Georgia PINES Demonstration

The State Library will host a demonstration of the Georgia Library Public Information Network for Electronic Services (PINES) project.

On August 21st, from 1 to 3:30, PINES staff will be visiting virtually via WebEX to share and discuss their very successful statewide service and the Open Source Integrated Library System software Evergreen.

Directors, IT staff, and anyone interested in seeing and hearing a demonstration of the Georgia Library Public Information Network for Electronic Services (PINES) is invited to register and attend a WebEX delivered presentation at one of the following sites:

NEO Regional Library System Offices, Warren, OH

NORWELD Regional Library System Offices, Bowling Green, OH

SWON Regional Library System Offices, Blue Ash, OH

State Library of Ohio, Columbus, OH

There is no charge for attending, but registration is appreciated so we have a sense of how many will be at each session.

Questions? Contact Jay Burton at 614-466-5511 or email at jburton@sloma.state.oh.us

Open Source ILS support question

One of the questions brought up during the meeting on April 24 dealt with how support for an open source ILS product would work. Specifically, with the Koha ILS, there is only 1 known commercial vendor that I am aware of, LibLime providing support specifically for that product. There are a small number of other open source ILS vendors who are developing and supporting their own products, but they have the same issue. What happens if the group who is being paid to support the ILS solution goes out of business?

It is certainly true that this is still the early period for open source ILS solutions. As with other open source technology solutions, the strength of the product and the support will be built on the commitment of the folks contributing to the project. There is no guarantee that any group who is paid to support a product will remain in business. One of the advantages of open source is that another group of developers/maintainers can pick up where the first group stops. Even better, users of open source software become part of the solution, by providing support and assistance to other users of the same software. It is a community of users and support people, each providing help to the other in various ways, all with the common goal of supporting the final product.

As previously mentioned, there are parallels that can be drawn between any open source ILS solution and the thousands (or millions) of other open source software projects currently in use worldwide.

We would like to hear about the concerns within the library community that exist concerning support for open source ILS solutions.

Seeking Questions

In the past week, the State Library has spent time getting the web pages together and in getting this blog set up and activated. The minutes of the meeting are available and highlight what was discussed on April 24, 2007. Now that this blog is active, we would like to hear about any questions that might exist. Please feel free to post a question or comment. We will get more specific information posted as it becomes available. Thank You.

Thank You!

The State Library of Ohio wishes to thank everyone who participated in the meeting on April 24 concerning ILS options. We also want to encourage anyone in the library community who is interested in this open discussion to participate. Information will be collected from this blog and posted as needed on the State Library website. Some basic information can be found at this location.