[PLUG] the plight of Beaverton Library

[Kevin Theobald]

Michael C. Robinson writes:

 > >   Regardless of Web browsing, how is the card catalog run? It used to be
 > > 'dyna' and I could telnet to it from home. That suggests it's running on a
 > > non-Microsoft host somewhere central. If so, linux and the Web browser of
 > > your choice(s) would work just fine. OTOH, if it's a custom app running
 > > locally then it may work only with Microsoft.

What do you mean "locally"?  Doesn't all of Washington County use the
same system?  Probably centralized then, and out of one library's
hand.

 > For their card catalog is there any reason for them to not use a
 > proprietary protocol so as to be hardened against crackers?  The
 > other option is VPN, there's a place the OSS can community can
 > help.  Is it necessary really to replace Windows entirely or
 > can Linux be introducted at the just the network routing/network
 > firewall layers to raise the likelihood of it's acceptance?

I think a gradual approach would go over better with them.  For
instance, you could start just with all the browsers (that alone would
save thousands in license fees, assuming they keep upgrading, and
would get the most bang for the buck in putting Linux in the public
eye).

Probably what they would like would be for some volunteers to show up
and say, here's our general idea, now we'd like to talk to your IT
folks and study it for a few weeks, then we'll present our results.
Probably the head of the committee should be someone from Beaverton,
as that would look more like "community volunteer wants to help his
local library" rather than "activist with an ax to grind."  Though if
it works in Beaverton, no reason why it couldn't easily be ported to
the other Washington County libraries.

I first thought of contacting them and suggesting Linux when I read a
few months ago that they were cutting their hours to cut costs.  I was
then going to suggest this to PLUG, but decided to READ the PLUG mail
first.

Kevin