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Open Source in Libraries: Freedom and Community

Librarians have adopted a culture of helplessness and workarounds when it comes to our software. Open source software is a way to get freed from these chains. But open source is about more than just software, it’s about community and a philosophy of freedom. This session will give librarians the facts about open source software by introducing them to what open source is and what it means for libraries.

Join us online for one of our first two lessons (space is limited so register early).

February 16, 2012 at 10am-11:30am EST
Register Online: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/993578942

March 13, 2012 at 2pm-3:30pm EST
Register Online: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/636868638

Read the full press release.

Library Journal is conducting a snap survey to determine library and patron satisfaction with integrated library systems (ILS) in both public and academic libraries. Are you in charge of technology, collections, or reference at your library? We are eager to hear your thoughts about the systems that you and your patrons use every day.

Please click on this link to take a very brief survey (which will only take a few minutes to answer): http://app.fluidsurveys.com/s/ILS/?link=listserv

Results of this study will appear in an upcoming LJ article in Spring 2012. Thanks for supporting our research efforts!

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Equinox Software is offering 2 scholarships to the code4lib conference in February.

The scholarships will reimburse travel and accommodation expenses up to $750.00 USD for a full-time employee from public libraries using either Evergreen or Koha to attend the Code4Lib Conference in Seattle, Washington, USA, from February 6-9, 2012. The awardees will also receive free registration to Code4Lib.

ELIGIBILITY

The applicants must be presently working in a public library that is currently using or is actively committed to moving to either Evergreen or Koha as their ILS.

The applicants must indicate any amount and source of additional funding which, combined with the Scholarship, will permit them to cover their expenses to attend the Conference. (This will not reduce the amount of the award.)

Preference will be given to underfunded libraries or libraries in budget crisis.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION December 31, 2011

The email application should include a current resume, including all contact information, education, and experience, along with an essay as described below.

The applicants will write up to 750 words of narrative in English to address the following:

• Description of the library’s mission and commitment to open source solutions
• How attendance may benefit the applicant
• How the applicant intends to share the benefit of the experience with colleagues
• Description of funding constraints, budgetary limitations, or travel/hiring freezes pertinent to the applicant’s situation

APPLICATION ADDRESS: Please send resumes and essays to Grace Dunbar before December 31, 2011 by email attachment to c4lgrant@esilibrary.com

NOTIFICATION: The successful applicants will be notified by January 5, 2012.

Feel free to re-post this announcement and/or our press release (http://esilibrary.com/esi/newsitem.php?id=2182)

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The OSS Lib Tech Team is currently in the third phase of a multiple year project funded by IMLS comparing the technical support of Open Source and Proprietary Integrated Library Systems. We are soliciting participation for an online survey or telephone interviews from the open source community for the current phase, which will use the experience of open source software ILS adopters to develop a model for the evaluation, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of open source ILS.

The telephone interview consists of several questions about your ILS migration experience and will take about 30 minutes. We have already interviewed several librarians over the past few weeks and would like to hear from your experiences. We are happy to compensate you for your time with a $25 Amazon gift card. We are especially interested in talking to K-12 school librarians. If you would prefer to fill out a web-based survey, you may do so at http://oss-research.cci.utk.edu/Phase_3_survey.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in the study or in being interviewed please forward this email to them or direct them to our site at http://www.oss-research.com/ where they can find out more about the project. We are interested in learning about the experiences of libraries of different types and sizes and are interested in hearing from you even if your migration to an open source ILS is not complete.

If you are willing to participate, please respond to this email with the subject phrase “ILS Interview.” In the same email please mention:

• The type of library (public, academic, school, special, etc.) you represent and
• The approximate size of your collection.

We really appreciate your time and support and look forward to reporting back the results from this study! Thanks again to everyone who has already responded and to the great support of the open source community.

Please direct any queries or suggestions to utk.ils.research@gmail.com with the subject “ILS Interview” in the subject line.

Cheers,
The OSS Lib Tech Team
Vandana Singh (PI)
Natasha Hollenbach and Vance Walker (RA)

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Hello!

We are asking you for some help from the Open Source communities.

As researchers at the University of Tennessee we are interested in
discovering more about learning and interactions of members of the open
source forums. This research is conducted through the University of
Tennessee and is in no way associated with any forum organization. To
further our research we would like input from forum members. The responses
are very important to us so we can better understand what tools help forum
members learn and have a productive experience in participation.

There are two ways you can help:

1. Take a survey about the tools you use in the forum.

We are requesting approximately 15 minutes of your time to participate in
our survey.
Survey link: http://survey.utk.edu/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=FORUMLEARN

*As a thank you, upon exiting the survey you will be given an opportunity to
submit information to be entered in a drawing for a tablet computer (iPad).
*

2. Have a one on one interview talking about the forums, how you learn,
and tools used. *As a thank you for your interview you will be sent a
$25.00 gift card. * Email lholt@utk.edu for more information.

You may do either or both of the above. Please be assured that your answers
will be confidential. No individual’s answers will ever be identified in
any report. Should you have any questions about the project or our interest
in using the results, we encourage you to contact Lila Holt, at
lholt@utk.edu) or Vandana Singh at vandana@utk.edu.

Contact information you provide for the drawing is completely separate from
your survey answers and there will be no way to identify participants in the
actual survey responses. Nor will contact information be used for any other
purpose. The odds of being selected will depend on the number of respondents
to this survey.

Thank you so much!

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