Patrick Eyler
Track: Linux
Date: Wednesday, July 28
Time: 2:35pm - 3:20pm
Location: Salon B
TrackBack
Software for automating libraries can run into the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars per installation. Libraries can ill afford that kind of expense. Open source software can help.
Koha is an award-winning open source library automation system that is gaining acceptance around the world, and changing the way libraries do business. Built on the LAMP platform and distributed under the GPL, Koha is representative of the growing community of open source library projects.
This talk presents open source software as an option for libraries, using Koha as a case study. A brief history of the Koha project is given, along with plans for future development. The presentation will then turn to: building a user community, educating libraries, learning about library processes, and taking advantage of open source's freedom to innovate. A variety of other library-oriented open source projects and a review of oss4lib (the library world's open source community) round out the session.
