July 10th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Because of two consecutive weekends hosting visitors, I’ve gotten way behind with emailing and reading blogs and computery things in general. Of the 174 feeds in my Bloglines account, the ones I’ve been most grateful for are those I can just click on to make not-new, without actually having to read.
But saying that, one blog post did stand out and demand attention. This was Tim at LibraryThing’s proposal for a new open source cataloging classification system to replace Dewey.
I like the idea right off in principle, and I’m very happy that Tim has created a forum to get the ball rolling and get people talking about it.
In practicality, though, I don’t know how well it’ll work. It seems like the really great ideas are born of one person and their unwaivering drive and passion to accomplish it. I like the idea, but I am not sure if genesis-by-committee can be successful. Something like this (or Craig’s List or Wikipedia or Linux) seems to need to be centralized and dictatorial in the beginning, and then opened to the public once it’s proven and off and running.
But I hope it works. I’m going to be watching it, and I encourage everyone else to do the same - and contribute. I agree with Jessamyn in that, to get tools that are innately useful to libraries, they will have to come from librarians - everything else is just someone’s product.
Tags: classification, ddc, dewey, lc, libraries, Library, librarything, Open Shelves Classification, open source, osc, public, system See Also
Posted under Library, Technology | 2 Comments »
February 18th, 2008 Brian Herzog
I meant to post this last week, but better late than never, I guess.
I read on Slashdot that Saturday, Feb. 9th was the 10-year anniversary of open source. The hows and whys of are explained well by Bruce Perens in his State of Open Source Message: A New Decade For Open Source.
But when it comes to open source, I’m more interested in the end result, the applications other people built that I can use; I just take for granted that Open Source is alive and well and will continue to be (I know this is a dangerous assumption, which is why I try to contribute in any meager way I can).
Which brings us to another post I saw last week, this time on iLibrarian, highlighting 50 open source alternatives to propriety software. It’s amazing when you look at them all together, but there seems to be an open source option for pretty much any computer-based task. The category list is:
- Basics
- Office Suites
- Office Tools
- Productivity
- Graphic Programs
- Web Editors
- Publishing
- Communications
- Media
- Utilities
- Security
- Financial
Using open source isn’t just about using free software; it’s about being able to build on and customize software according to how people work, and about sharing with people instead of profiting off them.
Without open source software, you wouldn’t be reading my blog right now. As my little icon above says, this is a site made with recycled code. Thank you, open source developers.
update: And to bring this all back around to libraries, Tame The Web just linked to LibLime’s Open Sesame blog, devoted to using open source software in libraries.
update 2: This has appeared in a few places, but I thought it fit in with this post, too - Open Minds, Open Books, Open Source describes library using (actually, embracing) open source tools.
See Also
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June 7th, 2007 Brian Herzog
At the open source workshop yesterday, Joshua Ferrara of LibLime showed a Koha catalog interface designed for kids - amazing.
catalog, catalogs, childrens, interface, interfaces, ipac, ipacs, koha, libraries, library, nela-its, opac, opacs, open source, public libraries, public library
Tags: catalog, catalogs, childrens, interface, interfaces, ipac, ipacs, Koha, libraries, Library, nela-its, opac, opacs, open source, public libraries, public library See Also
Posted under Conferences, Library, Technology | 1 Comment »
June 6th, 2007 Brian Herzog
Wes Hamilton, WMRLS
As a compliment to the previous presentations, Wes focused just on Linux as an operating system, rather than the applications that run on top of it. He started with an interesting evolutionary history of Linux, which put into context all of the different flavors available today, and why there are so many.
He also pointed out that, even without knowing it, almost every internet user is already a Linux user, even if indirectly. Some of the post popular websites today (Google, flickr, Wikipedia and YouTube) are all being run on Linux platforms (and in Google’s case, Wes said that over 450,000 Linux servers power the search engine - that is an unfathomable number of servers).
A few websites of note from Wes’ presentation:
[view Wes' presentation]
Speakers
drupal, firefox, libraries, library, linux, nela, nela-its, open office, open source, randy robertshaw, userful
Tags: drupal, firefox, libraries, Library, linux, nela, nela-its, open office, open source, Randy Robertshaw, userful See Also
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June 6th, 2007 Brian Herzog
Randy Robertshaw, Tyngsborough (MA) Public Library
Randy has converted his small public library over to as much open source Linux applications as possible.
His goal in this conversion was to save the library money by paying less for hardware and software, and by saving staff time in supporting the library computers. Randy’s presentation focused mostly on available open source applications, such as Firefox, Drupal, Open Office, and on a company they use to maintain their Linux clients, Userful, and offered a lot of practical implementation tips (download his presentation below).
But Randy does not see open source software (OSS) as the be-all and end-all or library computing. He covered both pros and cons, in that it offers reduced cost and high flexibility, but the trade off is that the software isn’t necessarily as high-quality or as stable as commercial software. When deciding to go with OSS, we really need to evaluate both what we want to accomplish as well as the available OSS tools, to find the best fit.
[download Randy's presentation: pdf (5.2M)]
Speakers
drupal, firefox, libraries, library, linux, nela, nela-its, open office, open source, randy robertshaw, userful
Tags: drupal, firefox, libraries, Library, linux, nela, nela-its, open office, open source, Randy Robertshaw, userful See Also
Posted under Conferences, Library, Technology | 2 Comments »
