K-State Libraries

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We Love Open Source Software No, You Cant Have
Our Code
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Simple application Citation Builder
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Polite Requests

• Take nothing personally think of this as a
  cathartic self-critique
• No audible expressions of disgust or exasperation
• Place chuckable objects in a secure place

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Our Open Sources Issues

• Perfectionism
• Dependency
• Quirkiness
• Redundancy
• Competitiveness
• Misunderstanding

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Perfectionism

• It is through Art and through Art only that we
  can realize our perfection through Art and Art
  only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid
  perils of hack programmers and commercial
  software.
• - freely adapted from Oscar Wilde

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Dependency

• Discontent is the want of self-reliance it is
  infirmity of will. No, I will not be taking any
  questions.
• - Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps

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The Dependency Pathway

• Library X creates cool software
• Library Y sees it, wheedles code, installs it,
  falls in love, and shares this love with the
  world
• Library Y, along with libraries A-W, as well as
  Z, all come knocking for support
• Library X may wish they hadnt made it quite so
  cool

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Sharing our code?
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Sharing our code, part II
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Quirkiness

• The continuity which accompanies the quirkiness
  of history that produced the original condition
  is an accepted part of the human condition for
  absent that quirkiness, man would not be on earth
  in an evolutionary sense to enjoy it.
• David Jablonsky
• I have no idea how/if this relates to software.

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Redundancy

• How, why, did this unnecessary business begin?
  Why does anyone want to read about itthis
  redundant human madness which men accept as
  inevitable?
• - Margaret Anderson

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Big challenge on display
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Open Library Environment

• this project appears to be reinventing the
  wheel
• rather than building an entirely new system,
  have the project members considered adding
  functionality to an existing open-source ILS like
  Koha? Id be interested in knowing more about
  whats missing.

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Competitiveness

• The university is no longer a quiet place to
  teach and do scholarly work at a measured pace
  and contemplate the universe. It is big, complex,
  demanding, competitive, bureaucratic, and
  chronically short of money.
• - Phyllis Dain

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Misunderstanding

• The world only goes round by misunderstanding.
• - Charles Baudelaire

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ITSO CUL

• Integrated Tool for Selection and Ordering for
  Cornell University Libraries
• Shareware preferred over open source "not only
  for the benefits to those in the audience who
  wished to use the program, but to Cornell by
  reducing their administrative costs and
  responsibility for the program"

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What can we do?

• Find a way to share software thats accessible to
  non-technical librarians
• Put a license on our code and get it out there,
  anywhere, no extra strings attached
• Commit to the necessary human investment
• Reward staff for contributing to the software
  community
• Reprioritize internally to make all of this happen

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What can we do?

• Please ignore what Im saying
• The real solution is to hire Mark Leggott as your
  director

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Many thanks

• Dale Askey
• Kansas State University
• daskey_at_ksu.edu