[LINK] Librarians stake their future on open source

[Glen Turner]

Howard Lowndes wrote:
> http://enterprise.linux.com/enterprise/06/12/04/1538214.shtml?tid=101

> Librarian Brad LaJeunesse, PINES System Administrator with GPLS in
> Atlanta says that his "main motivator" for Evergreen was that the world
> of library software is "pretty dismal, and the products are awful.
> Trying to run a state-wide library system on duct tape and bailing
> wire is pretty difficult."

Library systems are notoriously poor, so a good user-created
system is welcome.

A free software system also offers some insurance against
discontinuation of the software, which is welcome considering
that purchasers of the Voyager system (popular because it
used relational DBs and web front end when its competitors
were still using text terminals) have been left in the lurch
with its purchase by a competitor.

It will be interesting to see how this project goes. Many
user-created library systems have crashed and burned over
the years, mainly due to poor IT project control and an
unwillingness to build a sustainably large base of users
(I'm sure list members have tales about the National Library's
World/1 project).