Friends
A professional from the Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville is planning what
promises to be an interesting study: to compare
the technical support required by open-source versus commercial
rintegrated library systems (the computer systems used to acquire,
manage, and circulate library materials) and the off-the-shelf,
proprietary versions of these systems. This research project seeks to
better inform librarians about the maintenance and management costs
associated with one of the key tools that they use to serve the public.
I tried to do a somewhat similar study of Indian libraries but failed
miserably because I got only 55 responses in spite of several postings
and reminders. Be that as it may, I thought our librarians would like
to take note of the new initiative which promises to be a global
survey.
Interested people may look at, http://oss-research.cci.utk.edu/ and
click the Take the Survey link.
Haravu