Dear All,
We (myself and Mr. D.P. Tripathi) have taken initiative to implement open source software like Koha, DSpace, Joomla etc. in libraries and time to time motivating for the same to library professionals. I was thinking i am doing the great job free of cost but when i saw today a Tender of renowned Institute for Just installation of Koha, data migration from SOUL/Current ILMS and little training to staffs, i shocked and realize that real heroes are those people who have given opportunity for the same to us and successfully they are running Koha. They have expended Just on our TA/DA and honorarium as per government rules and saved Lakhs of Public money.
In present case although i proposed the institute for the same task and given example of a renowned near by library where we have did the job and Koha is running successfully but even though they opted for the Commercial firm service which could be easily done by us in a much better way than any commercial firm. I do not know why they opted for the same and what is lacking from our side, however one can avail community support for installation/training on Koha and if desire later they can avail commercial support (AMC) for maintenance, by this method also they can save lakh of money on initial implementation of Koha.
I would simply like to ask a question from such Professionals that:
WILL YOU TAKE SAME DECISION IF YOU HAVE TO INVEST MONEY FROM YOUR OWN POCKET? OR WHAT DIFFICULTY YOU FACED IN INVITING ANY CAPABLE EXPERT FOR THE SAME TASKS FROM LIS COMMUNITY?
I would like to request all leaders/Decision makers of the LIS community to avail such services from LIS community it will not only save money but strengthen our library profession and reputation as well as you will be called as a good leader and decision maker in LIS domain.
Thanking You.
by 