Brief article in Advanced Technology Libraries

[Jim Duncan]

A brief summary article recently appeared in the May 2008 issue of
Advanced Technology Libraries. The article discusses Marshall
Breeding's presentation during the recent Computers in Libraries
national conference, "The Open-Source Landscape."

I'll quote three paragraphs from that summary, and a chunk from a
fourth...

"Breeding remarked that there is currently an explosion of interest in
open source that is driven by disillusionment with current vendors. It
is seen as a means of allowing libraries to have more flexible systems
at lower costs and not to be vulnerable to the disruptions that come
with mergers and acquisitions."

"Total cost of ownership, however, is still about the same, according
to Breeding. Although there is no initial purchase of a license or
annual license fees, hardware costs are the same and costs of local
technical support may be higher. In addition, there are optional
vendor support costs, costs of hosting and conversion services, and
costs of next-generation development. Open source is still a risky
alternative; there is dependence on community organizations and
commercial companies to provide development and support services, but,
he stated, commercial/proprietary options are also a risk."

"Most decisions to adopt an open-source ILS are based on philosophical
reasons, and he believes open-source ILS will enter the mainstream
once its products begin to win through objective procurement
processes. They should be held to the same standards as commercial
products, and the open-source companies should present well-documented
total cost of ownership statements that can be compared with other
vendor price quotes."

"Although open-source ILS implementations are still a small percentage
of the total picture...it is important to consider whether the current
slate of open-source companies will be able to support increasing
numbers of libraries without the same difficulties as the incumbent
ILS vendors have encountered."

btw--I recommend subscribing to Advanced Technology Libraries if you
want to keep up with the latest in ILS and other library system news.

-Jim

-----------------------------------
Subscription Information:

To receive timely information on important industry news and events,
subscribe to the print version of Advanced Technology Libraries, which
is published each month (12x per year).

Annual subscription rates:
(U.S.) $95
(outside U.S.) $110 U.S.dollars

Further information can be obtained by contacting your subscription
agent or the publisher at judy...@optonline.net or P.O. Box 366,
Millwood, NY 10546.