Friends: Prof. A R D Prasad is among the most respected researchers and teachers in LIS in India. He has been advocating the adoption of open source software and open access for many years now. He has also trained a number of young librarians in OA software and KOHA. Now ready to use CDs are available in India. Adopting KOHA will certainly involve some effort but it is not difficult for librarians. As Dr Angadi says, librarians should exchange notes and work together. That is the key. Best. Arun On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 11:44 AM, Shital Shah <snshah1977@gmail.com> wrote:
This is with due respect to both Mr.Vinod and Ms.Ghosh.. Open source software are good solutions but since all library professionals are not trained and confident to use it. So many ppl are looking for paid substitutes but this does not imply that they have cuts or something of that sort..
On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 6:30 PM, Vinod Kumar Mishra < vinod_librarian@rediffmail.com> wrote:
Dear Madam,
I am agree and its one of the valid point, that is the reason why you can find different discount % on books in different libraries, more discount less corruption less discount more corruption. So similarly more use of Open source software means more strong library/librarians capability.
Well pointed out and good observation. Perhaps you are yet to realise
On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 16:54:51 +0530 Sharmila Ghosh wrote that in reputed institutions with big budgets, there is a flourishing racket over library automation just like book acquisitions process. During the course of my professional travails, I have come across two organisations where the library heads were found convincing and pressurising their Directors NOT to go for open source but instead pushing the purchase of proprietary automation softwares with great price tags !!! Now, the reasons are obvious... the companies offer fairly good commissions / cuts to librarians if their softwares are purchased.
On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 7:44 PM, Vinod Kumar Mishra wrote: Dear All,
We(myself and Mr. D.P. Tripathi)have taken initiative to implement open source software like Koha, DSpace, Joomla etc. in libraries and time to time motivating for the same to library professionals. I was thinking i am doing the great job free of cost but when i saw today a Tender of renowned Institute for Just installation of Koha, data migration from SOUL/Current ILMS and little training to staffs, i shocked and realize that real heroes are those people who have given opportunity for the same and successfully they are running Koha. They have expended Just on our TA/DA and honorarium as per government rules and saved Lakhs of Public money.
In present case although i proposed the institute for the same task and given example of a renowned near by library where we have did the job and Koha is running successfully but even though they opted for the Commercial firm service which could be easily done by us in a much better way than any commercial firm. I do not know why they opted for the same and what is lacking from our side, however one can avail community support for installation/training on Koha and if desire later they can avail commercial support (AMC) for maintenance, by this method also they can save lakh of money on initial implementation of Koha.
I would simply like to ask a question from such Professionals that:
WILL YOU TAKE SAME DECISION IF YOU HAVE TO INVEST MONEY FROM YOUR OWN POCKET? OR WHAT DIFFICULTY YOU FACED IN INVITING ANY CAPABLE EXPERT FOR THE SAME TASKS FROM LIS COMMUNITY?
I would like to request all leaders/Decision makers of the LIS community to avail such services from LIS community it will not only save money but strengthen our library profession and reputation as well as you will be called as a good leader and decision maker in LIS domain.
You may visit http://mishravk.com/ for LIS related other activities and free support.
Thanking You.
Vinod Kumar Mishra
Assistant Librarian
NIT Rourkela
---- Sharmila Ghosh http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sharmila-ghosh/4/170/7b3
With regards, Vinod Kumar Mishra, Assistant Librarian, Biju Patnaik Central Library, NIT Rourkela, Mob:91+9439420860 91+6612462103 (O) email: vinod_librarian@rediffmail.com : mishravk79@gmail.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.