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Here’s wishing you a Happy Birthday, Jess!

Happy birthday and congratulations. Great accomplishment!

Happy birthday, a lot of thing that i should do, i have learn much harder from You Sir.

[...] (via Jessamyn West [...]

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeff Scott, Koha Open Source ILS. Koha Open Source ILS said: #koha what happens when you don’t get what you pay for http://bit.ly/4H3Wgx !koha [...]

How do you feel about it? Do you have the same opinion?

Thanks,
– Ben

I really don’t know. I think if I had a contract with LibLime I’d mind. That said there are a lot of reasons people stick with vendors. We didn’t go with LibLime in Vermont because they were way too expensive for what we needed and what we could afford. I don’t know if they’re like that for other people. If I was going with an Open Source vendor I think I’d really want them to maintain their PS committment throughout, yeah, but I can’t second guess other folks’ motivations.

As I said in my blog post about this, I’m really bothered by the attribution of the building open source ILSes as one of the “stupidest strategies ever undertaken” to Cliff Lynch without an actual citation. Abram is a librarian and a Fellow of the Special Libraries Association – he should know the importance of citing sources!

Yeah I found that weird and damning myself. Some of the stuff in that paper could be argued either way but it was clear what the slant is and I thought that appeal to expert and one out of context quote was weird and sketchy. Really, Georgia PINES was stupid?

One of the things it seems to be saying is that open source is good in some contexts (infrastructure like Linux and Apache, or end-user like Firefox), but it’s not suitable for an ILS, because the proprietary ones are already mature. I guess that makes sense if people want to keep using legacy software, but where will the innovation come from if that’s the approach they take?

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by jessamyn west, May Yan. May Yan said: See comments! RT @rmazar @buridan @jessamyn: SirsiDynix lobbying paper against Open Source http://tinyurl.com/wlsirsi http://bit.ly/1YTgu4 [...]

Oh, SirsiDynix. Srsly? there are so many points in the document that made me hiccup with laughter. I like this quote: “Some of the most security-conscious entities, like the United States Department of Defense, restrict the use of open source software for fear that it could pose a terrorist opportunity.” (Oh noes! the terrorists are in ur library management system…doing..something…bad…)

That’ll be the same US DoD that recently released memo encouraging the use of OSS, then?

Clifford Lynch has clarified his position somewhat.

http://www.librarytechnology.org/blog.pl?ThreadID=134&BlogID=1

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Meredith and Scot Colford, sfn. sfn said: wow, librarian.net link to wikileaks document by stephen abram railing against open source ILS (and vendors of) http://tinyurl.com/yj9mryl [...]

I think it’s a pretty fair look at the challenges of software development on a large scale, for the library community, or anyone really. Any middle manager at Microsoft could have written this.

EXCEPT

Except there’s a strong undercurrent of … venom? Maybe it is just Abram’s rhetorical style, which can be grating (ie not citing sources). This is essentially a memo to people that trust Sirsi, and he can say whatever he wants, and that’s fine. Some examples that jumped out at me though were:

“The open source process is too organic and lacks tight priorities and strong management oversight.”

“…the small libraries of Georgia who are captive to suboptimal
open source systems.”

“Testing is the responsibility of the original programmer and their buddies.”

Time has not been kind to Stephen. No sources, lots of logical fallacies, innuendo…this isn’t the kind of work he did when he was working for ProQuest Canada.

There are a lot of things you can ding OSS on. I don’t think he hit one of them. This reads more like propaganda points for salescritters than any kind of logical analysis.

I really miss the Stephen I met years ago. Coming south wasn’t good for him.

[...] This post was Twitted by DrWeb2 [...]

Stephen has posted about this and is responding to comments:
http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2009/10/its_about_a_res.html

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by qadmon_rss: Edublogs: SirsiDynix Corp lobby paper against Open Source technologies: Interesting thing in my inbox .. http://bit.ly/4fbgq0…

[...] has prevented me from actually, you know, posting anything. Yesterday, however, I stumbled upon a post by the awesome Jessamyn West about a document that Stephen Abram, Vice President of Innovation for [...]

Stephen Abram has joined the dark side. What a pity. We currently use Innovative and are exploring open source options. Just to make certain we did a thorough job on our homework, we also obtained a quote from SirsiDynix. Their quote for annual maintenance was even higher than our Innovative annual maintenance fees. Needless to say, I was surprised.

Abram manages to slam a system that serves a heck of a lot of citizens in Georgia as being a stupid development after failing them for years with his own company’s offering, makes numerous hints about unsavoury aspects of OSS, even a terrorist connection no less, purposely mixes up library decisions to join PINES the consortium with Evergreen the system, and then calls for a “respectful” discussion when the cat is let out of the bag. I guess he didn’t link open source to drowning kittens but this seems unworthy of a pundit of such stature. If anything, Lynch comes across even worse than Abram. I can sort of understand flailing around on a sinking ship as is the case for Abram, but someone should tell Lynch that Koha is more than a decade old now and Evergreen has been live for years. Indiana, Michigan and further up north, I think there are a bunch of big Canadian sites, once a sirsidynix stronghold. This firestorm might have made some sense in 1999, it should be embarrassing to everyone in 2009.

Thanks! Very interesting…

I took part in a FLYP conference a couple of weeks ago and was amazed at how state funds had paid for artwork for the Florida Youth Program, but there were all sorts of limitations on what Florida libraries could do with that artwork even in promoting those programs.

This was commissioned artwork and would probably be considered akin to contractor or subcontractor reports, which can (unfortunately) be paid for by public money but maintain copyright.

Still: after about 45 minutes of talking about dos and don’ts in regard to this artwork I found myself wishing that all work done by or for the government, at all levels (including state, county, and city), were automatically in the public domain.

I had the great privilege to see Dale do the rudimentary talk at Access 2008 that led to this article. Very smart man.

[...] librarian.net » Blog Archive » why don’t librarians like to give their code away? "Dale Askey has written a great column on how libraries “share and fail to share open source software” and looks into some of the reasons that might be the case." (tags: libraries opensource code) [...]

[…] to Jessamyn, I have discovered Evergreen. The user interface isn’t all I’d want, but is quite […]

[…] Librarian.net […]

My workplace uses Ubunta for its student computer network. Whilst there’s some kinks to be worked out, on the whole it works pretty well as an alternative to Mr. Gates’s software offerings.

How cool! I just sent an e-mail offering up our unique local history records, and would encourage other out-of-the-way libraries with special collections to do the same. What a wonderful alternative to WorldCat!

its well * good

it is well & good

VLC can be used for even more than just a typical media player. I know a friend who has used it to create various streams so he could broadcast some music and videos throughout his apartment.

[…] Link: Jessamyn West, motiváció: Paszternák Ádám. : D Elrakom: […]

Thanks for posting about this! Much appreciated.
I would recommend checking out How to Think Like a Computer Scientist : Learning with Python .

This is very interesting stuff. My background is all software development in the corporate world.. with some recent exploration into WordPress customization for my blog (but as user, not as a contributor). I just posted a review of the book Dreaming in Code last night. It specifically is looking at a team focused on Open Source development - and includes some interesting sections that talk about gender issues and work styles of the team members being profiled. I suspect you would enjoy it!

I believe that many free software developers are reasonable about this and willing to bring the sexists in line, but are demotivated from doing so by creation of sexist women-only Affirmative Action projects, like the LinuxChix mentioned in the first HOWTO above.

Fight for equal opportunity, not for equal discrimination.

How is having a hobby group for women interested in Linux some sort of affirmative action project, or sexist for that matter? There are tons of social groups that cater towards one gender or another (boy scouts?) and there’s nothing sexist about that.

I get so tired of hearing that. First of all, I don’t want to “fight” and suggesting this is a fight means the point really is sadly missed.

Fact: We have such an EXTREMELY low percent of women participating in open source. We hear women say they are afraid, intimidated, worried about posting in open source forums; some pose as men so that they get answers to questions and respect. It sounds like 18th Century English Literature, not the Day of the Internet.

This is a problem.

If you believe, like I do, that women also bring gifts and you look at our open source projects, it’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that “Hey! We could use some of that!”

Of course we should try to figure out why we have this problem that prevents participation of an important segment of our population and fix it! Think Raymond - interesting problem to solve. Some of us find this to be so! It’s scratching our itch, baby!

What makes this non-sexist is this: if we found men were not participating, then it would make the same kind of sense to take steps towards figuring out why that is happening and fix it.

This is not sexist at all. Dealing openly and honestly with this condition is being responsive to a real community issue. As it turns out, we need a diverse community in order to get the work done. We need one another, men *and* women alike.

I posted a link to this post at COSWL Cause.
Your post and the comments are important.
http://blogs.ala.org/coswlcause.php?title=nerdy_lady_friends_wanted&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

at first i wondered “why does RTFM comments turn away women and not men”, but in my experience the problem is women are far more likely to be told to RTFM, when asking questions. We have to fight to prove we’re technical, and not “just a user”.
besides, if the FM was any good (or easy to find) I wouldn’t have needed to ask.

Check out Carnegie Mellon’s Women@SCS (SCS = School of Computer Sciences). It has one of the best explanations I’ve seen about why women-centric computer science groups are necessary and positive. Carnegie Mellon looked at its enrollment numbers around 2002 or so and realized that it had a pathetically small number of women enrolling in CS and engineering. So, explorations were done, and revealed a sort of ‘boys club’ in existence. Nothing malicious, but when a bunch of guys live together and all study CS, they tend to stay up late together, study together, share notes, share ideas. Females in the program found it difficult to break into this club. And, while the guys may be more than willing to invite a female in, not every female is comfortable being the only girl in a room full of 18-22 year old guys. And, frankly, not every guy is willing to invite a female in (or admit that she may be of equal or greater ability).

Groups like LinuxChix and Women@SCS exist for a very simple reason: welcoming and fostering women’s involvement in computing in a time when participation is very low, and sexist ideas still run rampant. I imagine that once there is more equal participation, and once some ridiculous, antiquated ideas about women’s abilities die (please die, bad ideas, please?), these groups will become obsolete. Until then, rock on!

Heather Y.
Soon-to-be database and server admin, in delicious open source glory

I’ve been on the less techie end of the spectrum - old school FPS gamer. And there were some truly horrific LANs that made me want to quit. And eventually I did. There are only so many times you can take the sexually degrading humour ‘kindly’ and look away in one day. There are only so many times you can deal with the harrassment before the thought of being the only girl (and very obviously a girl) in a room full of a hundred men who think nothing of using sexually violent ‘humour’ or even just assuming I know nothing.

Like I explained to someone - what kind of stupidity does it take to ask someone sitting in front of a computer, at a lan, with CS open, “oh hey, are you here to play or just dropping someone off?”. It isn’t malicious, it’s just stupid and irritating. CS (the other kind) was just as bad, particularly when they were threatened by the LibSci management forcing all of the LibSci students into Masters level programming courses with the Masters level CS grads. Even the girls clammed up and blocked us out.

Jessamyn, I am a relatively new library student, and a part-time library techie. In my first career I was an embedded software developer and tester. I have been using Open Office for some time, but it wasn’t until I saw your video a couple of weeks ago that I was inspired to do likewise to a donated computer that I recently received. I’m still waiting for the additional memory that will allow me to install Ubuntu, but meanwhile I have been experimenting with nearly a dozen other Linux distros. Boy, does this bring back memories! I doubt that I will ever get involved in Linux code development–I’ve left that behind–but I will certainly be an open source evangelist to anyone who will listen. In particular, I would like to see my library’s consortium migrate to an open source ILS such as Koha or Evergreen. The “Microsoft tax” is pretty light compared to the proprietary ILS tax.

MJ, let’s just say for the sake of argument that things like “LinuxChix” are bad ideas, and maybe even ’sexist’ themselves. (I don’t personally believe that, but just for the sake of argument).

I don’t get it, how could you POSSIBLY let that
“de-motivate” you from “bringing sexists in line”? What, some women do something that you think is a bad idea or even unethical, so you decide that all women should be attacked, or that now you like sexism? I think maybe you were never that motivated in the first place.

FLOSSpols has some interesting reports on gender and open source, including a list of policy suggestions for improving gender balance.

I’m very interested in contributing to open source projects, but I lack the technical expertise to move beyond writing documentation, and I admit I’ve been a little overwhelmed wondering where to start. To me, the most productive way to address the issue of gender inequality in open source development would be to have a tangible and focused project to start with. How awesome would it be if a crew of knowledgeable people organized something like 5 Weeks to a Social Library, but structured it around contributing to an open source library project like koha and geared it explicitly toward being supportive toward women and other underrepresented folks in the open source world?

Over at Digital Web Magazine they have a post about this., Wonder Why Women Don’t Feel Welcome?

http://tinyurl.com/37mpsd

Jessamyn: I typed a long reply to this, but forgot about your spam word check. When people submit comments and forget to enter something in that field, the browser forgets what you had previously written. This is very frustrating. You are probably losing comments because of this.

Over half the students in our inaugural class Intro to Applied Technology for our graduate Certificate In Digital Information Management program at the University of Arizona are female. In this class, we have students learn Linux and actually bring up and configure their own a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server. We were very pleased to see such a high enrollment of women as well a number of students falling into the underserved/minority categories, which are also significantly underrepresented in tech. I hope to see this trend (if it is one) continue.

You are my hero.

Hi, Jessamyn!

A typo in the first sentance makes it unclear whether you _installed_ or _uninstalled_ Ubuntu.

I’m guessing _installed_ … but you never know.

: )

Thanks Silus, fixed it!

Thanks so much. Love it!

I love the video, and I’m in awe of a public library having both Windows and Ubuntu available.

In my own use of Ubuntu, I’ve never had a problem connecting to the internet. Even wifi was easy (although I got my card by asking for help on the Ubuntu forums and buying a recommended card, rather than getting a card first and trying to figure out how to get it to work).

Nice production values! Well done.

Hiya,
MarkPilgrim’s Ubuntu Essentials post was helpful for a recent install (tips how to get the non-default codecs, flash, etc. done quickly).

Hey, is that the Michot Brothers playing in the video??

Hey that was a fantastic video! I want to install Ubuntu at a tiny library now. And if you want to learn to screencast, I hear there was an excellent program at the Mass Library Assn conference last week. Oh wait, you were there … and you missed it! ;-)

I haven’t watched the video yet but let me say it is very refreshing to see someone embrace something different and free, rather than let those machines waste away. Kudos!

[…] do you ubuntu? [Librarian.net] tr { border: 0px } td { cellborder: 10px} table { border: 1px solid black } […]

[…] FYI, Jessamyn is one of the premier library tech people. I just always wondered about UNIX. Tanya, where’s your old pc … […]

Nifty. Was that Michael Doucet/Beausoleil on the soundtrack?

Yeah the song is the Eunice Two-Step by Beausoleil.

I love OpenOffice–very cool! I tell my students about it all the time. Great little video!

Definitely a good idea to check out which sorts of wireless cards are best before trying to connect to wi-fi… I really struggled with this part of the setup.

Nice work - thanks for taking the time to make the video.

Did you create the video on a Ubuntu machine? What did you use? Did you like it? I haven’t found a video editor I like for Linux yet….

Maybe it’s just me, but I think this video could have effects beyond Washington, VT. Nothing like a dead simple and entertaining demo to demystify “exotic” technology. The zydeco helps too.

[…] Ubuntu @ the Library By beerorkid her blog […]

[…] Linky (bizarrely, you have to click read more to get the link) […]

[…] Bonus: This morning a co-worker pointed out GreenDimes. It’s a service that will do the work for you to get your name off junk mail lists, to reduce the amount that makes it to your mailbox, and then they also have a tree planted for you monthly. Neat. Plus: I’ve been a long-time fan of Jessamyn but must admit, I haven’t gotten over to libarian.net lately. But she was boing-boinged today for making a video about how to install Ubuntu - on some machines that were donated to her library. So awesome. And yes, I do Ubuntu too. And: Poor Galadriel is looking more like a zombie queen than an elf queen. I don’t think all shall love her, but we might just despair. […]

ugh, ubuntu linux. congratulations on your awesome trend following.

Hey Jessamyn! CitrusFreak12 here. Loved the video! You are my favorite internet folk-hero!

Hi weapons of massdistration- Thanks for mentioning GreenDimes in your comment! We really appreciate your taking the time to tell others about the service.
Kendra

What a very cool video! Maybe if I play it for some of the more wrongheaded of folks in my office, they will change their minds a bit more about Linux.

Thank you for making it!

While I am no fan of Ubuntu/Kubuntu, all I can say is “great job”!. Not only have you helped out your library, but you have also helped out the Linux community. Ubuntu does have good community
support, with their user forum and wiki.

Great idea, and the vid was put together nicely, too.

Unfortunately the pic they used on boing boing makes it look like someone is goosing you. :P

jm

Great video! You should burn about 10 extra cds and give em out if anyone shows an interest.

[…] A Librarian installs Ubuntu in the basement on two donated PC’s.  She made a video of her adventure.  Thanks to author Corey Doctorow for that link. […]

Cameron,

Too late. We at Canonical have found Jessamyn’s video, and we’re sending a few hundred officially pressed CDs to our friends in Vermont’s libraries. :)

And if anyone wants officially pressed CDs, just hit https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ and we’ll send you some for free.

The video is quite popular at the Ubuntu Developer’s Summit this week, and we wanted to say “thanks” for making us smile.

Rock on, Jessamyn! Ubuntu loves you!

[…] do you ubuntu? [Librarian.net] […]

Writing as a software engineer who recently married a librarian, I’ve believed for years that geeks and librarians are just different clans in the same tribe. Rock On.

[…] Using Ubuntu in Libraries May 9th, 2007 — techxplorer I saw this post on the blog of Jessamyn West and thought it very funny, as well as inspirational. In a short amount of time she takes two donated PC’s and turns them into Ubuntu workstations in a way only Jessamyn could. […]

[…] Watch the video, and follow the discussion around it on her blog and notice the amount of fun these people, who are very non-technical it would seem, are having with the Ubuntu OS. […]

Mrs. West, do you use Ubuntu in your laptop? If not, why?

Great video!!! ;-)

Congratulations for choosing freedom by using Linux.
You will discover that is is much less messy (no virus, no spyware, more robust and secure) than windows, so it wont be any problem to connect these machines to the internet.
There is also have free (as in freedom, although it is also costless) software you can use to manage your library:
http://www.koha.org
Regards from a spaniard Linux user

Hey, it seems to be much easier than downloading an audio book from Overdrive ;-)

will you marry me? you probably won’t but i thought i’d ask anyway. thanks for a cool video. yes, i do the ubuntu and a few others as well. love ‘em.

note to self: visit the library more often.

[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu?: do you ubuntu? […]

[…] http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/ […]

:D

Applications->Add/Remove Programs. Search for “Frozen Bubble”.

People will flock to the library just to play. :)

[…] Installing Ubuntu Linux is easy & fun! […]

[…] Link to post and video: http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/ […]

Jessamyn, I love your multimedia

[…] librarian.net. Ubuntu telepítése. Kötelező. WPvideo 1.10 […]

It’s a real good job. Congrats.

Are you Still have troubles with internet conection?

Regards

Jessamyn, great job on the video. It should be an inspiration to a lot of future Ubuntu users. I started using Linux in 2003 and haven’t looked back. I use Ubuntu on my Acer laptop, and it works great. Just remember, there are lots of other great Linux distributions.

As a librarian, you will want to read Glyn Moody’s “Rebel Code” which gives a good account of the birth of the open source movement. Plus check out the documentary film “Revolution OS” by J.T.S. Moore available on DVD. Keep up the good work.

Red

Nice O.S., unless happens that some piece of your hardware is non-linuxfriendly,especially modems

[…] This video by Jessamyn at the Washington, Vermont, USA library just makes me smile.  Proof that some people “Just Get It”! […]

Great video. Ubuntu / Linux is also great on Kiosks. ISLUG (out LUG) has installed kiosks in a coffee shop and local bar.. umm beer!
Keep up the good work.
Tom

[…] Jessamyn West installed Ubuntu on some library computers and made this cute video of it. […]

You simply kick asses, I’m in love :)

Great job Jessamyn! Love seeing stories like this - it warms the cockles of my heart (whatever cockles are).

FYI, I’m one of the authors of O’Reilly’s _Ubuntu Hacks_ book - if you’ve got Ubuntu questions you should pull it off your shelf there at the library (it *is* on your shelf, right?) and flip thru it. :)

Ubuntu is pretty good isn’t it.
However, you may want to check that any things you would want to attach will work.

Flip through here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/

I found out the hard way that the printer I have at my parent’s house doesn’t work with *any* linux.
Ah well, que sera sera.

So is there a way to lock down these ubuntu boxes without using a kiosk load? Specifically can you auto purge the browser history, clear OO files, and prevent unwanted activities (e.g DL .exe, install software, etc).

Last time I played with linux for public PCs there was no tool similar to policy editor/shared toolkit for locking and purging the machines after ever patron use, something I find essential for privacy.

You asked about screen-casting?

Check this out:

http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/

Use it to make videos of your desktop.

Great for training others.

It’s open source and free.

Enjoy.

Excellent video. Congrats on giving Ubuntu a try. It gets even better. Wait until you discover all of the software, including a growing number of educational titles you can put on those PC’s.
I have been using Ubuntu for about a week and think this may the first Linux distribution I leave on the family PC.
Enjoy.
Phil

awesome video! More! More!

Shawn Romine
Library Computer Support Tech
Douglas County Library System
1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd.
Roseburg, OR 97470
541-440-4228 phone
541-957-7798 fax

That was awesome! Long live open-source, libraries, and librarians!

[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu? - I installed Ubuntu on two of the donated PCs at my library yesterday. It took less than an hour. In fact, if I hadnât been making the little movie at the same time it would have taken me even less time. 9. May 2007, 17:32 o’clock […]

[…] BoingBoing links to a video Jessamyn West made about installing Ubuntu Linux on some of her library’s computers. If the library gets a Mac, she thinks it will be the first library in Vermont to offer three operating systems. Her post has more information about Ubuntu and using it in libraries. […]

Yay!

More power to you! Thank you for the great video and for showing all the nay-sayers how its done.

Shane.

[…] For the inquisitive, the link is here - […]

[…] This librarian uses the much less newbie-hostile ubuntu default desktop, and shows how easy to install and easy to use it is, and how much great software is installed by default. Now that is how one promotes GNU/Linux! […]

Well done !

here a howto to get the perfect ubuntu desktop:

http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_ubuntu7.04

How are the patrons liking using Ubuntu stations? We’re contemplating looking into suggesting it for our system libraries and we’re curious what the feedback has been from the patrons in this library. Thanks!

After reading your post about installing the PCs in the library I went and downloaded Ubuntu on a spare laptop. I did a clean install. I love it! It’s on the Internet now. I haven’t messed much with the printing yet.

Congratulations for entering the wonderful world of free and open source software.

I have Kubuntu installed on all of my school library PCs (and an old iMac).

[…] Link […]

Wow! It only took you ten seconds to start up Open Office!? :-)

Listen, you get what you pay for. I tried using Ubuntu Linux for about two months and found it to be clunky and slow: Firefox was a dog and OpenOffice was unusable; Gnome was unresponsive. Reinstalling Windows was a breath of fresh air. My current setup is: a Windows machine for everyday browsing, email, and Office applications and a Linux machine for the occasional Linux-only application. I also use a Mac laptop because it makes me look cool in public, and believe me I need all the help I can get :-)

Another point I’d like to make. People often make a big deal about how easy it is to install Linux and how much software it comes with. The fact is that the vast majority of computer users will never install an OS in their lives; their computers come with an OS installed. And much of the time their computers come with all the other stuff you need installed as well (Office, etc.). And, I positively garantee that you’ll never use close to half of the stuff that came installed on your Ubuntu install. These facts make the mere hour you spent installing look kind-of wasteful. Think of the things you could have done with that hour! :-)

This is not to say that I don’t understand or sympathize with all the cool counter-culture reasons to run Linux and stick it to Microsoft. But, just like the Mac commercials that imply Mac’s are somehow immune to Viruses and incompatibility problems, a public disservice is done when you tout advantages that really aren’t there.

Thanks for giving me the forum to get this stuff off my chest. :-)

Well done! Thanks for the video.

Great video!

Mark Shuttleworth played this video to the developers at the end of the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Sevilla, Spain today. It was received very well.

Congratulations.

[…] A Librarian Install Ubuntu Posted May 11, 2007 In this video a librarian for a small library in Vermont installs Ubuntu on two donated PC’s without an operating system. This is a really entertaining video. Read about it and watch it: […]

You are Heroic.

Bring this idea to other local librarians! The library is all about freedom of information, and that’s what Linux and Ubuntu are about!

Great video!

Now use “System > Administration > Synapic” to install “ubuntu-restricted-extras” flash player, java, more fonts and some multimedia stuff.

Best of luck with Ubuntu!

Also try other live distributions, PCLinuxOS, Mepis etc. Love the video!

prepare to get Slashdotted. i thot you worthy!

[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu? a librarian installs Ubuntu (tags: DIY library ubuntu friday_fun) […]

J - Finally got around to watching the video. You seriously rock!!!

Greetings to Mrs. West from Mr. West :-) (no relation)

This video is great; wonderful viral advertising for Ubuntu.

Another way to install GNU/Linux, albeit Debian rather than Ubuntu (although Ubuntu is Debian-based), is to point your Windows web browser to http://goodbye-microsoft.com and click on the Debian icon. The process sets up a dual-boot, walks you through the partitioning of your drive, and downloads what’s needed from the ‘net and installs it, all without having to burn and boot from a CD.

Again, thanks for the video! Lotta fun!

Thanks, Jessamyn!
great -nice-happy video!

[…] librarian.net » do you ubuntu? “I installed Ubuntu on two of the donated PCs at my library yesterday. It took less than an hour.” Good news indeed, as libraries with their scarce resources need all the help they can get with their IT infrastructure. (tags: via:BobSutor open-source education Linux ubuntu libraries) […]

[…] For those who haven’t seen it yet, Jessamyn at Librarian.net has a video of her installing Ubuntu Linux onto three computers at a small library. This comes fast on the news from last week that Dell will be offering Ubuntu as an alternative Operating System to Windows Vista. After years of quietly percolating in the background, Linux is finally catching on in the popular imagination as an alternative to the ham fisted monopoly of Microsoft and I couldn’t be happier. That it’s Ubuntu that is making the noise is even better. It makes me almost want to buy a PC just to help the cause. Maybe I can convince my parents to switch? That might be a nifty little series, following the procedures, from talking my parent sinto the switch all the way through the install process… hmm, yes… […]

Just connect them up to the Internet with nework cards which are usaly always supported, I bet the windows machines are connected to a rooter some ware and ae on the net because of that, I recon you shoud network up the printer too so all machines can use the printer.

Don’t for get to Find the Ubuntu fourms too get help that you may need, have alook around the net.

[…] Aproveitou para filmar a sua “Install Party” privada, num vídeo intitulado Jessamyn installs Ubuntu @ the Library, disponível no formato livre Ogg e no formato proprietário Flash Vídeo, embebido na sua página. […]

Jessamyn you rock my world!
cheers from Brazil
http://bsf.org.br/2007/05/12/ubuntu-na-biblioteca/

great Beausoleil

[…] Jessamyn, do librarian.net, filmou a experiência de instalar Ubuntu em 3 computadores que foram doados sem sistema operacional. Cai muito bem no Brasil. […]

Great video! I’m looking to try ubuntu on Dell starts selling hardware with ubuntu preinstalled.

Great little video. What about making a video of people learning the new system.

Well Done - Kudos - Check out the koha project.

Shaun

[…] Jessamyn West, a librarian from Vermont has made an awesome video on installing Ubuntu. […]

Great - looks like you had a lot of fun.

I wonder if this kind of thing will force MS into letting non-profits install a MS OS (for free)…
Not holding my breath ;) …although it would be the smart thing to do.

SarcasticSmarmyGuy: If Ubuntu was slow and unresponsive for you, you’ve got an older machine. Xubuntu works great on those. ;-)
Ubuntu does have higher system requirements than Windows XP. It’s also newer. It’s also a ton lighter than Vista.
I’m not entirely sure what advantages she talked about which weren’t there. Ubuntu is free, it comes with a lotta software, and installing it took less time than it would to have gotten an equivalent Windows XP system with all the fixings up and running. (Yeah, the boxes already had 2000 on them, but they may have been donated on the condition that the computer be wiped; a fairly common and not unreasonable request, actually.)

—

All in all, this was a pretty great video. Good job, Jessamyn.

[…] was written by Carlos and posted on 5/13/2007 at 12:20 pm and filed under Open Source. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback:Trackback URL. « EFF’s a bit off about one thing. ^_- […]

Jessamyn,

Love your little video :^)

Love your little dance at the end even more… Joy.

SarcasticSmarmyGuy: You have no idea what it’s like having to use donated equipment. “You get what you pay for”. Quite.

Go girl.

Loved the Video
Other FOSS software to try:
Ubuntu Studio
Dan’s Guardian
http://www.open-ils.org/
very gool GPL ILS software being used in the whole state of Georgia - VT needs to do this too.
http://www.koha.org/
also GPL ILS software to look at…
K12LTSP.org
Edubuntu
http://meadvillelibrary.org/os/pala-ltsp/presentation/img0.htm
http://www.groklaw.net
http://www.newsforge.com

Cute little Video, i like the part where you
dont accept the EULA, really cool.

Ubuntu Ubuntu Ubuntu :-)

[…] I read a great blog from a Librarian who installed Feisty Fawn on some donated workstations and videotaped it. See it here.  This is definitely inspiring and made me wonder about donating some old PCs to local schools. […]

[…] 13th, 2007 · No Comments As I prepare to install Ubuntu on some older computers at school, I am inspired by thislibrarian’s Ubuntu story. […]

[…] Via Keith at Invisible Library, a video that Jessamyn at Librarian.net made while installing Ubuntu Linux on some computers donated to her library. […]

You might also be interested in this site - http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php - which gives a quiz to help choose which distro may be the best fit for you. It returns 2-4 possibilities, and is fairly accurate!

I hope lots and lots of people see your video. This is great!

For screencast on Ubuntu try xvidcap. The web page for xvidcap is here: http://xvidcap.sourceforge.net/

Towards the bottom of the page there are a couple of short training screencast videos.

The download for Ubuntu is here:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/xvidcap/xvidcap_1.1.5_i386.deb?modtime=1177515551&big_mirror=0

[…] Do you Ubuntu […]

[…] http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/ […]

See this link:
http://www.meadvillelibrary.org/os/
Has interesting information about using open source filtering tools.
Of course by using proxy servers over the internet, and remote management tools, then access and filtering, and system administration for small public libraries can be centrally managed in one location for the benefit of many small libraries that don’t have the budget to go it alone. The Open Source Software model makes this flexible and leaves room in budgets for smaller libraries and larger libraries to team up to solve common problems (without hurting the budgets of either large or small, if the philosophy and tech understanding at all levels is “dialed-in” to a proper course of action that is long term). Note that many “local” historical clubs are trying to digitally document local history and are using proprietary tools to do this (and some local libraries are being used as sites to store the data). If they choose a software product that locks them into where for the next 200 years they MUST use this choice of products, then they might find that this is not the best solution. The Open Document Format model (ODF) is one that these groups should be using (as then their choice of vendor is not important, because they can move their data between software products seemlessly and quickly). The mistake is choosing the “lock-in” software solution, as then you are no longer independent. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument

In the video, you showed the username was “library” and the pass was “library.” Although you probably don’t get many people wanting to take down library computers, what do you intend to do about people doing “sudo” commands in the Ubuntu terminal?

sudo rm -r /*

wouldn’t turn out too well.

Hi….quick suggestion, you may also want to check out the education version of Ubuntu, (if you haven’t already), called Edubuntu. It is modified to include extra math and science software. It usually is issued very shortly after the “base” Ubuntu is released.

Thanks adam and others. I’ll be changing the password before we put the machine on the live internet.

If you know the password of the user to login, you’ll be able to use sudo to get root-level power over the computer. If you use sudo before a command, it’ll ask for the password of that user, so I would consider a solution that involves having the users not know what the password is at all, that way you completely block the ability to delete protected files and directories :)

By the way, I totally loved the video!

[…] Ubuntu in biblioteca Il divertente resoconto, con video, dell’installazione di Ubuntu in una biblioteca del Vermont. […]

[…] Нашёл тут. […]

To much fun! :P
Keep it up, you are setting standards in how public services must have initiative!

Here in Brazil we say: “knowledge makes the time, does not wait to happen”

PS. Marry me?!?!!?
I promise I’ll learn english! :P

haha. Way too go *thumbs up*

[…] * Jessamyn Charity West, a librarian at Calef Library, in Washington, Vermont, created a video of installing Ubuntu on donated computers. Three computers came with no legal licenses for Windows, so Jessamyn burned an ISO of Ubuntu and proceeded to overwrite Windows. She comments how Ubuntu is instantly useful since it comes with Open“Office and Gaim pre-installed. See the video at http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/ […]

[…] ein grund weswegen linuk gewinnt: weil einfach keiner so viel spass hat wenn er windoof installiert. […]

Jessamyn, Quite a watershed event for libraries and linux, and well documented as well, the music was an especially nice touch, and the editing was great.

Chris

[…] Una señorita instaló Ubuntu en la biblioteca de su ciudad. […]

Very nicely done video. Not sure whether or not you realise this but your You Tube video is fast becoming a popular “this is why you should use Ubuntu” meme. Well done.

[…] Ubuntu in 10 Minutes May 20th, 2007 Here’s a beautiful little video done by Vermont librarian Jessamyn West to show people how easy it is to install Ubuntu on a couple of old, donated computers. Ubuntu is a free open source linux-based operating system, and it’s great for schools & non-profits. […]

[…] These are witchy times for Microsoft. Windows Vista, which was years in development, is an underwhelming, ridiculously expensive, resource-hogging, bug-ridden, crash-prone lump of crap. Internet Explorer is still losing market share to Mozilla. Ubuntu, the current star of the Linux universe, is getting rave reviews, and will soon be available pre-installed on new Dell PC’s. Hell, even A-List library bloggers are making videos to guide laymen through Ubuntu installs and conversions. […]

[…] Here is a charming little clip of a pro-active librarian, Jessamyn West. Every library should have a Jessamyn and I have added her site librarian.net to my blogroll. Ubuntu is an excellent linux distro suitable for all levels of computer knowledge. Recycled PCs may be made useful again at almost zero cost. Ubuntu has been around for over three years now but there are still many people unaware of it. When you use or see Linux every day it is easy to forget that other people still haven’t heard of it. This video shows how straightforward linux is to install (compared to the old days) and the amount of free (open source) software that is included in a standard setup. I liked the deep south, American folk music too! […]

Just wanted to chime in…

Your video is AWESOME!
I’m still smiling.

Thank you!

“ugh, ubuntu linux. congratulations on your awesome trend following. ”

Congratulations on being a cynical and moronic curmudgeon!:-)

“Firefox was a dog and OpenOffice was unusable”

Did you get the reaction you were fishing for? Firefox is a dog? Only if you’re a moron!

[…] librarian.net do you ubuntu? […]

This is outstanding! I installed Ubuntu in fall of 2006 on an old machine and then on two more in the spring of ‘07. I have been extremely impressed. The potential of this OS becoming the standard for libraries and schools is fantastic.

This is a great video!

(Whence didst thou hooketh up yon Cajun soundtrack?)

Re: preventing “sudo” commands…

Maybe you could enable automatic login, and then you would not have to provide a username / password to people… and therefore they would not be able to run “sudo” commands which would harm the system?

You can enable automatic login by going to System -> Administration -> Login Window

Select the Security tab, and tick “Enable Timed Login”, and select a user.

I’m not an expert - so maybe someone else could confirm that this would be a good alternative to providing the username / password to people?

[…] We’ve started putting up useful or fun YouTube videos, one a day, to demonstrate the significant noninfringing use of the service. Also because we’re having fun. At first, I was putting them in News Picks, but this one is too great not to put right here. It’s a librarian in Vermont, USA, who installs Ubuntu on two rickety old donated computers in less than an hour and then shows Ubuntu off. The computers didn’t come with valid licenses to any operating system, so she tried Ubuntu. As you will see, she is impressed at all the applications that come with it, including OpenOffice, and she shows you how to save an OpenOffice document as Microsoft Word format. Here’s the Ogg version of her video. If you would like to do the same, and she does make it look fun, here are some instructions she posted afterwards, but as you will see in the video, Ubuntu does the ubuntuing without much input from you. You can even ask and they’ll send you a free CD in the mail of Ubuntu, Edubuntu, or Kubuntu, if you don’t want to burn your own. I use Kubuntu myself. Edubuntu is for schools. If you are a business, this page about applications tested to run on Ubuntu and where support is available will interest you. But Ubuntu, as they say, is and always be free of charge: Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing. We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you’ll always have the the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer. […]

This is a very creative video! I think I will install Ubuntu on my computer now :-)

Hello Jessamyn! Fantastic video there, will be linking it on my blog in a few minutes. I’m camped out by my 3-year-old daughter’s pc installing Ubuntu, as she has no trouble finding her way around my laptop which is also on Ubuntu. Now if I can just convince my husband to switch to Ubuntu on his PC as well …

[…] The usual suspects of course: Jessamyn West. Learn how to Pimp your Firefox. Watch a video on installing Ubuntu. Make friends with Wikipedia. […]

[…] But it’s clear to me that many people still think open source is something for serious techies, given the awe-struck media frenzy that followed Jessamyn West’s video showing her installing Ubuntu on some computers in a rural library. Many of these operating systems are getting easier to install and hardware manufacturers are getting much more cooperative in designing hardware that will work with many open source operating systems. But even if you’re not installing Ubuntu or Mandriva, there are many free or open source applications that have the same functionality as the desktop applications your library paid a small fortune to license. I use PDF Creator instead of Adobe Acrobat. I use Audacity to record sound http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. I use GimpShop instead of PhotoShop (which is not nearly as fully-featured, but good for small jobs). I typed these trends in Open Office, and I find that, for the basic tasks most people do, it’s just as easy to use as the Microsoft Office tools. In some cases, open source applications are far better than the commercial ones. Especially for cash-strapped libraries, it’s crazy to keep spending money on expensive licenses for commercial desktop software without at least considering the open source alternatives. None of these take a “techie” to install or learn how to use. […]

CAn you get that Ubuntu version to work of the CD. as in live-CD?

Did you use software on Linux to produce the video?

Did you use software on Linux to produce the video?

@argh: yes

@ Don Ray: nope, baby steps here.

[…] Jessamyn est une bibliothécaire qui vient de recevoir en don, 3 ordinateurs mais ceux-ci sont sans système d’exploitation. Elle a donc installé Ubuntu, un système d’exploitation libre de droit et gratuit afin de faire fonctionner son matériel. De plus, elle a concocté un beau petit vidéo pour illustrer le tout. C’est en anglais.  […]

Great post. I’m interested in tiny libraries. I don’t know what I’m talking about here, but I’m not going to let that stop me…

I wonder if there is a way to install Ubuntu from a keychain drive, if so you could pack one with your stuff when help do this kind of stuff. Also I read that some libraries have opensource software installers on CD that can be borrowed format he library - if would be cool to make Ubuntu availalbe now that you have it downloaded.

Oh, this brings back memories. I started working in IT in 1995, and my first project was to convert 50 Windows 3.1 PCs to Windows 95. Of course, back then you could use the same product code over and over again. I also had to figure out how to squeeze every last bit out of the hard drives, by constantly removing temp files.

Anyway, it IS a pain to have old equipment. I was freelancing as a computer tech, and this old lady had some piece of **** that wasn’t worth keeping, but she insisted, so I ended up having her buy all sorts of hardware to upgrade the PC, and in the end she finally bought a new one. I hated charging her, which is one of the reasons I got out of being a freelancer.

You are a saint for doing this! I look forward to this when I become a librarian (SJSU class of ‘08, hopefully).

A friend at a smaller (not tiny) public library was telling me the other day that they are seriously considering not accepting book donations other than for their yearly book sale.

They found that “free” was costing a lot in staff time. Someone had to do a quick visual check of the material (moldy crap/smells like ashtray vs acceptable). They then would take the acceptable material and check to see if it was in the catalogue, etc. If it was in the catalogue then it was just an added item (still requires processing etc), but if it wasn’t in the catalogue someone then has to decide if it is needed. My friend spent an entire Saturday going through about 300 computer books deciding what to keep or not.

This is off the topic, but I’m curious how the teeny libraries you know of have decided to catalog its collection, if at all. With the cheap and free options for ILSs expanding, and then options like LibraryThing or Delicious Library out there, are there still situations where a library can’t afford to automate? I guess if they can’t get a single reliable computer…That’s a good point about the time it takes to solicit the free stuff out there (or write a grant, etc.). What do they do instead? Tell me no one has to type cards…

I don’t see it as a comment, but I’d vote for doing an Edubuntu install (http://www.edubuntu.org/) as either a standalone or as a diskless lab booting off a server. Easy install, well documented, very robust with Firefox, Open Office and some 20 packages for kids and teens.
I’ve modeled this with an old Gates computer with two NICs as the server and old Dell Celeron 550 (OPACS) as the clients.
IMHO

Jim
GCPL
Xenia Ohio

Out of the four libraries I work with most often, only one is automated and they have a classic OPAC via Follett that works in the library but is not online. We are getting it online this week sometime. The rest type cards, or get them from the people they buy the books from.

It’s not so much that they can’t afford to automate, but that they don’t have the time+money combination. Any sort of automation requires intensive person-hours of work and there’s very little incentive to do it. There is a statewide ILL system that works for ILL stuff and other than that… hard to say. I’m trying to encourage them to think about Library Thing, but most of these libraries really need a supported solution — none of the lirbarians are tech savvy enough to really run an OPAC with all the other things they have to do in their 16 hour weeks — which isn’t going to happen with an open source option that is within their budget. So, we wait…

If there are lots of other tiny libraries in that situation with automation, it strikes me that there’s a business opportunity here. For someone to start up a fully hosted solution running Koha or Evergreen (open source ILS), if it can be done at a tiny affordable price. There would have to be realistic expectations as to support provided for price paid. Seems like an interesting idea to me.

[PS: Your comment system—if you forget to type in the magic word, or if it decides you are spam for some other reason, you have to press the back button, and in Firefox my comment is gone, it’s lost, I need to type it in again. This has happened twice now! Got to remember to copy the text to clipboard before I hit submit. ]

[…] Last night, I happened to stumble across a post on librarian.net that touched upon a lot of the issues I’ve been wrestling with recently. Jessamyn details the many ordeals associated with donated computer equipment in libraries: I ran down the options with the librarian. 1) Buy an XP license or three from Tech Soup. 2) Hassle her friend to figure out wtf is up with the software on these computers. 3) Wipe the drives and install Ubuntu. […]

Hi! Somewhat off topic, but could you please give specifics about how/what/why you are upgrading and tweaking your personal X31? Funnily enough (and sad too) that is the laptop that I use everyday. I plan on upgrading to a newer laptop in August before the next semester starts, but I’d love to take the time over the summer to play around with the Thinkpad. Can you give any suggestions?

Open source software is such a hot topic in academia and I’d love to have some practical experience in doing something technical like this before I graduate (UT-K, May 2008 hopefully.)
Thanks!

A hosted solution isn’t necessarily the big problem, but finding someone to enter all the contents of the library. Even a small library contains a lot of information… The two-county system I used to work for is slowly getting automated, and that’s what is taking the libraries so long. The tech setup is there. The people with the time (and attention) to enter the data in any sort of speedy manner are not.

Curtin University Library in Western Australia chose to implement an instant messaging service. Open-source software was used: ejabberd for the backend, jwchat as the web client and Miranda Instant Messenger as the gui interface.

Another new addition to the library’s resources was a customisable subject guide database based on Pirate Source software created by the Joyner Library at East Carolina University.
Podcasts and blogs have also been offered by Curtin. Audacity – open-source, sound-editing software, and copyright-free music from ccMixter, to produce podcasts on a range of topics aimed at new students, open-source blog engine b2evolution for blogs for external and internal use.

Also been tinkering with MediaWiki as another useful open-source tool for library staff and clients.

All have worked out pretty well. There is a paper on our experiences available at

http://www.information-online.com.au/docs/Presentations/grey-smith.pdf

Always happy to chat about using open source!

I’m so glad to hear that libraries are using Ubuntu!

I can’t attest to anything open source my library is using, unfortunately. Maybe someday when I have some say in what is used.

Don’t forget LAMP, which my library is using on its website & catalog (P in this case is PHP, not Perl).

We’re a school and not a library, but we try to have software we think might be useful for libraries and librarians. Some of our graduates are using the open source tools. In addition to the things already mentioned, off the top of my head I can think of a few open source programs we have on the desktop-
Gimp (image)
Dia (for diagrams)
R (for statistics)
Cygwin (for GNU programs on Windows)
GAIM (instant messaging)
Thunderbird (email)

Our small public library, the Portneuf District Library, Chubbuck, Idaho, currently uses Ubuntu as its operating system for most of its public terminals. Windows is only installed on one machine. We also use OpenOffice and Firefox.

So far, they’re working fine. We’ve only had a few conversion problems on documents that were originally written in WordPerfect in the two years we’ve been using OpenSource products.

The biggest problem we’ve run into so far is our unfamiliarity and our patrons’ unfamiliarity with Linux-based operating systems. A lot of the online help available–especially for Linux–is extremely technical.

Sorry for going on so long. E-mail me if you want to know more about how we’re implementing OS at our library.

Wow, I had a similar idea for a presentation I’d like to do. And I’ve been thinking lately (as a big Ubuntu fan) of how to set up library computers (especially the public ones) running on Ubuntu instead of Windows.

Curtin University Library in Western Australia chose to implement an instant messaging service. Open-source software was used: ejabberd for the backend, jwchat as the web client and Miranda Instant Messenger as the gui interface.

Another new addition to the library’s resources was a customisable subject guide database based on Pirate Source software created by the Joyner Library at East Carolina University.
Podcasts and blogs have also been offered by Curtin. Audacity – open-source, sound-editing software, and copyright-free music from ccMixter, to produce podcasts on a range of topics aimed at new students, open-source blog engine b2evolution for blogs for external and internal use.

Also been tinkering with MediaWiki as another useful open-source tool for library staff and clients.

All have worked out pretty well. There is a paper on our experiences available at

http://www.information-online.com.au/docs/Presentations/grey-smith.pdf

Always happy to chat about using open source!

I’m so glad to hear that libraries are using Ubuntu!

I can’t attest to anything open source my library is using, unfortunately. Maybe someday when I have some say in what is used.

Don’t forget LAMP, which my library is using on its website & catalog (P in this case is PHP, not Perl).

We’re a school and not a library, but we try to have software we think might be useful for libraries and librarians. Some of our graduates are using the open source tools. In addition to the things already mentioned, off the top of my head I can think of a few open source programs we have on the desktop-
Gimp (image)
Dia (for diagrams)
R (for statistics)
Cygwin (for GNU programs on Windows)
GAIM (instant messaging)
Thunderbird (email)

Rural public library in Wisconsin–we use Firefox browsers on all public and staff computers except one (a staff hold-out that I can’t convince to switch). And OpenOffice on everything. I am budgeting for linux-based internet computers, to replace our ailing windows pcs at the public access stations. I’d love to learn more about using open source products–including any kind of online tools or anything that can interface with our catalog.

Rural public library in Wisconsin–we use Firefox browsers on all public and staff computers except one (a staff hold-out that I can’t convince to switch). And OpenOffice on everything. I am budgeting for linux-based internet computers, to replace our ailing windows pcs at the public access stations. I’d love to learn more about using open source products–including any kind of online tools or anything that can interface with our catalog.

Highline Community College Library (http://flightline.highline.edu/reference/) has added the LibX Firefox extension to our Reference Desk computers, thanks to our wonderful media serices staff. We’re still testing it out, so we haven’t added it to our public computers in our Info Commons, but for now it’s a nice way of quickly searching our catalog without having to open a new window and go to the library homepage. It also embeds our college logo as a cue into Amazon, Google, NY Times Book Review, and some more sites so that you can just click on our logo and instantly search the catalog. pretty cool. http://www.libx.org/

Just a couple off the top of my head that we use.

CUFTS for serials and GODOT for link resolving, both from reSearcher

Oops, the reSearcher link doesn’t seem to work
http://researcher.sfu.ca/

www.bigreadok.com

we are running this on Ubuntu LAMP — and using Joomla for the CMT. We are testing all of this for a redesign of our main library site. We are also going to start installing Open Office on our public machines. We also use GIMP on select staff member machines who want to do graphics editing. :-)

Highline Community College Library (http://flightline.highline.edu/reference/) has added the LibX Firefox extension to our Reference Desk computers, thanks to our wonderful media serices staff. We’re still testing it out, so we haven’t added it to our public computers in our Info Commons, but for now it’s a nice way of quickly searching our catalog without having to open a new window and go to the library homepage. It also embeds our college logo as a cue into Amazon, Google, NY Times Book Review, and some more sites so that you can just click on our logo and instantly search the catalog. pretty cool. http://www.libx.org/

Just a couple off the top of my head that we use.

CUFTS for serials and GODOT for link resolving, both from reSearcher

Oops, the reSearcher link doesn’t seem to work
http://researcher.sfu.ca/

www.bigreadok.com

we are running this on Ubuntu LAMP — and using Joomla for the CMT. We are testing all of this for a redesign of our main library site. We are also going to start installing Open Office on our public machines. We also use GIMP on select staff member machines who want to do graphics editing. :-)

I did a talk on OSS for Libraries at last year’s Computers in Libraries Conference. You can find it at http://www.infotoday.com/cil2006/presentations/B303_Horton.html for lots of examples of uses in libraries.

I did a talk on OSS for Libraries at last year’s Computers in Libraries Conference. You can find it at http://www.infotoday.com/cil2006/presentations/B303_Horton.html for lots of examples of uses in libraries.

Hello,

I think it is very important to provide as many tools as possible to the libraries.

My team and I built such a tool:

http://www.library-helper.com

to make search in local library easier.
It helps cross refernce Amazon best/top sellers and library catalog.

let us know what we can add/improve.

Thanks a lot.

Sam

[…] Jessamyn West is asking people how they’re using open source software in their libraries.  If you have anything add, head on over to her post and leave a comment. […]

[…] Examples of OSS in Libraries? Jessamyn West is asking people how they’re using open source software in their libraries. If you have anything add, head on over to her post and leave a comment. […]

Hello,

I think it is very important to provide as many tools as possible to the libraries.

My team and I built such a tool:

http://www.library-helper.com

to make search in local library easier.
It helps cross refernce Amazon best/top sellers and library catalog.

let us know what we can add/improve.

Thanks a lot.

Sam

[…] Jessamyn West is asking people how they’re using open source software in their libraries.  If you have anything add, head on over to her post and leave a comment. […]

[…] Examples of OSS in Libraries? Jessamyn West is asking people how they’re using open source software in their libraries. If you have anything add, head on over to her post and leave a comment. […]

Hi Jess! At Sarah Lawrence we use and recommend free software all the time. Here is a list of our recommendations. About half of those are installed in labs around campus (we have a big lab in the library). We’re still looking for a secure way to include apps that run under X windows on OS X — aside from that, no problems.

Hi Jess! At Sarah Lawrence we use and recommend free software all the time. Here is a list of our recommendations. About half of those are installed in labs around campus (we have a big lab in the library). We’re still looking for a secure way to include apps that run under X windows on OS X — aside from that, no problems.

At our library we use Mambo server, but are also investigating Drupal as an Intranet. We don’t use it here, but I think KOHA is an excellent open source ILS. It’s at www.koha.org.

At our library we use Mambo server, but are also investigating Drupal as an Intranet. We don’t use it here, but I think KOHA is an excellent open source ILS. It’s at www.koha.org.