[Koha] Sirsi in NZ!

[Lee Phillips]

Greetings to all my Koha pals, esp. MJ and Paul!!!
As a library admin person I had put together the criteria for RFPs for 
our ILS search. Of course I already knew about Koha and Evergreen, so I 
could add specifications in the RFP that only FOSS could meet. Is that 
fair? Yes I believe it is. MJ is right the lack of technical expertise 
on the part of procurement leads to the path of least resistance for the 
support staff who prefer someone else to blame when things don't work, 
instead of learning, contributing and evolving. I think this would be an 
EXCELLENT topic for a presentation at KohaCon-" How to write a RFP that 
is vendor/ FOSS neutral". I was able to decide what was best for my 
library and ask the vendors to meet that expectation. The question that 
ALWAYS favors FOSS is "Do I control my records and will it cost me to 
retrieve them if I move to another vendor?" I am unaware of any option 
other than FOSS that can answer that question in the affirmative.
As a public librarian it is imperative for me to control the data. Or NO 
deal.
And MJ, you are so right about all "free crap" passed out at conferences 
by vendors"made in China" or a 3rd world country...etc...
I am most proud of my FOSS stickers on my netbook cover from KohaCon 10. 
Almost as good as a tattoo!
Cheers all
Lee Phillips
Butte Public Library
Butte MT

On 5/3/2011 8:36 AM, MJ Ray wrote:
> Paul POULAIN wrote:
>> Le 03/05/2011 12:09, MJ Ray a écrit :
>>> Did the National Library of NZ use a procurement process?
>> iirc, Dan Christie, Catalyst director (Chris C. employer) spoke of this
>> during KohaCon. iirc, he said it was hard to convince OpenSource was a
>> possibility.
>> that's all I remember, i've forgotten the details (but i'm not surprised
>> by this news, it was implied when I heard don speaking of that)
> Chris Cormack passed me the link
> http://www.dgmarket.com/tenders/np-notice.do~5329124
> which doesn't work for me (no cookies until you show me a privacy
> policy, nasty error page) but might contain information.
>
> http://bywatersolutions.com/2010/10/26/kohacon10-promoting-free-softare-in-libraries/
> is Nicole's blog post about Don's talk but I'm not sure I see
> the above comments reflected in that.
>
> Here's an interesting question from #koha - when should suppliers
> protest about defective procurement processes?  I think it's best
> done while the process is still open (so there is still some chance
> it could be suspended and relaunched) but others said it's better
> to bid first, complain later.  Any procurement experts here?
>
> Thanks,