Open source in the library: A guide for open-minded bibliophiles
Libraries embody the open source way—perhaps more than any other cultural institution today. They're bastions of it. Stewards for it. As spaces for learning, they champion the open distribution and free circulation of knowledge. As sites for community gatherings, they foster collaborative endeavors—fruitful exchanges of resources and ideas. And as symbols of both preservation and innovation, they represent one of our greatest resources for weathering the turbulence of an ongoing transition to the 21st century.
In April 2014, Opensource.com invited open-minded bibliophiles to share stories about the powerful ways open source thinking reverberates through libraries. During Open Library Week, we learned about open source tools libraries might leverage in the face of ever-mounting budgetary constraints. We saw how libraries are coupling productively with groups that also embody an open source ethic—those makers and hackers committed to innovation through sharing. We glimpsed something that should be glaringly obvious: libraries are as important as they've ever been. They may take novel forms as they respond to the demands of a new era, but what grounds them will never change: a commitment to the open source way.
This book collects the stories we published as part of Open Library Week.
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Copyright © 2014 Red Hat, Inc. All written content licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Articles in this eBook
- Top 5 open source tools libraries need to know about
—Nicole C. Engard, Vice President of Education at ByWater Solutions - Open source library system Evergreen rewards the community
—Dan Scott, systems librarian at Laurentian University - Web-publishing for libraries and the robust community of Omeka
—Sharon M. Leon, Director of Public Projects at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and Associate Professor of History at George Mason University - Open data hackathon tackles cultural preservation
—Open Knowledge - The story of Koha, the first open source library management system
—Joann Ransom, librarian and blogger - How to introduce open source to your public library
—Phil Shapiro, librarian and blogger - Resources for libraries exploring the open source option
—Peter Murray, Assistant Director for Technology Services Development at LYRASIS - The maker movement helps transform our public libraries
—Luis Ibáñez, Technical Leader at Kitware Inc., and Director of Open Source Community Development at the Open Source EHR Agent
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.