WiLS World -- Break out sessions

R & D for Libraries by Pete Boguszewsski & Stephen Meyer

You have to have clear goals.

Those who try to get it right the first time fail just as often as those who don’t.

Virtualization lets you try stuff and fail without affecting services.

Free does not mean free as in free beer.

Open source lets you tweak.

Inside Evergreen by Jason Etheridge

Who?

• Georgia Pines
• Equinox Software (company formed by developers to support software outside and now in Georgia
• University of Windsor
• British Columbia Public Libraries
• IRC channels
• public mailing lists

Why?

• Old software sucked
• no room for growth
• software was dictating software
• hitting ceilings (overloading fields with information)
• finger pointing was futile

How?

• focus groups
• clean slate
• question every assumption
• be agile with many iterations and prototypes

Yes, but how?

• GPLS hired some software developers
• building blocks (open source) are often a commodity
• leveraged existing systems (PostgreSQL, Apache, Jabber, Mozilla, and help from Code4Lib
• Built the rest

Jason then gave a full tour with great details and examples of using the Pines system. It was very technical and detailed, but information packed.