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Well, yay for them for going F/OSS, but I’m not sure I agree that the release is wise. Especially that last sentence. You know “free as in kittens” and all. It looks a little short-sighted in regards to the costs — financial or otherwise — associated with rolling-your-own.

We don’t say it’s free. We say it’s reducing costs, which it is. There are still costs involved and the full press release makes that clear. —MHW, Howe Library Director

Congrats Howe!

Free as in kittens is a silly phrase that should die, if FOSS is free as in kittens, proprietary software is free as in an inbred purebreed cat. That costs thousands of dollars in vet bills every year and is slightly retarded.

As amusing as ‘free as in kittens’ is, it unfortunately makes the classic mistake of conflating gratis with libre.

Where did you guys start with the “free as in kittens” stuff? This move is going to save the taxpayers money which is a calculation they’ve already done. I decided to quote from the press release without including it all, but here it is for future reference…

Hanover, NH–In a technology move designed to cut taxpayer costs, Howe Library is pleased to announce it has moved its entire bibliographic catalog and circulation system to Evergreen, an open-source integrated library system used by hundreds of libraries nationwide and in Canada. Moving to Evergreen will save considerable taxpayer dollars, primarily in annual service fees and upgrades.

According to Howe Library Director Mary White, the library has used a proprietary integrated library system since 1995. “While it’s one of the best automated systems available, it’s also very expensive to maintain and upgrade so we decided to look at alternative options.” The result of that comprehensive investigation, headed by Head of Technical Services and Systems Librarian Pamela Smith, was the choice to go with Evergreen.

Evergreen is a library-specific open-source software program developed by the Georgia Public Library Services that allows users to study, change, and improve the software as it is being used. Open-source software is often developed in a public, collaborative manner, and Evergreen is no exception. “Because Evergreen is created collaboratively,” says Systems Librarian Smith, “new features and upgrades, such as enhancing the catalog, are free to participating libraries” and maintenance is far less expensive. Library Director White estimates that the cost of maintaining the open-source system will save the library–and the town of Hanover taxpayers–almost 70% in annual maintenance costs compared to Howe Library’s old system.

The library chose Equinox Software for data migration as well as for annual maintenance and hosting. Galen Charlton, Vice-President for Data Services at Equinox states, “It has been a true pleasure working with a group of librarians committed to open-source to implement Evergreen, and I am pleased to see the broad interest in open-source integrated library systems across New England. We at Equinox look forward to continuing to work with Howe Library and know that they will be strong members of the Evergreen community.”

Howe Library patrons will enjoy some new features with the Evergreen system, such as creating private lists of books they have read or want to read. Patrons will also have more flexibility and control over their bibliographic searches with the new system, including setting account preferences to search their home library only or both Howe and Etna libraries.

Howe is one of only three libraries in New Hampshire using an open-source option, and is the only library in New Hampshire to use Evergreen. “We hope other libraries in New Hampshire will follow our lead,” says White. “It would be great to have other libraries create a consortium of users. Pooling resources helps all of us, and ultimately offers our patrons far more than any individual library can on its own.”

For more information about Howe Library, please contact Mary White at 603-640-3251 or [email protected].

I was just responding to the ‘free as in kittens’ comment, mainly because 1/ it’s a false analogy and 2/ as you point out, has nothing to do with this.

That is how you make the words work best. That type of press release is exactly how MPOW explains the public computing experience we offer to our customers. The explanation is clear and concise. I feel that no further explanation is necessary for me to understand the choice of Evergreen as the new ILS.

Congrats on the switch! There are actually more libraries in your area moving to open source than you think. There is a collaborative of three NH libraries going live on Koha by the end of September, and another slated to go live mid October. A trend is definitely growing! Here is more information on those libraries:
http://bywatersolutions.com/?p=509
http://bywatersolutions.com/?p=517

I copied this excellent press release for use later myself… Mary, Pam, and the team at Howe did an amazing job researching options, and their move *IS* going to save a significant amount of taxpayer money. Congrats, Howe Library!

It is really a nice and worthy post by you. Keep it up.

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Is it wrong for me to be excited about this? It is, isn’t it.

No, I think it’s normal to be excited about it. From what I have heard in the past, big ILS vendors [I've heard iii mentioned a lot] play hardball with libraries — and keep in mind that’s the public’s money — over stuff that is only quasi-legally enforceable and gives them substandard service and products that seem decades older than they really are. There has been very little effort to try to make ILSes into anything that approaches what libraries actually want (reliable, with data you can get out and features you can build on yourself) and a whole lot of effort and marketing into feelgood spokespeople and feature creep without improving the core product. I’m just happy there’s a library that was big enough to call them on their antics.

Oh man. To say I am unsurprised by this would be a giant honking lie. I shall be watching this with interest, oh yes!

Steve, it’s not wrong at all. They are a terrible, terrible company – awful to both employees and (more importantly) customers. I hope they sue them out of existence.

Excellent. *polishes pitchfork*

So when they get sued into oblivion, what happens to my local public library’s catalog? They run it for a while as-is (unsupported) until they manage to hire the staff to maintain an open-source catalog? Or they are forced to go running into the arms of III (who has a better product, but a reputation for insane pricing)?

Steve: It’s not an either-or scenario. You also have the option of engaging with a support vendor for an open-source system, who can do everything from just giving you casual support, if you need it, to a full migration + hosted service. Both Koha and Evergreen have commercial support options; for example, Koha has vendors like Bywater Solutions, Catalyst, and PTFS, and Evergreen has vendors like Equinox, Bywater Solutions (again!), and PTFS-Europe. We have a support contract with Equinox, for example, and it’s really refreshing to see a company respond quickly and authoritatively to a support request.

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I’m not a big fan of the current Sirsi company management, but this is unfair:

There has been very little effort to try to make ILSes into anything that approaches what libraries actually want (reliable, with data you can get out and features you can build on yourself)

Sirsi Unicorn (or Symphony, as they renamed it to appease Dynix customers) is extremely reliable at the core, you can get your data out and you can change stuff and build on features yourself. It just takes a lot of unix knowledge to do so. And a lot of time. And institutional support. All of which are in short supply in public libraries.

That ILS software feels 20 years out of date is fair. Of course it does. The core of Unicorn is 20 years old, and other vendors aren’t doing any better. The problem that Queens Borough has with Sirsi is with sales and marketing, not with the software.

It’d be great if the open source ILSes force the traditional ILS vendors into improving, but the ILS market is a lot broader, with needs that vary far more than most people realize. The library in Buckland, MA has very different needs than the library at the World Bank.

I get what you’re saying Lissa — but I think until there’s some sort of a simple export for data it’s fair to say that this isn’t really a feature that the ILS offers. I’ll concede I may have been hyperbolic on the reliability factor, but not having a big red EXPORT button seems to be more of a case of ill-intent than the fact that this isn’t a feature libraries have been clamoring for for decades. It’s like, to me, cable TV. If there really were a market-driven set of economic factors affecting cable tv, we’d all have a la carte pricing. We don’t and I think it’s more because it affects the cable companies’ bottom line, not that it’s difficult or even expensive to provide this option.

That said, yeah QBPL is mostly arguing that claims were made that were not followed through on, so it will be interesting to see how that goes in its own right.

I have to ask what you want this “big red EXPORT button” to do? Our library is in the process of migrating to a new ILS and I haven’t had any trouble exporting anything (currently on Horizon). I didn’t have much difficulty exporting when I was on Unicorn (though I did have API training).

The problem is often importing on the other side and doing the scripting work necessary to put it into a format that the new vendor (or open source software) can make use of. As well, the problem can be that you often need detailed knowledge of your underlying data structure to extract your data properly.

I’d question whether data extraction (and importation) can ever be easy since only bibliographic records have a true standard.

Well, there is a big red export button for bibliographic data, the MARC Export Wizard. On the Util toolbar, been there for at least 8 versions. Getting patron data out requires API training (and then it is trivial).

I do think you’ve hit the hammer on the head with the pricing issue, though. Libraries just don’t have enough money to sling around to get what we all claim we want. That, or we’re all willing to settle.

People talk about III, which stuffs its data into a proprietary format. Unicorn doesn’t. It uses Oracle or CISAM. Both are well-documented. Sirsi doesn’t get credit for this, and they should. It is a very unixish system.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I just wish the case had been filed by someone with a stronger case, better lawyers and without a terminal case of St. Dynix Syndrome.

there is a very simple and reliable “export” button in sirsidynix’s online “director’s station.” it’s not as powerful as API, but it’s a lot easier to use. it is also a very expensive “add-on.”

Having never actually used Dynix products as a librarian, I can’t speak for how good or bad the product is. Queens seems to think that the ILS can do everything but sing “God bless America”.

From what I heard Dynix wasn’t that great. Someone at Queens should have checked references and listservs before signing. My boss says that he would send anyone asking for Dynix references his Dynix problem file (all 275 pages).

I knew when I heard the news of the merger that the Dynix software was going to disappear. If it was that obvious to me, a reference librarian from Montana, it should have been obvious to all those high powered librarians in New York.