[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] SPAM: Belated introduction, and a couple of questions

[Don McMorris]

Hi Fred!

If you would like to play with Evergreen from a SysAdmin P.O.V., some
contributors have made VMWare images available for download [1].

Right now, I believe the most common base for Evergreen is Debian, as
this is what the production PINES[2] servers use (if my memory serves
me properly).  There has been some contributing effort for Ubuntu,
Gentoo, Fedora (RedHat) among others.  Everybody seems to have a
different distribution of choice.  For my personal, everyday use I use
Fedora Core because I'm not looking to spend a ton of time maintaining
it.  However, for Evergreen, I would prefer Debian for now[3].

As Ms. Stephan said in a follow-up to your message, O'Reilly publishes
some very nice books related to Open-Source software.

Right now, the Evergreen installation is fairly complex [4].  However,
I know there are some contributors whom are working to make the
installation easier and more portable.

Most ILS's have *some sort* of exporting mechanism.  For bibliographic
and item records, usually these can be imported into Evergreen without
a ton of work (for most, executing a customized script).  However, the
Patron database may be a different story (but, if you can find a way
to export it, we can probably find a way to import it ;)).

For the server(s), the ideal configuration would vary depending on
your exact specs and existing configuration.  Evergreen can run on as
little as 1 server, or can scale to a large cluster.  Just as an
example... say your organization already has a PostgreSQL server and
an Apache web server.  You would then, perhaps, need a "worker"
server.  The Apache configurations and modules could be loaded on the
existing web server for the OPAC.  The existing PostgreSQL server
could be used for your databases (it should have an awesome amount of
RAM, CPU, and backup capabilities already).  The "Worker" server[s]
could then be used for the jabber[5] server, the OpenSRF system and
workers, and another web server (this one for the staff clients).

Evergreen is _very_ flexible.  Of course it is, it's open source
software! But, I mean above and beyond that... It was designed to
simultaneously meet the needs of several diverse libraries.  It really
is an awesome system!

Another thing I want to mention here... Like most Open-Source
software, you are not alone.  There are companies to support your
installation if you need it.  If you wanted, an independent consulting
company could build you a server ready to install and use.  They can
also integrate the Evergreen system into your existing network so as
to eliminate redundancies (IE: separate database and web servers).
On-going maintenance and on-call support is available.  If you wanted
to, there is even the possibility of having Evergreen hosted in the
consultants' datacenter! (all you would need to worry about is running
the staff clients and keeping an Internet connection[6]).

I hope this answers some of your preliminary questions.  Please do not
hesitate to get in touch again with any more that you may have!

Sincerely Yours,
--Don

[1] http://www.open-ils.org/cvs.html
[2] PINES, the state library network for Georgia.  >250 libs sharing a
single Evergreen system.
[3] Simply because this is what "The Guys" use on production.
[4] Not necessarily by intent... but there's a lot of manual work
involved to get the installation to work proper.
[5] Although you could use an existing jabber server, Evergreen
requires some configurations that may not be ideal for the rest of
your network... Example, caching of offline messages.
[6] Even an Internet connection isn't really required... Evergreen has
a _wonderful_ offline function built right in to the client!



On 5/3/07, Fred.King at medstar.net <Fred.King at medstar.net> wrote:
>
> Gentlemen and Mesdames,
>
> Greetings, all. I'm Fred King, and I'm one of the medical librarians at the
> Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. I've actually been lurking on
> this list for a few months, ever since my boss talked with one of the
> Evergreen folks last year and asked me to look into it. We're a large urban
> hospital with a collection of about 8000 books and maybe twice that number
> of bound journals. Our monthly circulation sometimes ventures into the high
> two figures; we also track in-house use, which is usually in the low three
> figures. To put it another way, we don't exactly tax the capacity of our
> current ILS.
>
> Even before our current ILS vendor announced they were making Large Changes
> in their product, we were interested in exploring other options; now I'm
> looking at all the features offered by the new 'n' improved system and I'm
> hearing Ginny Slade saying "Just what we need, a $50,000 car to go to Burger
> King in." [1] We don't need to catalog books in Hebrew and Chinese--although
> we have residents from all over the world, most of our books are in English.
> The only items that aren't are some titles on medical Spanish, and even
> then, I wasn't expecting a kind of Spanish acquisition. The change to their
> new system sounds like a major expenditure of time and effort, and if we're
> going to install a new system *anyway,* we may as well try, or at least look
> at, something new. I'm biased in favor of open-source software; I've used
> OpenOffice.org for several years, and I like it a lot more than that other
> office package. The fact that it fits within my price range [2] is an
> additional advantage.
>
> One problem I foresee with our implementing Evergreen is that, with a few
> exceptions, the folks in our IT department don't exactly know where their
> towels are. Last month they moved our shared directory to a new server, and
> it took four days, a service request, and quite a few e-mails and phone
> calls before they set the permissions so we had access to the folder. It
> then took another five days, two service requests, and more e-mails and
> phone calls before we had access to the files *within* the folder. So if
> we're going to be running a Linux server, the person who's going to be doing
> it is probably going to be, um, me. That's fine, since I'm interested in
> learning a lot more about Linux, but I'll have to fit it in with my other
> stuff, such as maintaining two dozen public computers in the library, being
> sysadmin (sort of) for our current ILS, taking care of the online serials
> [3], being the first-string resource person for the staff computers and all
> that runs on them, the fifth-string backup AV person, keeper of the official
> statistics, webmaster, a reference librarian for three hours each day [4],
> and the traditional "other duties as required." [5] Oh yes, and on the
> weekends when I have the energy and venue, I take my cards and prints around
> to local craft shows to sell. All of this may explain why I'm so late with
> an introduction, and why I ended up in the emergency room with chest pains a
> while back. [6]
>
> So, if anybody's still reading this, I have a few questions: I've used Unix
> shell accounts, and I've installed a couple of varieties of Linux on
> machines in the past, but my knowledge is rusty and I've never set up a
> server before. I have a few extra computers in my basement that I can
> experiment with, as well as a few network hubs, a wireless router, etc. [7]
> I also have a book catalog to play around with, if I can figure out a way to
> move it to Evergreen from the Microsoft Access version it's currently in.
> Since I'm a librarian and book collector, my inclination is to start with a
> book. Any recommendations for a good overview? And what variety of Linux
> would you recommend for not-quite-but-almost newbies?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fred King
>  Medical Librarian, Washington Hospital Center
>  fred.king at medstar.net
>
>
> [1] Updated to account for inflation.
> [2] Free.
> [3] I never wanted to be a serials librarian; I wanted to be a lumberjack.
> [4] Down from 4.5 before we got another person
> [5] In the theatre, this is known as "verstaility." Here in the library, we
> call it "economy."
> [6] Not a heart attack, though nobody knows exactly what's causing it.
> Probably iatrogenic.
> [7] At least, I think I do. Right now everything's buried under piles of
> stuff for the show on Sunday.
>
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