Practical Open Source Software for Libraries

Citation

Chawner, B. (2011), "Practical Open Source Software for Libraries", Online Information Review, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 977-978. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521111193274

Anyone who has been following developments in software development will have come across the phrase “open source software”, referring to software that is released under a licence that makes the source code available for examination, modification and redistribution. In the Introduction to Practical Open Source Software for Libraries, Engard indicates that her goal in writing the book was to educate librarians so that they could “jump in and start to communicate with others who are developing and using open source software” order to become part of an open source community of their choice.

She does this by presenting her material in two sections: An Introduction to Open Source, and Practical Applications for Libraries. The first four chapters introduce open source concepts and terminology, beginning with the provisions of the GNU General Public License and the Open Source Definition. This is followed by a discussion of the importance of community in open source projects, and a brief examination of common myths about open source software. Chapter 4 looks at the similarities between librarians' core values, as expressed in professional association statements about intellectual freedom, and those expressed in open source software licences, noting that they both “center their rules on freedom of use and freedom or access”.

The remaining chapters cover the use of open source software in different library‐related contexts, including day‐to‐day operations, web access, media applications (image and audio editing, screencasting, desktop publishing), website management, managing digital collections, research guides, and library automation. Each of these chapters includes one or more case studies discussing the use of an open source software package in a library context; the packages include office productivity software (OpenOffice), web browsers (Firefox), library statistics (LibStats), ILSs (Koha and Evergreen), web content management software (Drupal, Joomla and WordPress), plus many more.

Engard's writing style is casual and easy to read, and her enthusiasm for the topic is evident. The case studies provide engaging descriptions of real‐world experiences with the software, and one of the book's strengths comes from the range of examples, which include lesser‐known packages (such as LibX and Library à la Carte™) as well as the more predictable ones (Greenstone, DSpace). Each chapter concludes with notes listing relevant background material, supplemented by an extensive list of further reading in an appendix. Other appendices include over 900 responses to a survey asking about librarians' attitudes to and use of open source software, and a list of the websites mentioned in the book. The book would have benefitted from more careful editing, with the open source definition on pages 7‐8 credited to the Free Software Foundation, not the Open Source Initiative. There is a subject index, and a companion website, available at http://opensource.web2learning.net/. This is recommended for any librarian interested in learning more about open source options, and for general library studies collections.