Free Range Librarian

Karen, you can totally be my BFF. For sure!

Seriously, at MPOW we’re thinking about migrating from our current OPAC. One option is OpenSource (probably Koha, but maybe you can talk me into Evergreen!). The push-back I’m getting, and I suspect others get, is that the tech support we have from “traditional” vendors is what the IT department relies on. As at most schools, we don’t have people that can sit and tinker with why this report isn’t working or how to tweak that – that’s why we pay annual support fees. LibLime supplies that for Koha, which makes it attractive to my Head IT person.

I did see a demo of OPALS and was not impressed. However, there are a ton of people that love it and you might want to talk with some of them (e-mail me for names; this is too public for me to give that out without their approval!).

Can’t wait for your article – it may help us as we make our decision!

I’ve worked at two high schools that have used open source software as an alternative to having to pay licenses. This was a decision by the sysadmins at each, made out of a combination of trying to be budget conscious and a dislike of Microsoft. OpenOffice or StarOffice were used instead of MS Office, and withing three years, there was an overwhelming push by the staff to pay the license and return to a standard that was brainlessly compatible with the rest of the Western world.

This desire for ready-made compatibility has been less successful with other open source software at my current school, which uses freeware alternatives to CD-burning, image editing, 3D-mapping, and other softwares. There’s plenty of grumbling, but not the critical mass necessary to force the district to pony up the dough for the more stable payware versions.

I’m not particularly pro-license — I’m not even for students being able to blindly use software without having to think about what they’re doing. For all of teenaged species reputed ability to sneak around every rule and firewall, they largely only can use computers to do what they know how to do, and are not inherently interested in exploring other tricks, shortcuts, or methods. But the essential stability of the software seems key: losing work, being unable to meet deadlines… these are the things that familiarity with the more corporate software largely prevent, and which make them the killer apps.

I met 3 guys from a school district in upstate new York (Del ray? Something like that). Can’t remember their names, but the 3 came from an upstate school system where they had implemented a number of open source pieces to develop their library. They presented at ALA, I’ll try to see if I can hunt their info down in the schedule and get it to you.