[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Re: interest in Evergreen

[Chris Hirt]

Hi all,

Brad - thanks for the prod for some of us to stop lurking and acknowledge our
membership in this list.  I expect that Evergreen and Koha mailing lists will
see a steady increase in subscribers following recent shake-ups involving
SirsiDynix.  The Hekman Library at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI runs
SirsiDynix Unicorn GL 3.1 but we're starting to open our eyes a bit to what
other options are out there.  From what I've heard and read, Rome (SirsiDynix's
latest idea) is basically a repackaged GL 3.2 with some extra features they
couldn't not include from Horizon/Corinthian.  I'm hear on this list basically
to see what it will take to get a test instance of evergreen up and running -
and I know there are probably 100 of us thinking the same thing.

My background is in computer science and I have been the Library Systems
Programmer here for almost 3 years.  I'm very interested in open-source and
have dabbled in contributing (very minorly) to a few other open-source
projects.  I really want to see systems like Evergreen and Koha succeed and
become easy to use, easy to setup, and competitive products to what the current
paid-for ILS market offers.  That's always the challenge with this type of
effort.  Imagine what could happen if 100 libraries around the world committed
their ILS ear-marked support money to hiring a full-time open-source ILS
developer contributing to the project and developing for the library's needs? 
That would be amazing.

I'd don't know if my exploration of Evergreen will amount to any actual bug
fix contributions (although that would be nice) but it seems that regardless of
what my library decides to do, I believe the conditions are very right for a
"perfect storm" in the ILS world, one that will offer an open-source ILS (or
two or three?) the opportunity to leap ahead of its current state and become a
real alternative to the traditional ILS vendors.

Go open-source!  Go Evergreen!

- Chris Hirt
Library Systems Programmer
Hekman Library - Calvin College
Grand Rapids, MI USA
http://library.calvin.edu

> Hi folks,
>
> You know, there are 226 subscribers to this list. That's really 
> amazing. So, anyone care to break the ice and introduce themselves? 
> It's awfully quiet in here. I'm sure someone has something more 
> interesting to say than I do. :)
>
> Well, ok, fine, twist my arm... I'll go first and introduce myself. 
> I'm Brad LaJeunesse, one of the instigators behind the Evergreen 
> project here at the Georgia Public Library Service. I'm not a software 
> developer, but rather a systems administrator type, and I am primarily 
> responsible for the servers that support the PINES consortium's 
> installation of Evergreen. I'm also a degree-toting professional 
> librarian.
>
> In addition to my sys-admin duties, I also act as a project manager 
> for the Evergreen software development project, yet I will readily 
> admit that kind of work is not exactly my forte. There's just some 
> sort of similarity between being a 'project manager' and a 'cruise 
> coordinator' that I just can't get my head around. (Trust me, you 
> never want to be on a cruise that I've coordinated.) Thankfully I have 
> a great team to work with.
>
> So, with my introduction out of the way, why are we all here? Well, 
> ok, you're all here because you've heard of Evergreen, are interested 
> in Evergreen, something like that... or you're just in the wrong 
> place. :) I'm here because this was my crazy idea, so I'm stuck. But 
> the rest of you-- what do you want to talk about? What questions do 
> you have? What do you want to see on this mailing list?
>
> If you wish to remain anonymous and send questions/comments directly 
> to me, I'd be happy to post them back to this list for you.
>
> Look forward to hearing from ya'll. If no one speaks up, I'll be 
> forced to resort to more devious measures, such as singing karaoke.
>
> --Brad
>