The folks at LYRASIS have put together a site called FOSS4Lib -- http://foss4lib.org -- and it includes a set of decision support tools that may be of interest to this community.
While "next generation library catalogs" are not necessarily related to free and open source software (FOSS), there are similarities and synergies. And as the FOSS4Lib site states:
Whether you are looking to decide if open source software is
right for your library or need helpfinding what open source
software package meets your needs, this site has the content and
the community to help you with those decisions.
To that end, the site includes a number of decision support tools designed to help librarians and administrators determine whether or not open source software is something for them. One of the tools is a 40-question survey which will plot one's amenity for open source software and hosted software solutions -- http://bit.ly/AkHzxX The tool then outlines computing solutions based on one's score. Other tools outline the costs of open source software, questions one should ask of information technology departments, and a software selection tool.
Interesting!?
--
Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame
Received on Thu Jan 19 2012 - 09:00:15 EST