[Web4lib] Open Source Workshop/Houston Area

[Chris Peterson]

“OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN LIBRARIES” WORKSHOP SCHEDULED FEBRUARY 17 IN
HOUSTON AREA

Title: Open Source Software in Libraries
Date: February 17, 2006
Early Bird Deadline: 1/06/2006
Location: North Harris Montgomery Community College District Libraries, The
Woodlands, TX

Description:
According to the Open Source Initiative, "the basic idea behind open source
is very simple: when programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the
source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve
it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that,
if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems
astonishing."

This workshop will provide structured opportunities for participants to
experience how open source software can be used to implement many
library-specific processes. Learn how open source software can help
simplify such processes such as reading and writing MARC records, creating
and maintaining databases, providing user-friendly interfaces to indexed
content, hosting a World Wide Web server, and most importantly, bringing
all of these processes together to providing meaningful library collections
and services.

Participants in this hands-on workshop will learn skills enabling them to:

          Bring up a Web server and serve simple HTML files
          Write and run very simple computer programs
          Use a Z39.50 client to search for and download Library of
         Congress MARC records
          Read, write, and create reports against sets of MARC records
          Index MARC records and HTML files and make these indexes
         available on the web as CGI scripts
          Read, write, and convert XML files
          Create a very simple library catalog using a relational database

Audience:
Library directors, managers, catalogers, reference librarians,
bibliographers, archivists, electronic resource librarians, systems
librarians, IT managers -- all types of librarians.

Prerequisites:
Participants should be able to type, have an understanding of the
fundamental principles of librarianship, and most importantly, be willing
to learn.

Presenter:
Eric Lease Morgan is head of the Digital Access and Information
Architecture Department at the University Libraries at Notre Dame. He
considers himself a librarian first and a computer user second. His
professional goal is to discover new ways to use computers to improve
library and knowledge services. Applied research and development has
included investigations into traditional library science, digital
libraries, information retrieval, and human-computer interaction. In 1994,
he began the Mr Serials Process, a systematic method for collecting,
indexing, and disseminating electronic serials. This matured into Index
Morganagus. One of his more recognized accomplishments is the development
of a portal application called MyLibrary. In 2002, he was awarded the
Bowker/Ulrich Serials Librarianship Award for his serials work as well as
MyLibrary. In 2004, he was awarded the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for
outstanding communication in library and information technology.


For more information, go to
http://www.amigos.org/learning/catalog/shopping/product_details.php?id=163.


For the most up-to-date training schedule, a complete list of courses,
descriptions, and a convenient online registration form, go to
http://www.amigos.org/learning/calendar/ or contact Chris Brown at Amigos,
1-800-843-8482 (972-851-8000 in the Dallas area), ext. 2829, or
mailto:brown at amigos.org.