Sunday, January 23, 2011

Open Source Resources

In a meeting with the IT director at the library I'm interning with, he stressed the importance of knowing about and staying abreast of open-source options for various library needs.  I always try to take notice when coming across or hearing about new opensource educational or database resources, so articles like the Griffis article are always a great help.

What's frustrating sometimes about open source software is finding resourrces that are stable; that is, that stand to be supported by some community if not the original developer.  It's always great to find an open source solution for technology and educational needs, but if one is constantly jumping from one resource to the next as old ones become obsolete or fall out of favor, it can be difficult to provide services with the software in a smooth, simple way.  Even resources like Trailfire, mentioned in the article, can suddenly be superseded by something better, or become unavialable (when I went to the trailfire.com website on 1/23/11 at about 2:00pm, the site was either down or unresponsive.)  The other frustrating thing about open source solutions is simply part of the nature of getting things for free: lots of free resources do one of a set of things you need, but not all.  Even though each component might be possible using a set of different resources, due to copyright or lack of motivation its somewhat rare to find free software that can do everything you want at the same time (say, take screencasts and record/playback audio at the same time.)  For this reason, I'm very convinced that its important to build strong technical skills, and be aware as possible of software resources and options, so as to make the most out of whats out there, and to be able to forsee and solve problems created by resources' limitations. 

1 comment:

  1. Another thing to think about is that open-source doesn't necessarily mean "free." Sometimes, a better-supported tool is cheaper than the IT support you end up paying your staff down the line ...

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