Hi Bess and all, I would add that we need to strengthen open source governance models. We have few in the field: Kuali, duraspace, koha-community, Sakai Foundation, etc. and the ecosystem around it like custom support Mediashelf, ByWater Solutions, Equinox, etc.
Karim Boughida On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 3:35 PM, Bess Sadler <bess.sad...@gmail.com> wrote: > From where I'm standing one of the most important trends in digital libraries > right now is that more and more institutions are realizing: > > 1. Many digital library software needs exist for which there is no commercial > software that can be purchased, or it is prohibitively expensive > 2. Software teams in libraries rarely have the resources to develop and > maintain digital library software on their own, and this is probably not a > good long-term strategy anyway. > > These realizations, hopefully, lead to the conclusion that, > > 3. It makes the most sense to sign onto a larger digital library software > strategy and pursue community based development. > > I observe massive growth in the number of institutions adopting Blacklight, > Hydra, Islandora, VuFind and similar broad-based coalitions that can resource > and staff large scale digital library development efforts. See as evidence > this year's code4lib talk proposals. The same trend is evident in talk > proposals for DLF and Open Repositories. > > Choosing community based open source development gives institutions immediate > access to a suite of free (free as in beer and free as in speech!) digital > library solutions, a community of support, training materials for staff, > skill development workshops, and ongoing improvements, bug fixes, upgrade > guides, and new features without having to bankroll those themselves. That > gives individual institutions the ability to focus on their core areas of > expertise, focusing their development efforts on local deployment, data > management, and putting effort into the parts of the software ecosystem that > make the most strategic sense for their patrons. Increasingly there are also > vendors serving this market, so institutions who feel more comfortable > purchasing support and/or hosting contracts can have that option as well. > > Additionally, developers who regularly submit their code to larger projects > where it is subject to review by developers at other institutions and (for > some projects) rules around required code testing, tend to up their software > engineering game and start applying higher standards of quality even to > unrelated development efforts. I have noticed that many libraries hire > developers without having anyone on staff who has a good handle on how to > supervise developers. Being part of a larger project can also be a way to > grow this skill set among managers. > > Good luck with your talk! > > Best wishes, > Bess > > On Dec 17, 2012, at 11:49 AM, Matthew Sherman <matt.r.sher...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Hello all Code4Lib folk, >> >> I am putting together a small presentation with the topic about trends and >> issues in digital libraries for an interview next month. While I am doing >> quite a bit of searching and reading on my own, I wanted to see if any of >> you would be willing to provide your thoughts on what you see as emerging >> trends and issues in digital library, particularly as they deal with our >> ability to serve our users. I think it would be helpful to have insight >> from those currently in the trenches. Also this topic could be of interest >> to others in the listserv. Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated. >> >> Matt Sherman -- Karim B Boughida kbough...@gmail.com kbough...@library.gwu.edu
