Dear All, Many Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools available for library use are very user friendly, stable and extremely good. Almost all of them carry self-learning manuals too along with them so that you can learn everything independently. Koha is a good example of a library management software. ABCD Demo generates a lot of expectations among the Winisis users. Winisis is a small wonder for database users even in Windows Vista. It can be used to create even digital document archives which can be uploaded in Internet by using some simple additional software patches. Greenstone, DSpace, Eprints etc are other useful free tools which any sensible librarian can learn easily for effective use. Wiki software, CMS, E Learning etc will enter the library domain as useful tools without much delay. Photo editing can be done easily with GIMP. Html pages can be created by using NVU software. FOSS tools are not not devoid of infirmities. But many of them are more user friendly, stable and productive than their counter parts. On the other hand, one can find very useful proprietary tools also. For eg Fine Reader is a very good OCR for which you may not find a good equivalent on Windows. If library professionals keep away from FOSS, guided by the advice of those who speak prominently about the weaknesses rather than the strengths of FOSS tools, they will be at a very great loss. Focusing on the strengths of FOSS is more rewarding than thinking about their weaknesses. So kindly experience the beauty of some of those FOSS tools and you cannot ignore them. Regards, K Rajasekharan Kerala Institute of Local Administration ------------------------------ Original Message: Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:27:39 +0500 From: Upadhyay P K <pku@nic.in> Dear friends, To continue my view points on the use of open source software in India, I would like to clarify certain points again in response to some of you: 1. I am not against using Open Source Software. But who should, what way, in what situation is the question. It is not always better option. We should not use technology for the sake of technology, it should be justifiable according to your requirement. We should have a policy to review/upgrade the technology, softwares and infrastrure every 3-5 years. 2. But through this forum, sometimes message is broadcasted that only Open source softwares are having the best features, web based architecture, web 2.0, multilingual, etc and other commercial and free are not having. It is not like this . It is the technology available today that has made the softwares better and service oriented. Almost all the softwares avalable in India are good including commercial with all these features. You can decide based on your business objectives. Technolgy is driving the future , community has to use. 3. In case of Indian scenario, there are four types of softwares being used: Commercial(doing well), In-house developed(not advisable), open source/free(yet to pick up), Long Project based(doing well). For new initiatives I would not suggest to go for in-house development. 4. Let's see where are we placed in library automation readiness today. The way we used the software ten years ago is different today. Because some of the most relevant requirement is : Your library database should be published on Internet i.e all modules should be web based and network centric. Members can see the the things from home or remote location. Library staff can make data entry from remote and diffrent locations in India. If you are maintaining your database and dynamic website on LAN or single machine (unless mandatory), you are lagging behind others. In case of Open source you will have to work hard to get it published through your ISP. Simply publishing static web site and hosting is diffrent from hosting a dynamic website on some ISP. Reason is undestanding others code is not so easy. Once you publish your data on Internet , authentication and authorization should be security audited. In case of open source softwares you should take extra precautions. Majority of the libraries in India is maintaning their database on LAN or local single PC. It is not the proper automated system, you should switch over to latest technology. Here also let me clarify, all the popular softwares in India are having web base architecture, and not only Open Source. 5. Also society runs not only on community based services. We should also trust vendors and commercial establishments. Economy and country prospers mostly on PPP model. Always thinking that they are making money will spoil the trust. They are part of the familly. 6. First of all going for any software, you should first we should see your organization's computing infrastructure alongwith our ISP for publishing on Internet, accordingly we should select the software either Open source or commercial. Platform may be Linux or Windows. LMS may anything open source or proprietary. But ceratinly I will not suggest to use the OSS or any software in isolation like LAN or within four walls of library . 7. Ministry of External Affairs has stoped the use of Social Networking tools among their mission. Ministry of Home Affairs has made it mandatory to publish their database on secure ISP. No Governement web sites will be hosted on private ISPs. It is also sometimes creating problems to use private email providers like yahoo, gmail, rediffmail in Official communications. They must be used privately. Hope, I have tried to highlight the issues. P K Upadhyay -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.