[Koha] GEN: library automation systems (fwd)

Thu May 20 01:39:11 NZST 2004

Pat,
I do not post to this list that much, but am extremely interested in 
Koha and the concept of Open Source (free) software.

"We are looking for an automation system that is far better than our
current system."

What do you mean by better, since this often is a subjective term, when 
calculating cost, efficiency, effectiveness, and optimization (yes they 
do all mean different things even though they are often used 
interchangeably).

I am working with some universities in Central Asia attempting to set up 
a complete open source platform for library automation and on-line 
education (several different applications to start) and often am asked 
the same question. For this part of the world there is no option, either 
develop it yourself or do not have it; there simply is not enough money 
to pay the extortive prices demanded by the major producers of 
proprietary software. What I have found is that there really is no 
'better' library automation package. If there were, everyone would be 
using it :).

The real question is: Why does your institute not pay some open source 
developers to enhance existing applications to fit your needs; that way 
you can get exactly what you want, and it will truly be better than what 
you have.  For example, librarys in New York State (USA); spend hundreds 
of millions of dollars per year on such software,  yet they will not 
dump even $100,000 into something like koha, because too many people 
have their fingers in the pot who would lose money if things were done 
'right'. This is not proper or optimal use of taxpayer resources, but 
apparently those in academia cannot bring themselves to stop feeding at 
the trough and act like responsible humans.

Recently OCLC, after much pressure from some users in the academic 
community, gave its Virtual Library Portal  'Sitesearch'  to the Open 
Source Community.  This application is stable and well developed,  works 
better than most commercial products and now is not only freely 
available, but some of us have agreed to support it and develop it as 
part of its Open Source Mission. If you go to OSS4LIB site you can see 
other applications which are available.

My recommendation is to pick up these bits and pieces and use them to 
develop something which not only would benefit you and others in the 
community, but which might force a lowering of the extortive prices now 
being charged for library software. 

Unless your organization has 'money to burn' this should be the most 
'optimal' route.

Gerry
Gerry Arthus
Systems Administrator
Long Island Library Resources Council
SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, New York
US          11794-3399
Phone: 1-631-632-6652
FAX: 631-632-6662
Home: 631-289-7565
Email: garthus at lilrc.org

Professor
Graduate ComputerScience,  Engineering Management, and Environmental Science
C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville,New York
US 11548-1300
Phone: 516-299-2293

 Eyler wrote:

>anyone interested in replying to this?
>
>-pate
>
>Pat Eyler
>Kaitiaki/manager               migrant Linux sys admin
>the Koha project               ruby, shell, and perl geek
>http://www.koha.org            http://pate.eylerfamily.org
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 13:27:37 -0500
>From: Karna Antoniw <kantoniw at SANROBERTO.EDU.MX>
>To: LM_NET at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>Subject: GEN: library automation systems
>
>Hello everyone,
>
>I need your opinion on library automation systems.  Currently, we are
>using Alexandria as our automation system.  However, we are not
>satisfied with this system (apology to those who use it and like it).
>We particularly do not like the reports it gives.  We find they are not
>flexible and we are limited in what we can obtain from them.
>
>We would like to switch to another automation system but only if it is
>worth our while.  We don't want to switch to something that would be
>similar to Alexandria.  That would be too much money, time and
>frustration spent on something which we already have.
>
>We are looking for an automation system that is far better than our
>current system.  Today a representative from Mandarin showed us their
>system, but we feel it isn't that much better than Alexandria.
>
>Is anyone familiar with L4U?  I am interested in what L4U offers. =20
>
>Does anyone have another library automation system they would recommend?
>Do you have one that  you feel is excellent for school library purposes?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Karna Antoniw
>Librarian
>Instituto San Roberto
>Monterrey, Mexico
>kantoniw at sanroberto.edu.mx
>
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