Posted by Lori Ayre on January 21, 2009

I've been writing a lot about open source stuff lately, and I find my back getting up everytime I have to refer to Evergreen or Koha as an open source ILS. You see, I think the ILS (Integrated Library System) is exactly what we're trying to get away from with open source products such as Evergreen, Koha, OPALS and (please god) the others that are sure to follow.
So, I propose we let go of the image of the monolithic, tightly integrated (as in immobile and inflexible), closed, proprietary and non-standard ILS when we talk about open source versions of library software. I propose we say Open Source Library Software (OSLS).
So, you can have an ILS (Millennium, Unicorn/Symphony, Carl, etc) or you can have an OSLS like Evergreen or Koha. Or perhaps your OSLS is made up of several modular components that are neither totally Evergreen nor totally Koha (e.g. the result of the OLE Project perhaps?)
To further aid us in our discussions, can I also propose we say LSS to refer generically to Library System Software (which may be an ILS or an OSLS or perhaps some other creative mash-up built on open source and commercial software, see John Blyberg's SOPAC). Since library system usually refers to the library organization made up of the main library and its branches, we need to have a way to refer to the software that runs that organization. We don't want to call it "business software" so I propose Library System Software (LSS) as an acceptable alternative.