Amy De Groff, Head of Library Technology Services talked to us about using open source at the Howard County Public Library. Amy started by telling us that she was not going to convince us that open source is a good thing - the other speakers had already done enough of that.

Amy’s library will be entirely open source by September - which is pretty darn awesome!! With open source software there is nothing you can’t do. That said, she reminded us that open source deployment is going to create emotional turmoil - but what change doesn’t?

Before going on, Amy warned us that she was going to talk about dirty underside of our profession and that it may cause discomfort. The truth is that as information professionals we must know it all and that it’s always been this way - and this is the wrong way to think about things.

The library profession can learn from the open source community and the open source community will benefit from the library profession’s commitment and standards of service.

People ask her how she did it - how she changed the library over to open source - her answer of “we just did” didn’t seem like enough for many librarians - but it was good enough for me! The fact is that we spend way too much time debating and meeting and discussing - and not enough time doing! Good job Amy for “just doing!”

Technorati Tags: cil2008, cil08

Glen Horton talked to us about how libraries can give back to open source.

Libraries and open source are fundamentally related - both …

• believe that information should be freely accessible to everyone
• we like to give away stuff
• we benefits from generosity of others (part Glen is going to talk about)
• are about communities
• make the world a better place

One of the ways libraries can give back is to create open source software. In a lot of the cases of open source projects they could have been kept in the libraries that developed them but instead they opened them up to share with others.

If you’re asking, “but Glen .. what if we don’t have a developer?” - you can give back in many other ways.

Teach open source software like this video on edubuntu for libraries.

You could document open source - like I’ve been doing for the last few months. Don’t assume that you’re the only one that can benefit from it - share what you write just in case there are others like you out there.

You can debug open source by reporting bugs to authors and on support forums. You can identify usability issues or if something isn’t working quite right - instead of dealing with these things (which we’re all used to doing) you can share it with the community to make the product that much better.

“But glen - what if we don’t use open source software?”

You can promote open source - just because you’re not using it internally, doesn’t mean your patrons won’t benefit from it - add links to it from your site. Or pass out CDs or sell flash drives with open source on it. Check out portableapps.com.

Open source or die

It’s a strong statement - but it goes back to open source and libraries being linked at the core. Glen points us to the number of sessions on this track (a pretty high number if you look at all of the speakers sharing time slots) and he bets that it’s going to be more next year.

Open Source Desktop

Next up, Julian Clark who uses open source for nearly application on his computer.

Why?

• a lot of people say it’s free - but it’s free as in kittens
• control and customization
• security - with os implementation the security is the same as what you’re running on your servers
• changing marketplace
  • people are becoming less satisfied about what’s being offered
  • windows vista example - people went back to xp because they were unhappy causing ms to keep supporting xp

When is the best time to change?

• no set formula - every library operates differently
• a good idea is when you’re ready for a major upgrade (when you buy new desktops or upgrade your ILS)
  • you’re going to have major changes imposed upon you either way
• another time is when you have reduced funding in your library

To do this…

Assess the hardware

• full hardware inventory
• not all hardware will be oss-friendly (wireless connectivity may be an issue)

Assess the software

• what do you really need/use for productivity?
• what can’t you live without?
• think function, not brand (don’t think you need ms word - think you need a word processor)
• not everything is “ready for prime time”

Assess the organizations

• who runs IT?
• expertise on staff?
• local culture

Where should you start?

• start with your desktop - what apps do you have on your desktop? What do you use most?
• keep in mind that there are some apps that may not have a viable os option

Options for support

Third party support

• can be purchased directly
• does not always require on-stop shoppings
• allows for faster initial setup
• initial setup and maintenance do not need to be very hands on

In-house

• local needs can best be understood
• better integration with local initiatives
• wealth of institutional knowledge

Selling it

• consider your audience
• quantifiy things
• re-allocating resource savings
• be positive

Technorati Tags: cil2008, cil08, open source

I love listening to Marshall Breeding present - it always makes me feel better to know that someone can talk faster than me Marshall started his talk by showing us the lib-web-cats advanced search which allows you to search for libraries running specific systems. He did remind us to keep in mind that the systems shown are the ones that have made a commitment to a system (may not be live yet).

Broad Trends

Open source is highly used in the general IT arena with examples like Linux and Apache. If you believe the blogosphere, open source is going up up up - but it’s not necessarily true - Microsoft is also gaining a footing - showing that they are all good options. You need to make your decisions with all the facts in hand.

Open Source

Did you know that your general library infrastructure is open source? z39.50 is open source! And Index Data has been making tools based on this protocol for a long time (the Yaz toolkit is the main z39.50 tool being used).

Other open source options:

• Federated search - LibraryFind and Masterkey
• OCLC offers some stuff - typically older stuff that they want other people to take care of now
• Digital repositories - Fedora, DSpace, and Keystone

Next Marshall listed some open source discovery products - AKA - next gen catalogs:

• Vufind - based on Apache Solr search toolkit — toolkits make it accessible for relatively small development shops to create this stuff
• Extensible catalog - University of Rochester and the Melon Foundation
• fac-back-opac
• Scriblio - based on WordPress

Open Source in the ILS Arena - Products and Trends

It used to be bold and risky to move to an open source ILS. This move however led to a bunch of projects that are now products. That said, Marshall wants to make sure that people have the best information available to them when they make these decisions - he’s not an open source evangelist he’s a technology evangelist.

3 of the 4 open source ILS that were around in 2002 are now defunct so when Marshall wrote that the open source ILS it was still a distant future - it was true.

… then the world changed

In March 2007 the world had changed, but open source is a minority player. In March 2008 open source is a real option out there, but you need to use the same criteria you use when choosing a closed source system.

Now, April 2008 the open source ILS has launched into the mainstream - there is a lot of room for optimism and there is going to more and more of this over time.

The ILS market is an industry in turmoil with mergers and acquisitions left and right causing disruptions and business decisions to narrow options. This has fueled the open source movement by providing libraries with additional options.

Open Source v. Traditional Licensing

So what side is Marshal on? He says both sides! He wouldn’t want to see a world where one or the other is the only option and thinks they complement the each other. Each library has it’s own personality and can use that in choosing their systems.

Recommendations for making a choice:

• avoid philosophical preference - make choices as business decisions instead
• which best supports the missions of libraries
• which approach helps libraries become better libraries?

Specifics

Koha

• first open source ILS
• Koha + Index Data Zebra = Koha Zoom
• 300+ libraries
• while there are a lot of small libraries - there are also some biggies signing up now
• the system has grown up to a level where it can handle these big libraries
• has the interface we want - facets, clean, book jackets

Evergreen

• developed by the GA public library system
• small dev team
• June 2004 - dev begins
• September 2005 live production
• streamlined environment - single shared implementation, all libraries, follow the same policies,
• one library card
• by far the most people using it are the GA PINES consortia
• it’s a big difference between supporting 250+ small libraries and supporting a big library system (so it will make a difference when the Atlanta area switched)
• has interface we want - facets, clean, book jackets

OPALS

• going gangbusters in the public school system
• created by Media Flex
• south central org of (school) libraries

NextGenLib

• ILS designed for the developing world
• originally traditionally licensed, introduced in 2003
• transition to open source in January 2008
• 122 installations (India, Syria, Sudan, Cambodia)

Learning Access ILS

• turnkey open source ILS
• designed for under-served rural public and tribal libraries
• defunct?? - has been trying to get in touch with these people - but can’t (email bounces)

There is also lot of commercial involvement these days:

• Index Data (founded 1994)
• LibLime (founded 2005)
  • small but growing
  • total of 20 FTP - hiring industry veterans exiting from traditional ILS companies
• Equinox (founded 2007)
  • contracts to GA PINES library system
• Care Affiliates (founded 2007)
  • recently formed founded by Carl Grant
• Media Flex (longstanding company)
• Duke is working on a proposal to create an open source ILS
• …there are others afoot

Issues

Explosive interest in open source is being driven by the disillusionment with current vendors. Given this, Marshall makes the point that the open source ILS would be where it is if it wasn’t for what was happening on the other end of things. Open source allows for more flexible systems and lower costs (however, Marshall still feels that total cost of ownership is the same between the two over the long haul). With open source libraries are less vulnerable to the mergers and acquisitions that are happening in the proprietary world.

Cost Issues

• cost shifted - no license fee
• hardware
• vendor support
• hosting
• conversion
• local technical support
• development costs
• open source vendors should come up with a total cost of ownership report to show us that open source is really cheaper

Open source risk factors

Marshall still thinks that open source is a risky alternative because of a dependency on community organizations and commercial companies to provide development and support services. I’d argue that this is a reason that open source is less risky - with a community of developers and support services you’re more likely to find someone to help you out if your vendor goes under. That said, Marshall admits that the other side is risky too!

All that said the interest in open source (and the market share) is relatively low.

Conclusions

What he’s looking for is a new system (aren’t we all) - built for how libraries are today. This is not an open source system that does what our systems already do today. In short, we have a long way to go on both fronts - both open and closed source.

Technorati Tags: cil2008, cil08, open source

If you’re around and want to join in a class I’m giving on open source, please join me at the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative on April 2, 2008. Learn more.

Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia, Program Director of Georgia PINES talked to us about how PINES decided to develop their own open-source ILS, Evergreen. Georgia PINES is made up of 49 public library systems which equates to 275 facilities and bookmobiles sharing a joint bibliographic database of nearly 9 million books.

About PINES

The PINES library card is free to residents of Georgia and can be used at any PINES library as if it were their home library. In addition, materials can be returned to any PINES library - how convenient!! ILL is available through entire system for card holders at no charge. All libraries in the system have the same policies so that patrons all have the same experience no matter what library they’re at.

In FY07 the system had more than 540,000 intra-pines loads as compared with just 6,000 in FY00. Patrons like the convenience of one system.

There is one easy to use interface across the board. Users have dramatically increased access to one centrally administered statewide combined library collection.

Time for a Change

When they looked at their contract with their vendor they found that they were writing their policies around the system (once again a reference to the culture of work arounds). In the end they had a bunch of silly policies such as how to enter a person’s name (last, first). They also found that their system was coming to a screeching halt because of the load of the users hitting the system at the same time. In short, it wasn’t meeting their needs.

After talking to nearly all the vendors they found that there really was no place for them to go - in short, they were cornered into making their own system.

Enter Evergreen

The entire development process took a little under 2 years. They had to decide where to put the line - their libraries had never been able to use acquisitions or serials so they didn’t develop that in the initial program. In short, their ILS was designed by librarians for libraries.

Georgia PINES went live in September 2006 with their new ILS, Evergreen. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the first day they had so many hits they came to a screeching halt - this was probably because of all of the press that was sent out to librarians!! Since then, things have been great.

Why Open Source

Elizabeth referred to open source as the difference between renting versus owning. By “owning” the software we’re responsible if the AC goes out or the roof leaks, but it’s a great place to be! We get what we need and we get what we want - don’t have to hope that in 2010 the feature we want will be up for a vote. In the end “owning” leads to an increase in control!

Conclusions

Another create example of how open source can solve a great many problems for libraries. I particularly like Elizabeth’s analogy of owning versus renting. In the end everyone owns the rights to the code behind the open source product, leading to more freedom and innovation.

I can give a personal example of this. When I was renting, I had to live surrounded by boring white walls and abide by rules like no pets and be considerate of your neighbors. Now that I own, I get have a house full of colorful walls and barking dogs!! I’m still considerate of my neighbors, but I don’t have to worry about playing music late at night or having the dogs wake up barking at 5am.

In short - owning your own place is a lot of hard work, but it leads to a more comfortable home (at least in my place).

Technorati Tags: evergreen, georgia pines, valenj, open source

After talks by Joe Lucia, Bob Molyneux and Joshua Ferraro we had a Q&A sessions at the VALE symposium. I’m going to put these in note format so that you can hopefully follow who said what:

Q: One person’s enhancement might be another person’s bug - how do you control that with open source?
A:

• Joe - the release process depends on who gets to commit final changes to the code base - the community needs to figure this out over time - not every enhancement necessarily has to be released to the common code base
• Josh - depends on the project - in the Koha community the community votes on a release manager and that manager gets to decide what’s included in the release

Q: Can you give us an example of what you mean by peer review process?
A:

• Joe - VuFind is a great example - the community is not large get - peer review is dependent on what works well among experts - academic versus non-academic is not an issue as it is in journal peer review
• Josh - two types of peer review - one from the user perspective and the other from the developer’s perspective
• Bob - it’s not a formal process like journals - it happens in the community by peers - but not an editorial board

Originally uploaded by nengard

Q: Can you explain more what kinds of staff changes need to be made to support open source?
A:

• Joe - staffing changes may be at the expense of some librarian positions - but it’s a necessity - it becomes the smart thing if you’re invested in your infrastructure - need to have a technological staff in house that can handle these new systems
• Josh - you have to have technologists involved - they don’t have to be in the library - but they have to be involved - no vendor lock in means you can start with a company and move on to supporting it yourself if you so choose
• Bob - library schools teach IT separate from the library people - you need to teach it both at the same time - there is no reason to have either or (like me) - there is no a critical mass of librarians with these skills because library schools are not turning them out - and this failure has occurred during the golden age of libraries - the patrons are beating their path to our door - but we don’t have the skills - it’s a shame that Josh had to to what he had to do in creating a company to ease his frustrations

Q: People are talking about the ILS going away, why are we developing something new if that’s the case?
A:

• Josh - circulation is not going away - acquisitions is not going away (whether it’s print or electronic materials - they have to be acquired in some way) - cataloging is not going away - these are core functions of the library - the only difference is that with the open-source ILS the community drives the innovation - the community decides what they need and the products are developed to meet those needs - this means we have a more timely product
• Bob (great analogy) - one author writes an article about a problem and then another librarian comes around reads it and sees something the first author missed and writes another article - and the original writers says “thank god - you figured it out” - it’s the many eyes theory (me: this is like my developing at Jenkins - i always had many eyes) - the open source ILS is a more valuable ILS because of this

Technorati Tags: open source, valenj, ils

Next up, LibLime’s Joshua Ferraro. Josh talked to us about why LibLime was started and what both LibLime & Koha could do for libraries.

Originally uploaded by nengard

Why start LibLime?

Josh would often hear librarians saying that they liked the idea of open source, but we have no way to support it. So, Josh started LibLime to offer libraries support for open-source software in hopes that once the company was started that particular objection would disappear.

How LibLime Works

Open-source software is freely avaiable for download on the web - so why do we need LibLime? Like many other open source products (Linux for example) there are commercial entities that offer services for the software in question. LibLime is around to assist libraries in data migration, hosting, development, customization, training and support.

LibLime offers services for multiple open-source products. The key product to this day’s event was Koha, an open-source library system. As a customer of LibLime, ultimately you steer development for the system - if someone sponsors a change or upgrade, it gets rolled right back into the community - meaning we all benefit from each other’s participation. Another great thing about open source solutions like Koha is that implementation of these upgrades usually happen in days and week instead of years and decades (like some proprietary packages).

Has LibLime Worked?

Ask anyone in an open-source company and they’ll tell you that they’re very busy (I’ll tell you that I’m very busy!). In 2005, LibLime had 1 employee and 1 customer, as of March 2008, they have 18+ employees, hundreds of customers - a 400% growth (compounded for 3 years).

Customers are getting actively involved in the process. Freedom to innovate gives us a chance to change the culture in our libraries - we have become used to living in a culture of work arounds (us working around the way our software products are built) - open source gives us the chance to actually have software do what we want!

Conclusions

Josh mentioned that librarians often ask him, “Isn’t open source risky?” Josh answers “Isn’t any decision you make on an ILS risky? Especially in this environment with vendor consolidation - etc etc?” I totally agree - who knows where your ILS will be next year - or who will be controlling the development and the money! Why not have a product you can take with you to whomever you’d like as the landscape changes?

I have heard Josh speak several times - obviously - so I already knew I’d like this talk and agree with him - based on the question and answer session that followed his talk, I think others felt similarly.

Technorati Tags: liblime, koha, valenj, open source

Bob Molyneux of Equinox was second to speak at the VALE Symposium the other day.

Bob started by filling us in on the state of the open-source software US public library market which is only about 1%, give or take. He didn’t have the data for academic libraries yet, but he was sure it was less than the publics.

That said, a new wind is blowing and big consortia like MassCat, WALDO, Indiana open source ILS initiative, and the Michigan library consortium are all looking into open-source alternatives. The first biggy to switch was Georgia PINES using the Evergreen system that they developed to “scratch and itch” as Joe put it.

What we learned from PINES

Library users like access to the large virtual library - they don’t care about our politics or the difficulties under the hood. Patrons will also bypass libraries without access to consortial resources in favor of libraries with that access. Bob welcomes us to the long-tail

Bob states that “we [libraries] have failed.” We have let our libraries become information silos - separate, barely communicating collections of information - “and Google is eating our lunch.” The logic of IT is to break down silos and to integrate these collections. Unfortunately, we have these problems because of several reasons - some our fault and some the fault of others. Two biggies on this list are that our legacy vendors lack vision and we as librarians lacked vision.

OLS v. ILS

The open-source ILS (OLS) may look similar to our old systems, but under the hood it’s completely different - it’s modular and the code is being shared - even between possible competitors like Evergreen and Koha, simply to make both systems better - we’re not just duplicating what has already been done, we’re fixing the wrongs of our past.

Conclusions

Another great talk! I love the idea of libraries breaking out of their silos and sharing information for the good of the people - or as Joe would have said for the good of the “commons.” I agree that I’d rather search a group of libraries at once than just one local library at a time. When in library school I used to love using DIALOG because I was able to search multiple databases with one search, eliminate duplicates and get citations all in one easy action - why should our catalogs be any different?

Technorati Tags: valenj, evergreen, open-ils, equinox, open source

This week I was lucky enough to attend an event at The College of New Jersey entitled Next Generation Academic Library System Symposium and hosted by VALE (Virtual Academic Library Environment of New Jersey). The goal of this day was for the members of VALE to decide if they wanted to join in on a shared open source ILS community.

The program started with an intro to Open Source by Joe Lucia, University Librarian, Villanova University and President of PALINET Board. Joe started off by letting us know that he thought of himself as an Open Source Evangelist - which made me say “hey, that’s my job!” Throughout his talk, Joe quoted so many great resources that it was hard to keep up. The video and slides should be available online soon (I’ll keep you posted) - but for now, here’s my summary.

Joe called his presentation a thought piece on why open source makes sense for libraries. I did a review of literature for Drexel that was pretty similar to this - but I have to say that Joe found some better resources and makes some better arguments than I did in my paper.

He started off by talking about the concept of the “commons.” Libraries exist to support and extend the commons for the community we serve - particularly the intellectual commons which fundamentally valuable to support access and innovation. — The commons can be a physical location like streets & parks - but is more related to ideas - like the theory of relativity and writings out of copyright in the public domain.

He recommended reading The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler. Benkler says that the “commons” refers to a particular institutional form of structuring the rights to access, use and control resources.

The library as a commons

Libraries are situated within the domain of three commons

• they provide their communities with open access to intellectual and cultural resources - no single individual controls or uses up the resources of a library
• our resources are accessible to anyone who walks in - accessibility to all translates into “open stacks”
• open source is an extension to our culture of openness

The next book that Joe recommended to us was The Success of Open Source by Steve Weber. (start updating your wishlist - that’s what I’m doing).

Open Source & Libraries

If anyone should be doing open source anywhere - it’s us!! Open source shares our values & missions!!

We need to open up our sense of what we’re about - open source software with the “library space” enhances the library as a center for participatory culture and collaborative enterprise.

What is open source?

• open source can be commercial - but is not proprietary - the commercial entities neither own nor control access to the code base
• most good applications begin because a developer needs to “scratch an itch” - a response to something that has to be done that can’t be done with available solutions
• it’s typically built on or extends what’s already been done
• when it’s successful it’s modular - not a big monolithic package
  • this then results in a development process that can be scaled to a very rapid update process because you’re just updating pieces instead of the hierarchical approach of the monolithic packages
• “to many eyes, all bugs are shallow” (from the Cathedral & the Bazaar) - if lots of people are looking at the code base it’s gong to get pretty lean and pretty clean pretty fast because anyone who seeing something wrong will fix it

Why not switch?

Some librarians are surprised to find the open-source products can cost a similar amount to the proprietary solutions. Joe argues (and I agree) that the issue isn’t the cost - but how the costs are distributed and what control you have over it - there is a greater investment in development for open source than there is for actual support. This means that you’re paying for improvements to the application when you’re paying for open source and with the proprietary stuff you’re paying to have someone answer the phone and read through a script with you (sorry that was my negativity - not Joe’s - based on recent experiences trying to get support).

Librarians will often ask “open source sounds all really nice idealistically - but how are we going to do it?” Libraries are sitting on a lot of assets that they invest in proprietary software it’s a matter of how you redirect the money you’re already paying for technology into a different arena. It’s not “can we do it?” it’s “how do we do it?”

Why not take 25% of what we currently pay to propriety software and put it into open source- that would be a significant beginning - could initiate a revolution in library technology. What an amazing idea! I love it - in fact John from WALDO mentions something like this in his talk (which I’ll summarize after this one). We may even need to re-allocate positions to technology development where possible - if we change where we’re putting money it will improve our work flow within the library. Having technologists on staff will make all the difference.

We need to deepen the culture of technology collaboration and resource sharing in libraries - and stop worrying about what’s in our little baskets and start sharing - there is a competition among libraries - who does such and such better - we need to get away from this. I always found this funny - I think of libraries as places to share information - and yet I often find libraries or librarians who are unwilling to share resources.

Joe ended with: “It can be done, and we can do it!”

Conclusions

What a great talk!! Joe did an amazing job of revving the audience up for the rest of day. I also think he gave us a lot to think about and a lot of great resources to check out regarding open source and how it fits into libraries. Keep an eye out for his slides and video!! It’s well worth a look!

Technorati Tags: open source, libraries, valenj

PLA is coming upon us very quickly! I just wanted to let you all know that I’ll be there probably at the booth most of the time - so stop by and see me. I also want to bring your attention to the Koha Interest Group meeting that we’re holding.

Time and Place
Date: Thursday, March 27, 2008
Time: 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Location: Hyatt Regency Minneapolis (Greenway Ballroom on the 2nd floor)
Street: 1300 Nicollet Mall
City/Town:Minneapolis, MN

You can join the event on Facebook or see more information on the LibLime site.

I hope to see some of you there and meet some new people

In Andrew Nagy’s presentation From Idea to Open Source, he took us through the process of creating VuFind, an open-source OPAC replacement/Library portal.

At Villanova, they wanted to develop a portal for library patrons that would let people search the catalog, the article databases and digital library all in one - and keep it separate from the ILS. The goal was one single interface for all library resources in order to minimize the learning curve associated with having many different interfaces.

After doing some asking around, they quickly found that many other academic libraries were having the same problem - so the question became - why don’t we do it together? Why not make this an open-source project so that others can participate and benefit from the work of others?

The Goal

At Villanova, they wanted to build a system that would work with any ILS (including Koha & Evergreen - which Andrew called “our open source cousins”) and needs to work on a variety of platforms (Linux, Windows, etc).

The goal was not to replace the ILS, keep the ILS to do what it does best - but change the web app our patrons use so that it better meets their needs and expectations. VuFind uses the ILS to pull live holdings data from and either harvest bib data (if the ILS doesn’t provide direct database access) or query existing index (mostly used on the open-source ILSes which provide a way to let you in to search directly).

By having this top layer in addition to your ILS, you can easily change ILSes in the future without disrupting your patrons or changing the way they’re used to working. All this, just by separating the OPAC from the ILS.

Making it Open Source

The next step is to take this open source and share it - Villanova is not the marketplace to sell/support software. Andrew made a call to the audience to help build a collaborative community around VuFind so that this project can take off and be successful. Since other institutions are interested in it it would be a shame for Villanova to keep it to themselves - this is why open source is the next logical stop for the project.

In order to do this decisions have to be made, the right tools need to chosen. Some options were Sourceforge and Google Code. Right now, the VuFind team chose Sourceforge - they don’t find that it has all of the tools they need, but it was a good first step in making the project shareable.

The future vision includes having a local SVN or CVS and using a tool like JIRA, TRAC, Bugzilla, etc. These options lead to true freedom, but require a hosting institution.

Positives of Open-sourcing

• collaborative code sharing
• idea sharing
• university gets national attention (good for the university - and shows the directors that it’s worth spending time on)

Negatives of Open-sourcing

• mailing list support - requires time that you may not have
• facilitate communication - also takes time
• possibility of people not have things unanswered due to time constraints
• time involved with marketing - getting the word out (the true success of an open-source project is word of mouth) - requires traveling and schmoozing
• project switching is expensive (we all have other jobs - jumping from our primary roles to assist in VuFind is time-consuming & thus expensive)

Where VuFind is now

Most importantly, we need easy ways to install the software. Everyone knows about the famous Wordpress 1 minute install - this should be the goal. The product requires easy install and integration, strong user interface and strong functionality before it will be widely adopted (I’d argue that the interface is pretty strong already - just a few more tweaks and it’s there).

When open-sourcing a project you need a roadmap for organization, to keep the process agile and to communicate with the community so they know what you’re doing from time to time. The start to this is the VuFind site and Sourceforge, but as Andrew said, not everything needed can be found in Sourceforge.

Conclusions

I’ve seen Andrew talk a few times about VuFind and I think this was the best of all of the talks I saw. It showed me how I can help, it showed me that there is a plan and a pretty mapped out one for VuFind. I see this as a viable option for librarians looking for a way to to integrate searching of all of their collections in one easy to use, clean, interface.

Technorati Tags: vufind, code4lib, code4lib2008, code4libcon2008

Yesterday Mozilla announced that Firefox has been downloaded 500 million times!!

Firefox just reached 500,000,000 downloads. This is an absolutely phenomenal milestone for Firefox. It is sort of hard to imagine what that number means. For some perspective, that’s roughly the audience size of 10,000 Rome Colosseums combined. It would be the weight, in kilograms, of 8,500 Boeing 747 airplanes. In dollars, for $500 million you and 15 of your friends can fly to the International Space Station.

To celebrate they’re asking that we help people in need:

OR, you can affect change and invite 15 of your friends to play a game and feed 25,000 people. With your help we can break another milestone today with FreeRice.com –500,000,000 grains of donated rice in one day. Imagine helping to feed the hungry while picking up some new vocabulary too!

This is great news! Now if more libraries would just make Firefox their default browser on patron stations - imagine how many more downloads Mozilla would be able to report??

Technorati Tags: firefox

As you know, I’ve recently gotten my first Mac. I’m still learning. One of the features I like the most is Finder. Last night my husband installed an awesome Windows app that gives Finder functionality to his PC - Launchy.

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Using this open source application, Windows users can easily mimic the functionality of Finder without switching to a Mac.

I should mention that my husband is using Windows XP. He says that Vista has a function something like this but for some reason it doesn’t work for games - so if you’re a gamer, like him, then you probably want to give Launchy a go.

[update] Derik pointed me to an awesome app that is actually closer to Launchy - but for Mac. Called Quicksilver. [/update]

Technorati Tags: launchy

Now that I’m the Open Source Evangelist at LibLime, it’s my job to blog at Open Sesame (a long abandoned blog). Now that the blog is up and running I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed and keep an eye on the open source news I post there.

Technorati Tags: open source, liblime

• The Cathedral and the Bazaar

More of my links

My new Macbook thanks me
Originally uploaded by nengard

This week I’m in Ohio to learn about my new job at LibLime. First on the agenda - learn how to use a Mac … yikes!

So far, I’m pretty impressed, I keep hitting the wrong buttons and can’t figure out where the home and end buttons are (do they even exist?), but I’m having fun learning.

I also got to meet some fellow colleagues and chat with them and learn more about my job. I can’t wait to jump in and start working. For now you can listen to my interview with Richard Wallis on Talking with Talis - but keep an eye out for me to start my actual work after this week of training.

You can also see my pictures from today and yesterday.

Technorati Tags: liblime, talis

When I give my blog presentations I always mention MovableType, but I also mention that it’s not open source like WordPress (which is my blog tool of choice). Now, MovableType has an open source free option for non-commercial use.

As of today, and forever forward, Movable Type is open source. This means you can freely modify, redistribute, and use Movable Type for any purpose you choose….

• MTOS has every feature in Movable Type 4.0 along with several new minor improvements and bug fixes.
• All plugins, themes, templates, designs, and APIs that work with MT4 work with MTOS. MTOS also works with other Six Apart open source technologies such as memcached.
• MTOS is one of the only open source blogging tools with
  built-in support for an unlimited number of blogs, an unlimited number
  of authors, and sign-in with OpenID, with no plugins needed.

Learn more here.

Found via LibrarianInBlack.

Technorati Tags: blogs, movabletype.opensource, open source, oss

I don’t where to begin with this. I have just read several different blogs/emails/releases all about this amazing leap for the open source ILS & other open source library tools.

Let’s start with Roy:

So anyway, here’s the skinny: IndexData, WebFeat, and CARE Affiliates have partnered to create a service they’ve dubbed OpenTranslators. In a nutshell, this service makes any of the some 10,000 databases for which WebFeat has developed search connections available to be searched through SRU or Z39.50. In [one] stroke, they have made all of these sources available for searching by any application that can work with one of these protocols.

Next, Sebastian:

I don’t mind saying that this solution also addresses one of my deep, long-term beefs with the present metasearch market. Traditionally, database gateways have been hidden behind closely held proprietary APIs, and generally each vendor has painstakingly developed their own set of gateways. This practice has set the bar of entry into the market very high and has effectively stifled competition. It has also meant that resources that could have otherwise been expended on innovation and better user experiences have instead been wasted on redundant database connector development. Our interest is in developing new, exciting applications, and supporting others who are coming up with cool stuff and new services.

And lastly, the press release:

OpenTranslators will allow libraries to use the federated search interface of their choice to access over 10,000 databases using SRU/SRW/Z39.50. The databases consist of: licensed databases, free databases, catalogs, Z39.50, Telnet and proprietary databases. Libraries that already have a Z39.50 client in their OPAC will be able to connect to, not only library catalogs, but also thousands of additional databases. Those libraries that are building or already using an open source federated search tool will now be able to expand the world of information that can be accessed. Finally, for those institutions/organizations building new mashup clients, this will allow them to access and use vast amounts of additional content.

This is such a big step for libraries and open source! At least - I think it is This is certainly something I will be keeping an eye on.

[update] It seems that I (and many others) may have jumped the gun on excitement. Check out some of the valid questions made by Sol at the Federated Search blog. I will be doing a lot of reading on this in the following week and see if I can come to understand it all just a bit better. [/update]

From a post by Joseph Lucia at Villanova on the ngc4lib mailing list:

If we look beyond money to personnel, the option looks even better. Let me suggest some numbers. What if, in the U.S., 50 ARL libraries, 20 large public libraries, 20 medium-sized academic libraries, and 20 Oberlin group libraries anted up one full-time technology position for collaborative open source development. That’s 110 developers working on library applications with robust, quickly-implemented current Web technology — not legacy stuff. There is not a company in the industry that I know of which has put that much technical effort into product development. With such a cohort of developers working in libraries on library technology needs — and in light of the creativity and thoughtfulness evident on forums like this one — I think we would quickly see radical change in the library technology arena. Instead of being technology followers, I venture to say that libraries might once again become leaders. Let’s add to the pool some talent from beyond the U.S. — say ! 20 libraries in Canada, 10 in Australia, and 10 in the U.K. put staff into the pool. We’ve now got 150 developers in this little start-up. Then we begin pouring our current software support funds into regional collaboratives. Within a year or two, we could be re-directing 10s of millions of dollars into regional technology development partnerships sponsored by and housed within the regional consortia, supporting and extending the work of libraries. The potential for innovation and rapid deployment of new tools boggles the mind. The resources at our disposal in this scenario dwarf what any software vendor in our small application space is ever going to support. And, as is implicit in all I’ve said, the NGC is just the tip of the iceberg.

Now this is a list I subscribed to back when it started, but I was totally overwhelmed by the emails - but I think I should re-subscribe and keep an eye on what people are saying - because this one idea is just awesome and so simple if you think about it.

This sounds very promising. The eXtensible Catalog project has received more funding. I love seeing open source library apps moving forward:

A $749,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the University’s River Campus Libraries will be used toward building and deploying the eXtensible Catalog (XC), a set of open-source software applications libraries can use to share their collections. The grant money will also be used to support broad adoption of the software by the library community. The grant and additional funding from the University and partner institutions makes up the $2.8 million needed for the project. The resulting system will allow libraries to simplify user access to all library resources, both digital and non-digital.

Via University of Rochester Press Release.

I bookmarked this resource ages ago - but apparently it was only recently released:

The first official alpha version of Google’s OCRopus scanning software for Linux was released yesterday. OCRopus is built on top of HP’s venerable open-source Tesseract optical character recognition (OCR) engine and is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.

OCRopus uses Tesseract for character recognition but has its own layout analysis system that is optimized for accuracy.

OCRopus sounds like an interesting tool - but probably doesn’t come close to a tool like FineReader - which is the most awesomest OCR package I’ve ever used!

Technorati Tags: ocr

I’m not sure if I’ll stick to using a desktop calendar (versus web), but I do like that I can import in and write to my Google Calendar via the new Sunbird release, so I want to give it a shot.

[via DownloadSquad]

Chris Cormack, Vice President, Research & Development at LibLime, is the winner of the New Zealand Open Source Awards for contributions to the Koha Project and Koha itself was a finalist for the best Open Source Project. Check out the awards.

Technorati Tags: koha, ils, new zealand awards, open source

There is an awesome article in Library Philosophy and Practice 2007 by Lee David Jaffe and Greg Careaga entitled Standing up for Open Source.

While the article does talk about the fact that Open Source Software (OSS) is not used in all areas of libraries, there is an focus on the ILS.

More than three decades after libraries built the first automated systems, we now depend on commercial black box systems, despite growing evidence that the proprietary ILS has outlived its usefulness. In the intervening years, librarianship has come into its technological maturity, with a generation of tech-savvy librarians proving we have the skills in-house, and yet we cling to the belief that only a commercial entity can provide the solutions we need to manage our services.

The systems available to us, to be sure, are not mechanical beasts of science fiction nightmares. They run, usually reliably, and rarely hurt us or our users. Our issue is with their closed nature. The innards of a proprietary ILS are hidden. Often our own data is hidden from us. If we want a change, we must plead our case to the vendor and, if our request is granted, we pay for the enhancement. Adherence to standards is uncertain and therefore system A cannot talk to B. Without access to the source code we cannot engineer add-on components that we need. We wait years for critical features, then are forced to implement features we do not want.

Here! Here!

The possible reason why libraries stick with the proprietary software though, is that most libraries do not have people on their staff to tell them that access to the code and data would allow for changes - and even if they do - they may not have someone on the staff to make the changes anyway.

I think that trying to sell OSS to non-techie librarians as a way to access your data is not going to cut it. We also have to explain that these proprietary systems are built on code from the 80s and 90s. Things have been upgraded along the way, but the backbone (of most of these systems) hasn’t changed. That means that sometimes the vendors can’t make the changes you want. With an OSS ILS you have new code - code that can be updated by anyone in the world (with the right skills).

I fear that my tired brain is not making as much sense as I hope it is - so I’ll close with another line from the article and then you can go off and read it on your own.

If libraries wish to turn the tide and reclaim our place as leaders in the information world, we must position ourselves where we can best take advantage of new developments. If we want the flexibility to meet these challenges, we do not have the luxury of relying on information technology solutions that are opaque and inadaptable.

Technorati Tags: oss, open source, ils

I just listened to this amazing podcast - it’s a bit old (in Internet terms - from last July) but it’s still well worth a listen!!

The podcast is of Eben Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History as he talks about The Renaissance of Invention: Free Software and the Next American Century. Let me tell you - I almost started clapping with the audience while listening to this podcast - which might have gotten me killed considering I was on the El on my way home.

One of the most amazing parts of this awesome podcast was the question of user rights when it comes to software. The question led to this analogy:

In 2006, the home is real estate with some appliances in it. In 2016, the home is a digital data processing network for entertainment, learning, and the operation of life with some real estate wrapped around it. The question is, who gets the keys to your home? You? Or the people who deliver the pizza and the movies?

How great is that? Go out and listen to this podcast - and maybe subscribe to the feed for Open Source Conversations and listen to other great talks.

Technorati Tags: open source