The Open Source ILS: Still Only a Distant Possibility (pp.16-18)
MARSHALL BREEDING
Marshall Breeding (breeding@library.vanderbilt.edu) is Library Technology Officer for the Heard Library at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
MARC It Your Way: MARC.pm (pp.19-26)
ANNE HIGHSMITH, MARK JORDAN, EILEEN LLONA, PETER E. MURRAY, AND EDWARD SUMMERS
MARC.pm (http://marcpm.sourceforge.net) is a piece of open source software (OSS) developed by librarians for librarians. In this article you will find a description of what exactly MARC.pm is, followed by a series of descriptive pieces written by librarians in the field who have used MARC.pm. Some of these descriptions contain program code, which may baffle those who are not already familiar with the Perl programming language, while other pieces explore some of the intricacies of the Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) format that may be new to noncatalogers. If at any time you feel overwhelmed know that you are in good company, and keep in mind that the aim of this article is simply to show how a piece of OSS is being used in different library environments.
Anne L. Highsmith (AHIGHSMI@lib-gw.tamu.edu) is Consortia Systems Coordinator at Texas A&M General Libraries, College Station. Mark Jordan (mjordan@sfu.ca) is Librarian/Analyst at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada. Eileen Llona (ellona@u.washington.edu) is International Studies Computer Services Librarian at the University of Washington, Seattle. Peter E. Murray (pmurray@law.uconn.edu) is Computer Services Librarian at the University of Connecticut Law School, Hartford. Edward Summers (ed@cheetahmail.com) is a Software Engineer with CheetahMail, New York.
The EOR Toolkit: An Open Source Solution for RDF Metadata (pp. 27-32)
HARRY R. WAGNER
Despite its unprecedented growth in popularity, the Web has failed to live up to expectations regarding its usefulness as a research tool. Technology has not kept pace with the growing number of Web sites. Libraries, the recognized experts in research and information management, have been unable to take an active lead in solving this problem. A solution is proposed, using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), an evolving metadata standard, in a collaborative open source environment that will enable libraries to take a more active role in the development of applications and services focused on improving the discovery and management of electronic resources.
Editor's note: The full text of this article is available at http://www.lita.org/ital/2101_wagner.html
Harry Wagner (wagnerh@oclc.org) is a Senior Consulting Systems Analyst with the OCLC Office of Research and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, Dublin, Ohio.
Open Source, Open Standards (pp. 33-37)
KAREN COYLE
When people speak of open source software they are referring to computer code - programs that run. But code is only the final step in the information technology process. Prior to writing code the information technology professional must do analysis to determine the nature of the problem to be solved and the best way to solve it. When software projects fail, the failure is more often than not attributable to shortcomings in the planning and analysis phase rather than in the coding itself. Open source software provides some particular challenges for planning since the code itself will be worked on by different programmers and will evolve over time. The success of an open source project will clearly depend on the clarity of the shared vision of the goals of the software and some strong definitions of basic functions and how they will work. This all-important work of defining often takes place through standards and the development of standards that everyone can use has become a movement in itself: open standards.
Editor's note: The full text of this article is available at http://www.lita.org/ital/2101_coyle.html
Karen Coyle (www.kcoyle.net) is a Systems Developer at the California Digital Library, Oakland.
Volume 21 No 1 March 2002