Last week it was the moon...

At work, we are experimenting with the open source ILS, Evergreen. Several systems in the state are playing with it-- some very seriously.

Yesterday I was browsing through my incredibly high stack of professional reading. ERMS, federated (enterprise) searching, all the Web 2.0 stuff-- it's easy to see project creep approaching.

So, as I think about Evergreen, I also am thinking about all our other automation needs. We need an ERMS. We need federated searching. We need a new OPAC... but one that includes Web/Library 2.0 tools. Not to muddy the issue, we also need state-wide authentication for our citizens, so they can more easily use what we provide them.

We also need money and/or time and/or people who already know python and java... and money. Quite frankly, I want to invest in people and not software (or vendors). The tools are out there; it's just investing in the mindware so we can manipulate the tools.

Ultimately, I need to know that I can integrate an open source ERMS, federated searching, a faceted OPAC with Web 2.0 features, for starters, with Evergreen.

This is all new. Last week, I just asked for the moon. Still waiting...