[WEB4LIB] Re: will OSS impact library automation?

[Sebastian Hammer]

Hi,

For anyone interested in pursuing OSS options for libraries, there is at 
least one forum dedicated to the discussion at www.oss4lib.org.

But no, I also don't know of a serious OSS alternative to the major ILS 
packages - in particular for those who don't have the resources to roll 
their own, much less support it. Integrated library systems are, for the 
most part, not very sexy applications to work on (no offense), and they 
tend to not get the same attention from the programming crowd as the more 
pure database applications, web-servers, etc.

I doubt we will see any single group come out with a monolithic system.. 
but there is hope that enough of the requisite components will become 
available from separate developers that it will be a manageable task for 
someone to build a complete kit. I think the underlying technologies have 
really matured a lot these last couple of years. I'm thinking of good, 
efficient SQL engines to build the circulation and user management logic, 
text engines to provide scaleable bibliographic databases with all the 
bells and whistles (hopefully more XML-enabled stuff will emerge), 
webservers and browsers to provide easily portable, networked user 
interfaces. Good multitasking operating systems to run things on. And of 
course (shameless plug), Z39.50 toolkits.

Cheers,

--Sebastian
--
Sebastian Hammer        <quinn at indexdata.dk>            Index Data ApS
Ph.: +45 3341 0100    <http://www.indexdata.dk>    Fax: +45 3341 0101