Christinger Tomer
University of Pittsburgh
Library 2.012
October 4, 2012

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An alternative to proprietary systems, which creates incentives for proprietary developers to improve products and pricing as well as additional options to library decision-makers
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Participatory design process integral to open source software provides opportunities to adapt and develop software in order to meet specific needs
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Open source, systems, and standards enhance the interoperability of all systems

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All of the systems under consideration today are based on the so-called "LAMP" (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) architecture (or a variant using PostgreSQL instead of
MySQL) and employ a design based on scripted interactions with an underlying database management system. Koha is distinguished by its use of PERL, and
Evergreen is notable because it employs OpenSRF, a
XMPP message routing protocol for internal transactions (as part of a "scale-out" development process).
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Sustainability of the systems depends in significant part on the ongoing development of the underlying database systems (and it should be noted that where MySQL is concerned, there are questions, owing to Oracle's equivocal commitment to its future.

Other Considerations in the Use of Open
Source Systems
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Interoperability
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Scalability (Expandability)
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Usability, including Customization Opportunities and User
Friendliness
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Environmental Suitability
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Granularity, including Levels of Access and Security
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Quality of Administrative Resources and Tools, including Design of
Administrative Workflows
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Availability and Quality of Developer and Third-Party
Documentation
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Availability and Cost of Technical Support
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Community Involvement
See: Manisha Singh, Gareema Sanaman,
(2012),"Open Source Integrated Library Management
Systems: Comparative Analysis of Koha and
NewGenLib", The Electronic Library , Vol. 30 Iss: 6
(Date online 16/10/2012)

ILS Marketshares,
2010
From Marshall Breeding,
" Automation Marketplace
2011: The New Frontier,"
Library Journal 136 (April
1, 2011).

Koha Requirements
To install Koha for immediate use we recommend
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A Linux server
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Debian is what most people use
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Apache
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MySQL
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Perl
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Root access to the server
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Ability to work on the command line
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Database administration skills
Koha is free software and is licensed under the
GNU General Public
License, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Koha was developed beginning in 1999 by Katipo Communications in New
Zealand. There are now versions for both academic and public libraries, and
Koha has also been adapted for use in special libraries. It has received a number of awards and is available under the GNU Public License. In 2005, an Ohio-based company, LibLime, was established to support Koha.
LibLime added new features, including support for Zebra indexing to increase the speed of searches and improve scalability. In 2009 a dispute arose between LibLime and other members of the Koha community, centering on LibLime's reluctance to be inclusive with the content of the http://koha.org/sites and a failure to contribute software patches back to the community. A number of participants declared that they believed that
LibLime had forked the software and the community. A separate web presence, source code repository and community was established at http://koha-community.org/ . The fork continued after March 2010, when
LibLime was purchased by PTFS.

This is an area in which all versions of Koha need improvement, particularly where Koha is employed to support academic libraries.

LibLime's Version of Koha for Academic
Libraries: Course Reserves
The distinguishing features of
Academic Koha are: (1) enhanced administrative module for acquisitions;
(2) support for course reserves; (3) enhanced seaching capabilities; (4) support for mobile devices; and (5) limited availability.

Administrative Tools under LibLime Koha

‡biblios.net is a LibLime-sponsored service providing access via Z39.50 to
MARC records. Current state of the site suggests that LibLime's commitment to this project and the services it is intended to provide may have lapsed.

ByWater's services includes installation, customization, data migration, training, and hosting.

The division of Koha into multiple development streams creates a complex and controversial situation. However, the ByWater release seems to have gained more acceptance within the Koha community, but this may be as much about politics as it is about functionality, as evidenced by the fact that ByWater Website’s points back to the original Koha community, whereas LibLime’s directs the user to the Koha.org site. In addition, a largescale survey of libraries in 2010 showed significantly more user satisfaction from libraries using the ByWater release, particularly in the area of customer support
(Breeding, 2011). In a related vein, there have been complaints about the maintenance of the LibLime version, as well as unhappiness about the release of the clients-only version of Koha for academic libraries.

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Evergreen was developed by the Georgia Public Library Service
(GPLS) to support 252 public libraries in the Public Information
Network for Electronic Services (PINES) consortium. PINES successfully completed the transition to Evergreen in September 5,
2006. It is being used in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, the Republic of Georgia, the Czech Republic, and Mexico.
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Evergreen employs a client-server architecture. The system itself runs on Linux servers and uses PostgreSQL as its database. The client, which supports all key administrative functions runs on Microsoft
Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computers and is built on XULRunner.
Reliance on this design and continuing problems with compatibility of versions of the client application are major issues for Evergreen.

Evergreen Search Interface: Results Set

Evergreen Search Interface: Item-Level
Result

Table of Contents feature is available and may be be added to Evergreen when supported by vendors.

OpenBiblio was created in 2002 by
Dave Stevens and is maintained by
Hans van der Weij.The catalog's format is based on MARC 21 but records may be imported from other compatible formats. OpenBiblio is designed for small libraries supporting general interests. It provides modules for circulation, cataloging, administration, and reporting and would be suitable for organizations with limited IT infrastructure and/or support

Kuali OLE is the first system designed by and for academic and research libraries for managing and delivering intellectual information. It promises to deliver "an enterprise-ready, community-source software package to manage and provide access not only to items in their collections but also to licensed and local digital content," and will feature a governance model in which the entire library community can collaborate to own the resulting intellectual property.

NewGenLib, which is a Windows-based implementation developed in India, is based Tomcat,
PostgreSQL, the Struts and Spring frameworks,
JDOM, and the XCQL –CQL parser. The front-end of the system is based on Java and JDOM for
XML/JSON messaging.

Running Library Systems in the Cloud
Factors Favoring Running ILSs within a Cloud Configuration :
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Cost-effectiveness
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Flexibility
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Data Safety
See Yan Han, " On the Clouds: A New
Way of Computing," Information
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High Availability
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Big Data Capabilities
Technology & Libraries Jun2010, Vol.
29 Issue 2, p87-92,
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Improving VM Management Capabilities
Issues and Problems Related to Cloud Computing
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Data Confidentiality
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Jurisdictional Ambiguities
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Data Transfer Bottlenecks
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Fault Tolerance