[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] need pointer on deciding "Is Open-ILS right for us?"

[john]

Hi all,

This is my first posting to the list. My name is John and I am one of two
full time tech folks that
work for a small school district. We are keen to leave the world of
proprietary software behind in
all of our work, and this includes our library catalog solution. I'm
excited about the reading I've done around OPEN-ILS and I hope that you
folks
can help me to get my bearings as I struggle to understand whether such
a move is feasible for our small district. Perhaps if I give you a
little background you can let me know what you think:

Userbase: 1400
Titles in current catalog: 30,000+
Librarians: 3 at 3 different schools on a single fiber connected campus
current solution: SirsiDynix/Horizon

Our SD/Horizon solution is:
1. slow
2. plagued by data corruption issues
3. expen$ive with high start up costs and 3 year contract cycles
4. proprietary
5. hard to use for Librarians
6. Not especially useful to students


Potential blockers to a switch:
1. Neither techie is a programmer
2. Neither techie has any ILS background

Unknowns:

1. In consideration of trying to demo Open_ILS what format should we
request our current records from SirsiDynix/Horizon? They have been very
reluctant to part with the records, but if I had a format that would
facilitate a transfer I'd push aggressively for that.

2. Is there a standard/evolving migration path for these records. I see
that this appears to be
a commonplace task for some folks
http://list.georgialibraries.org/pipermail/open-ils-general/2007-January/000056.html

Thanks! I look forward to hearing your (collective) ideas.

John
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