Open Source: The briefest of intros/Open source ILS options
28
Open Source The briefest of intros/ Open source ILS options NELINET Public Library Symposium December 5, 2008 Bob Molyneux
Transcript of Open Source: The briefest of intros/Open source ILS options
Open SourceThe briefest of intros/Open source ILS options
NELINET Public Library SymposiumDecember 5, 2008
Bob Molyneux
What I will be talking about today
• Why open source all of a sudden?
• What is open source?How does it differ from what you are used to?
• Then ILS options
1. Traditional vendors of library products
2. Open source What happened on March 13, 2007?
Sources for library software
1. Traditional vendors of library products
2. Open source
Traditional ILS vendorsTerms:
“legacy”“proprietary”
Two types:Founders still aroundFounders have sold out to VCs
Traditional Vendors (continued)
Characteristics:• Compiled code (machine readable code)
• Intellectual property laws apply• They own the code and you rent it.
Advantages• “turn key”• comprehensive solution to many problems• documentation and support
1. Traditional Vendors (continued)
Disadvantages• Slow development cycle• One size may not fit all•Who owns your data?• Restrictive licenses• Forced migrations• vendor lockin• (largely) old code
VC = Venture Capital firm
Cost Center
Recurring revenues
EBITDA = Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization
New Vocabulary with the VCs
2. Open source
When in the course of library events...
What does “open source”
mean?
“A set of principles and practices about how to write software the most important of which is that the source code
is openly available....”[additionally] “...one should have the right to use it.”
Wikipedia, “Open source”
What does “source code”
mean?“human readable”
What does “compiled code”
mean?machine readable
Advantages of the open source methodEasy customization for your own local situation
Fast development ‐
“release early, release often”using open source bits
Cost—itʹs free.
can
have about the same support as proprietary software
Disadvantages of open source
• Itʹs free but it may not be cheap
• Support—if you canʹt fix it, who can?
• FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)•
Do you want to trust your enterpriseʹs key applications
to a bunch of dope‐smoking hippies with orange hair?
But a new wind blows
Firefox
Apache
Linux
Android (Googleʹs
phone)
But a new wind blows (continued)
More specialized open source ILS initiatives:
VUFindApache Solr
BlacklightApache SolrRuby on Rails
ILS/CLS Open source dates:
• Koha – 2000• Nelsonville 2002
• Evergreen –
2004• PINES 2006
Some U.S. Public Library Stats
$ billions %
Top Quartile:
7.9
89(Largest 25% by Total Expenditures)
Bottom Three Quartiles: 1.0
11
(Smallest 75% by Total Expenditures)
source: NCES/NCLIS FY2005
The two major open source ILSs
began as small public library initiatives.
But there other new winds blowing:• MassCat• WALDO• Indiana Open Source ILS Initiative (Evergreen Indiana)• Michigan Library Consortium (Michigan Evergreen)• SITKA• University of Prince Edward Island• Innisfil
PL, Innisfil, Ontario
• National Resources Canada
What happens if your ILS won't do something you need?
Proprietary•Wait until the next version
Open source• Do it yourself (or with others in the community)• Either pay someone yourself or get others to contribute • Cajole, persuade, or charm someone into doing it
==> Community
Evergreen
OSS opens the way for us to change libraries and their interaction with our users
Evergreen offers one way and Equinox supports Evergreen
Evergreen is open source software, freely licensed under the GNU
GPL. Evergreen and the
Evergreen Logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of the Georgia Public Library
Service.
Evergreen design parameters
• Had to handle PINES• 40+ PL systems, 250+ outlets• 14+ million circs• on a statewide
resource‐sharing network
• and scale up from there
ArchitectureOpen Service Resource Format (OpenSRF)
Service oriented architecture
OSS bitsLinux (Debian, Red Hat)PostgreSQLApacheperl, etc.
Architecture (continued)
Modern, modular, scalable, configurable
The only ILS software that can currently run large and distributed resource sharing networks. It is the first
Consortial
Library System (CLS).
What other futures are possible in an open source world?
Modular—not one size fits all
More open source choices, perhaps more specialized
Mix and match•Why not open source and
proprietary?
• Code sharing
Equinox Software, Inc. (What is your business model?)
Founded by the developers of Evergreen, its purposes are:• To continue the development of Evergreen•
To support and host (ASP, SaaS) libraries moving to
Evergreen•
To foster the growth of the community that has
grown up around Evergreen
