Infomotions' Musings on Information and Librarianship
This is a collection of the things I've written -- my musings. It includes pre-edited as well as formally published articles, travel logs, descriptions of software applications, and the hand-outs of workshops and presentations. Here is a randomly selected item, and it will change when you reload the page:
- Open source software in libraries
- Description: This short essay, originally prepared for a presentation at the 2001 American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco, describes my personal experience with open source software and enumerates a number of ways open source software can be used in libraries to provide better library service. The essay does this in three ways. First, it reflects on the similarities of gift cultures, open source software development, and librarianship. Second, it describes the present evolution of email.cgi, an open source software application I support, and MyLibrary@NCState, a portal application designed for libraries. Third, it summarizes very recent comments from the OSS4Lib mailing list calling for more proactive activities in the library community.
- Date: 2001-06-08
- Source: Prepared for a presentation at the 2001 American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco.
- Subject(s): open source software; presentations;
- URL: http://infomotions.com/musings/ossnlibraries/
My day job resides in an academic environment, and I believe it is my responsibility to act academically. A lot of the time, this means thinking, studying, writing, sharing, and repeating the process. The exciting thing about writing, and while it may sound corny, is it transcends both space and time. It is entirely possible for someone to write something down and have those written words to be communicated to other people on the other side of the world days, weeks, or even years later.
I believe it is important to share one's ideas freely. That is why I have never completely signed away my copyrights and retained the rights to post my articles on my own website. This collection is a manifestation of that idea. I have been practicing "green" open access publishing for more than a dozen years.
To these ends I am sharing the texts in this collection with you. Feel free to use the items in this collection as you see fit, but please don't call the works your own. Place the blame and/or credit where the blame and/or credit is due.
Creator: Eric Lease Morgan <eric_morgan@infomotions.com>
Date created: 2000-06-20
Date updated: 2010-05-01
URL: http://infomotions.com/musings/