[Koha] The Potential Death of Koha in Pennsylvania Libraries

[Weinheimer Jim]

In this vein, you may be interested in a new OCLC report: "Research Libraries, Risk and Systemic Change" http://www.oclc.org/research/news/2010-03-25.htm which is not just about research libraries.

They discuss risk management and delineate many of the risks as:
"Many of the risks rated as high (impact and certainty) pertain to: 
- human resources and organizational culture, including a lack of attention to cross-training and reallocation of existing staff 
- lack of critical skill sets for managing data sets, engaging directly with research faculty, or retooling technological infrastructure 
- an organizational culture that inhibits innovation 
- difficulty in attracting and retaining staff in a competitive environment where fewer  credentialed library professionals are available 
- uncertainties about the appropriate qualifications for library managers who may require skills developed in other sectors."

Then on p. 16 under "Strategies for Mitigation," they continue:
"We believe that increased reliance on *shared infrastructure* along with increased outsourcing and regional consolidation of services will enable more rapid deployment of the services that research library users want and need moving the following risks into a more acceptable range of impact and occurrence: 
- Library cannot adjust fast enough to keep up with rapidly changing technology and user needs (Risk 19). 
- Increased inefficiencies and expenses due to lack of functionality of legacy systems and IT support (Risk 20). 
- Due diligence and sustainability assessment of local or third party services is not completed, tracked or analyzed (Risk 21)."

Their solution of a shared infrastructure would seem to mirror your case in Pennsylvania. While I understand such a conclusion, the upshot of if seems to be "we sink or swim together." I think that instead of having everyone crowd into the same lifeboat, it would be just as logical to foster individual initiatives, while making sure everyone shared their work.

Still, I can understand that going to this level of trust (the foundation of the entire open source movement) does not come easy to an administrator who is responsible for results.

Perhaps you can reach some level of agreement. I am sure that everyone is nervous and still in the search for answers.

James Weinheimer  j.weinheimer at aur.edu
Director of Library and Information Services
The American University of Rome
via Pietro Roselli, 4
00153 Rome, Italy
voice- 011 39 06 58330919 ext. 258
fax-011 39 06 58330992


-----Original Message-----
From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Kyle Hall
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 2:44 PM
To: koha; koha-devel
Subject: [Koha] The Potential Death of Koha in Pennsylvania Libraries

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 )
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