[Web4lib] Follow Up On The Analysis Of Open Source ILS Market Penetration

[David Dorman]

At 09:07 AM 10/22/2007, Blake Carver wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>Bob Molyneux has posted a revised version of the summary numbers that
>appeared on LISNews & Web4lib October 15 analyzing use of open source
>OPACs in U.S. public libraries. Joshua Ferraro, President of LibLime
>asked for a more detailed explanation the numbers and this LISNews
>post will summarize the longer Web4Lib note from last week. Bob
>explains why his numbers differ from lib-web-cats and how the two
>different methods; each reasonable and explicit for classifying these
>libraries and the analyst will do both and bracket the true but
>unknown numbers. This new post includes new data with the less
>restrictive classification of open source public libraries.


I think Bob's chart could be made clearer with a little 
tweaking.  Even if the numbers are hard to obtain, their meaning does 
not have to be obscure.

First off, his figures do not take into account the number of 
installations as opposed to the number of libraries.  This is a very 
revealing distinction.  How many "installations" do the Koha and 
Evergreen numbers represent?  Are all 47 Evergreen libraries running 
off one installation? Two?  Forty seven?  This is very pertinent 
information and should be easy to get and present.

Secondly, the use of a category called "other" is confusing and 
unnecessary.  From my reading of his explanation, he seems to be 
referring to libraries that have signed a contract to install Koha or 
Evergreen but have not gone live yet.  If this is the case, it should 
be stated as such.  "Contracted for Evergreen" and "Contracted for 
Koha" would be much clearer than "other".

The remarks about the 23 INCOLSA libraries are ambiguous.  If this 
number represents only a marketing agreement between INCOLSA and 
LibLime, then it should not be included in any count of libraries 
going with an open source ILS.  The marketing agreement could be 
mentioned in a footnote to the numbers chart, because it is 
significant information, but if it does not represent actual users or 
libraries that have made a commitment to install a system, then it 
should not be included in any count.

It would be useful to see equivalent figures for other types of 
libraries as well.  Special and academic libraries are also beginning 
to use an open source ILS.

David


>Here's the link:
>http://lisnews.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/19/1114248
>
>-Blake Carver
>LISNews.org
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David Dorman
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