[Koha] [Koha-devel] The Potential Death of Koha in Pennsylvania Libraries

[David Schuster]

There was a similar move but with a proprietary system in the Dakota's
probably 10-15 years ago.  Siouxland Libraries - from Sioux Falls South
Dakota chose NOT to join the consortium and go it alone as the "black sheep"
so to speak.  They would submit their database to be included in the "UNION"
catalog, but didn't participate in circ etc...  When the contract was up and
they went to change systems it was a LONG and drawn out process.

Personally I think these large systems are a double edge sword.  They help
the small libraries, but at the same time can hinder medium, and large
libraries from doing their business the way they WANT to.

I syspect that PA is looking at Georgia saying it works there...  but if you
look carefully there are still systems in GA that are NOT on Pines...

I would encourage an open dialog be started with those state stakeholders in
PA to find out the long term intentions and the expectations.  Is funding
not related to library automation tied to being a member of the library
automation consortium - or would it remain independant?

In Texas we have a TexShare Consortium, but it has NOTHING at this time to
do with Library Automation only Databases which has been quite successful. 
I would venture to guess that pushing a STATEWIDE library system wouldn't be
well received here in Texas either.  The closest our state library has come
to a "union catalog" has been the ZTexas - which relies on Z servers
available to query local systems.

Good luck - and hopefully the state will see the benefits of choice...

David Schuster


nengard wrote:
> 
> What can we do to help?  I'm in PA (not in your county - but still).
> 
> Nicole
> 
> On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle.m.hall at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I personally don't know. I'm not well versed in state library politics
>> myself, but this is what my Director believes is coming down the road,
>> and he's not happy about it.
>>
>> Kyle
>>
>> http://www.kylehall.info
>> Information Technology
>> Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Cab Vinton <bibliwho at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Wow, does the State Library really have that much authority over
>>> individual libraries (legal or otherwise)?
>>>
>>> I would find that hugely surprising. But then here in NH we don't even
>>> have any county-wide systems. For the most part, it's every town/ city
>>> library for itself ...
>>>
>>> Cab Vinton, Director
>>> Sanbornton Public Library
>>> Sanbornton, NH
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:44 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle.m.hall at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> The State Library her in Pennsylvania has started planning for a
>>>> state-wide ILS. My Director, John Brice attended a tech committee
>>>> netting this past Friday, bringing myself and Cindy Murdock as well.
>>>> At the meeting, it was announced that HSLC and Equinox will be
>>>> installing Evergreen in 33 libraries currently using Millennium. In
>>>> all likelyhood, in the future all the libraries in the state will be
>>>> required to switch over to Evergreen. Needless to say, my boss and
>>>> myself are extremely upset by this proposition to say the least.
>>>>
>>>> I would applaud the choice of a FOSS ILS, but the choice would not
>>>> bring any advantage. It appears to me to be a strictly financial
>>>> decision. The idea being pushed at the meeting was to give libraries
>>>> as little choice as possible to keep down costs. If we were forced to
>>>> switch to Evergreen, not only would our huge investment in Koha via
>>>> time and money be thrown away, but we would be forced into a new
>>>> system over which we would be no control or ability to customize. We
>>>> would have no control over the quality of service, as the servers are
>>>> planned to be centralized somewhere within the state. I do not relish
>>>> the idea of our current freedoms being taken away.
>>>>
>>>> Kyle
>>>>
>>>> http://www.kylehall.info
>>>> Information Technology
>>>> Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Koha mailing list
>>>> Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
>>>> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>>>>
>>>
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>>
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> 

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