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At @UCLDH to learn about @SOASLibrary's digital collections and how they're using FOSS library systems to manage the library.
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.@UCLDH @SOASLibrary Claudia alluding to the war-stories of implementing Kuali OLE at @SOASLibrary and liaising with IT. I still have the scars.
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.@UCLDH @SOASLibrary SOAS Digital Collections includes many beautiful and unique items from across the global East and Africa.
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.@UCLDH @SOASLibrary VuFind, the open-source discovery tool, is used as the discovery tool for SOAS' Endangered Languages Archive.
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.@UCLDH @SOASLibrary It's a discovery tool heavily customised for discovery based on geolocation. Not a customisation you'd get with a vendor system.
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.@UCLDH @SOASLibrary Archives from the Calm system will soon be presented in the VuFind discovery layer too. One blended search for all @SOASLibrary collections!
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.@UCLDH @SOASLibrary SOAS' open-source library systems infrastructure. "A special service". Utterly unique and uniquely customised.
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The vendor does not own SOAS' data. If you have a vendor library system of any kind, then the vendor /owns/ your data.
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The sad story of the Bloomsbury LMS Consortium. What could have been if certain people had had the courage.
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Kuali OLE launched at SOAS with a phased approach. Cataloguing then circulation, reservations, fines. Full function within one year.
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This is a practical approach that the library pushed against because libraries want everything from a library system straight away.
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Connecting to self-issue machines using SIP2 was a challenge. You could 'borrow' a tin of beans before you borrow a book.
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Claudia emphasising that being experimental in library systems means talking to friends, calling in favours, and thinking outside the box.
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"Bring your people along with you. Don't drag them."
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This open-source approach is a lot of work and no vendor is around to do it for you. The regression testing alone is huge work.
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But you have a community to depend on. You have friends to work with. Rather than vendors and other adversaries.
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Ultimately the students at SOAS have a single search for all SOAS collections with a better user experience than most other London libraries
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For further reading on SOAS' open-source library systems, I wrote an article about it here ariadne.ac.uk/issue74/barron
