Software Analysis Assignment

The Chief Librarian has asked you to research, analyze, and write an executive analysis type report for the board (about 4 pages) on one of the following software projects:

- Koha library system – www.koha.org
- Greenstone – www.greenstone.org
- Dspace – www.dspace.org

You need to evaluate the software and report on its potential for your library. She is interested in knowing if this is technology the library should be using. What are the pros and cons? What are the potential problems or risks and how can they be addressed?

For this assignment, I chose to evaluate the Greenstone Software Suite and recommended it for my fictional rare-books library: The following investigation finds Greenstone as an ideal software solution for the Bernett-Townsend library. Based on research conducted and product evaluation, I highly recommend the Greenstone software application suite for immediate implementation; Greenstone is a “marriage of preservation and services, data and tools, permanence and flexibility” (Chavez, Crane, & Sauer 2006).

Background and Criteria

The Bernett-Townsend library is a small, but growing rare-books and materials repository with a desire to improve catalogue management and to go digital. As our collection contains one-of-a-kind materials, our library attracts multi-national/lingual researchers and scholars from all over the world. While our collection is moderate in size, we are about to acquire a collection of 13^th century manuscripts, and need to deploy a new and improved catalogue and database system – our current system is inadequate and thirty-years outdated. We require a new materials management system: one that will allow us to restructure our current database, to add new acquisitions and information to current holdings, and that has effective search and indexing features for both us and our users. We are also in the process of creating a digital image collection, and need a digital library software solution that will enable us to publish the collection online. We believe that through digitizing our catalogue (both image and text documents) we can better serve our patrons, while also generating further interest in the library, in rare books, and in learning.

Our digital objective is to “present the pages of the book as they actually appear, discolored pages, pictures and print, in full color, approximating the experience of reading the actual book” (Thibadeau & Benoit, 1997). Naturally, we require a software solution that is highly adaptable and can be customized to suit our unique needs. We are committed to providing our users with top-level service, and would like to maintain, if not improve our service levels through digitization. Our ideal solution would include multi-language support, offer our users extensive search methods, and would allow us to better organize, categorize, and customize our collections without data conversion loss as a result of switching to the new system. We seek a solution that boasts indexing and metadata solutions, is easy-to-learn, user-friendly, highly-flexible, highly-scalable, stable, well-reputed, affordable (in both short term and total costs), and relatively simple to maintain. Further, we would like a system that incorporates Web2.0 technologies, such as RSS feeds and blogging capabilities so we may improve communication between the library and our patrons.

Suggested Application

Greenstone Digital Library Software provides a way of building and distributing digital library collections, opening up new possibilities for organizing information and making it available over the internet or on CD-ROM (Witten & Bainbridge, 2003). Further, Greenstone enables administrators to sculpt websites and databases that are fine-tuned to specific institutions and their users. Being able to customize to ones needs and aesthetics is essential for all aspects of collections management. . . .

Greenstone is easy to use, has numerous classification and indexing capabilities, and a user friendly, attractive interface. Through the web-browser reader interface, patrons have the ability to navigate by browsing or search methods, retrieve comprehensive requested information, and to read and view documents from the digital library in their entirety. With Greenstone, distribution, source codes and software updates are available at no cost. There are no license fees, and institutions are not obligated to keep using the software, or be ‘locked-in’ under vendor contract agreements. While formal technical support and training is limited, the Greenstone website, as well as the user community is rich with resources, FAQs, tutorials, and manuals. Bearing these in mind, Greenstone offers a low total cost (TCO) solution.

Testing Greenstone

A panel of information specialists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University compiled the following criteria for evaluating open-source digital library software: content management, user interface, user administration, system administration, and interoperability/standardization with other protocols, i.e., the OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) and Z39.50 (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006). Throughout the evaluation, Greenstone Software consistently scored higher than open-source alternatives CDSware, Fedora and Eprints (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006). Further, Greenstone was noted for its compliancy to standards used in digital libraries, namely, Unicode, XML, Dublin Core and MARC 21 (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006). The Greenstone software package exceeded the competition in areas of report and inquiry capabilities, interoperability, harvesting metadata and automated content acquisition, and received full scores for report and inquiry, user interface, automatic tools, standards compliance, and support and maintenance capabilities (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006).

Greenstone software is developed and distributed as an international cooperative effort established in August 2000 by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Human Info NGO. . . . Issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Greenstone is an open-source, multilingual software suite for building and distributing digital library collections. As an open-source product, Greenstone is stable and active, used and recognized by thousands of organizations worldwide. . . .

Currently, Greenstone has nine active developers and is in level five (production/stable) development (http://sourceforge.net/projects/greenstone). Greenstone v2.74 is compatible with operates Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac X operating systems. There are two choices for installation: local library (88MB, standalone based, novice user) or web library (server-based, sophisticated user), as well as further options to download the source code and a custom installation option (developers).

Evaluation

Greenstone is a flexible and robust software suite with several index options, modular plug-ins, customizable search (users can search by the criteria the institution has provided, such as author, title, year of publication, publisher, subject, keyword(s), etc.), database management, and compatibility features. The software boasts an extensive list of text plug-ins, from Word to PDF to LaTex to PostScript, as well as plug-ins for images (all formats) and multimedia formats, such as mp3 and RealPlayer. Also included are sophisticated index options that provide section and word-level indexing, phrase, proximity, and rank-able Boolean searches for incremental collection building. . . .

One of the most striking features is Greenstone’s CD-ROM publishing initiative . . . . One Greenstone-based CD-ROM can hold about 340kg of books, enough to fill a library shelf, which would normally cost $20,000 (University of Waikato 2004). . . .

A possible shortcoming of Greenstone is that it has the power to be very complex, and perhaps intimidating for the novice systems user. Further, as with all open-source projects, there are risks involved, including longevity (life-cycle), or loss of popularity to ‘the next big thing’. . . . While these scenarios are entirely possible, Greenstone has been established for ten years, and its popularity is unlikely to dwindle anytime soon. Another potential disadvantage of Greenstone is the underlying threat of corporate-launched lawsuits that have occurred with open-source projects. However, as Greenstone has UNESCO and the Human Info NGO affiliations, perhaps there is s lesser chance of hostility.

Final Considerations

As it is open-source software, formal technical support is not available through Greenstone. However, there is an established community of users that commiserate over the Greenstone Wiki, discussion boards, usergroups, and mailing lists. . . . Further, Greenstone.org hosts a blog, limited/emergency web-based support, several ‘how-to’ tutorials, user and developer archives, mailing lists, and a comprehensive FAQ. There are also links to multi-lingual examples of collections, patches, and to regional support usergroups, while numerous institutions worldwide host training seminars and workshops. Last but not least: “for those with funds, there are further opportunities”; $2000 purchases 24hrs of technical support time ( http://www.greenstone.org/support).

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References cited above:

Chavez, R., Crane, G. & Sauer, A. (2006). Services make the repository. .

Hoe-Lian Goh, D., Chua, A., Anqi Khoo, D., Boon-Hui Khoo, E., Bok-Tong Mak, E. & Wen-Min Ng, M. (2006). A checklist for evaluating open source digital library software. Online Information Review, 30(4). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. database, ISSN 1468-4527.

Ian Witten. (nd). University of Waikato. .

Thibadeau, R. & Benoit, E. (1997). Antique Books. D-Lib Magazine (September 1997). .

Witten, I.H. and Bainbridge, D. (2003). How to build a digital library. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA.