Read an interesting item in Inside Higher Ed "Open Minds, Open Books, Open Source" Referring Perceptions 2007: an International Survey of Library Automation it mentions how librarians are shifting towards open source softwares.
I had also held the view that libraries should always go for open source solutions. Libraries are long living growing "organism" (Remember Dr S.R. Ranganathan's Fifth Law) established without any end-date or closing date. They grow, evolve and undergo change dynamically. It is difficult to trust any vendor to survive and grow with the needs of the libraries. If a vendor / producer of a commercial library software goes out of business, it can be imagined how difficult it could become to shift from one platform to another.
When I say open source softwares it means their source code is available. People can change these and further distribute without any breaking any rule. I keep visiting http://oss4lib.org just to keep myself updated on open source softwares for libraries.
I had also held the view that libraries should always go for open source solutions. Libraries are long living growing "organism" (Remember Dr S.R. Ranganathan's Fifth Law) established without any end-date or closing date. They grow, evolve and undergo change dynamically. It is difficult to trust any vendor to survive and grow with the needs of the libraries. If a vendor / producer of a commercial library software goes out of business, it can be imagined how difficult it could become to shift from one platform to another.
When I say open source softwares it means their source code is available. People can change these and further distribute without any breaking any rule. I keep visiting http://oss4lib.org just to keep myself updated on open source softwares for libraries.
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