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Open Source CD Lending For Public Libraries?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the libraries-plus-plus dept.

phatlipmojo writes "Bob Kerr has taken what might well be an important step in getting open source software to the masses: donating CDs to public libraries for lending. It's a simple idea, but fraught with complications; indeed, at first, he couldn't give the CDs away to the wary libraries. Mr. Kerr dealt with the complications admirably, and has had a great deal of success getting open source CDs into lending libraries around his home country, as Mr. Kerr's howto PDF and this NewsForge article detail. What kinds of suggestions would Slashdotters make in addition to Mr. Kerr's to help make open source software on public library shelves a widespread reality?"

5 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. No thanks. by fuzzeli · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm the IT manager at a large public library, and I wouldn't touch this with a ten-foot stack of catalog cards.

    We have almost completely stopped circulating CD-ROMs of any sort because the patrons have an expectation that the library will help them make it work, and if you mix initially lousy or just plain old software ("this storybook requires you to install quicktime 2.1") with who-knows-what the patron's got at home, it spells customer service disaster. No matter what kind of a disclaimer you put on it, circulating this kind of stuff would incur far more ill will from clueless patrons than it would benefit any unlikely geek who knows what they're doing but doesn't have access to sufficient bandwidth.

    However, I would happily offer burners for public use and make blank media (and our bandwidth) available. That way, they get to keep the disc. Or hand them out at intro to OSS classes. Or mirror some trees. But put them on the shelves? No way. On top of everything else, they'd be outdated before they even made it through cataloging.

    Nice idea though.

    1. Re:No thanks. by fuzzeli · · Score: 5, Informative

      IT gets involved when the circulation staff has a CD-ROM that the patron says is broken, and circ can't figure out what (nothing) is wrong with it, or irate patrons demand help and the call gets passed to us.

      While sticking to one's guns is of course possible, it's not good customer service to offer a product with a disclaimer or to turn away a patron in need of assistance. Sure, its par for the course in the commercial world, but we prefer to uphold a higher standard of service.

      And bestsellers aren't revised several times per week.

      What would be a far, far cooler idea (although not as cheap) would be to develop a kiosk that maintained its own local copies of many high-profile projects and allowed users to select from a menu what they wanted to burn to a blank they supplied. On-demand content, they get to keep it, and the kiosk could keep itself updated. All of the benefit, but none of the risk, unless of course someone manages to burn a disk on a day when a bug was in the tree. If the content is freely reproducible, why should they have to bring it back, or even worse... incur FINES! then it would no longer be free (as in beer).

  2. Re:libraries use the software by phatlipmojo · · Score: 4, Informative

    The trouble with the idea of putting Linux on the public PCs is that most libraries that have them got them from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the stipulation that they will not put (much) 3rd party software on them. On the one hand, it really sucks, but on the other hand, nobody else was lining up to give libraries free, new computers.

    --

    Nice things are nicer than nasty ones.
  3. Re:This may seem like a stupid question... by the+morgawr · · Score: 4, Informative
    Few points:

    Broadband is still hard to get in rural parts of the US.

    Walking/bikeing/driving for 5-10 minutes to pick up a few 700MB isos is still going to be faster for 90% of the people out there for some time to come.

    --
    The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
  4. Don't check them out, give 'em away by gbnewby · · Score: 4, Informative
    Similar concept: Project Gutenberg has several CD images and a DVD image for free download. We encourage people to make copies and give them away.

    We just dropped off about 300 free CDs at the Berkeley Public Library last week (stop by the Info Desk for a copy), during some recent events. As others have pointed out, libraries don't really want to catalog and manage stuff, nor do they want to worry about broken and scratched CDs. So, give 'em a spindle of 100 burned CDs or DVDs and let these discs walk out the door!

    There are a lot of challenges to making this work truly smoothly (like the cost of putting a nice label on the CD, and troubles with competing DVD formats that don't always read correctly, and who's willing to burn them), but if the goal is to get content "out there," why bother with lending when it only costs a few cents to just give away a CD?

    At Gutenberg, we're trying to start a volunteer-based effort that will let anyone request one of our CDs or DVDs via a Web form, then we'll send it to them by postal mail -- free! For a few hours of volunteers' time per month, and minimal costs (donated or reimbursed), why not!

    • Greg