Skip to content

“Young librarians look to the future”

This week’s Chronicle of Higher Education features a chat with several “young” (= under 40) library science practitioners on the state of the art (or science, as it were) of librarianship. I was extremely impressed at the group of people they chose to interview–many of them are people from whose work (blogs, projects, presentations, publications) I draw inspiration on a regular basis. (Jessamyn, Brian, and Casey are all mainstays in my aggregator…)

My one tiny quibble with the piece is that in my experience, biological age is a fairly poor predictor of innovativeness, technology skills, or openness to change. I think immediately of one of our Learning Commons staff who, although technically a “boomer,” is a total “millennial” (god, how i hate those labels) when it comes to her integration of technology into her work and lifestyle. And, of course, I think of certain other librarians I’ve encountered who fall into the under-40 age group but embody the very antithesis of the values espoused in this article.

But hey, every story needs an angle, right?

In any event, go read the interviews. You can listen to audio clips from the interviewees as well, which I haven’t because even though I’m under 40, I still usually eschew audio in favor of text…

(note: i can’t tell from within our IP range if this article is freely available or not. here’s a link to the blog post from Wired Campus that provides a blurb…)

2007 10 15 ealling librarians
libraries Comments (2) Permalink

Despite owning computers, students still rely on campus labs

Student computer labs still in demand — Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus Blog, 10/8/2007.

According to this blurb in the Wired Campus blog, around 80% of college students own laptops, yet 8 out of 11 institutions surveyed report that campus computer lab use has remained steady or increased.

This certainly seems to be the situation at UMass Amherst, where around 71% of the student body owns laptops (OIT Pulse Survey, December 2006), yet the computers in the Learning Commons are in higher demand than ever. Interestingly, observational surveys show that only about 15% of those in the LC are using a laptop at any given time.

Why do students head to computer labs instead of using their own machines? Some reasons mentioned in the Wired Campus post include worries that personal laptops might fall prey to theft; the availability of specialized software on campus machines; a disinclination to lug laptops around campus; and a need for access to networked printers.

The UMass Amherst Office of Information Technologies has addressed the latter need by bringing up a remote printing service that allows users to download a small plugin and print to Learning Commons printers from anyplace on the campus network, including dorm rooms and wireless.

Our Learning Commons was designed to provide a few additional incentives to get students to come in and use our computing resources. We’ve created different types of spaces and workstations that are conducive for group and individual study, and we also provide an environment rich in services, where students have ready access to experts in research, technology, writing, advising, career advice, and course content.

Determining just why students come to the LC remains a work in progress (see forthcoming blog post which has been in draft status forever) and remains an important challenge for those of us looking to justify these spaces and services to campus administrators.

More discussion of this issue can be read in this EDUCAUSE Review Article from September/October 2007.

2007 10 08 ealling learning commons
library/OIT
services
undergrad services Comments (1) Permalink

Slideshare for our library announcements…

We recently started using the plasma screen in our Learning Commons to display announcements from LC service providers. Right now, we’re doing it in a relatively low-tech way, using PowerPoint and manually loading a new show on the computer each week.

Slightly more interesting is the fact that we’re uploading each week’s slideshow to Slideshare–a free online hosting service for presentations (think YouTube for PowerPoint). We’re linking to the shows from the LC homepage so people can go back and look at an announcement that went by too fast, or see the announcements without having to come in to the LC.

You don’t get to (have to?) see animation when viewing the show on Slideshare, so the between-innings-ballpark-scoreboard-quiz effect I went for on the OIT copyright slide doesn’t translate to the online version, unfortunately. But you can get the gist of most of the information.

I’m hopeful that library and LC partners will take advantage of this opportunity to advertise everything that they can: events, services, sources, helpful tips, job openings, you name it. Also hoping eventually to come up with a more dynamic way of presenting this content that includes the ability to display live information (like workstation availability). Seeing how other institutions manage their announcement boards is on my to-do list.

2007 09 25 ealling learning commons Comments (0) Permalink

blog/wiki workshop for student supervisors, 8/15/07

Here are some of the links for today’s workshop on blogs and wikis for student supervisors in the UMass Amherst Libraries.

Examples of blogs being used as student workforce communication tools:

Example of a wiki as a clearinghouse of student library staff information:

Recommended blogging software:

Recommended wiki software:

More on blogs:

More on wikis:

Things to consider:

Wiki or blog?

  • If you’re trying to create an online manual, a wiki is probably the better choice.
  • If you’re trying to provide regular updates and reminders, a blog is probably the better choice.
  • In librarianese: wikis = (living) monographs; blogs = serials

Public or private?

  • If you’ll be publishing info that you don’t want the public to be able to see, go with a service that allows private publishing, like Blogger or PBWiki.
  • But be careful–”private” is a relative term on the web. Never publish truly sensitive information, like personally identifying info about student employees or patrons, or potentially embarrassing gossip, on any Web 2.0 tool.

Back stuff up!

  • Your wiki or blog will quickly turn into an indispensable tool for you and your staff. Be sure to figure out how the software you are using permits you to make backup copies of your information–and back stuff up often. While not common, Web 2.0 companies do sometimes go out of business, experience catastrophic server failures, etc. Keep your info safe.

Questions? Comments? Let me know!

See you in the blogosphere…

2007 08 15 ealling libraries
presentations
social software Comments (0) Permalink

the single-minded search for a single search box

Lately I’ve been thinking about how we could move towards being able to offer a single search box that can placed on the library homepage. Ideally, the box could also be easily dropped into disparate locations (subject search pages, WebCT, departmental research pages? personal websites? MySpace?) The box would search the libraries’ catalog, databases, and possibly other sources. The ideal result would be a set of results, ranked by relevance, in a clean interface that incorporates the libraries’ OpenURL linker.

A number of institutions appear to have implemented this concept successfully, including:

As Undergraduate Services Librarian, I know deep in my heart that we need this. Having such a search box would bring us light years closer to our goal of making library resources ubiquitous and easy to use. I’m thinking specifically of the kid sitting up in Southwest who has to write a paper for the first time and who wouldn’t be caught dead approaching the reference desk. I’m also thinking of how, if we have a simple, straightforward, and usable option for general/default searching, we’ll be freed up to spend our instruction time teaching students to really engage with the information they find, evaluate it and use it appropriately, rather than spending the bulk of the session teaching them to navigate our website. And, putting the box smack on the library homepage eliminates the need for us to tear our hair out searching for the least-jargony term (databases? no one knows that word! find articles? but they’re more than just articles! electronic resources? does that mean toasters?) behind which to hide the resources that most people come to our website to use–or would, if they knew they were there. You know, the stuff we spend three million dollars a year on.

There’s an Ancient Greek proverb: mega biblion, mega kakon, which translates to “Big book = big evil.” More appropriate for my situation is probably mege bibliotheke, megos basanismos: “big library, big ordeal.” (I might have messed up the adjective endings there. Mea culpa.) It’s hard to conceive of how to start pushing for such a project in a big place that, let’s face it, is already grappling with a number of extremely staff-intensive initiatives. Let us count some of the barriers. There is technology to be wrangled, consensus to be built, money to be wheedled for, and overly extended people whose expertise would need to be tapped.

Looking at that University of Texas page, though: wow. Google Scholar on the homepage. That would kind of knock down the list of barriers to “consensus to be built.” Which would probably be the hardest part, anyway…

The good news is that coffee makes it easier to work on knocking down those barriers, and there’s a cafe right upstairs from my desk.

2007 07 10 ealling federated search
infolit
libraries
rant
services
undergrad services Comments (3) Permalink

open source session: reflections

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Open Source
New England Library Association
Information Technology Section
Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, MA
June 6, 2007

Well, that was my first time live-blogging a conference, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. I frantically tried to transcribe as many of the speakers’ words and slides as I could (and I do tend to find such note-taking useful for my own comprehension and retention of what is being said). However, the knowledge that the presentations would soon be posted online led me to question the worth of what I was doing. I suppose there are two advantages to live-blogging: 1. timeliness and 2. capturing speakers’ words and interactions with the audience as well as their presentation materials. Theoretically, there is also 3. adding value through the blogger’s own mind-blowing insights. Truthfully, though, trying to get everything down didn’t leave much time for me to drop any pearls of wisdom in those transcripts.

I also found myself wondering whether speakers or associations have any issues with live blogging, and whether etiquette dictates asking first (I didn’t). Given that this was an open source software session, it would be ironic if objections were raised in this case. But some of your bigger and more proprietary organizations, like ACRL, charge big bucks for people to have access to the “virtual conference.” Hmm.

Anyhow. The program was fabulous, the venue was stunning, and the travel was exciting (big accident in the AM forced blind detour; rush home in afternoon to try to make a 5:00 dropoff at work was foiled by getting stuck behind a seemingly impaired driver in Belchertown).

Elizabeth Thomsen from NOBLE was, as always, insightful and entertaining. The woman could read the phone book aloud and still hold conference audiences enraptured. (Her content always trumps the phone book in a big way, though.) Today, she provided an overview of the history and philosophy of the open source software movement. She focused quite a bit on self-organized groups and online collaborative communities of various types. Her tales of participation in Wikipedia were especially revealing. Despite the common conception of Wikipedia as chaotic anarchy, Elizabeth called it “the most organized organization I’ve ever been a part of.” She closed by equating the fundamental missions of libraries and the Open Source movement: “freedom to read.” The looming possibility of Elizabeth spontaneously combusting [due to a gasoline pump mishap en route to conference] added even more intrigue to the presentation.

Randy Robertshaw from the Tyngsborough Public Library (whose presentation is already online, and in PDF!) opened the afternoon by providing some practical advice about how libraries might get started with open source. He proceeded to present several different applications of open source tools in his own library. What they’ve accomplished is extremely impressive. They run Linux on their public workstations through a vendor called Userful. Staff intervention in public computer matters has dwindled to practically nil, eliciting spontaneous cries of delight from his library’s employees. Some of the benefits he described were: built-in time management and privacy protection tools, easily-generated usage reports, the ability to post click-through policies, seamless print control, a firewall, and centralized control of all workstations. Another major application of open source software at Tyngsborough is Joomla, the content management system that powers their website. Randy provided some great background on evaluating and choosing a CMS, and gave some nice concrete examples of better living through content management (such as standards compliance and the ability to schedule website changes [and undo them] in advance).

Wes Hamilton from the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System (my region!) gave a comprehensive and engaging overview of flavors of GNU/Linux. He unleashed upon us this amazing chart of Linux distributions (or distros, as they say in the biz) which made my historical linguist’s heart flutter. (Stammbaum!) Wes took us on a tour of several facets of the Linux “how-to and can-do” community, including resources to support Linux use and resources based on Linux or LAMP. We looked at some code snippets from various products, written in different languages, and got to see the delivery slip router that Wes coded for WMRLS (or for you! if you email him) using 100% open-source tools. Wes ended by sharing with us two useful sites: the Linux Distribution Chooser, which helps people choose the distribution that best matches their needs (much like the WikiMatrix Wiki Choice Wizard); and osalt.com, which lets people search for open source alternatives to popular commercial software. Wes was a most engaging presenter, delightfully geeky and extremely sharp and knowledgeable.

The highlight of the day for me, though, was the first presenter: Joshua Ferraro of LibLime. Not to get all parochial here, but Joshua is the pride of Ludlow, Massachusetts, which means that 50% of today’s awesome presentations had roots in the western part of our great Commonwealth. But I digress… Joshua talked with us about open source integrated library systems, specifically Koha and Evergreen, and about his company, LibLime, which provides support and/or hosting for libraries who choose open source ILSs and can’t or don’t want to rely exclusively on in-house talent. The implementations of Koha that Joshua showed us were simply stunning. (Here’s one; here’s another, and another [in Turkish!]; and another [!!!]. You should leave this post and go play with them now. I’ll understand if you don’t come back.) Simple, elegant, intuitive interfaces; completely mind-blowingly sensible presentation of search results (their default ranking is field-weighted relevancy ranking, meaning that if you type “it” in the search box, Stephen King’s It is first in the results list–try that in *your* ILS! here’s what happens in mine); seamless integration of social and Web 2.0 applications; all created by a vibrant community motivated by the intrinsic rewards that Elizabeth had spoken of earlier in the day.

While drooling over Koha’s gorgeous interface, I couldn’t help thinking of the list of problems with our own OPAC that had recently been drawn up based on usability testing, and how just about every single one of those problems was a non-issue in Koha. The difference between this system, built on current technology and subject to a constant process of peer-review by virtue of being open source, and the bloated, convoluted OPACs that I’ve struggled to explain to patrons over the years, built on legacy code by people who have seemingly never set foot in a library or talked to an actual library user, was striking.

We didn’t get to see the staff or administrative side of Koha, as Joshua’s hour flew by and he graciously fielded tons of questions during his presentation. I’ll be watching closely as academic libraries start to adopt Koha (Joshua mentioned one consortium not far from us that is in the process of moving to Koha). It may be a sad commentary on my life that I could get such a giddying high from watching someone navigate through a beautiful, well-designed library catalog on a screen in front of a room full of people. But it was one of the single most exciting things I’ve seen in a while.

Even more exciting is the fact that Index Data, another major player in the open source ILS community, is working on a federated search tool, which holds much of the promise of products like Ex Libris Primo.

I came away from this session feeling that we are slowly moving toward a state of affairs that is actually viable for library users, and hoping fervently that users don’t jump ship in the meantime.

I had to dart out right at 3:30 to try to get back to work by 5, so I missed the end of the Q & A session, the beginning of which I blogged below. I did snap a few hasty photos of the beautiful Tower Botanic Garden while rushing to my car:

Tower Hill Botanic GardenTower Hill Botanic GardenTower Hill Botanic Garden

It was great to see so many old friends and meet some wonderful new people from the New England library community. Kudos to Kathy Lussier and everyone on the NELA-ILS team for putting together an amazing event.

2007 06 06 ealling conferences
open source Comments (3) Permalink

open source session: Q&A

Q: how do you keep OSS-powered systems, workstations secure?

A: in general, Linux-based systems much more secure than Windows

Q: Does DeepFreeze work with these?

A: Most problems that DeepFreeze addresses are addressed throughout overall system of Userful system (Tyngsborough)

Q: re: hosting costs for LibLime vs. commercial vendors

A: typically 20-25% less than one major vendor

Q: Cost of UserFul? And security…is it running antivirus? is that a consideration?

A: Does run antivirus; Userful structure = Linux kernel, over that = Userful administration with all those functionalities. Cost: somewhere around $4000 for one pod. Look at cost of people, too. We haven’t had to touch these machines in two years: installed & walked away. Pay for support. Good product. Groovix (competitor) price structure looks even less; maybe $1500 less. Not sure why that is.

Q: follow up: Pricing = subscription or one-shot?

A: One-shot; includes 3 years of support, upgrades

Q, second follow up: Does that include hardware, software, and support?

A. Depends where you’re at. TPL had very old machines; brought in hardware & software through Userful. Can buy just software.

Q. Do they offer staff computers, too?

A. (RR) They do handle businesses…probably less restrictive. Advantage of Userful: you don’t need all the gadgets. With Pharos, lots of problems w/it not playing well with operating systems…lots of consulting fees.

Q. Interest in OSS piqued by ILSs; now hearing about digital library mgmt systems, etc. What else is coming along that will be of interest to libs?

A. (JF) Kete, from New Zealand: community-based digital library system. Greenstone (also NZ). Academic: DSpace, Fedora (SOA). Quite a few library apps out there. Another federated search product, LibraryFind (Oregon State U). Could go on & on…

Q. When you integrate subscription databases into free metasearch, are there fees associated?

A. JF: Any metasearch product only as good as gateways that it has to proprietary DBs. Relationship with TDNet; they have the gateways. It’s proprietary, unfortunately, so for now: yes, subscription fees. Long-term goal: create set of OS gateways that will allow direct access to DBs w/o 3rd party component.

Q: Some of us are absolute non-programmers, just want to get a little experience (Hello World! situation), where to start?

A. (WH) Start with Python: great online tutorials. Can start with a little knowledge, build upon it quickly. Few solutions that Python *can’t* help you with.

Q. Integration of social apps into Koha (Amazon data)…what other services?

A. (JF) review module not associated w/Amazon (free); working on new tagging system; working with some existing tagging networks (e.g. del.icio.us). Would love to see plugins with Flickr, YouTube, etc. These ideas easy to integrate. The Amazon service took about 15 hours to write.

Q. Does Koha have a staff interface?

A. (JF) Yes: acquisitions (vendors, multiple currencies, check orders); circ; borrower mgmt; serials; cataloging module w/integrated Z39.50 (download directly from LoC!); reporting module; very rich systems administration module (colors, permissions, features, etc.). Apologize, didn’t have time to demonstrate the staff side. Would like to have new report module written.

Q. Does Koha have a CMS built in?

A. Koha now has a basic news module that can be added directly to template, for libs that don’t want full-fledged CMS. Have talked about full CMS; would be pretty large projects; no one’s been that interested.

Q. Contrast Koha & Evergreen?

A. Major difference: Koha was grassroots: started w/rural libraries, distributed organization, bottom-up decision making. Evergreen: PINES library system; top-down decision making. Koha: 800 libs worldwide, 8 years old; Evergreen: 1 year old, 1 consortium.

Q. Will major ILS vendors be able to rise to this challenge?

A. I’ll tell you why they don’t have a chance. (laughter) All about architecture. OS systems built on current technology. Most existing systems = old technologies, legacy code.

Q. does Koha work well with small devices?
A Mobile device compatibility: PDA stylesheet. Also, recently added text messaging capabilities; chatbot for overdues, notices.

Q. For Wes & Elizabeth: Do either of you see promoting having libraries move into Linux products? Are you already doing that, or will you in the near future? Will Microsoft Vista have an impact on that?

A. Wes: One complicating factor: Really easy to get cheap MS software for library. Dual booting Windows & Ubuntu in WMRLS training lab. Donated computers for smaller libraries; considering dual booting there.

Q. Why would you have dual booting systems in the library?

A. Have the ability to try out the software, compare. ET: People coming to lib use workstations for different purposes. Some like to try new things; for others, PC at home is down, just want it to be like home computer. Any kind of change in those situations can be stressful. Hard making things as comfortable as possible for all users. Re: Vista, anytime someone has to make a decision to upgrade, opportunity to look around @ other options. WH: Many libs in WMRLS using OSS on windows system. Some using Linux for public internet access.

Q. What do patrons think of this?

A. Once in a while, one or two are taken aback. Malden kept 2 or 3 “emergency” Windows machines around. Not many ppl use them; just a couple every so often. Phobia even when upgrading Windows versions. Happens when GUI changes.

Q. People tend to adjust?

A. They do. Biggest problem: people remembering not to save to desktop, bring their own devices. Common to both systems.

Q. Do you notice a big increase in performance with open source OS vs. Windows?

A. WH: Big plus for Linux a few years back: software well-written, optimized. There are issues with driver compatibility. As PCs have increased their performance, requirements for most user applications haven’t changed too much in last few years.

Q. Except that you can use Linux on machine built for XP, but you can’t upgrade that machine to Vista.

Q. Question on Koha: If you have ebooks, audiobooks, playaways, is there a module to access those? (Follett)

A. Do they come in Marc format? (yes) You can import them into database, access them through link view. Sometimes, problem b/c you need to pass them thru authentication first. Nelsonville PL sponsoring redirect module; will allow you to put in url for redirect link so you can send them to authentication, pass them through to site.

Q. Do you see government, higher-level institutions starting to help promote open-source solutions for libraries? Someone willing to stand behind it?

A. (RR) Would love to see that. Was thinking about Allen Smith. Once said, in 70s, everybody was doing their own thing. In 80s, more consistency. Would be nice if at national level, could do projects for libraries like PC reservations, web apps for reserving passes, something! Calendar that interfaced all that stuff. Within that, beauty of modularity is, different libraries could choose different features. Would love to see it; not sure if it’s going on. JF: Something I’ve thought a lot about: Discovered OCLC when first getting involved w/libs. have a bone to pick with them: how they handle data, sell services. Supposed to be collaborative network, yet they sell services to you based on your efforts at exorbitant prices that you can’t afford. Want to create collab network based on open standards, benefit whole library community. My route to that: sidestep a bit, build Koha through some productization…but long term, love to see collab network between large academics, PLs, consortia, companies like userful, Care Associates (? Carl Grant). Lots of folks heading in that direction. Open Source Library Consortium? (OSLC) (laughter) Challenge is finding resources: people with time & talent to build it. Someone’s gotta take the reins on that. If you have an interest, start building a network of people & resources. Go after grants. Mellon?

2007 06 06 ealling conferences
open source
Uncategorized Comments (1) Permalink

open source session four, Wes Hamilton, WMRLS

Flavors of Open Source from Emacs to Ubuntu
Wes Hamilton, WMRLS

Founders of free software movement:
Richard Stallman (GNU, FSF, GPLv2): felt that selling proprietary software was immoral
Linus Torvalds (Linux kernel)

[Amazingly complex Linux distro timeline chart...]

http://distrowatch.com : currently, 350+ unique Linux distributions

Overview of history/development of Linux distributions

RedHat: most financially successful; catered to business community.

Debian: core open source values, popularity, longevity.

Gentoo

2003: RedHat surprised community by switching to business orientation
RedHat came back to community distribution with Fedora

Linux is actually GNU/Linux
GNU is GUI and applications
Linux is kernel

Part II: How-to and Can-do

OSS community: New user adoption; hardcore research & development. Wide range.

Google: 450,000 Linux servers running operations
YouTube
Flickr
Wikipedia

Tutorials:
Linux Documentation Project
Ubuntu Forums
Gentoo Linux Wiki
LinuxQuestions (RedHat/Fedora line)

Free Media:
Creative Commons: platform for experimenting for sharing info the same way that OSS shares code
Website templates

Code snippets:
Google Code
w3schools
Dojo (javascript toolkit)
Python
Perl
PHP: most popular underlying programming technology in CMSs, blog software. “as network security guy, PHP kind of freaks me out sometimes.”

L.A.M.P.: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (Python, Perl). Consistency, reliability.

Other popular platforms: phpBB, wordpress, mediawiki, drupal

Programming language

WMRLS Delivery Routing Slips generation system: creates slips, templates in PDF. Developed w/100% Open Source technology.

Operating systems:
3BSD

Embedded devices:
DD-WRT/OpenWRT: supercharges certain wireless network routers
MooBella ice cream system: 96 flavors on demand!
SystemRescueCd: repair system, recover data

Applications:
Research competition; evaluate strengths, weaknesses

Looking at code….
How to disable Firefox back button. :-)
Code from Linux kernel: how big is your hard drive?
More Linux kernel.
WS has contributed patches to some OS projects.

Ubuntu: “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”
8 million users. Hottest distro per Google Trends.

Linux Distribution Chooser: find best match for you.
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Wes is delighfully geeky.

Tips to what to look for/avoid in OSS

osalt.com: Find open-source alternatives to well-known commercial software.

2007 06 06 ealling conferences
open source Comments (0) Permalink

open source session three, Randy Robertshaw, Tyngsborough PL

Randy Robertshaw, Tyngsborough Public Library
Running Linux Applications in a Public Library

Discussion of OSS development cycle

Innovators/early adopters, early majority, late majority…where are libraries?

Key questions about OSS:
1.How mature is the solution?
2.Does your org have the skills?
3.Does the ROI meet your expectations?

Maturity:
How old is it? (Should be >2 years).
Cross platform?
Momentum? (release schedule)
Popularity?
Design quality? (well-written code: are there comments? is the code structured?)  Is it easy to USE?
Setup cost.
Usage cost.
End user support.
How much productization is there for the solution?
Does it integrate well?
Modularity.
Collaboration/integration w/other products.
Standards compliance.
Developer support.

Skill sets—Common pitfalls of OSS adoption in organizations

1.Mgmt underestimates tech skill level of its personnel
2.Personnel have an unrealistic view of their own tech skill level
3.OS deployment is underestimated
4.“Key-person” dilemma (someone pitches, develops…& leaves)

OSS vs. Commercial solutions not easy to quantify re: ROI
Some OSS has licensing fees
With OSS, burden is on org to develop or learn skills. If accepted, anything is possible.
With commercial, burdens are less, but possibilities are narrower.

Just beginning?
Avoid use of Linux at the onset
Look for mature OSS applications that are Microsoft-friendly
Focus on apps that have specific functions: wikis, CMSs, desktop apps
Look for OSS that replaces existing systems or can extend existing services.

Sources of free open-source software (FOSS): list. (SourceForge, MacForge, etc.)

Nice chart with overview of examples of free & commercial software products

Add-ons: Firefox, Thunderbird,
LibX toolbar: in use by colleges
Bookmarks LinkChecker

List of OSS that he uses

2006 study: 76% of libraries couldn’t upgrade workstations b/c of cost

Linux desktop adoption
Manageability.
2 vendors: UserFul (Tyngsborough, Malden, Flathead, MT) & Groovix (Mass College of Pharmacy, Univ of VT, Howard County (MD) Lib System).
Support different distributions, applications, configurations

Tyngsborough uses UserFul as a Linux provider/support vendor.
Before Userful: public computing required constant staff attention: varying MS Oss, locked down w/DeepFreeze, etc.

Clusters of 4 terminals (each is really 1 computer)

Userful provided time mgmt, privacy protection, usage reports, click-through policies, print control, CIPA filter, firewall, centralized control

Technology: multiple video cards hooked together (???)

Screenshot: many profiles (internet only, internet & office, large print, kids [filtered], etc.) Multiple lgg (including Hindi—good for their community)

Click-through Internet Access Policy

Public Storage Folder: files can be saved for set amt of time (30 days?), as determined by administrator

Setup was very simple—administrator tools, set up configs, voila. Install packages.

More screenshots of admin interfaces

Staff excitement/enthusiasm at greater ease of public PC management

Usage reports

Advantages:
No more stragglers at end of day
Older ppl like Large Print profile
Reports easy to generate
(more—slide went by too fast)

Disadvantages:
1 computer is actually 4 computers: if one goes, 4 go
OpenOffice does not = MS Office
Where do I put my storage device? (USB ports are in keyboards)
“I saved it on the desktop!” (but also problem before)

Open Source CMSs
Problems with “traditional” websites: badly coded table-based layouts, incoherent navigation, etc.; inconsistent style/structure; lack of interactivity

Google Trends: Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Plone
Joomla tend to be middle, small
WP: very small libraries (Scriblio!)
Plone: “by far, the Mercedes Benz of CMSs.” Used by City of Lowell; Lowell PL is considering. Lot of work.
JF: Plinkit (Oregon): statewide library website project based on Plone. Get someone from MA to talk to those folks, distribute that Plone implementation to rural libs.

IBM Internet Technology Group: comparison of CMS.
Drupal came out on top.
Chart comparing Drupal and Joomla

Tyngsborough using Joomla
can schedule website content updates in advance!

Disadvantages to CMSs:
SEO
Caching
Failures of CSS
Beware of Spam
Component/Module Removal
Peril of backups

Lessons learned:
Don’t use root directory for your website
Giving credit is nice
Everything isn’t always BETA.
CMS does not mean no web editing or scripting…just less of it.

http://www.tynglib.org/oss.pdf

2007 06 06 ealling conferences
open source Comments (0) Permalink

side note

this conference blogging brought to you by OpenOffice and WordPress.

2007 06 06 ealling conferences
open source Comments (0) Permalink