Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

April 2009 Volume 7(2)

Like something almost being said...

Open to change

Kathleen Menzies believes that it’s time to think seriously about Open Source systems.

Like many things intriguing, it goes by a variety of names: FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source Software), FOSS (Free Open Source Software), OSS (Open Source Software) or just plain OS (Open Source). But whatever name is used the philosophy is broadly consistent, and it’s being taken very seriously in an ever-widening circle which includes hobbyists, strategists, politicians and, yes, librarians.

Open Source takes the concept of ‘free as in freedom’[1] and gives users unrestricted access to the source code of software, letting them get ‘under the bonnet’ to develop or simply understand better the code behind their systems. Where the GNU GPL (GNU General Public License) and related licenses are used, there are no restrictions on redistribution or re-use, provided you make any derivative works available under these same terms and conditions.

Most of us have heard of the popular ‘Evergreen ‘, the Open Source library management system (LMS) developed by the Georgia Public Library Service consortium, and ‘Koha ‘, developed at Horowhenua University. Both of these are full, Open Source LMSs, offering a variety of standard and innovative Web 2.0 modules and functions, developed in response to user demand, and with commercial support available. There are other less well known OS LMSs available with active communities. Among the reasons why Open Source is not yet widely used within UK libraries are the related facts that there are not enough high-level ‘champions for change’ and that procurement guidelines often effectively shut out the consideration of OS options (for example, stipulating that there must already be installations in X other libraries, except in ‘exceptional circumstances’). Surely this has to change?

The often anti-establishment history of the related ‘Free Software’ movement has perhaps led some people to shun or feel confused by the implications of a transition. Richard Stallman (the venerated pioneer of ‘Free Software’) rejects the term Open Source: “Open Source position[s] itself as being business-friendly and business-sensible... Free software position[s] itself as morally righteous.”[2] But Open Source is not a political party. It has advocates across the spectrum and can certainly be exploited commercially and within profit-making enterprises. It is estimated that the good quality, reasonably-supported OS code currently available would cost 12 billion Euro to reproduce internally, while the “FLOSS-related share of the economy could reach 4% of European GDP by 2010”.[3]

A UK report published in February by the Chief Information Officer Council, Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan states that “Government Departments will challenge their suppliers to demonstrate that they have capability in open source and that open source products have been actively considered in whole or as part of the business solution which they are proposing”.[4] Certainly, commercial vendors have become aware of this. TALIS’s ‘Semantic Web Platform’ may not be Open Source but they have released some of their code on their developers’ network to allow externally developed applications to interoperate with it. They have also created various open source tool-kits. Axiell’s Arena, while not a standalone LMS, has Web 2.0 functionalities such as tags, reviews, ratings and recommendations. This is based on the Open Source ‘Liferay’ Content Management System.

Other developments include ‘Blacklight’, a fully OS OPAC developed at the University of Virginia and used by its library. It has a small but active development community online. Blacklight can index, search, and provide faceted browsing for Marc records, and supports a plug-in link to Google Books.

Open Source development is being watched carefully by many bodies such as the EU’s Public Sector and Open Source project and the JISC-funded OSS Watch: Open Source Software Advisory Service. The OLE Project, [5] funded by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, seeks to “…define a next-generation technology environment based on a thoroughly re-examined model of library operations and connected to other enterprise technology systems”. It recognises that the current commercial set-up is not responsive enough to the demands of modern libraries.

Of course, any organisation considering migrating systems to Open Source must decide carefully. What do you want from your LMS? Are there ‘missing’ features your users want? What do the various OS options offer and what would staff training cost? As the IDA Migration Guidelines remind us, organisations must “ensure that there is active support for the change from IT staff and users.”[6]

The case for consideration has already been made emphatically by various reputable studies; the same IDA Guidelines state that the various “…benefits [of Open Source] result in far lower IT costs”. Open Source options may be taken more and more seriously by public administrations, finding new and vocal ‘champions’ in library staff willing to push for change.

References
1 Williams, S. (2002). Free as in Freedom. Richard Stallman’s Crusade for Free Software. O’Reilly Media: California.
2 Quoted in ‘Chapter 11: Open Source’ in Williams, S. (2002) (see 1)
3 UNU Merit (2006). Economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the ICT sector in the EU. Final report.
4 Chief Information Officer Council, Cabinet Office (2009). Open Source, Open Standards and Re–Use: Government Action Plan. p. 6.
5 Duke University and OLE project partners (2008). The Open Library Environment Project: A project to reconceptualize technology for modern library workflows.
6 Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens. (2003). The IDA Open Source Migration Guidelines. Version 1.02. European Communities.

Information Scotland Vol. 7(2) April 2009

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Last updated: 24-Jul-2009