Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical issue Periodical issue Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Open source software and libraries
Editor:Koopman, Margaret Sandwith
Year:2008
Periodical:Innovation: Journal of Appropriate Librarianship and Information Work in Southern Africa (ISSN 1025-8892)
Issue:36
Pages:77
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:software
library automation
Abstract:In 2003 the South African Cabinet approved an Open Source Software (OSS) strategy that encouraged government departments to implement open source solutions. Official support for such an initiative has provided opportunities for some to improve their computer literacy skills and has enabled information technology gurus to move away from the stranglehold of proprietary software with the associated viruses and limited flexibility. It appears, however, that Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Integrated Library System (ILS) solutions have been poorly applied and supported in southern African libraries. Derek Keats provides an overview of some of the FOSS tools that are available to libraries. Isaac Abboy and Ruth Hoskins survey the use of CDS/ISIS by library institutions and organizations in Africa, the functional use of the software and its advantages and disadvantages. Egbert de Smet discusses (CDS/)ISIS software as a 'predecessor' to the FOSS development movement. He describes current 'FOSS' ISIS projects and calls to the wider community to contribute in order to make ISIS a real FOSS project. Angela Spencer presents a case study of the use of open source software applications on the web sites of the large e-Thekwini municipality in Durban. Geoff Hoy and Margaret Sandwith Koopman examine the constraints on using FOSS in academic libraries in South Africa, such as limited appropriate technical skills, limited budgets, lack of consensus about and support for FOSS within and between libraries and institutions and constraints on bandwidth. These all contribute to a conservative approach to library solutions. Scott Timcke outlines how digital technology, by facilitating collaboration, presents an opportunity for the second-generation digital archive to leverage the network effect and become an open archive. Critical to the success of the open archive will be its flexibility and modularity. [ASC Leiden abstract]
Views