Open source software for integrated library management: a new resource?

Abstract

This treatise aims at analysing the initiatives for creating applied software for managing libraries conceived as open source; it will deal more specifically only with projects regarding the integrated management of traditional libraries, that is libraries based on what they own.
A further inclusion criterion meant that only those initiatives conceived in the full respect of the rules and standards of libraries, catalogues and the exchange of these data in electronic form were considered. These rules and standards had been approved and shared by the international library community and by the national library agencies, such as for example the cataloguing codes, MARC, Z39.50, etc. Initiatives that have already produced usable software were dealt with more extensively; of the others - including those abandoned - mention is made while placing however greater emphasis on those that represented a significant moment in the progress of the open source ILS; having given life to software that is usable or not was also adopted as a criterion for grouping projects into two categories. All those initiatives for which information was gathered from Internet were considered.