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Librarians Stake Their Future on OSS
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Dec 23, 2006 04:26 PM
from the wish-we-had-that-here dept.
from the wish-we-had-that-here dept.
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.
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Of course! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of course! (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Parent
Virtual Shelf sounds great (Score:5, Insightful)
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The virtual shelf idea should probably be implemented with tagging or some other sort of social categorization system. Because basically what it's doing is creating a custom category.
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Look at the actual system! (Score:5, Informative)
(system seems a little slow already, hopefully this doesn't slashdot it).
Good (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
The OP said "proprietary".
If IE is so free, can you get me the source so I can fix some of the bugs?
Parent
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Our IT Dept would demand it or we wouldn't get an SLA.
I've not RTA yet, so i dunno if paid support is available - but someone offering such a service may make this system more viable for cash strapped libraries.
it's data entry and physical work, not software (Score:4, Informative)
It always annoyed me when public money was spent on proprietary software, especially when there already are free solutions that are more secure and full featured.
This is irrelevant. There WAS no free, more secure, or full featured solution for library management.
Nevermind that most of the cost, at least initially and for the first few years, is NOT the software. About a decade ago when my school went to a computerized system, the cost was mostly in labor.
I don't recall how they managed to link barcodes to books; whether each book was pre-assigned a specific barcode, or barcodes were applied and the system brought into sync via hand entry.
This process took MONTHS and the work of several librarians and the expensive data-entry company.
I can imagine scenarios where you could get 2 dozen volunteers and go shelf by shelf through a library and catalog the collection, but it'd still be a massive undertaking, even for a small library such as one in a high school.
Your only hope is aggressive use of laptops on wireless with barcode scanners, and an ISBN lookup database you can pull, quickly verify the basics, and toss the book on the shelf again (in the proper order.)
Parent
Re:it's data entry and physical work, not software (Score:4, Interesting)
This seems irrelevant, as most libraries already use computerized systems. So, we're not talking about conversion from a card catalog. The data would already be in a database, and that could be converted pretty easily. It's a much simpler process to change software than to move from card to computers.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of it shouldn't even need to be converted. It should be in MARC Bibliographic [loc.gov] format, which is generally fairly easy to transfer between databases.
Where you get into the proprietary stuff is in the location databases: the databases which say that, say, Nicomachean Ethics is available in the Jefferson or Adams Building General or Area Studies Reading Rooms.p>But really, let's be realistic. The major OPAC package is Voy
Vendor lock-in vs. good customer service (Score:4, Informative)
This is true, as far as the bibliographic information goes. There are lots of open-source packages for working with MARC records, like pymarc (Python) [textualize.com] or File_MARC (PHP) [php.net]. But the rest of the system is proprietary: holdings records, (which copies do you hold, in which locations, and where is that copy currently - loaned out, lost, on reserve, etc), circulation records, user records, acquisitions records. Sure, it's all just a database schema mapping exercise, if your vendor's license allows you to touch that data directly. Sadly, the past generation of libraries seems to have accepted vendor lock-in as a matter of course; a mistake that we're paying for now and which led directly to the development of Evergreen.
Wow. This is just so wrong that I don't know where to begin. First, Voyager is far from the market leader (in either usable interfaces or in market share). See Second, the underlying database doesn't mean a thing if you aren't given the APIs to actually modify or extend your primary application, unless you're willing to reimplement the entire application -- in which case, why bother paying for a library system in the first place. And in most cases, when the vendor has made an API available, you have to pay extra fee per potential developer to receive the documentation and to be eligible for paid support for their API (which, of course, is an additional support fee over and above your standard support fees). Third, most librarians I know couldn't care less about what technology their system is built on. They're focused on providing the best possible service to their users. Over the past few years, the library community has started to realize that there are some pretty cool Web interfaces out there in the wild that their vendors aren't providing for us. So we've been going through exercises like NCSU's use of Endeca [ncsu.edu] (on the proprietary side) and Koha [koha.org], Evergreen [open-ils.org], and WPopac [maisonbisson.com] (on the open-source side) to try and correct the situation. Librarians rock, you know.Parent
A couple of answers from their FAQ (Score:5, Informative)
6. What license is this software going to be released under?
We are releasing this software under the GPL.
8. What core technologies are you utilizing?
* Database: Postgresql
* Logic/glue languages: C and Perl
* Webserver: Apache, mod_perl
* Server operating system: Linux
* Server hardware: x86-64
* Messaging core: Jabber
* Client side software: XUL
I was especially happily surprised to see jabber there. I have long thought that jabber is vastly underrated and under-used.
The entire FAQ is at:
http://www.open-ils.org/faq.html [open-ils.org]
I'm impressed, but... (Score:2)
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Agreed.
And it's the only client side scripting language that you can count the client having.
No. No it's not. That's not to say that I can count on a client having other scripting language, but that Javascript is NOT ubiquitous, and certainly not guaranteed to be updated if it IS present.
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It's close enough as to not make a difference. Look at it this way; How many browsers out there don't support javascript? How many people are using them? Now how many people have javascript turned off?
I think you'd find that the numbers involved are excedingly low.
Re:I'm impressed, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Googlebot, for one.
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Nice! (Score:3, Interesting)
Our library consortium uses something called Polaris, by Gaylord Information Systems. It's among the worst pieces of software I have ever had the opportunity to use, and it is completely proprietary and Windows based. It's a pain in the ass to get anything done, and is missing several key features (such as customizable reports) that would make our lives much easier. Coming from a company called "Gaylord" what can we expect, eh?
Hopefully Evergreen gains enough steam to get our consortium to at least consider it, however considering that most of the IT people employed by the consortium can't even figure out how to manage Windows servers it's likely they'll opt for something easer for them to administrate.
Look at alternatives, and don't believe FUD (Score:2)
- higher stability (the original reason why (F)OSS gained prominence waaaay before desktops)
- lower maintenance: most Linux platforms measure uptimes in months, not days
- higher capital efficiency: you'll have more money available for customising (I once
I'd like to see this in other industries, too (Score:5, Insightful)
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Quality? Just because it's Open Source? Puh-lease. Take a look at the current financial software offerings in the OSS world, for example. None of them can hold a candle to the $200/year Quickbooks that you can buy in Wal-Mart.
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The scheduling problem at universities is a harder problem to solve than one might think at first glance, believe me...we had to develop exactly this type of system for the lower division software engineering course and the professor chose this problem on purpose becau
This looks useful. (Score:2)
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packaging? (Score:2)
I don't see any RPM or Debian packages. Do they exist? Is there a ready-to-install image?
Re:packaging? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
A few items out there like this (Score:4, Informative)
Also check out Koha [koha.org], which is going to be launched at the Meadville Public Library in PA early next year, and has been in place in a few libraries throughout the world. It runs natively on Linux... I've gotten it to run on my home box (I am currently doing archives work for a local organization) and I think it holds its own against Horizon, III, Aleph and the big boys of integrated library systems.
I wanted to try out Open-ILS/Evergreen, but had some issues getting it to run. Granted, I didn't try as hard as I did with Koha.
In terms of Linux in libraries, there are a few devoted people (and the numbers are growing) pushing for it. I swear, it can not be beat in the public computing arena.
An open ILS just makes sense. It is easily customized, cheaper in the long run, and really, all the ILS software is served through web pages now anyway. Why are libraries spending up to $10,000 a seat for this stuff? It's the learning curve. And FUD.
Librarians have always understood technology (Score:2, Insightful)
Other government departments seem to do the exact opposite.
Perhaps we should get the nations librarians to run gove
I'm Pleased to See the Rollout Went Well (Score:5, Informative)
In the process, my boss and I were made aware that the Library was planning to dump their ancient Dynix ILS and switch to a new one. I tried making a case that they would be better off spending the $100,000 budgeted for the new system on developing an OSS one (paying me to do it, of course!) which would give them more control over the result. So I researched a lot of the OSS ILS projects going on. Evergreen seemed very promising.
The CCSF Library ended up going with a proprietary system - and guess what? They got screwed at least partially. The company promised to integrate the library checkout counter portion of the system with the SCT Banner student database that CCSF uses. This was a requirement and the library put it in the contract. And sure enough, as soon as the money changed hands, the company reneged on the requirement (because integrating anything with Banner is not a trivial task). Some personnel from the CCSF ITS department had to devote considerable time to providing a work-around.
So I'm glad Georgia managed to get Evergreen out and it seems to be working well, at least from the initial reports. They also managed to get it working fairly quickly as large OSS projects go. I think they were only at it for a couple years. And ILS's are not trivial projects. There are library industry technical standards that have to be adhered to and the end user usability issues are enormous. The acquisitions side tends to be complex (especially on the magazine subscription side), and the MARC record standard is not a simple thing to translate into a relational database schema.
25 years ago... (Score:3, Informative)
Of course (Score:4, Funny)
Any smaller scale solutions out there? (Score:2, Interesting)
Amazing (Score:2)
MySQL batgirl password in source code (Score:4, Funny)
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use DBI;
my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:database=reports;host=bat
They're also using PostgreSQL, as described in the FAQ, but the FAQ has no mention of MySQL. Someone should probably change the MySQL password on batgirl.gsu.edu, if they haven't already.
Upgrading from other systems? (Score:3, Interesting)
Very Impressed (Score:4, Insightful)
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When I inquired who the new computer savvy guy was they wondered how I could tell, but yes, there was a new guy and yes, he seemed to know something about these computer thingies so they were having him spiff up the section a bit.
So far he seems to be doing a fine job of not only cleaning out the dross but buying exactly the right titles to replace them. I w
Re:Those Librarians must be gifted! (Score:5, Funny)
That must have been uncomfortable for him....
Parent
Re:One washed out has-been helps another... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:Postgresql as the database (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
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MySQL runs and will continue to run fine on every distro, you just can't buy enterprise support from MySQL AB unless you are using Red Hat or SuSE
WRONG! The update added to the summary of the slashdot article [slashdot.org] that first spread the erroneous meme that you were reinforcing (and which was further distorted into the even more erroneous notion that you were "correcting"):
MySQL AB's Director of Architecture (and former Slash programmer) Brian Aker corrects an apparent miscommunication in a blog post: "we are just starting to roll out [Enterprise] binaries... We don't build binaries for Debian in part because the Debian community does a good job thems
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