# Sierra ILS Reviews **Vendor:** Innovative, a ProQuest Company **Category:** [Library Management Systems](https://www.g2.com/categories/library-management-systems) **Average Rating:** 4.0/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 25 ## About Sierra ILS Sierra is a library system that provides automated workflows, integrated resource management, and open access to data. ## Sierra ILS Reviews ### 1. Evaluating Sierra ILS: Pros, Cons, and Key Takeaways **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Raj V. | Director, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 20, 2024 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Comprehensive Functionality, Customizable and Flexible and User Friendly interface **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Cost, Complexity, User Interface and implemention time **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Efficient Catalog Management, Improved Aquisition Workflow and Streamlined circulation ### 2. It may look like it’s from 2004, but it works! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kat D. | Youth Services Coordinator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** It takes less than a couple days to get used to the system. Learning the different functions is very intuitive and I love that once you feel comfortable, you can start using hot keys and get real fast tabbing between different functions **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Sometimes it is difficult to tell item records with multiple types apart. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra ils is a well oiled engine. It is consistent and easy to use and it's very hard to mess things up really bad. So in this sense, Sierra makes it easy to do the tasks we need to complete. ### 3. An ideal and intuitive solution for academic libraries **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Emily R. | Library Assistant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2021 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** I have used Sierra for multiple years at two different libraries, beginning when I was a student worker. The basic circulation functions in Sierra have an easy learning curve, and I felt competent quickly. Student workers at my current institution have a similarly easy time learning to use Sierra. Several years after my student worker postion, when I began a new job at a different institution as permanent staff, I could easily pick up where I left off and added new skills across functions in Sierra. "Create Lists" proves to be absolutely crucial and very helpful in our efforts to inventory our collection through shelf reading. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I don't have any particular qualms with Sierra. Some of the more complicated functions do take some time, but once you learn the shortcuts and understand the process, it's no issue! We have experts on our team who provide training in the more involved functions of Sierra, and with their help, this software is smooth running machine keeping us organized, providing data, and centralizing our services. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra has streamlined our academic library system and efficiently connects us to academic libraries across Ohio affiliated with OhioLINK. By connecting us with OhioLINK, Sierra makes it possible to provide millions of library materials to our patrons that would otherwise be unavailable to our campus community. While OhioLINK is a unique feature of Ohio academic libraries and is not available nationally, Sierra truly has made the process of connecting our libraries possible. ### 4. Sierra **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 06, 2021 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** I like some of the flexibility of the Sierra system. I really like being able to search for library patrons through the barcode on their card, via their name, and via their address. I like being able to help them search for books through the system and place a book on hold for them. The syetem allows me to check out a book to a patron via the books barcode by scanning it or by typing it in manually. I am also able to update their library card info in the system by accessing their record and editing it. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I dislike the fact that the system hasn't had a software update in ages. It is a sound system, but it would be infinitely better if there were some software enhancements. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra allows a library to search for a book throughout the system to which it is connected. This helps patrons receive the books that they want in a very timely manner. I like the fact that patrons of any library in the system can check out a book, CD, DVD, or magazine at any connected library as long as they possess an active library card that is part of the system. ### 5. A logical and clean piece of library software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John L. | Technical Services Librarian, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 12, 2019 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Visually, Sierra is stunning compared to other ILS’s. All the material is simple, easy to read, and organized quite well. The general circulation features are very strong. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I wish it had a “did you mean” feature for slightly mis-spelt titles. When on the “check out” function, you can use the check-in tab on the left hand side to use a patron’s return to bring up their account. However, messages on the patron’s account won’t come up this way. Create lists is overall a great feature, but is beyond confusing. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Overall, I would highly recommend Sierra. It removes the antiquated elements that often come with other ILS services. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra always has enough information so that the staff is able to solve any issue. With lots of ways to search and detailed info, everything is at our fingertips. ### 6. Very simple to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 24, 2019 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Easy to look up books on this system and track fines **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I did not have any issues with Sierra when I used it **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps me track fines , fine books easily and see what’s been checked out ### 7. Easy to navigate **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 15, 2019 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Sierra ILS is a very intuitive ILS. With one software there are many functions. You can also have separate logins for separate tasks. I like the **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** If an item is available in multiple formats it is hard to differentiate the separate records. The limiters for limiting results are not to the most helpful. You also cannot use multiple functions at once or have separate tabs for separate functions. For example, if you want to check out and also have a tab/window for discharging items, there is no way to do that. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** I recommend it! **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cataloging, searching for records, placing holds for patrons, checking out books, discharging books ### 8. Sierra ILS is great for library use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 06, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Sierra ILS has provided my library a simple, yet precise program that is extremely efficient. We use it for checking books in and out, checking the records of patrons, making modifications to records, among others uses. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** While I do like the Sierra ILS program very much, I do think that it could use a more modern interface. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** It might take a while to get used to but you will end up loving the ease of using this interface. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra ILS has facilitated our jobs by allowing us to more efficiently perform book transactions with our patrons. It is also very user friendly and easy to use. Even some of our faculty that is over 50 years of age has no trouble using the software. ### 9. I use Sierra to checkout and check in books and laptops. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** I like how easy it is to lookup people’s student is number using their name. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I dislike the pop ups other employees put in that say things like “valid I’d required” or “check for two dvds”. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Go for it! **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Without Sierra we would be stuck checking out books by stamping the inside and would be back in time a decade or more. ### 10. Sierra has some flaws **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Sierra is a very easy program to use. There are also macros that can be made to make it even simpler and quicker. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Sometimes Sierra tends to freeze and shut down on its own. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps us check patron accounts. ### 11. Super simple, almost too simple **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** I like that is is very easy to use and intuitive to learn. The public side is also easy to navigate, actually I use this more often then the other interface. Paying fines and dealing with customer's records is simple. It is easy to make library cards. I like the demographic information you can choose to provide. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** When finding items, it is a little difficult to tell if the item is available at a specific location. I also dislike the way the records appear. You have to press a + sign to make them visible and often times the records are duplicated. The various search functions are not broad enough, there should be more keyword search options. Making library cards is a little tricky. If you mess up information you have to start over. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** It is a good ILS. Like any ILS it has it's ups and downs, but it gets the job done. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** public catalog, circulating items, paying fines, circulation reports ### 12. Takes some getting used to **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** I enjoy the ability to log in only once and toggle between circulation and cataloging interfaces, rather than having to log in separately as was necessary with earlier platforms. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** The dropdown menu to go between different parts of the interface is sometimes confusing. I preferred the old left-side navigation style **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Try to approach it with an open mind, and forget what you're used to. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra has fewer glitches and is less prone to crashes than the previous system (we upgraded from Millennium). It is stable, and continues working even while we experience network issues. ### 13. Sierra - One option **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** The user experience is better than Evergreen’s base product... it makes it more intuitive. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** It doesn’t seem to be as customizable as Evergreen. For some organizations and purposes, this might be beneficial due to it’s simplicity making it more intuitive. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Definitely explore your options to find out what will work best for your situation and what you want the software to do **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sierra connections with the Bibliocommons easily and with the company we order from, Baker and Taylor. ### 14. Sierra Library Management Software Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Robert J. C. | Associate Professor-Librarian-Archivist, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 01, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** The public interface works well, with the search facits readily available for users on the left column of search results. The serials check-in module is one of the easiest to set up and use. Reports feature is very flexible in delivering a variety of information in diverse combinations. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** The out of the box cataloging module indexing and searching modules do not offer the flexibility assumed when we purchased. Needed many upgrades which are not included in the original purchase price. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budgets and materials payments. ### 15. Good for what it does **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Heather A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** It works and is having improvements, though at a somewhat slow rate. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Look and navigation seem a bit utilitarian and outdated. Could get updates faster and be more reliable. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** ILS ### 16. Efficient Library Softward **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tim S. | Library Aide, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 31, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Sierra is very clean and intuitive, very few problems with it when dealing with library patrons and their accounts. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Sometimes the program freezes up for no apparent reason, as when checking in items while in a patron's account. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Very good library software! Intuitive and dependable. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Very good software for monitoring patron accounts as well as checking out items and paying fees. ### 17. Effective and Intuitive **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2018 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Sierra is clean and intuitive, in terms of materials checked in and out and patron account maintenance. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** At times (very rarely) the program can freeze up and has to be restarted. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Excellent library software for dealing with checkin/checkout of material and patron accounts. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping track of patron records in real time. ### 18. Easy to use! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Erin Arlene H. | Adult Programming Librarian, Libraries, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 17, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** fantastic UX - anybody can use it on any device. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I sometimes forget exactly what I have to do to send the poll to people, or to make it public. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Determining what the best date is to have a meeting with many people from many locations. ### 19. Sierra ILS better than competitors **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** This company has been around a long time and puts effort into continuously evilving and developing the software. And they understand what customers need. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Their customer service is always lacking. They need more employees. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Managing a library. Helped keep us organized and helped us serve patrons for many years. ### 20. ILS **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Sierra is a very easy ILS system to navigate, user friendly, functions as it was meant to. Makes adding and deleting items so quick and easy. I would recommend this product to any library looking for a new ILS. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I feel the create lists can be cumbersome to use and the parameters for creating lists can be a bit confusing. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Yes I recommend this product. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Much easier and faster to create and add new patrons and has more functionality than old system. ### 21. Sierra ILS is easy to use as a software, however, it is difficult to update patron accounts. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Seirra ILS best characteristic is the ease of setting up joint accounts with neighboring libraries to allow patrons access to all libraries information. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Seirra ILS worst characteristic is updating patron profiles to accurately portray their information. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Regularly keep the information of what book and journals the library has updated in the software to guarantee the patrons will know what the library has. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Business problems that I was solving with Sierra ILS was to check-out patrons. Sierra ILS made this easy to do with one screen. ### 22. Useful tool for ils **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** It is a useful tool for days every and tracking, reporting and integration with other applications. It has good support and documentation **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** I wish there were more detail on how to harvest from other systems. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use this as our main ils, and embed/integrate it with other services. ### 23. Sierra is an industry leader **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Ability to sort and classify patron and item data **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Freezes up occasionally, slow to produce results for broad search terms **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Able to streamline operations across branches ### 24. Inter-Library Loan Manager **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** The ease of entering data and authorisation controls to ensure that data is safe. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** The time it takes to start the program. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I catalog new books into the system and solve issues of lending and returning inter-library loans. ### 25. Librarian who uses Sierra **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Legal Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Sierra ILS?** Easy of cataloging and using the software. **What do you dislike about Sierra ILS?** Needs better interface. It can be more user friendly and needs integration with other library systems. **Recommendations to others considering Sierra ILS:** Good first step. **What problems is Sierra ILS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Catalogging for inter-library loans. ## Sierra ILS Discussions - [What is Sierra ILS used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sierra-ils-used-for) - [What is SirsiDynix Symphony?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sirsidynix-symphony) - [What is ILS in library world?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-ils-in-library-world) - [What is Polaris ILS?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-polaris-ils) - [What is Sierra library system?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sierra-library-system) - [View Sierra ILS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/sierra-ils/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+17%3A51%3A55+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=a5d24c05-e0dc-4c6a-945f-21f5429c1520&secure%5Btoken%5D=fd345cb9ad73f81891801231f949df55fa07bd281a7609c8fba7a59c505c0850&format=llm_user) ## Top Sierra ILS Alternatives - [Alma](https://www.g2.com/products/ex-libris-alma/reviews) - 3.3/5.0 (23 reviews) - [SirsiDynix Symphony](https://www.g2.com/products/sirsidynix-symphony/reviews) - 3.7/5.0 (16 reviews) - [Follett Destiny Library Manager](https://www.g2.com/products/follett-software-follett-destiny-library-manager/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (430 reviews)