we love open source software … no, you can’t have our code

October 2, 2008 K-State LibrariesDale Askey

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We Love Open Source Software … No, You Can’t

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 hadn’t 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 it—this 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? I’d be interested in knowing more about ‘what’s 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 that’s 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 I’m saying The real solution is to hire Mark

Leggott as your director


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Many thanks

Dale Askey Kansas State University [email protected]

we love open source software … no, you can’t have our code

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