive; I cannot over-empathise how important this is. Everyone I've contacted, without exception, has demonstrated a clear understanding of how school libraries work, the pressures I’m under and the importance of fixing any problems as quickly as possible. Staff quickly respond to queries, whether by phone or email (I rarely have to wait for a call back, while almost all emails are answered within 30 minutes), they fix most problems on the spot, and they are very willing to take on board ideas for developing the software.

Cons

Some areas of the management interface are cluttered, the layout of some functions could be better and one or two housekeeping processes are - for me - a little illogical. Such issues are usually the consequence of a new feature being added but not entirely integrated with an older function it's intended to complement.
For example, the latest version of Oliver offers management users the option of creating customised emails for circulation notices, but it doesn't entirely replace the older system of creating and scheduling emails and consequently is unnecessarily complex and frustrating to use.

I also don't like having to sort through so many options for reports when only one or two of them are relevant to me; I'd appreciate more options for customisation in this area, along with several others.

I fail to understand why the system sends students and staff overdue notices during school holidays when it's impossible for them to return books - something that annoys both me and the teachers and students receiving the emails; the only way of stopping it doing so is to turn off the automatic overdue emails altogether, which shouldn't be necessary.

These are, however, minor niggles when set against the strength of the system overall.

Alternatives Considered

Follett Destiny Library Manager

Reasons for Choosing Oliver v5

I made the switch because of my frustrations with my previous library management system, particularly the management app, which frequently froze, leading to loss of data, and the level of support, which I regarded as entirely inadequate. My comments on these points in other forums has generated significant kick-back from a senior member of the UK AccessIt team, but I stand by them.

Switched From

Accessit Library

Reasons for Switching to Oliver v5

I decided that Oliver stood above potential alternatives due to its combination of reliability a user-friendly interface for staff and students, and first-class support. I'd previously used an earlier version of Oliver, which enabled me to be reasonably confident regarding the level of support I'd received, and Softlink gave me access to a demonstration version of the system that I could explore at my own pace, which helped convince me that it had the features I was looking for.

Response from Softlink

Thank you so much Graham for your lovely review. We are very pleased to hear you find Oliver v5 so useful.

Trish
Overall rating
  • Industry: Libraries
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Exceptional functionality and great support

Reviewed on 2019/08/18

Being able to create content that incorporates library resources seamlessly (via LearnPath) is very...

Being able to create content that incorporates library resources seamlessly (via LearnPath) is very important for us. The ability to make the Oliver program available from anywhere 24/7 (i.e. totally web based) is also very important to our school community. The online helpdesk is quick to respond and we usually resolve any issues very quickly. Oliver is a powerful tool in our delivery of resources and services to our school community.

Pros

Oliver is a comprehensive library database software that specifically caters for our school needs by offering excellent functionality and continual upgrades that address issues that sometimes arise.

Cons

Oliver is very expensive compared to the local New Zealand alternative - Accessit .

Alternatives Considered

Accessit Library

Reasons for Choosing Oliver v5

We needed to move the library into the 21st century!

Switched From

ALICE

Reasons for Switching to Oliver v5

At the time Accessit had less functionality for online access and was less responsive - it wasn't fully web-based.

Response from Softlink

Thanks so much for your review Trish. We strive to provide a quality library solution that provides real value. We really appreciate you taking the time to write this review.

Terri
Overall rating
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Reliable, user-friendly and content-rich library system with lots of scope for customization

Reviewed on 2019/09/26

Pros

The search function is very easy and powerful for students and other users, with scope for adding lots of extra content, such as reading lists, genres, users' own book reviews. We train our new students in basic searching and management of their own account (reservations, renewals, and now - setting up favourite book lists and searches), and it's great to see them empowered to use the system for themselves. I quite often see them showing their skills off to prospective students on school open days! I am looking forward to using our LearnPath modules to develop tailored libguides to print and electronic resources to support all our subjects at school, both within the library and beyond.

Cons

I've been using the system for ages now and know it well, but I think the sheer number of features and options for setting up the system in different ways could be overwhelming for a new user. There are lots of training videos and webinars throughout the year to support users, though - and I have had good tech support too. We also use RFID and I desperately wish Oliver had programmable hot keys in the circulation desk module so that we could link issuing and returning books with the correct RFID function automatically (securing or unsecuring tags).

Response from Softlink

Thank you Terri for taking the time to write this lovely review. We are pleased to hear you find Oliver very user friendly and content rich. It is great to hear you are looking forward to using the LearnPath modules as well. We really appreciate your wonderful feedback.

Krista
Overall rating
  • Industry: Primary/Secondary Education
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Great Product, Outstanding Customer Service

Reviewed on 2019/08/19

We installed Oliver v5 in January 2018 to replace the Alice operating system. Although there were a...

We installed Oliver v5 in January 2018 to replace the Alice operating system. Although there were a few issues initially with printing barcode and spine labels, I was very impressed with the Help Desk and the support we received to resolve the issues. Oliver v5 has been a great investment for our library, with students enjoying the opportunity to track their borrowing and browse the catalogue from their classroom, and teachers finding the borrowing and returns process simpler and more intuitive. I am greatly looking forward to implementing many more of Oliver's featurs this year, and know that I have support and assistance from a great Help Desk to back me up. Well done Softlink, your product, Oliver v5, is impressive and so is your after-sales service from the Help Desk!

Pros

Oliver is like a turbo-charged version of Alice, our previous operating system. It is very user friendly and intuitive, and our students love being able to track the books they have borrowed and want to borrow in the future and write book reviews.

Cons

There were a few glitches in the label printing, however these were very competently sorted out by the amazing Help Desk staff, who went above and beyond to get the issue sorted out.

Response from Softlink

Thanks so much for your review. We're so glad our Support Team were able to help you out. We really appreciate you taking the time to write this review.

Showing 5 reviews of 19 Read all reviews

Oliver v5 FAQs

Below are some frequently asked questions for Oliver v5.

Oliver v5 offers the following pricing plans:

  • Starting from: A$2,990.00
  • Free Trial: Not Available

Pricing is based on student numbers

Oliver v5 has the following typical customers:

51–200

Oliver v5 supports the following languages:

English

Oliver v5 supports the following devices:

Android (Mobile), iPhone (Mobile), iPad (Mobile)

Oliver v5 integrates with the following applications:

Sora

Oliver v5 offers the following support options:

Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, Chat

Related categories

See all software categories found for Oliver v5.