[WEB4LIB] Re: will OSS impact library automation?

[Peter Schlumpf]

My apologies if this message appears twice...

>>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.

I am at least one person that is crazy enough to be designing and writing,
still on my own, an open source integrated library system, focusing on the
circulation component first.  Nearly two years and two rewrites later the
core of this system is finally approaching usability and I hope by this
summer to have something that is usable in a small scale production
environment (go to http://www.nslsilus.org/~schlumpf/avanti to see what it's
about).  In this project I am taking what I think are some rather novel
approaches to the problem, including developing a universally adaptable
architecture for the core, and writing a self-contained object database
package from the ground up, rather than using a mySQL back end (yes, I guess
I am a little crazy, but I have reasons for choosing to do it that way).

Current integrated library systems are complex things, and like any software
can be as complex as you care to make them to be.  I disagree, however, that
this complexity is really necessary.  Many problems in automation, including
circulation, are in their essences quite simple. By really thinking about
the problem you're trying to solve and approaching it from an abstract point
of view, stripping away all the complex "junk", I think it's possible to
design software, including library systems, that is simple in principle,
very flexible and eminently useful.  I think software can be simpler AND
better.  Software designers these days seems to have forgotten the KISS
principle.  I'm not trying to oversimplifiy... writing an ILS from scratch
is a challenge.  it's taken me two years off and on in my project so far and
I still have a ways to go before a product is ready.  But I think it is
definiately a doable goal for sufficiently motivated individuals and groups
to accompish.

>I'd say that the reason is more that an OPAC or a circ system is a 
>boring tedious complex project, unappealing to code-poets. Not hard 
>enough, too many t's to cross and i's to dot. And there's enough 
>diversity and competition in proprietary OPAC's that there's no 
>compelling need. Successful Open Source projects start small, new and 
>simple, do one thing really well, and then get improved.

One thing I'd like to add here is that the *real* innovation very often
starts at the low end.  Those working on open source software have total
freedom to try really new, interesting and dangerous things that the
established vendors would never attempt.  Those who ignore these "toy"
systems may be doing so at their peril.  The same pattern can be seen in the
early development of microcomputers in the 1970's.  Established companies
like IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation ignored the potential of the
microcomputer, leaving it in the realm of hobbyists and hackers. Those
hobbyists and hackers took the microcomputer and ended up completely
transforming the marketplace.  DEC is now out of business.  IBM was humbled.
I think something similar could happen in the market for library systems
with open source development efforts, of course at a much smaller scale.

Peter

Peter Schlumpf
Systems Administrator
North Suburban Library System
200 West Dundee Road, Wheeling IL 60090
(847)459-1300 ext. 7155   schlumpf at nslsilus.org
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