[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** Re: An unexpected peril of proprietary ILSs

[K.G. Schneider]

On Sat, 05 Jun 2010 06:35 -0400, "David Fiander"
<david at fiander.info> wrote:

  Cory Doctorow reports on his blog at BoingBoing that

  Speaking of which: recently, a librarian friend was telling me
  that her collection had gotten an extra staffer that they'd
  been begging for for more than 20 years, but that they weren't
  allowed to teach this new person anything about cataloguing.
  That's because their site license for their proprietary
  cataloging software requires that they pay for another seat
  for every person in the department who is qualified to
  catalog, and they can't afford another seat.

[1]http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/05/worlds-tiniest-open.html

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Hrrrrrmmmm.... I could go on at length about real-world experiences with
the hidden costs of proprietary library
software, but this particular story is hitting the wrong chord. Adding
an entire human being to an organization, at least a permanent salaried
employee with benefits, is an enterprise with a cost that easily reaches
at least halfway to the six-figure amount, particularly factoring in the
seated cost of an employee (not just salary and benefits, but equipment,
training, conferences, etc.--and required software licenses.)

If the company is charging, say, $10,000 for an additional ILS seat
license, well ok, though again, where's the planning? But show me a
library that can't afford an essential purchase... and I'll show you a
library that hasn't canceled its standing orders for print reference or
stopped binding the journals it will be tossing in five years.

Again, I underscore, there is no love in my capacious heart for the
proprietary software model. Having come from an open source library
company back into a real library, my experience is that it is very
strange and disadvantageous to be so isolated from the development cycle
of the products we use. I'm reminded of the birthing practices of the
mid-20th-century, where the expectantmother was etherized and the father
sat in a waiting room, and then, surprise! Here's the baby! Um... you're
sure that's MY baby? Cuz you know, it's kind of ugly. And when will my
baby grow up? Oh ma'am, we can't tell you that. Don't worry your pretty
little head about it. And if I am told one more time that something is
"supposed" to work that way when it is very obviously sloppy development
(which happens behind an iron curtain), well... I won't do anything
because I'm married to that baby for a long while and I have absolutely
no choice about who ensures the baby stays healthy enough that I don't
have to worry about it too much from day to day, having larger/other
fish to fry at the moment. 

But we need to pick and choose our stories, and this one both feels
sketchy (how much is that license?) and reinforces the meme of libraries
being naive about management (people cost money--seriously?). Just
saying. And yes, I love you too David F. and hope to see you at ALA, if
you're there. :)


Karen G. Schneider

kgs at freerangelibrarian.com

References

1. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/05/worlds-tiniest-open.html