Brian,
After the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions amongst LMS vendors,
with major products being discontinued and libraries forced to migrate,
I am sure many of us are looking into more future-proof ways of owning
an LMS.
I, too, have been looking into Open Source, and am very close to signing
a contract for implementation and support of the Koha LMS
(www.koha.org). Although the library I am setting up (CAMLIS -
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Library and Information Service,
based at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital) will be small and
specialised, low-end proprietary LMS packages on the market would not
meet our requirements.
With Koha we seem to be able to get a tailor-made solution which will
incorporate everything the spec lists, at a price that is considerably
lower than even that of rather basic packages - although some of the
functionality will have to be written especially for us! We are using a
commercial company for the installation, including new code, and ongoing
support. However, larger libraries with dedicated systems support staff
might be able to do this in-house.
If we go ahead with it, I will report about our progress to the list.
Regards,
Gerhard
Gerhard Bissels
Librarian
The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital
UCL Hospitals Foundation Trust
60 Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HR
++44 20 7391 8825
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-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian Shamrock
Sent: 22 June 2007 18:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Open Source ILS
Hello,
I am investigating library management systems and am curious about
opinions on open source products. The benefits seem clear--open and free
semms better than closed and non free--but surely there is a downside
too.
Any opinions and war stories are most appreciated.
Regards,
Brian
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