I wasn’t able to talk on the recent Library 2.0 Gang podcast cause of all of the travel I have been doing. The topic sounded great though: “Library 2.0 Gang 10/08: Financial Crisis or an opportunity?”

Unless you have been living under a stone for the last few months, the turmoil in the world financial markets can not have escaped your notice, but how will this, and the inevitable recession that we are heading in towards, influence libraries and their suppliers?

Is the library world insulated from it? Does it mean that open source become more popular because it is perceived to be cheaper, or less because there will be less funding for those involved? Does it mean that pressure to purchase add-on components as against full systems will increase? What pressures will there be on the vendors both traditional and open source? Does this mean that libraries will become more or less significant in their communities? Is this an opportunity or a crisis or both?

Technorati Tags: library gang, library 2.0 gang, open source

I was happy to get to talk with the Library 2.0 Gang yesterday about open source.

Open Source Software has been around for many years.  Open Source components have been used to develop library systems since the late 1990’s.  Koha, acknowledged as the first fully open source library system was launched by its New Zealand based developers in 2000.   The growing interest around open source, stimulated by Koha, was given a significant boost when Georgia Public Libraries launched Evergreen in September 2006.

As those of you following me on twitter know, I wasn’t having the best Monday, so excuse my lack of eloquence.

Check it out here.

I posted about the new Library 2.0 Gang Podcast a little while ago only to find that I had jumped the gun. Now it is really really available - so check it out - subscribe - and listen often

You can listen to it via Library Journal or the new Library 2.0 Gang page hosted by Talis.

In this issue, we spoke with Aaron Swartz about the Open Library and other Code4Lib conference topics. You can check out my blog post summarizing what Aaron spoke about at the conference if you want more information.

Technorati Tags: library 2.0 gang, talis, library journal, open library, code4libcon2008

I recently spoke with Aaron Swartz and other Library 2.0 Gang members about the Open Library and other Code4Lib conference topics.

You can listen to it via Library Journal or the new Library 2.0 Gang page hosted by Talis.

You can check out my blog post summarizing what Aaron spoke about at the conference if you want more information.

Technorati Tags: library 2.0 gang, code4libcon2008, open library