Duke Open Source ILS Funded

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $475,700 grant to the Duke University Libraries (DUL) to lead an international team in the design of “a next-generation, open source library system.” The project, dubbed the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project, seeks to develop a “design document” for an alternative to commercial integrated library system (ILS) products. The project's goal: to lay the foundation for a system that “breaks away from an emphasis on print-based workflows, reflects the changing nature of library materials and new approaches to scholarly work, meshes well with other enterprise systems, and can be modified easily to suit the needs of different institutions.”

In a tantalizing note, meanwhile, the Duke release said that the OLE Project is “intended to create a community of interest” that could eventually be tapped to build the planned system in a follow-up project. “The information environment is changing rapidly, but the technology of library management systems has not kept pace,” said Lynne O'Brien, principal investigator on the project and director of academic technology and instructional services for DUL.

While many academic libraries have implemented Endeca, Primo, AquaBrowser, or other tools, and while “these new search interfaces improve the user experience,” the project description observes, purchasing and implementing a second OPAC “is an extra expense and an extra support burden on top of libraries' costs and support for the ILS.” The project, meanwhile, “is driven not only by inadequacies in current ILS systems” but also by “an awareness of the rapidly changing research information environment.” Formats are changing in the digital age, information expanding exponentially, and the ways students and researchers work are also changing—all of which further emphasize the need for a flexible ILS.

For more on the OLE Project and for a Q&A with principal investigator Lynne O'Brien, see the August 7 and August 12 issues of LJ Academic Newswire online.