[WEB4LIB] will OSS impact library automation?

[Cindy Murdock]

> Obviously, he doesn't mean to say "Perl will not have a huge impact
> in library automation" but rather something like "Don't expect to see
> gnuOPAC anytime soon".

I think the reason we won't be seeing it anytime soon is due to the fact
that most open source programs that crop up are created by those who need
them, and have the knowledge in how to write them.  Once more and more
librarians come out of grad programs with (dare I hope) programming skills,
then we may very well see more.  I'd love to write a circ system myself, but
I haven't a fraction of the knowledge necessary, nor the time to figure it
out.  It would be a project bigger than one person could accomplish.  I
think a great idea would be to write a grant to fund a group of open source
programmers to write one, and then release the source and the software for
anyone to use.  Here we got our Linux/OpenBSD consultant to write an online
catalog for us (http://ccfls.org/catalog/search.html if you want to take a
look) but it's independent of our circ system; in order to update its
records I have to do so manually.

Admittedly another problem would be tech support.  Yes, I resent that we
have to lay out such large sums of cash to our catalog vendor for support,
but what do you do in the case of major problems?  Until an open source
catalog acquired a large user base where the users could support one
another, what alternatives would you have?

Just some thoughts...
Cindy

Cindy Murdock
Network Administrator
Meadville Public Library
www.meadvillelibrary.org