Open Scholarship

I can speak from personal experience when I talk about open source. The library now employs an open source system called WMS or Encompass Search. When the library made the switch from Innovative Interfaces (a proprietary closed system) to Encompass Search (an open system), the college reaped a savings of many thousands of dollars. The system is far more robust than Innovative Interfaces, able to accommodate our burgeoning supply of e-books, and able to group versions of the same title together in a single record.  What I notice most, though, is a responsive community of users who work together to make a better product. It’s not a perfect system, but when you add the cost-savings in, plus the vibrant user community, the benefits are obvious.