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.