What is Open Source Software?

[1]
“Open source software” is computer software that is distributed under a licensing arrangement that allows the computer code to be shared, viewed, and modified by other users and organizations. The software developers who support the open source concept believe that by allowing anyone who's interested in modifying the source code, the application will be more useful and error-free over the long term. Therefore, they encourage modification or customization of the software.

There are several criteria that must be met in order for software to be considered open source software:

• The program is free.
• Source code is included.
• Anyone can modify the source code.
• Modified versions can be redistributed.
• The license cannot interfere with the operation of other software.

Disadvantages associated with open source software include:

• The development of new software may not happen.

• Any new developments may infringe upon patented software.

• The status of software development is difficult to track. [2]

OpenOffice.org is an example of open source software. OpenOffice.org is a suite for word processing, spreadsheet, and related programs that can be downloaded and used by anyone with a computer and internet access. More information on OpenOffice.org can be found at http://why.openoffice.org/.

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[1] Open_source_software_logo_in_business_home_software.jpg. Open Source Software. http://www.php4windows.com/. Web. 26 Oct 2010.
[2] Gonzalez-Barahona, Jesus M. Free Software / Open Source: Information Society Opportunities for Europe? Working group on Libre Software. Web. 25 Oct 2010.

Content Enrichment in the Integrated Library System

Content Enrichment is the process of adding descriptive information, metadata, which describes the subject contents within a bibliographic record in an Integrated Library System (ILS). Identifying added context within the subject information of a bibliographic record allows libraries to add value to their content and provide more targeted research results to its patrons. For example, we use content enrichment in a limited capacity usually within the 505 field (Formatted Contents Note) of a bibliographic record. As can be seen from the picture above left, the table of contents of the book “The Creative Curriculum learning games: birth-12 months” is listed in the 505 field in addition to the subject fields (650).

As you probably aware from an earlier posting, we use SirsiDynix Workflows at our Campus. We now have the option of enriching the features or upgrading our ILS to Enterprise 3.1 which can be integrated into Workflows. April of this year, SirsiDynix released Enterprise 3.1 which allows libraries to integrate “Indexed Content Enrichment” such as “reviews, cover images, tables of contents, awards data, fiction profiles, excerpts, summaries, and author notes”. These are indexed and accessed through searches which provide more results and improved relevancy. A Press Release from SirsiDynix on “Enhanced content and user interface skins unveiled with Enterprise 3.1” can be viewed at
http://www.sirsidynix.com/sites/default/files/press-releases/20100427_ent_3_1.pdf .

Research Aids using Advance Search

Relational Operators

Relational Operators are used most times by our library staff when searching numeral expressions, such as a date. We use relational operators by enclosing the field name in braces { } followed by the relational operator and then the number. For example, if we wanted to find a catalogue record that has a publication date of “2006”, we would search the 260 field (Publication, distribution, etc.) by inputting {260}=2006. The results we get are shown above. The symbols we use include:

• Less than <
• Greater than >
• Equal to =
• Less than or equal to <=
• Greater than or equal >=

Substitution and Truncation

Substitution and Truncation uses “Wildcard” symbols to aid us in locating records in our catalogue. A Wildcard is a character that stands for any letter. Using Wildcards symbols in our search term forces the computer to locate records by filing in the blank space. We can use these symbols together or separately and only at the middle or end of a search term. They need to be enclosed within quotation marks.

Substitution is using the symbol “?” to represent a character within the word or term being researched. For example, by writing wom“?”n, our results would display all records containing “woman” or “women”.

Truncation uses the “$” symbol; it can represent one or more characters and can be placed anywhere within the search terms. For example, Collected “$” and other Plays will result in a display of records matching “Collected Searchlights and other Plays.” Another example, searching John“$” will locate records containing terms John, Johns, Johnson, Johnston, Johnsgard, Johnsonbaugh, and Johnstone.

Researching in iLink

Operators that Aid in Research when using iLink

We use Boolean Operators and Positional Operators to aid us in our research of resources when using our online catalogue, iLink. Each of these operators help us to focus our search by linking search terms. Understanding the relationship that exist between these terms and how they are used provides us with successful results.


Boolean Operators

Boolean operators aid us in locating records containing matching terms. Understanding how to use the following Boolean operators guides us in our research. The four terms are AND, NOT, OR, and XOR. We use “AND” and “OR” frequently at our campus.

AND

Using AND helps us to locate all records containing all the specified terms. For example, “apples AND oranges” locates all records that contain information on both apples and oranges and excludes any records that reference only apples or only oranges.

NOT

The term NOT will locate records that contain only the first search term but not the second search term. For example, if we search “apples NOT oranges”, we locate all records that contain information about apples and excludes any records that contain the term oranges.

OR

Using the term OR will locate any and all records that contain the specified terms. For example, our search on “apples OR oranges” will return records that contain information only about apples, records that contain information only about oranges, and records that contain both terms.

XOR

This term locates records that match any one of the specified terms but not all the specified terms. For example, our subject search on “apples XOR oranges” will display results only about apples and only about oranges. There won’t be any records that contain both terms.

Positional Operators

Positional operators are used to connect words or phrases within a single term search. We don't use these operators as much as the Boolean operators. The positional operators are SAME, WITH, NEAR, and ADJ.

SAME

Using this term locates all records in which a bibliographic record contains al the specified terms. SAME is the default positional operator. For example, Stephen SAME King displays all items by the author Stephen King, but not “Martin Luther King” by Stephen Jones”.

WITH

WITH is used in specific database searches such as title, subject, or author. It locates records which contain all specified terms. For example, Kathryn WITH Laura would display Kathryn and Laura went to St. John’s, but not Kathryn went to St. John’s. She met Laura there.

NEAR

This term locates all records where all search terms are adjacent to each other. The order does not have to match the order they were entered. For example, “rose NEAR red” would display something like “My Love is like a Red, Red Rose” and “Snow White and Rose Red”.

ADJ

ADJ locates records that are adjacent to each other taking into consideration the order they were entered and the number of words that space the searchable terms. For example, ADJ2 means that the terms will be within two searchable words to each other such as “From Here to Eternity” (“From” is two words from the word “Eternity”). It would be written as “from ADJ2 eternity”. Another example using ADJ3, “collected ADJ3 plays” would locate a record “Collected searchlights and other plays”.

In addition to Boolean and Proximity operators we use Relational Operators and Truncation to expand or narrow our research. More on these search aids is forthcoming.