[Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of Libysys

[gian]

A package was submitted to savannah.gnu.org.
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Gian Perrone <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
License: gpl
Other License: 
Package: Libysys
System name: libysys
This package wants to apply for inclusion in the GNU project

Description:
Currently the market for library systems is dominated by monolithic companies 
that provide expensive solutions.  Whilst there are several projects targeted 
to small - medium libraries (such as Koha, http://www.koha.org/), there is 
currently not a free library system that could be used by academic or large 
libraries.
I believe that a library system written using free tools would allow libraries 
to spend more of their budget on managing and building their collections than 
paying crippling fees to library system vendors (often in excess of 
$100,000/year).
A free system that could run on common hardware and could be customized (with 
the aid of templates) to the needs of that library.  It would need to include 
Acquisitions, Collection Management, Cataloging, Circulation and Reference 
systems, with web and telnet interfaces to each system (as many catalogers and 
Acquisitions departments staff use telnet as opposed to web interfaces).  
Compliance with industry standards such as Z39.50 and MARC records is important.
We are hoping to be able to get people together to participate in what is a 
large project (but can be broken down into smaller parts).
This project is barely underway (it is in the planning stages) but it has the 
support of several library staff from academic libraries (with hopes of gaining 
more) interested in helping develop a system that can be used by libraries all 
around the world.

Other Software Required:
While it is still in the planning stage, it will most likely have the Web 
Interfaces done in PHP, and the Telnet and Inner workings done in C.  A 
database backend is yet to be decided, but the hope is to include support for 
several database systems including MySQL and PostgreSQL, while giving libraries 
the ability to interface with proprietary databases they may already have or 
use.

Other Comments: