“BibLibre wants to push libraries who call us to do development work, for Koha or any other piece of software, to write in the RFP itself or the contract that all the code produced will both: have an open source license; and be accessible on a public repository.”

via Liblime, Koha, BibLibre and FLOSS | BibLibre

“The three large networks in Massachusetts–NOBLE, C.W. MARS and Merrimack Valley–have been working on an Open Source solution that could be shared between their organizations. The Tri-Network Committee has just recommended Evergreen as the platform of choice. That decision has to be ratified by the three network boards, but they have already been awarded a joint $412,000 LSTA Grant specifically to develop an Open Source alternative for the state…”

via BOSS: Bibliomation and Open Source Systems: Evergreen Demonstration, Massachusetts Network Meeting

wccls.org

2009-current.   Conducting materials handling and collection management analysis. The project will address space shortage issues, materials handling workload, how to reduce turnaround time and expand services, and ways to improve central delivery and sorting.  The analysis will also include a comparison of RFID versus bar codes solutions and provide suggestions for how to implement AMH solutions into their libraries.

Jerry Kline is launching a new company called SkyRiver (website launching today).  Jerry is the owner and co-founder of Innovative Interfaces.  The new company “aims to expand the market and offer an alternative bibliographic utility for cataloging that could save libraries up to 40 percent off their expenditures for bibliographic services.”

As reported by Marshall Breeding in the 10/6/09 issue of Library Journal (New Company SkyRiver Sparks Cataloging Competition with OCLC), the “service will compete on quality, not on the size of its bibliographic database alone. They say the initial database has been populated with high-quality MARC records, omitting substandard, skeletal records that often confound cataloging processes.”

So, here’s my take…the owner of Innovative is creating something with the prime selling points being that it  is cheaper than the competition and of higher quality.  Hmmmm.

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Dan Scott is offering an Evergreen Developer Basics Workshop at the Free Software Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) being held in Toronto on October 29th, 2009.

Here’s the workshop description:

Over the past year, Evergreen has been adopted by a number of libraries in Ontario. While it is built on a flexible, scalable architecture and offers an impressive set of features, the Evergreen community needs a broader base of developers who are able to contribute to the base functionality and create customized Evergreen instances. This workshop will provide developers with the tools they need to contribute to the Evergreen project and better serve their libraries, tackling subjects such as creating a new OpenSRF service, accessing data with permission-based methods, customizing the database schema and IDL, and building AJAX interfaces with the OpenILS Dojo widgets.

via Evergreen Developer Basics Workshop at FSOSS 2009 – Coffee|Code : Dan Scott.

(archived webinar and slides)

Third of a three-part series of webinars on open source library systems sponsored by Infopeople Califa, and the Open Source Library Consortium.  The goal of the webinar was to share information about free and open source software that extends the capabilities of the library’s current ILS, whether it is an open source system like Koha or Evergreen or a proprietary system like Millennium, CARL, or Horizon.    The webinar focused primarily on discovery interface and metasearch products.

From the OITP website:  The ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) has released the official version of its policy brief, “Fiber to the Library: How Public Libraries Can Benefit.” The purpose of this paper is to assist libraries in understanding the benefits of fiber optic technology and to suggest strategies they can consider when exploring how to obtain fiber connectivity. This paper provides background information and arguments that may be useful in library community applications to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

FYI, I am now serving my country and partnering with President Obama by volunteering to be a BTOP Grant Application reviewer.  I hope lots of libraries are taking advantage of this program and applying for grants.

kcsl.org

2009-current. Assisting KCLS in implementation of IMLS grant entitled Empowered By Open Source. The goal of the project is “create and develop the critical infrastructure components that have traditionally been provided by ILS vendors and establish a peer-to-peer support model for open source libraries.”

Wow! Kudos to King County Library System and Bill Ptacek who won’t take no for an answer. They got an award for $998,556 from IMLS for their project entitled “Empowered By Open Source.” I’m proud to say I was involved in the writing of the grant, but I also have to admit that I recommended we go for a “planning grant” of $100,000 first rather than trying for the bigger award off the bat. But, once again, Bill was right, and the folks at KCLS (Jed Moffitt and Matt Carlson in particular) made it work.

What excellent timing from the folks at IMLS!
I am SO rolling up my sleeves!

Project Title: “Empowered by Open Source”
The Open Source Library System (OSLS) and the open source model provide an alternative to the current proprietary integrated library system (ILS) software business model used by most public libraries. An OSLS empowers libraries to actively engage in the design and optimization of their own system software. The OSLS business model spreads the development work across a wide range of contributors, extends the potential pool of service providers, and empowers libraries to optimize service to their customers. King County Library System (KCLS), a nationally recognized leader in public library service and technology, will partner with Peninsula Library System (San Mateo, California), Orange County Library System (Orlando, Florida), and Ann Arbor (Michigan) District Library to create and develop the critical infrastructure components that have traditionally been provided by ILS vendors and will establish a peer-to-peer support model for open source libraries. The project will stimulate a growing community of libraries moving to an OSLS that will benefit from and contribute to software applications as well as the support infrastructure.

Source: http://www.imls.gov/news/2009/092409b_list.shtm#WA

If you are trying to make sense of what is going on with Liblime and Koha.  This is the article for you (by Kathryn Greenhill at her blog Libraries Matter Librarians Matter):

The Koha fork and being the change you want to see