• Microsoft Office does have a price, but with discounts for non-profits and TechSoup, we pay about $20. While this is still a cost, it is negligable. Also, being that it’s 2010 and we’re still using Windows XP and Office 2003, and our public workstations are 7 years old, we need to keep in mind that once we adopt something, we keep it for a long time, so our investment is spread out over years (we’re also buying new Windows 7 computers, too)
• The Office 2007 licenses we’re buying include a free upgrade to Office 2010 – so, when everyone has gotten used to the new interface, we will upgrade and be (more) current
• Our IT staff is comfortable supporting MS Office
• I’ve used OpenOffice at home for years, and while it’s fine for me, it isn’t quite as good as MS Office (feature- and usability-wise). In public libraries, where many of the patrons barely have any computer experience, even small advantages go a long way
• Of the patrons who do have computer experience, most of them use MS Office at work, school, and home already. I know you can save to MS and open formats with OpenOffice, but a different interface could alienate many of those patrons. And along this same theme, most of the “learn computers” adult education classes in my area teach MS Office, and often people taking those classes come to the library or practice or do their homework – OpenOffice wouldn’t help them at all

I’m certainly with you on the philosophy of open source. We use Firefox and other open source software, and also considered Userful. But in this case, after our evaulation (and I encourage everyone to read TechSoup’s Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org review), we decided MS Office made the most sense for our library and community.

We’re upgrading to the next iteration later this year. yay.