Open Source, Open Mind

I’ve been a big advocate of open source software since I learned about the model of software licensing and development 10 years ago. I am a big believer that many minds produce great things, so the idea that a community of users would develop and improve software to the benefit of the community really appealed to me. Open source is often a great solution for cash-strapped libraries that can adopt tools like Open Office for free instead of paying for Microsoft Office licenses on all of their computers.

When I was asked to be on a task force at my new place of work that would be evaluating platforms for creating course and subject guides, I wanted to look at every open source option available, including systems like Drupal that are not specifically designed for guide creation. I would never have predicted that, at the end of our evaluation phase, I would be strongly advocating software that was proprietary and would cost the library money for an annual subscription. It wasn’t that I’d changed my mind about open source software, but that this was clearly the best fit for our library...