Duke University Libraries received $475,000 from the Andrew Mellon Foundation Aug. 11 to lead a multinational group of libraries in the development of a new, completely integrated automation software.
The collaborative effort, called the Open Library Environment Project, will develop a software program where a university with a large library system-such as the one at Duke-can be fully integrated across departments and more easily accessible to faculty and staff, reflecting changing media in library holdings.
"This is a planning project to come up with a design of a software system that is an alternative to the traditional automation systems that will thoroughly integrate all of the needs of a large library," said Lynne O'Brien, the OLE Project's principal investigator and Duke's director of Academic Technology and Instructional Services.
Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki said implementing a new software will improve the learning experience for students here at Duke.
"For undergraduates, anything we can do to improve our libraries is a good thing," he said. "One of the benefits of coming to Duke as an undergraduate is the close proximity of great graduate schools, and the integration of library resources will have a direct benefit for our undergraduates."
According to the OLE Project's Web site, the core partners of the multinational group will include librarians from Australia and Canada in addition to the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago and Columbia University, among other prominent American universities.
"There are always challenges when working across different universities," Nowicki said. "However, Duke is particularly well equipped to meet these challenges."
An unique feature of the software is that it will be an "open-source" software. This allows anyone who uses the software to make changes to improve the functionality of the system and to share those changes with others.
"Open-source software-or as it is otherwise known, 'community software'-is created by the people who will use it and available to any organization who wants to use it in the hopes that any improvements they make to the software they will share with us," O'Brien said.
Some criticisms posted on the OLE Project's Web site argue that the project is "reinventing the wheel." This is largely due to the fact that a similar project is currently underway by an India-based group, the Kesavan Institute of Information and Knowledge Management, called NewGenLib, or New Generation Library.
"We don't believe that there is any open-source software that is complete enough and adequate enough to meet the needs of a university library system," O'Brien said. "The vendor systems available are not that good right now."
The OLE Project, which began preliminary planning and development in September 2007, is scheduled to begin training and planning this month for the project's core partners, those who make up the primary work group for the software's development. The group will hold a kickoff meeting Sept. 9 and 10 at Duke. The final product and report is due to the Mellon Foundation next summer.
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