Open Source ILS Team Report: October 2008

1. Explore the feasibility of using an Open Source ILS product for the Consortium of MnPALS Libraries, or some segment of the consortium.
   • In-house demo on Koha was held March, 2008.
   • In-house demo on Evergreen was held April, 2008.
   • Open Source ILS Team was formed and began meeting weekly May 7, 2008.
   • Team Purpose was written and approved.
   • Project Plan created and continually updated.
   • Team members continually monitor the Evergreen and Koha mailing lists and web sites.
   • Some members attended the MINITEX demos on Koha and Evergreen.
   • Some members attended ALA and sessions related to Open Source.
   • Have begun pulling current and future development document together on Koha, and Evergreen.
   • Have begun a Cost Analysis Document for future funding - MnSCU commitment.
   • Met with Becky Bell from WALDO to get an update on their Koha implementation.
   • Stephen attended the Open Source Round Table meeting sponsored by MINITEX
2. Analyze the scalability to see if open source software can handle our consortium.
   • Koha – Web site says “Scalability to tens of millions of records” The implementation of WALDO and INCOLSA will tell us more about scalability.
   • Evergreen – Built for a consortium – PINES
     • 275 libraries
     • Circs past year – 14.9 million items
     • 9.6 million items – shared collection
3. Assist the Executive Director in determining if this is the right direction for us to move in.
   • Team has been exploring the feasibility of using an Open Source ILS Product. Stephen has been involved in our meetings and discussion.
   • Team met with Todd Digby on August 6th. It was agreed that we would continue to pursue Open Source with a test library.
4. Consider if it is appropriate for some libraries to move to Open Source soon, and follow with the rest later.
   • We are working to identify a beta site – either an existing library or a new customer.
5. Look at Koha and Evergreen to see what functionality is present there now, and what is planned.
   • Attended demos as mentioned under number 1.
   • Team members continually monitor the Evergreen and Koha mailing lists and web sites.
   • Have begun pulling functionality comparison document together on Koha and Evergreen.

Evergreen

Development we are following:

We are watching for the release of Evergreen 2.0 which will be the “Academic” release. This is due out Winter 2008/2009. The Evergreen 2.0 will have features such as reserves and recalls, in addition to an Acquisitions and Serials module. Release 1.4 is due out soon, (October 2008). Version 1.4 features will include credit card processing for online patrons and improved administrative interfaces for defining organizations and permissions. Catalogers and administrators will also receive a simplified batch record import/export web interface.

Summary of Functionality:

• Designed for large consortia
• The following modules seem to be well developed. In order to know exactly what functionality is there and how it would work in our environment, we would need to install Evergreen and spend more time testing it.
  • Circulation
  • Cataloging
  • Web Catalog
  • Reports and Statistics
• No ILL – plan on FulfILLment
• No Acq, Serials, Reserves – in development – beta winter 2008/2009

Koha

Development we are following:

“WALDO’s membership was impressed with the advanced capabilities and architecture in Koha, which included many features and functionality not available in current proprietary ILS systems,” says Linda Poston, WALDO President. “WALDO chose Koha ZOOM because it presented the best architectural fit for WALDO, offering data and policy independence for individual libraries and institutions. WALDO decided to sponsor some additional features and functionality to better support the needs and workflow of academic libraries. Sponsored development will expand acquisitions, serials and cataloging modules. It is exciting to have such a significant role in and timely response to development needs expressed by our membership,” explains Poston.

“A major attraction of the open source model is the opportunity it affords for libraries to exercise direct control over the development and evolutionary pace of their systems,” says Theresa Maylone, University Librarian at St. John’s University. “This control is critical to any successful enterprise and libraries are no exception."

WALDO has incorporated funding of on-going development into its commitment to open source.

• Working with systems group to develop functionality for consortia

Summary of functionality:

• The following modules seem to be well developed. In order to know exactly what functionality is there and how it would work in our environment, we would need to install Koha and spend more time testing it.
  • Circulation
  • Cataloging
  • OPAC
  • Reports and Statistics
• No ILL – plan to develop with Relais International
• Acquisitions and Serials – weak – in development with systems group for greater functionality
• No Reserves

6. Investigate what role the PALS staff could play in the development community for either application.
   • Requires further investigation. PALS staff could play a role but many factors would need to be evaluated, especially the availability of staff resources.

Summary:

• Our plan is to do an open source ILS project, but we do not know yet which product we will use.
• We are in the process of finding a library to be our beta.
• One of our goals is to use the Open Source ILS to attract new customers.
• We plan to hire a new tech staff member.
• We want to encourage the Executive Committee to follow-up on the needs assessment that they voted to do last spring.