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One of the most important and promising recent trends in technology has been the emergence of Open Source software (OSS). Loosely defined as a model of software development where applications are created and maintained by a community of developers, Open Source applications are made freely available in source form for modification and peer review.

Open Source is most closely identified with the Linux operating system, a flexible, high-quality system developed, distributed, and supported through the Open Source model. It is safe to say that anyone who has used the Internet has benefited from Open Source software. Most of the underpinning technologies of the Internet are OSS applications. Linux is also a popular choice for hosting Internet applications because of its strong stability and worldwide support structure. Other Open Source applications in widespread use include [url http://www.apache.org ]Apache[/url], the most popular web server in the world, and [url http://www.openoffice.org ]OpenOffice[/url], a full-featured office suite with a documented XML format and extensive compatibility with commercial systems like Microsoft Office.

Sometimes it?s helpful to use historical examples for putting Open Source in context in libraries. More than two millennia ago, the ancient Greeks were faced with a Phoenician blockade that was preventing direct access to the tin routes. As a result, the Greeks were forced to buy tin through overland suppliers at a premium price. The Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseilles) was particularly hard hit by this blockade. Massalia had no free access to the ocean, which was difficult for a colony that depended heavily on trade, and was squeezed not only by the supply problems that were caused by the blockade but also by the limits imposed by the Phoenicians in trying to set up contacts for trade with other lands. It looked something like [url http://librarycog.uwindsor.ca/postImages/massalia1 ]this[/url].

Libraries are in a similar position as Massalia, but for acquiring software rather than tin. Like the citizens of Massalia, we know that this critical supply goes through a series of dealers and is sometimes marked up along the way. Library systems could be compared to the Phoenician tin used by the Massalians 23 centuries ago, in both cases, representing products that are vitally important for day to day operations, yet somewhat mysterious in their journey from source to deployment. Library system vendors must deal also with the consequences of IT supply lines, and most are almost as dependent on outside technologies as the market they sell to. If libraries can be compared to the Massalians, library system vendors may be much like the suppliers in the middle of the tin routes: not exactly an unprofitable position, yet far short of the returns that await those who control the blockades. The situation looks something like [url http://librarycog.uwindsor.ca/postImages/massalia2 ]this[/url].

In about 325 BC, an explorer named Pytheas was charged with the task of finding the source of the tin routes. Although the records are unclear and Pytheas' monumental work describing his achievements called "On the Ocean" has been lost, it appears that he was funded by the town council and merchants of Massalia. The town council of 300 BC was a bit like the World Wide Web consortium is today in that it provided direction for the activities of the community it represented, even though the merchants of the time didn't always heed its advice. Much like the computer industry?s history with standards, everyone appreciated the need for a somewhat democratic organization to put order on the world but that didn't necessarily mean everyone followed its directions.

A similar journey began in the library world in 1998 with the establishment of the [url http://oss4lib.org ]oss4lib[/url] web site and listserv by [url http://curtis.med.yale.edu/~dchud ]Dan Chudnov[/url], currently at the School of Medicine at Yale. Open Source library systems were not completely without precedent. Pytheas would have been aware of many of the voyages that had ended in failure before him and had first hand knowledge of some of the routes where his journey would begin. For their part, libraries had been major adopters of the "in-house" system trend that had marked the days of the mainframe from the 1960s through to the eighties, and had experienced the backlash against in-house applications when public institutions increasingly turned to the marketplace for technical solutions.

Yet if the waters on the journey to Open Source solutions were not completely unknown, there seemed to be enough differences to make the trip worth attempting one more time. Open Source software is fundamentally based on the availability of ubiquitous networks to foster wide scale collaboration and feedback beyond library walls and institutional borders. Furthermore, the nature of software development has also changed dramatically in the last decade. Object and component-based programming models have led to greater freedom in building applications from a variety of sources and with much greater efficiency since the entire life cycle of developing the component has already been completed by someone else. There are also a growing number of Open Source success stories in the library world, including [url http://jake.med.yale.edu ]jake[/url], [url http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/ ]MyLibrary[/url], and the [url http://www.greenstone.org/english/home.html ]Greenstone Digital Library Software[/url].

Pytheas' statements about his voyage flew in the face of the Greek philosophy and geographic theory of the time and after his death he became thoroughly discredited. Yet we know today that Pytheas was remarkably accurate in his estimations of the circumference of Britain and it is very likely that he made the longest voyage on record in the ancient world. One of the first scholars to give Pytheas credibility was Eratosthenes, who became the chief librarian at the great library at Alexandria in about 255 BC and is sometimes referred to as the "librarian who measured the earth" in recognition of his achievement of being the first human to correctly measure the circumference of the world. Eratosthenes treated Pytheas? "On the Ocean" as a serious work and utilized some of Pytheas? observations in his own studies.

Libraries have a natural synergy with the Open Source movement. Library collections, library staff, and even the physical structures themselves are usually widely available to a community of users on a non-profit, publicly funded basis. Like Eratosthenes, we have the opportunity to boldly recognize and support a movement that is turning a lot of conventional wisdom about how systems should be built on its head. The start of the journey can be as simple as evaluating the use of Open Source solutions in your library. Who knows? It could change your perception of the world.

ah, this is another good point, Art.

and now you have even more of my attention...

do you think that developing in the OSS arena could be an opportunity for librarians to be on the "cutting edge" of technologies that are of great use to others as well.

my belief is that online community (in general) is one area where we have a clear and present opportunity - but maybe OSS as well?

The ILS is a great meeting point for both libraries and other communities. One of the keys is to drop the notion that all the building blocks need to come from one source. I think this is one of the reasons that we tend to bemoan the ILS so much, it can be a big, complex system that stretches the limit of the type of small to medium-sized development shops that sit behind most commercial ILS options.

[url http://www.ofbiz.org ]OFBiz[/url], for example, would probably run circles around a lot of most ILS vendor?s acquisitions systems. For that matter, what if all the brilliant men and women that work in the commercial side of the ILS world didn't have to invest so many resources into the myriad of functions that an ILS is expected to provide. What if a container system like [url http://www.jboss.org ]JBoss[/url] did some of the hard transaction stuff, for example? Surely that would benefit everyone regardless of one?s feeling for OSS. No serious ILS vendor would construct their own web server at this point, it isn't such a stretch to take some of the lessons from the web world and apply them to the parts of the ILS that have never been particularly stellar.

Excellent point! I am always heartened by how many librarians are willing to poke around the edges of software. Maybe it comes from working with systems fostered in a niche market for so long, but I suspect most librarians genuinely want to know how applications work, and are more than happy to share their knowledge, just like what happens at the reference desk and other library service points. The technology part of OSS should not be the main inhibitor at this point, any site that has a web presence is already knee-deep in Open Source software, regardless of how it is viewed in the organization, and to echo your post, there is almost always someone willing to work with new technologies on staff.

Eric, good arguments, but I'm feeling a bit defensive. I think I'm a good librarian, even a good "sorta techie" librarian, but I'm not good at programming and even fumble my way through "advanced" software installation (most of the time). I'm ok with my skills being as they are, knowing that I have other areas of expertise.

I love the idea of OSS, but have been hesitant to try it, use OpenOffice for example, because I'm afraid that making it work for me will take time, effort, headache, that I don't have room for. I guess I need assurance that the Open Source applications I'm interested in aren't going to kill me or drive me crazy.

I'm sure some other librarians feel the same way - what do you say to encourage them?

I think a lot more depends on attitude than any kind of technical metric. Even with programming, ostensibly as technical as it gets, I know some absolutely brilliant assembly programmers from a few decades ago who fare very poorly today with a scripting language like Perl or PHP. Anyone who has kids that play modern gaming systems has probably learned a lot about hardware, and I am pretty much convinced that there is some area of everyone's skill set that intersects with the computing landscape somewhere. Apache's notion of XML-directed solutions, for example, are pulled together much like knitting patterns. Programmers are often the worse web designers to draw breath, while the best information architects have expertise with a broad toolkit.

In Canada (I don't know the numbers for the States), the fastest growing segment of Internet users are senior citizens, and I think there is a mindset from the generation that pre-dated generation X that makes them ready to dive into technology in a way that the next generation would not. I think it is the "willingness to experiment" that needs to be fostered with OSS in libraries. But Chrystie's right, it does take time, and I would argue that is where the administrative buy-in has to take place. Lots of us tinker with things on the sidelines, and that needs to happen too, but I think someone would be more likely to try OpenOffice, for example, if the organization was to devote some effort to articulate the benefits and help with the transition.

Open source requires the librarian to look at the computer in a slightly different way. With open source, the user is in control, not a software company. You do not have to be a techie to use open source -- there are lots of little companies out there who make it their business to manage open source applications for users who are *not* techies. The only pre-requisite for becomning an open source user is a willingness to see your software do what you want it to do.

Like any commercial program, there is a learning curve for any open source program. OpenOffice is a good example. I've found that it can do everything that I've asked Microsoft Office to do, but it is *not* a clone of MS Office. It will take some time to learn -- just as MS Office took some time to learn. But once you have learned your way around, you'll find that it gets things done for you and won't cost you anything.

Now if you want to make a major modification to OpenOffice, you need to be a programmer, or be willing to hire a programmer. But this is where open source surpasses closed source programs -- you *can* make changes! It is possible to make the software do what you want it to do. That's control, and that's the real advantage of open source -- imho.

Whoops! I see that case studies are scheduled for Tuesday's discussion. I will happily wait till tomorrow to read the case studies.

Stephen, Art, Eric, it is great to see you all here and contributing. This is Joe Anderson, Editor at WebJunction, and I want to thank you for the great articles you have contributed--everyone, you can get access to these articles [url http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=1216 ]here[/url].

I am enjoying the conversation so far, and think the issue of "how do librarians collectively achieve the level of techno-curiosity required to step into open source" is perhaps the Big Question. It will be decisive in determining how far OSS gets in the library environment.

Perhaps the required condition is an environment where those who know tech and those who don't know tech are truly working together as a community.

I have a story from my past career as a tech writer in a software company: there was a marvellous tech support team at this company, and one guy in particular who was a sort of tech support saint: his favorite line with customers was "never let a computer tell you that you can't do something". Maybe this sort of supportive and wise counsel is what the technical leaders in the library world need to step up to--and the rest of us need to step up to getting past the fear of the new and strange and plunging into it.