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What is good for Brazil is good for libraries
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04
Please read
[url http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031116/D7URSKHO0.html ]http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031116/D7URSKHO0.html[/url]
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RE: What is good for Brazil is good for libraries
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04
as a reply to Edward Sargent.
In the long run, I think most likely yes -- it would be good for libraries.
The big issue for me, as the Peruvians eloquently explained to Microsoft a year or more ago, is that Microsoft doesn't know squat about archiving -- that requires a standard that doesn't move every third Sunday.
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RE: Can OSS be adopted from the ground up?
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04
as a reply to Edward Sargent.
Bob, it seemed from our conversation last week with all of our OSS experts and enthusiasts, that we discovered that Open Source app's have a little way to go before they can be really accessible and useful to the "average" librarian. You're an above average librarian yourself,  but I wonder what you think of the 'grassroots' type of leadership that a few libraries are taking on in terms of creating and using Open Source applications. Do you think it's viable that we could shift the balance from the 'bottom up'? Is anything like this going on in your library, given your personal interest? Another thing we identified last week was that admin level support is really important when taking OSS on, in terms of the learning curve, for example. Just curious what your thinking is on this...
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RE: RE: Can OSS be adopted from the ground up?
3:01 PM EDT 6/20/04
as a reply to Edward Sargent.
I'm afraid I'm all over the map on this, leastwise in the short term.
The *best* (but probably most unlikely) way to proceed would be for ALA to sponsor the establishment of a "library standard" for various library functionalities. Better, yet, ALA *could* lead the way to an international standard. This would serve two purposes: 1) it would give Open Standards an imprimature, a "brand" if you will, that the library community would respect, and 2) it would slow our mad dash for the newest, greatest, thing.
Standards, particularly industry standards, can be an important driver.
As librarians, we're probably not thinking
about market share -- we're likely thinking about products that will work for many years.
This can, of course, only work if people do not come up with some radically *new* must-have killer-ap feature. I rather expect that we're at that point now.
As to my own library, well, I've only been here a few weeks and do know that our IT guy would like to see us using non-M$ software. Even so, we both realize that people do *not* live in a "non-Word" world and, as such, there are lots of stumbling blocks to moving forward on this. Few of these are *technical.* Most are cultural, embedded both in "how we do things" and in "how society as a whole perceives things."
But we shall see, no?
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