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

[john]

Thanks Don,

That does help. I'll be interested to hear what Mike has to say when he gets
back from his conference.

John

On 2/28/07, Don McMorris <don.mcmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/28/07, john <lists.john at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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.
> Hi John! Welcome!
>
> > We are keen to leave the world of
> > proprietary software behind in
> >  all of our work, and this includes our library catalog solution.
> Very Cool!
> > 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
> This shouldn't be an issue.  Based on
> http://www.georgialibraries.org/lib/pines/PINES_flyer.pdf the PINES
> consortium consists of:
> -252 libraries in 123 counties (note: I think a few have been added
> since this count)
> -8 million items
> Based on the information at http://open-ils.org/blog/?p=56, PINES runs
> on the following configuration:
> -4 database servers
> -2 central logging servers
> -30 application servers
> -2 load balancers/firewall combo boxes
>
> Evergreen is made to run on any amount of hardware, from a single
> all-purpose server to the complexity of PINES (and even moreso).
>
> >
> >  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
> Welcome to the world of Proprietary software! ;)
> >
> >
> >  Potential blockers to a switch:
> >  1. Neither techie is a programmer
> >  2. Neither techie has any ILS background
> I think *nix experience (especially Linux), PostgreSQL, Perl, Apache
> experience would be helpful for administration.  The hard part is
> installation, which isn't terribly hard at all.
> >
> >  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.
> Mike will get back to you on this... He's at Code4LibCon right now.
>
> >
> >  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.
> >
> I would urge you to demo the system.  A staff client (along with
> usernames and passwords) can be downloaded from
> http://www.open-ils.org/cvs.html.  The hostname is demo.gapines.org
> for the current "stable" edition, and dev.gapines.org for the
> "bleeding edge" version.  The OPAC is web-based, demoed at
> http://demo.gapines.org and http://dev.gapines.org.
>
> The original Evergreen developers' have also formed a support company
> ESI Library (http://esilibrary.com).  They offer
> installation/migration services, hosting, and the like.  Not to
> mention these lists and the ever-growing community interest.
>
> Hope this helps!
> > John
> >
> --Don
>
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