I am one who always has a new favorite song that is an old song. My newest one is Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen. The
version that has me mesmerized is off a two CD set from a 1975 performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. I find myself playing Thunder Road over and over - and I think partly, it is because it resonates with my work life right now. (It could also be that I recently turned 40 and part of me wants to be 18 again?)
For me, Thunder Road is about adolescents standing at the precipice of adulthood. They are dreaming big dreams, and in the voice of our narrator, the commanding performer Mr. Springsteen, I hear every emotion of the rainbow – happiness and sadness; confidence and trepidation; pride and failure — and the ever likely yet-to-be made mistakes.
Howard County Library and our work with free and open source software (FOSS) is also in an adolescence. We stand ready to make real contributions to software and provide innovative and dependable services to our customers. We believe we are on the right track and have ideas worth sharing. We have regrets and hard memories to get over and we are also likely to make more mistakes.
Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen — see it live (1975)
I just can’t face myself alone again
When Howard County Library deployed a vended ILS (integrated library system) a few years ago, it did not work. The vendor tried to resolve it and got the situation stable, but not fixed. We were blind - we could not help the vendor because the code is closed to us. We did not know what was really wrong, so our explanations to customers and those in authority were weak and fuzzy. With a vended software and its supporting company behind us, we were still alone.
scared… maybe we ain’t that young anymore
As we talked to our customers and waited for a solution to our technical problems, we got scared. We were consistently compared - negatively - to Amazon and Google. Were we a dead profession? Were we no longer providing a service that was needed?
hide ‘neath your covers; throw roses in the rain; waste your summer praying in vain for a savior
We had counted on our vendor to help us. We had deferred our role as information providers to the vendor and while we hid under our covers, we ended up with software we did not really want.
When we got out from under our covers, we realized what we wanted was freedom to make things our way — with an assurance of support and help and guidance from others in the know. Those things – support, room for collaboration, and knowledgeable users who were using the software in a real world setting — are plentiful in the FOSS community.
no hero; make it good somehow; roll down the window and let the wind blow back you hair
We decided to be our own hero and to make it good somehow. We decided to go for it – bust open expectations and meet our customers where they were.
make it real
We asked our customers and ourselves what was good about Google and Amazon. We asked, with the intention, however, of taking what was good and making it better.
In other words, yes, Amazon can tell you that if you that others who bought item A also bought items R, K, and Z. However, just because someone bought an item does not mean they liked it.
Libraries can tell you more; we can tell you what is good about an item. Libraries can take an item you liked and connect you to other things that you will ENJOY. Libraries can invite you to classes and seminars related to the topics covered in the item you liked.
Libraries make it real.
door is open but the ride it ain’t free
Moving to open source solutions is not free. Koha, the ILS we are migrating to with the vision of providing dynamic information about our collections, does not have all the functionality we desire. We have work to do – and we are going to do it.
ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
Vendors selling closed software, for me, are ghost -like – they have all the best intentions and bring many talents, but their time has passed. What can they do? They can open their source code, join the community, gain countless contributors to their product(s) which will make those products stronger and more valuable.
In no way do I have all the answers. We leave our adolescence behind with trepidation. No more curfews (or enhancement requests in a queue managed by someone else..) No more safety net of a vendor who might or might not fix our problems. If our adulthood is any like mine, there are dead-end jobs, a broken heart, and a few public mistakes in our future! However, also ahead, is freedom, excitement, and the opportunity to serve. And we look forward to that.