Dear friends, Let me consolidate my vews in response to many of the professionals who discussed the topic with me in person and through this forum: All the LMS and DL software providers (commercial and OSS) should host limited or full versions of their softwares at their servers for practice or trial by LIS schools and libraries across the country with multimedia recordings. Even they can host the limited version (let's say upto 3000 records) free for download by anybody and use. Now many of the agencies are providing the software and database to be hosted at their servers with authentication and authorization to libraries. This is a welcome step. Even for LIS schools they can create an account in the name of schools for use and study by students. Either small or big, all the libraries should host their databas and website at their secure ISP site and at least integrated with your enterprise Intranet. For main libraries and branch libraries there should be only one database and software. For example Delhi Govt schools are having one databse and software, BSI Libaries are networked into one portal, ZSI Library system is one , One University should maintain one common database and software, etc. Of course , I am talking of ideal situation. There may be practical issues. But at point we will have to overcome . For 'be Indian and buy Indian' and simultaneously utilize the globalization trends, I would suggest LIS Schools, IITs, Compter Science Departments, Open Technology Centres to come out with their own core tools, systems softwares and products with localization. Only use and customization of OSS will kill the ceativity. There was a renowned Government of India scientific organization approached us for automation , networking and DL creation and hosting of all their 15 centres across India, but they didnot have proper Internet connectivity or LAN setup. We compelled them to build first your high speed connectivity for IntraNet services and all of them are interconnected though one database and a portal. There are many success and failure stories both in OSS and proprietary solutions. One GOI organization created a big digital repository using popular OSS using outsourced agency for an amount of Rs 2 crore. After four years that agency is not available and there is no community of that OSS. We tried to understand the codes and architecure, but it seems to be difficult task but not impossible to port somewhere on other platform. Some of the GOI organizations with their limited vision decided to only use OSS in their organizations. Now they they are turning back to vendor solutions for critical applications and to avoid risks. with regards P K Upadhyay NIC, Delhi ----- Original Message ----- From: "N.S. Harinarayana" <ns.harinarayana@gmail.com> Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:33 pm Subject: [LIS-Forum] Open Source Software To: lisforum <LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in>
I would like to dive into the discussion with my observations as a teacher and a professional assisting, in a small way, the librarians in my city in their automation projects:
* For a teacher like me, open source software is a boon. It is difficult for library schools to purchase commercial software. Even if they are purchased, their maintenance and updation would be difficult as they involve financial commitment from the schools. For this reason some library schools delayed the introduction of practical sessions on library automation systems in their syllabus. Experience show that commercial vendors were not very supportive for library schools in offering their software at nominal cost/free of cost. Though some software were available on demo version for library schools, their installation required some other supportive software (RDBMS) which were expensive. As a result library schools were not in favourableposition to use those software too. With the emergence of open source software, library schools now have options to include the software training in their curriculum. They can also now stay updated by using the latest version of the integrated library system.
* As rightly pointed out by many, Indian libraries have the options for free software (software for a very nominal cost) since late eighties. For instance, CDS/ISIS has become quite popular among Indian libraries. CDS/ISIS has a success story among many Indian libraries. Its success is not just because it is freely available.There are many other factors for its success. The most important reason that I believe for its success is that as CDS/ISIS is developed by a reputed international organization and promoted by a well-known national organization, it has been accepted by professional fraternity with much confidence. I feel that any open software to succeed, there should be a strong and reliable support from a well-known institution.
It is not a bad idea to come out with a model where an institution of high stature in India officially adopts/promotes one or more open source software depending upon their merit.
* As days go by, I am sure there will be a number of options open for librarians even for choosing of open source software is concerned. Forums like this should be used to exchange not only the success stories but more importantly the failure stories as well. A more articulate professional may come out their results in the form of article(s) in professional journals/conferences. This helps the profession in general.
-- N.S. Harinarayana Department of Library and Information Science University of Mysore, Manasagangotri Mysore 570 006 Off. Ph: (0821) 2419393
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