Bandwagonesque

As seen everywhere else:

Take a look at Encore

This doesn't fill a "thing," but I discovered that Westerville Public Library has gone live with Encore, the highly expensive new search interface from Innovative Interfaces, Inc. Try it out!

Thing #7

It would appear I am completing week three during week seven. 89th place, here I come!

I was going to write about HDTV as "anything technology-related" in response to Melissa's post about remastered Star Trek, but I found myself haranguing poor Patrick this afternoon in a comment on his blog and chose to reproduce that here, instead. Read his post on the Koha Open Source Integrated Library System, which has generated a lot of buzz this year, followed by my response:

Koha has a lot of potential, but there are some considerations I'd like to point out:

(1) We do not know for sure that it is "much cheaper." ILS costs depend on the size of the system, so a price quoted by a smaller library using open source would not apply to SPPL. We do not necessarily have anyone on staff qualified to maintain Koha, so migrating to Koha would likely require SPPL to establish a position description and budget to support a dedicated Systems Administrator. Additionally, we would be paying LibLime, Equinox (who work with Evergreen open source ILS), or some other company to offer training and support in addition to the Systems Admin. Koha itself may be free, but there are startup and maintenance costs associated with migration, new servers, etc. How these costs compare to our current III costs is unknown.

(2) Koha lacks some important features we get from III, especially on the Acquisitions side. It may not yet be fully-featured enough to meet SPPLs needs.

(3) Quality control. I don't find this Koha Zoom site to be particularly stellar, nor this similar OPAC. There isn't a whole lot of difference between these implementations and many of the "out-of-the-box" III OPACs you see out there. Systems with dedicated staff and money for R&D get much better performance out of Koha.

(4) Security/vulnerability. Does using Open Source software expose SPPL to hacking?

(5) III does have a new product called "Encore" which replicates many of the Koha OPAC features Patrick likes, although, granted, it is ridiculously expensive. Features such as reviews and book jacket covers are a subscription service which will cost extra no matter which system we're using.

(6) Will there be long term support for Koha? Joshua Ferraro (founder of LibLime) describes himself as Koha's "benevolent dictator" and says that Koha's success relies on the "spirit of cooperation," which sounds a bit flimsy.

That's not to say we should never consider open source, but it isn't necessarily a panacea, either.

...

My general feeling is that Open Source is not ready for prime-time, unless you've got incredible resources and professional programmers on staff (or a very small library system). Open Source ILSs are certainly worth keeping an eye on, and I do believe the future of library science rests with librarians (and faux-brarians) getting hands-on with the architecture of information technology -- though I'm not necessarily volunteering to run out and get a computer science degree. Any takers?

Thing #6

I've been using Flickr for awhile but haven't delved into all the third party tools out there until now. I have tried using their "Uploadr" tool which seems like a better way of getting photos online, except that it never seems to work. Their original, basic uploader, clunky as it is, seems to be the least likely to crash on me (computers are supposed to be time-saving devices, correct?). Let me know if you've had better luck with it.

So, here is my new cat (in the virtually collectible trading card format):

Thing #5 (Exploring Flickr)

In honor of the excellent Neil Young concert I attended last week, I was going to link to photos of him for my Flickr post. Unfortunately, Neil Young is not particularly photogenic, so here are photos of Josh Rouse and Maria Taylor instead, both of whom I saw at the Fine Line a few weeks prior.

Since, ultimately, photos of musicians are only so interesting, here is a big glowing building, also.

Why "Superstar Machine?"

Because I was struggling so desperately not to call this blog "Jonathan 2.0: now more interactive than ever!" And when I don't have a better idea, I steal something from an old favorite comedy series, such as "Mr. Show," which is available for check out at your local Saint Paul Public Library (not for the faint of heart, I should warn). I believe this refers to the season four episode "Rudy Will Await your Foundation," which has nothing to do specifically with me, libraries, technology, or learning of any kind.

Thing #3

Re: 7 1/2 habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners (say it five times fast!). The hardest habit is without a doubt "View Problems As Challenges," as I tend to react poorly to challenges depending on prevailing weather conditions. Usually there is a moment sometime well after the fact in which I come to realize I may have learned something (assuming I survived and prevailed). The easiest is probably "Accept Responsibility For Your Own Learning," or possible "Create Your Own Learning Toolbox," as I'm fond of self-directed learning, in addition to buying non-fiction and reference books which I may or may not ever get around to reading, but they're there when I need them, or may need them, someday.