On 6/21/06, Andrews, Mark J. <MarkAndrews_at_creighton.edu> wrote:
> ---
>
> Sorry to be crass but money means accountability - on the part of those
> that spend it and on the part of those who are paid. My employer pays
> handsomely to have somebody with a brain on the remote end of a support
> phone call. If there is something to complain about, I have someone to
> complain to, all the way up to the corner office.
So I presume libraries are getting everything for free as they aren't
really holding anyone accountable. ;-) Seriously though, lock-in,
monopolies, licensing and other problems prevent the full
accountability that you suggest. Some journals are only available from
certain vendors. Some ebooks are available only with strict DRM that
prevents you from doing some forms of preservation. In some cases
money means accountability but in many cases it's just a way to "pass
the buck". Are you buying from a vendor so you can hold them
accountable or because you yourself don't want to be solely
accountable. It's easier to tell a patron that you can't do something
because vendor X doesn't support it rather then "we haven't had the
resources to build that feature".
*snip*
>
> So, in our discussion of the next generation catalog, it may be helpful
> to envision a symbiotic relationship between the folks who can afford to
> hand-craft their own Space Shuttle, and the folks who want to get the
> best possible use out of a Soyuz.
>
Which doesn't mean that the Soyuz has to be some inflexible tin can.
FOSS also doesn't mean that everything has to be hand rolled at the
library itself. Take for example LibLime. They will gladly help you
build the solution you want using FOSS components. There's money and
some accountability. The difference is if down the road your not
happy, you can do something about it. Even if the vendor goes poof.
As far as I know LibLime will also help you build FOSS solutions for
existing vendor products, similar to what AADL did itself. I believe
they require the solution to be open-source though so other libraries
can use it. I think this is a much better solution long-term for
libraries. If we invest in solutions that other libraries can use we
will be much better off than building yet another walled garden.
Ryan Eby
Received on Wed Jun 21 2006 - 16:22:05 EDT