[WEB4LIB] will OSS impact library automation?

[Marshall Breeding]

Now, is it fair to jump at what I might say before I've said it?!  I 
suppose.  But Eric has anticipated some of the what I meant 
already.   

He is of course right that many libraries have become users and 
vocal advocates of open source software in their general 
infrastructure-- web servers, public access workstations, various 
supplimental databases and the like.     

But what impact has open source had on the library automation 
industry itself?  From my perspective, not all that much yet.  Quite 
the contrary, library vendors have a stronger hold on the 
technologies that underlie library automation systems than ever 
before.  How many libraries get access to the souce code for their 
ILS or are even able to negotiate that it be held in escrow?  

This is an issue that I hope to explore in more depth.  Immediately 
following the talk that Eric mentioned that I'll be giving at the E-
Libraries conference, I will be convening a panel discussion of chief 
executives of the various large-scale library automation companies. 
(So far the presidents of Ex Libris, SIRSI, and VTLS have 
accepted, and others are tentative.)  The open source issue is one 
of the topics that I had already planned to raise in that discussion.

I certainly welcome examples that show where procurements of 
large-scale library automation systems are being impacted by open 
source alternatives.  I'm aware of some efforts on the low-end of the 
market.

More information is available on the E-Libraries conference at:
   http://www.infotoday.com/it2001/e-libraries.htm

btw, this is a new name for the conference that was formerly called 
IOLS.  The larger conference now called InfoToday, is what used to 
be National Online.

-marshall

> I was browsing though the program for the "e-libraries" conference in
> May (NYC), and I saw this statement in the abstract of a talk by
> Marshall Breeding, "Library Technology Officer" at Vanderbilt:
> 
>        " The Open Source movement has stirred a lot of discussion, but
>        
> it will not make a huge impact in
>           library automation"
> 
> I suppose one terribly unfair translation of this is "Although most
> libraries will run web servers on Apache, listservs on something else
> free, databses on MySQL and much of the the code will be written in
> Perl, library administrators should continue to focus their attention
> and money on getting proprietary systems to do what they want them
> to."
> 
> 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".
> 
> Eric
> Eric Hellman
> Openly Informatics, Inc.
> http://www.openly.com/           21st Century Information
> Infrastructure Openly Jake- the library of the future               
> http://jake.openly.com/