Convincing City IT Dept.
I have an interesting situation here. We had LibLime come and give us a presentation last week and I thought it would be best to invite the city IT staff to take a look so that they could be onboard with any decision that we make. However, what has happened is that they seem to think that they have the expertise to do this on their own. I shudder at the thought. They have already set up a server and are wanting my advice and guidance in migrating data. My advice is to contract it out, we don't have the resources or the expertise to accomplish this. So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database. **************************************************************** Edward Veal (eveal@mail.ci.lubbock.tx.us) System Administrator Lubbock Public Library http://www.lubbocklibrary.com Mahon Library 1306 9th St. Lubbock, TX 79401 voice: 806-775-2849 fax: 806-775-2827 *******************************************************************
Ed Veal a écrit :
So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database.
Say them something like : "so, we will build a marc21 record, with a nice leader, some authorities links, the requested coded fields. Don't forget we will also have to build iso2709 records, embeeding items in 952 or 942 field. Subfields a to z will have to be filled". They will look at you and think "hey, it's a martian..." You : "you don't understand what I mean ? i'm not surprised. The good news is that LL would know... It totally counter productive to learn all that stuff for just 1 migration" In fact, it's true : it IS counter productive to learn how to play[1] with MARC if it's just one shot ! [1] play is not the best term here... as it's more a nightmare than a game when you start ;-) -- Paul POULAIN http://www.biblibre.com Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc NOUVEAU TELEPHONE : 04 91 81 35 08
Paul POULAIN wrote:
Ed Veal a écrit :
So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database.
Say them something like : "so, we will build a marc21 record, with a nice leader, some authorities links, the requested coded fields. Don't forget we will also have to build iso2709 records, embeeding items in 952 or 942 field. Subfields a to z will have to be filled".
They will look at you and think "hey, it's a martian..."
You : "you don't understand what I mean ? i'm not surprised. The good news is that LL would know... It totally counter productive to learn all that stuff for just 1 migration"
In fact, it's true : it IS counter productive to learn how to play[1] with MARC if it's just one shot !
[1] play is not the best term here... as it's more a nightmare than a game when you start ;-)
The game is Jumnji <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji_(film)> except for the days when it is Zathura. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zathura> :-D gvb
I agree with Paul, you need to show them that MARC is nuts and they don't want to try and migrate it themselves. --- Nicole C. Engard Open Source Evangelist, LibLime (888) Koha ILS (564-2457) ext. 714 nce@liblime.com AIM/Y!/Skype: nengard http://liblime.com http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/ On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 12:32 PM, Jerry Van Baren <gerald.vanbaren@ge.com>wrote:
Paul POULAIN wrote:
Ed Veal a écrit :
So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database.
Say them something like : "so, we will build a marc21 record, with a nice leader, some authorities links, the requested coded fields. Don't forget we will also have to build iso2709 records, embeeding items in 952 or 942 field. Subfields a to z will have to be filled".
They will look at you and think "hey, it's a martian..."
You : "you don't understand what I mean ? i'm not surprised. The good news is that LL would know... It totally counter productive to learn all that stuff for just 1 migration"
In fact, it's true : it IS counter productive to learn how to play[1] with MARC if it's just one shot !
[1] play is not the best term here... as it's more a nightmare than a game when you start ;-)
The game is Jumnji <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji_(film)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji_%28film%29>
except for the days when it is Zathura. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zathura>
:-D
gvb _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
I would start by pointing them at the MARC standard: http://www.loc.gov/marc/ , and tell them to start there. If that doesn't dissuade them then look up the z39.50 protocol, and tell them that that is the next step. Then point them at IndexData's Zebra engine, and that's the next step. Then tell them "or we can use Koha which has already done all this work for you". Good luck. On Tue, 2008-08-05 at 09:31 -0500, Ed Veal wrote:
I have an interesting situation here. We had LibLime come and give us a presentation last week and I thought it would be best to invite the city IT staff to take a look so that they could be onboard with any decision that we make. However, what has happened is that they seem to think that they have the expertise to do this on their own. I shudder at the thought. They have already set up a server and are wanting my advice and guidance in migrating data. My advice is to contract it out, we don't have the resources or the expertise to accomplish this.
So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database.
**************************************************************** Edward Veal (eveal@mail.ci.lubbock.tx.us) System Administrator Lubbock Public Library http://www.lubbocklibrary.com Mahon Library 1306 9th St. Lubbock, TX 79401 voice: 806-775-2849 fax: 806-775-2827 ******************************************************************* _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
I really think what Ed is asking is how can he get his management to pay for Migration and support for this "Free" Opensource software.... I have no doubt they are willing to use Koha, but IT people see it as a database is a database just "upload your data"... The key here is - ok when I have a patron who checks out a book and it says it is the wrong book who do I call... Or - if you are using any SIP items - How do I get the system up an running and talking... How many hours did it take you with the existing system to get it up and running and tell them an IT person will have to work on setting this up. Do they have a programmer up to speed already with Perl to fix things that break? You might also mention that there is this circulation data that has to move as well and there isn't a standard for moving that so how do you propose getting that data out and into Koha? LibLime will do that for you... Not to mention the status' on all your items. Unless you are going cold turkey and loosing all your history on your old system. You want to setup the system the most efficiently right, but you don't have the time so Migration costs are legit... to pay LibLime. Those are my 2 cents. David Schuster Michael Hafen-3 wrote:
I would start by pointing them at the MARC standard: http://www.loc.gov/marc/ , and tell them to start there. If that doesn't dissuade them then look up the z39.50 protocol, and tell them that that is the next step. Then point them at IndexData's Zebra engine, and that's the next step.
Then tell them "or we can use Koha which has already done all this work for you".
Good luck.
On Tue, 2008-08-05 at 09:31 -0500, Ed Veal wrote:
I have an interesting situation here. We had LibLime come and give us a presentation last week and I thought it would be best to invite the city IT staff to take a look so that they could be onboard with any decision that we make. However, what has happened is that they seem to think that they have the expertise to do this on their own. I shudder at the thought. They have already set up a server and are wanting my advice and guidance in migrating data. My advice is to contract it out, we don't have the resources or the expertise to accomplish this.
So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database.
**************************************************************** Edward Veal (eveal@mail.ci.lubbock.tx.us) System Administrator Lubbock Public Library http://www.lubbocklibrary.com Mahon Library 1306 9th St. Lubbock, TX 79401 voice: 806-775-2849 fax: 806-775-2827 ******************************************************************* _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
_______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list Koha-devel@lists.koha.org http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
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"Ed Veal" <EVeal@mail.ci.lubbock.tx.us> wrote:
[...] However, what has happened is that they seem to think that they have the expertise to do this on their own. I shudder at the thought. They have already set up a server and are wanting my advice and guidance in migrating data. My advice is to contract it out, we don't have the resources or the expertise to accomplish this.
So my question is how do I convince the IT department of this? I can't seem to get it through to them that this is not just any old SQL database.
I'd insist on a pilot service and set tests for it. The IT department may have a good business reason for blowing its entire budget and then some (probably) on learning Koha and all the associated technologies, or they may not, but they've got to make that decision if it's their budget paying for it. If it's not their budget, get the budget holder to buy from a chosen supplier instead of drifting into the internal IT department. I'm somewhat mixed about this sort of thing. While I'd love more work for Koha support companies, it's not a closed circle, education is one of the cooperative principles that I hold dear and training a city IT department into being a Koha support service could have some benefits for the Koha community. It's actually quite rare that TTLLP deploys Koha on an all-in-one service plan - while I've nothing against doing that, we more often train local IT workers in the basics like keeping the system running, and concentrate on the "interesting" problems. The more people who know Koha, the better! Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ (Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237
Hi, On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 12:32 PM, MJ Ray <mjr@phonecoop.coop> wrote:
The more people who know Koha, the better!
I fully agree - education is the key to the long term success of Koha or any other open source library software. The more librarians and library, municipal, and campus IT people who are comfortable playing with and working with the software, the better. Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton VP, Research & Development, LibLime galen.charlton@liblime.com p: 1-888-564-2457 x709 skype: gmcharlt
participants (8)
-
David Schuster -
Ed Veal -
Galen Charlton -
Jerry Van Baren -
Michael Hafen -
MJ Ray -
Nicole Engard -
Paul POULAIN