[Koha] LibLime Thoughts from a Librarian

[Lee Phillips]

Koha Friends,
We are a Koha library and I am just a librarian. We migrated with 
LibLime in 9/09 and I was one of LL's biggest fans. One of the things LL 
did right was allow libraries to decide for themselves on install and 
config issues. We are self-hosted (thank God, in hindsight) and we have 
customized a little. We liked having developers that we could go to to 
get our needs met for our installation and contributed our 
customizations (Overdrive SIP) to the community (except it is in the 
manual on Koha.org. I think).
  When the craziness started almost a year ago I was sad to see 
something with such potential crash and burn (LL and Koha-Community). It 
made me physically ill.
Now we have PTFS. I guess the  money is in  creating one hosted product 
with one solution so that it is economical to manage in "the cloud". I 
am sure other librarians feel as I do that I like having my "stuff" on 
this box right here (pointing under desk). I won't even presume to 
understand the complexities of "taking Koha to the next level" in the 
PTFS world but it is a different animal with  the same genus as Koha - 
Community. As Nicole Engard tweeted, it is not even the same concept of 
Open Source.

  I will take the higher ground and say I wish PTFS well as they create 
some hybrid version of Koha (forked code). Librarians stake their 
careers on the concept of free information and universal access to the 
information. Open Source = universal access to information for me. Maybe 
the community should start thinking of a way to help those who thought 
they were getting FOSS Koha migrate out of LEK and Koha Express. Maybe a 
vendor could provide that service? I can tell you if I was in their 
shoes that's what I would be looking to do. I am just saying, its not 
enough to just move on as the community. There are some casualties from 
this deal and I hope some one offers a solution to help them back to 
where they thought they would be, a part of the Koha-community. I am 
glad (tickled pink actually) my library is part of the community.
Cheers and see ya in NZ!
Beer and Pizza on me.
Lee Phillips