9. Internet

Earlier in this blog I have introduced a website devoted to Koha community. However, there are more players on the open source ILS scene. So to be "fair and balanced" here are links to couple of other major contributors. First, Liblime. It calls itself a "leader in open source solutions for libraries." It certainly plays a leading role in the field of customization of Koha. Then there is Evergreen, a different kind of open source ILS.

These are but a few representative websites that show growing presence of open source automation in library services today. Will it completely replace the proprietary systems? Probably not, but its very presence broadens the choices and brings necessary changes (and questions) to the table.

8. Research/Visual Multimedia

For the visual multimedia presentation example in my blog I will propose to explore the webinars during which a basic introductory elements of Koha ILS are introduced by Nicole Engard. The webinars are archived and can be accessed at the following links:

Introduction to KOHA: OPAC and Circulation

Introduction to KOHA: Cataloging & Advanced Functions

These webinars were presented on December 17 and 21, 2009 respectively.

If you are not able to view this webinar, here is a plugin for Windows Media Player that needs to be downloaded.

7. Image

Here is the image showing the layout and general architecture of Koha open source ILS. I found it searching through Koha documentation (the direct link is here). I have been spending most of my time with Koha for the last nine months or so -- hence my decision to share the image of the system layout.

6. Citation Pearl Growing

For the Citation Pearl Growing search example I chose Books in Print database. I thought I would start with a book by Nicole Engard (I wrote of her previously in this blog, she is a well known expert in the world of open source ILS), and use the book data as the starting point for the search on the web development for the purpose of library and library OPAC. The book title is Library mashups: exploring new ways to deliver library data. I have easily located it in BIP. Some of the tags used by BIP to classify the book are: Internet, Web Sites Design, Libraries, World Wide Web, Computers, Language, Arts & Disciplines. This prompted me to construct an advance search: "internet" AND "libraries" AND "web sites". I obtained 7 books that were very much on the subject.

6. Specific Facet Search

Let's test the facets from the previous search (building block) for the purpose of the specific facet search. The database is Eric. "Open source" yielded 268 hits. "database or catalogue" yielded 23130 hits and "ils" 25806 hits. Of course none of these facets by itself is sufficient for a narrow search. combining them all in Eric database results in 4 hits only.

6. Building Block Search

For the building block search I turned to Academic Search Complete database. I started with "open source" AND "database OR catalogue" AND "library". The search results yielded a collection of articles dealing with database design and computer architecture. Listed as #5 was an article addressing an issue of open source library catalogues and OPAC. Also promising articles were listed on position #12 and #15.
Next I changed the last facet from "library" to "ils" to make the searchmore specific. the move proved successful -- the #3 and #4 cover the open source integrated library systems. And on #7 there is an article discussing Liblime, one of the major consulting companies specializing in open source ils (specifically Koha).

6. Browsing

For browsing exercise I chose LibLit database. I open the database and went to Thesaurus. I first tried "open source ils." The search resulted in no hits. Next I tried "open source." This time the results were a number of hits pertaining to open source software in general. The first one shows promise within our context: "LIS community perceptions towards open source software adoption in libraries." The abstract note shows that the article is about open source software in general, not open source ils, or open source software applied to library services, but the more detailed search can be done with other approach.

5. Tagging/Cataloging

Open source ILS is a fairly new phenomenon, so I was not surprised that when I attempted a search for any books in LibraryThing I could not find anything. Instead I broadened the search and looked for books relating to "open source." I chose Open Sources 2.0: the Continuing Evolution by Chris DiBona. I thought it would be a good choice because the book seems to address the subject of open source programming in the 21st century, which is at the heart of open source ILS.

Here is the link to LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/work/1091064

LibraryThing tag cloud: 21st century (1) @safari (1) bookstobuy (1) business (3) computers (5) computing (2) copyright (1) culture (1) digital culture (1) economics (1) essays (1) FLOSS (1) free software (1) intellectual property (2) internet (1) legal (1) movement (1) non-fiction (5) objet trouvé (1) open source (19) oreilly (2) oss (2) philosophy (1) programming (2) software (3) svb (1) tech (1) technology (3) used in 2007 (1) xmas present

4. RSS Feed

Koha Open Source ILS Newsletter seemed the perfect candidate for RSS feed. The website is the communication and information center for the Koha community. Here one can find the news about progress in development of the code, implementation of Koha by the local libraries, tips for the librarians, etc.

3. Podcast.

Using bing as my search engine I found a blog of the Lincoln Trail Libraries System which reported on the ILS Symposium that took place in Champagne, IL in September 2007. Of the many available podcasts there I selected a discussion on open source ILS moderated by Carl Grant -- a former representative of the commercial vendor. He provides a basic introduction to the concept of open source ILS, compares open source ILS with a proprietary systems and then participates in a Q&A session.

To access the podcast click here.

As a side note: this podcast is from September 2007. A lot of things have changed in the past three years -- certainly in the development of open source ILS. But also in the life of Carl Grant: according to his blog, he is back in the corporate world.

2. Related Blog.

Of the numerous blogs that contain news and information about the development and application of open source ILS in contemporary library I decided to link to a blog called What I learned Today...
The blog is authored by Nicole Engard who describes herself as "an Open Source evangelist." I ran into Nicole at the KohaCon in Plano, TX last year (I sincerely doubt she remembers me). She was vivacious, very knowledgeable and always ready to answer questions. Her personality as well as enthusiasm toward open source implementation in the library settings comes across in her blog, which is full of practical information:

In addition to my Documentation Manager role for the Koha Community, I am also the Koha Newsletter Editor! That means that I gather together Koha related news and mash it all up into a newsletter format – Okay it’s a bit more than that.

Today marks the first official release of this newsletter. You can read the entire newsletter here and keep up with future newsletter releases here.

This first issue has a great table of contents thanks to all of the amazing community members:

• Events:
  • Venue and Dates booked for Kohacon10
  • Code4Lib 2010 Koha Preconference
  • KUDOS Meeting at ALA Midwinter
• News from Koha Libraries
  • News from Crawford County
  • NYU Health Sciences Libraries migrate to Koha
  • Middletown Township Public Library Live on Koha
  • Saugeen Library Consortium goes Koha
• Tips & Tricks
  • BibLibre’s Community Branch of Koha 3.2
  • New Koha Manual Available in Git
  • Speed tips for Z39.50 catalogue searching

If you have ideas for a future Koha newsletter, send it along to me (instructions on the newsletter site).

The blog "What I Learned Today..." was found using Google blog search engine http://blogsearch.google.com/

1. Blog Setup.

This blog was created in order to post here some of my assignments for the Information Storage and Retrieval course.

The main theme of this blog will be an examination of the benefits of an Open Source ILS (as oppose to a proprietary ILS). I became interested in Open Source ILS when we decided to implement one of such systems -- Koha -- as our library's ILS.

The main advantage of an Open Source ILS is not only that it is free but that it affords freedom (both for a developer and user). But this freedom comes at a price. During a last year users' conference (KohaCon 09) I heard a very apt statement: "When we say that Koha is free, we do not mean as in free beer, but as in free puppy. As I am working on migrating the data from our old system, I am appreciating this statement more and more!

My interests are primarily in an Academic Library -- this is where I have been working for the number of years now.