[Koha] Fwd: [Web4lib] Request to participate in 2010 Library Technology Guides automation survey

[MJ Ray]

Breeding, Marshall wrote:
> -With Koha, unlike the other ILS products, I have an association
> between the product and the support provider.  I'm open to either
> aggregating them together or to treat the ILS / Vendor pairs
> separately.  I've already had one inquiry suggesting that they not
> be aggregated.

Well, the current situation seems absurd, with only 15 of the Koha
support providers listed and one of those listed under three names,
while some Koha survey responses are discarded because there aren't
enough libraries for a name.

I think all Koha official community releases should be listed
together, with support providers listed separately, just as I think
you currently record LMS version number separately.

If people are running some Koha-based PTFS/LibLime system or some
bleeding-edge prerelease/maybe-never-to-be-a-release Koha, then that
probably should be listed separately.

Would other list subscribers be OK with that?

> How common is it that a library will sign with multiple support
> vendors for Koha support?  I'm not aware that this is a common
> arrangement at all.

At least among the co-op's libraries, it's not that rare.

I think this is more common with a web-based catalogue, where we can
co-operate with existing library IT support providers rather than
replace them.  Of course, I'd prefer it that everyone bought internet
connections and hardware from our partners, but some libraries have
contracts they won't break and I feel it's not ethical to duplicate
them unnecessarily.

How would you be aware of it?  It doesn't seem possible for library to
register this multi-provider situation accurately on lib-web-cats.
I'm sure I've mentioned at least one library where the co-op is
providing services but isn't credited as such.

> Is there an Independent option for RFID?
> 
> -This survey does not address RFID products.  [...]

Sorry, my mistake in interpreting announcements that I read.  Of
course, I had not seen the survey.

> Are the anonymised responses available under Creative Commons BY,
> ODbL or other broadly FOSS terms?
> 
> -No.  I publish the statistics as openly as I can, including the
> redacted comments.  I reveal the totals of all numeric responses.
> It would be a great deal of work to sanitize the data in a way that
> would ensure the privacy of respondents.

Anonymisation is a common step in social statistics.  I think when I
was involved in a research project some years ago, it was a case of
adding a random number field to the user record, then hashing it with
some other data and making sure the identifying fields were not
output.  Is it really much work?

It's a great deal of work to promote the survey and for all these
librarians to fill it out, but they do it.  It's a shame that no-one
can help with the analysis and the data is essentially lost from the
community with only summary statistics available.  It seems such a
missed opportunity.

> Can someone help me get a reply from Marshall Breeding? ;-)
> 
> -Yes. I responded.  Just like I did last year to your concerns.

Sorry, I clarify "reply to direct emails".  This annual exchange
seems to be the main way I get any reaction to comments about
lib-web-cats!  I don't think it's ideal to ask vendor-specific
questions on-list, but I will if needs be.

> -I do hope that all libraries running Koha will respond to the
> survey.  Many libraries are considering moving to open source ILS
> products and they deserve to benefit from the knowledge of the
> libraries that have already implemented Koha.

I think it's up to them whether they want to work on lib-web-cats.
If Koha-using libraries want others to benefit from their knowledge,
they're better off contributing to wiki.koha-community.org or other
free and open shareable community resources.

Hope that clarifies,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Past Koha Release Manager (2.0), LMS programmer, statistician, webmaster.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha