Librarians Stake Their Future on OSS

Systems Librarian writes "Linux.com is running a story entitled 'Librarians stake their future on open source'. It details a group of librarians at the Georgia Public Library Service that have developed an open source, enterprise-class library management system that may revolutionize the way large-scale libraries are run. The system is Evergreen. The element of this project that has the participants especially excited is the speed. Previously, if users wanted changes to their systems, they'd be put into an 'enhancement queue'. Now, some features are implemented overnight. From the article: 'In fact, the catalog has many features and innovations that are lacking in non-free systems. It does on-the-fly spellcheck and gives search suggestions and adds additional content, such as book covers, reviews, and excerpts. The Shelf Browser shows items ordered along a virtual shelf built out of the holdings of the entire system. Patrons can create bookbags, which are lists that contain a selected collection of annotated titles. Bookbags can be kept private or shared as a regular Web page or as Atom or RSS feeds.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

This is nice stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

But I don't see those outfits whose clueless managers have taken juicy backhanders from Proprietary Systems®© producers for years making the switch. Do you?

Re:Of course!

[mrchaotica]

You'd think that, wouldn't you? I, on the other hand, am actually rather upset at the Gwinnett (note: a county in Georgia) Public Library, because they make digital media [gwinnettpl.org] available only in proprietary DRM'd WMA format. It's bad enough that DRM exists, but it really pisses me off when my taxes are paying for it!

Virtual Shelf sounds great

[wbean]

The virtual shelf feature sounds great to me. There's nothing quite like finding the section of the library devoted to the topic you are interested in and browsing through the books. That experience is hard to duplicate on the electronic systems I've used. Now if they'd just add the content online....

Re:One washed out has-been helps another...

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

The future of libraries (brick and mortal at least) is about as bright as most open source software.

Well, both look better than the future of your slashdot trolling career if that's the best you can do.

Seeing its almost impossible for online libraries to legally lend ebooks, I don't see brick & mortar libraries going anywhere anytime soon. As GPL (and other Open Source) software is vital to almost all aspects of the software industry, OSS isn't going anywhere either.

I'd like to see this in other industries, too

[ezavada]

These seems to me to be the perfect way for Open Source to make rapid progress and gain further acceptance. By targetting key industries that are only served by expensive software packages that are poorly supported or require expensive support contracts, Open Source can provide a obvious and undeniable cost and quality improvement over closed source software. This is doubly so for industries where the needs are well understood. In addition to library management software, I would suggest that class scheduling and enrollment/registration software might be another area. Universities and schools pay millions for this software, and it's usually pretty primative stuff. Inventory management and cash register software might be another area.

Re:packaging?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Successful projects need to be well-packaged in order to succeed,

I think a project this size is going to need someone competent enough to untar a tarball to run things. Packaging isn't as big a deal for complex server software as it is for desktop or commodity server software.

Re:Good

[Amazing Quantum Man]

You're conflating free-as-in-beer with free-as-in-spech.

The OP said "proprietary".

If IE is so free, can you get me the source so I can fix some of the bugs?

Librarians have always understood technology

[91degrees]

Libraries have had computerised inventory systems allowing people to check books in and out for an extremely long time. But they always use technology to fill a need. They don;t go overboard, and aren't fooled by hype from well dressed marketing people. They see technology as a tool and don't expect it to do more than it is designed to do. As a result, they tend to be pretty succesful.

Other government departments seem to do the exact opposite.

Perhaps we should get the nations librarians to run government IT departments.

Re:I'm impressed, but...

[grcumb]

Look at it this way; How many browsers out there don't support javascript?

Googlebot, for one.

How many people are using them?

Millions and millions. 8^)

There are extremely strong technical reasons not to rely on JavaScript to deliver content. This is just one of the most obvious.

By all means, go ahead and use JavaScript. Just don't rely on it, or you'll be sorry.

Very Impressed

[wolf08]

I find it very encouraging that education and oss are working hand in hand, because they are both heading toward the same goal of information.

Re:I'm impressed, but...

[grasshoppa]

The only ONLY things one can count on a web browser understanding is plaintext (7 bit ascii) and HTML. Requiring Javascript, especially with all the really nasty bugs that it, and its implementations, have is an asshole thing to do. You seem to be an asshole.

While I don't argue the point ( I very much am an asshole ), I happen to be an asshole that's right. So let me ask you this; Which version of HTML should they depend on? Obviously CSS is out; As is xhtml. Hell, html4.0 would probably be a bad idea too.

And how about this html anyway? Who's to say that's useful at all, with all it's buggy implementations. Telnet. Everyone has telnet, and it's pretty hard to fook telnet session.

Javascript adds functionality to a website; It's oddities are well understood for the major browsers, and it's not as if it's hard to get a hold of a browser that does javascript.

Re:"Stake their future on OSS"? Really?

[DenialS]

Yes, really. I think its fair to say that this particular set of libraries (almost the entire set of libraries in the state of Georgia) has staked its future on an open-source library system: they're staking their future not just on the code they've developed and released to open source, but also on Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, Perl, SpiderMonkey, Mozilla/XUL, Jabber, lib-dbi / lib-dbd, and umpteen Perl modules. Take away the OSS pieces that make up that system, and you take away their ability to function as a library. So yes, their future within the state of Georgia depends on OSS.