Re:A few items out there like this (Score 1)

Maybe I should qualify that statement with a history...

The library I worked at used Horizon. Horizon promised the consortium serials, Horizon promised the consortium an acquisitions module. Horizon has those modules, so it didn't seem like far stretch. However, four years after the change from DRA to Horizon, we still had no acquisitions module and a severely lackluster serials module that wasn't particularly useful and took a lot of "well, I'll make this field mean X instead."

I don't mean to rag on Horizon, because I know that every ILS has its joys and pitfalls. However, when the library is paying tens of thousands of dollars for a few licenses, it sure as heck better have more joys than pitfalls. And when considering the joy-to-pitfall ratio, I still maintain that open source software is a viable contender.

The promise of open source is that if you need those modules, in theory, you could write them in yourself. I can't particularly speak for the Evergreen project, but I have talked a few times with Chris Cormack at Koha. Koha, essentially, is perl/php on a mysql database. When I left library school, I had mysql experience directly from classwork. I am not a programmer, with perl or with php (although I can wing some simple hacking a program to my needs), but I know several librarians who are.

I admit I am biased. I use open source at home, and before I left my last job for health reasons, changed our adult and children's public access computers all over to a Linux-based system. The gentleman who replaced me now wants Linux/OSS for the staff computers.

It can't be done, once again, because although the end user interface is through web pages, StaffPac with Horizon is not. In fact, it can't run in its present form on Win'98 computers, and Horizon has a limited time on Win 2K computers, which we have (mostly).

We are a library. We don't have money to spare (sad, but true). And it seems overkill to run Vista on something we're essentially just editing item/patron records on and accessing online databases with.

But I digress...

I think a lot of the ILS vendors are sleeping giants. Do they notice Koha and Evergreen? I hope so. Certainly with Horizon 8 SirsiDynix seems to be moving in the right direction as far as stability goes (clustering is good. Nothing more frustrating than a corsortium wide crash). But as far as delivering services? I don't know. It's not realistic for them to support old hardware forever, but they have to keep in mind the people they are serving. When libraries have extra money, it doesn't usually go to staff computers. And even web based interfaces don't work with all computers forever (I'm thinking specifically of the 1998 iMacs we used... till last year. They couldn't display our OPAC).

The fact is, every commercial ILS is in an unfortunate state. For the cataloging/reference librarian, the patron, and the systems librarian... all very different concerns, for very different reasons, but it all comes down to the same thing. I don't want necessarily new features. I want the promised features to be delivered and to work.

Because if they don't, why not use the alternatives?