1.
Open Source Movement
in Libraries
Khalid Mahmood, PhD
Professor of Library and Information Science
University of the Punjab
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 1950s
◦ Companies were selling low priced software with
hardware
 1960s
◦ On limited scale
◦ Developers at universities and research organizations
shared code
 1970s
◦ Idea ended as programmers joined commercial firms to
produce proprietary software
History
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3.
 1985
◦ Richard Stallman disagreed
with proprietary philosophy,
left MIT, and founded the
Free Software Foundation
(FSF)
◦ Authored GNU manifesto
◦ GNU project developed
many complimentary
programs
History…
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4.
 1991
◦ Linus Torvalds, a 21-year old
computer science student of
Finland
◦ Started developing
Linux/GNU operating system
History…
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5.
 1998
◦ Netscape announced to release its web browser “Netscape
Communicator 4.0” as an open source product
 1998
◦ The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was started by a group
including Eric S. Raymond and Bruce Perens
 2002
◦ Mozilla was released based on Netscape code
 Recent years
◦ The movement has grown and produced many alternatives to
well known proprietary products
History…
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Web Server Market Share
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 The philosophy includes freedoms and
collaborative processes to knowledge
creation and dissemination.
 Like open content and open publishing
Open Movement Today
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 Free redistribution
 Source code
 Derived works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to
be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
 Integrity of the author's source code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form
‘only’ if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for
the purpose of modifying the program at build time.
 No discrimination against persons or groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
 No discrimination against fields of endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a
specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from
being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
Open Source Definition
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 Distribution of license
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program
is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by
those parties.
 License must not be specific to a product
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's
being part of a particular software distribution.
 License must not restrict other software
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed
along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist
that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-
source software.
 License must be technology-neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology
or style of interface
Open Source Definition…
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 Ability to fit local needs
Availability of the source code means that you can modify and enhance
the software to more closely fit your own needs.
 No restrictions on use
No restrictions on how the software is used and no invoices for each user
license.
 Low cost
No charge for the software itself. If other libraries share their efforts, each
user’s cost is reduced. Pay only for needed support or any additional
products & services if required. Even then huge savings than commercial
software.
 Innovation
With open source code, users keep-up innovating, improving which means
often much faster development cycle when compared to proprietary
software.
Open Source Strengths
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 User-driven
Traditional vendors focus on providing functionality meeting needs of
the majority of their customers. In contrast, OSS features emerge from
the community of users. This makes OSS development user-driven:
you decide what features are important and deserve attention rather
than a vendor.
 Collaboration
Vibrant local, national and global user groups collaborate in creativity,
development and trouble shooting.
 Transfer of technical know-how
Being active member and part of OSS community, your team members
will learn the minimum required know-how of software & technologies
in use.
Open Source Strengths…
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 Reliability
OSS is peer-reviewed software, exposed to extreme scrutiny, with
problems being found and fixed instead of being kept secret until
the wrong person discovers. So the code base is more reliable than
closed, proprietary software. Mature open-source code is as
bulletproof as software ever gets. OSS evolves at astonishing
speed. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs.
 Security and stability
Proprietary software, with 'closed' source code, support and future
development rely solely on the resources of a single vendor. If the
vendor goes down, so does your product support. In contrast, OSS
rely on stable code bases developed and supported by many
providers worldwide. As a result, libraries using OSS have more
support options than those using proprietary software.
 No supplier lock-in
Unlike proprietary software formats, Open Source software allows
you to access the source code for your applications and store your
data in open standard (non-proprietary) formats. As a result, you
are not tied to any particular supplier.
Open Source Strengths…
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 Unanticipated efforts
An organization may find that it needs to do a great deal more work
than anticipated to adapt the software exactly to the local needs.
 Lack of coordination
The decentralized development of open source software means that
progress can be chaotic and there may be delays in addressing bugs.
 Inadequate technical support
Documentation tends to be limited and aimed at developers. There
usually is limited technical support, especially for users of the
software.
 Risk of discontinuation
Development or support may discontinue. The same risk exists with
commercial options.
Open Source Weaknesses
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 Integrated library management
system
 Koha
 Evergreen
 Digital library and repositories
 Dspace
 Eprints
 Fedora
 Greenstone
Open Source Movement in
Libraries
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 Metasearch resolver
 LibraryFind
 CUFTS
 OPACs
 VuFind
 SOPAC
 Backlight
Open Source Movement in
Libraries…
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 LIS curriculum
 Koha and Greenstone at Punjab University
 Seminars
 LISolutions
 Training programs
 Koha, Greenstone, Zebra Server, MARCEdit by
PakLAG
 Koha and Dspace by LISolutions and PLWO
 Greenstone by Mehran UET
Open Source Movement in
Pakistani Libraries
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 Projects
 Koha at UMT, IIU, etc.
 Koha in Pakistan Legislative Strengthening Project
(PLSP) of the USAID
 PakLAG Koha
 Koha by LISolutions
 Greenstone at Akhtar Hameed Khan Resource
Center and United Nations
 Dspace in LUMS and Bahria University
 Research
 Muhammad Rafiq, Ata ur Rehman, Farasat
Shafiullah
Open Source Movement in
Pakistani Libraries…
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 Emerging movement in Pakistan
 Suitable for financially weak libraries
 Needs institutional support
 Higher education commission
 Professional associations
 Library schools
 Software houses for pay-for-support model
 Library consortia
Conclusion
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Thanks for your patience
and
Best wishes for this workshop
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