We developed Koha (library management system) back in 2000 and more recently Kete in 2007 (a community built digital library of documents, video, audio, articles, weblinks, comments). Both of these projects have been released as open source and are doing very well.

We are not a wealthy organisation, and we must spend our IT budget prudently. Open Source has been fabulous for us. We have been happy and proud to release fully functioning starting points for both projects. We know what problems we need to solve but we need and want the brains and skills and vision of many librarians and developers and programmers to help us take the projects to the next step.

FOSS seems to me to be a no-brainer for public libraries; it fits perfectly with our ethos of sharing knowledge.

Thanks.

Jo.

As the director of a school library system, I have been able to establish an environment where using and contributing back to open source software is the expectation. I did this by meeting with the Superintendent and the Board of Education and explaining that without the open source Drupal framework, we would not be able to build and grow. I also took the Superintendent and our CFO through the General Public License (GPL) under which Drupal is released line by line to explain it to them.

The CFO and Board were especially happy to learn that they retained the copyright on the code and could still sell the code/program/service for a profit while still meeting the requirements of the GPL by releasing the code. I think administrative misconceptions are another area that need to be addressed so they can help champion the cause for open source (and the sharing therein) if others are against it.

I should mention that contributions don’t need to come in the form of actual code. Testing, UI, design, and simple feedback are just as critical, but the infrastructure has to be there to be able to allow these contributions to make it into the “eco-system,” so to speak. At Rutgers, we’re just starting to use the Drupal Project module to supply the infrastructure. It seems very promising.

I also agree that schools offering MLIS degrees need to include OSS development courses in their curriculum. It’s frustrating that they have not jumped at the opportunity to fill the IT gap.

At least for some, various IP offices on campus seem to be treating any software developed to be a possible revenue stream. The odds of actually getting permission to release software as open source if it has any commercial benefit is small.

This leaves the libraries who have developers stuck with trying to create something that’s not successful enough to be noticed but still share or to run the risk of being noticed by people who probably have more pull in the institution than them. (If it’s a big research university). It leads to a type of chilling effect.