A B C D

A FOSS solution for libraries and documentation centres

in the South

Overview

Background information on ABCD ISIS and libraries in the South BIREME's ISIS technology VLIR/UOS and the DOCBIBLAS project

'Product presentation' of ABCD Technology Modules overview

BACKGROUND INFO I

ISIS and libraries in the South : ISIS : UNESCO free text retrieval database,

multiplatform DOS/UNIX/Windows/WWW Widely used in the South, esp. Latin America Changed to FOSS since 2007

BIREME (WHO Brazil) runs advanced and high-volume applications on health information with ISIS and developed new technologies

BACKGROUND INFO II

VLIR/UOS decided to concentrate efforts on library development on 1 solution and granted a project fund 'Development Of and Capacity Building in ISIS-Based Library Automation Systems' (DOCBIBLAS, promoter : E. de Smet)

DOCBIBLAS joined with BIREME to integrate all library functions into one system:

ABCD (Automatisación de Bibliotécas y Centros de Documentación)

BACKGROUND INFO III

Flemish input into ABCD :

DOCBIBLAS budget for software development DOCBIBLAS project steering committee has evaluated,

monitored and advised on the development (members : R. De Keyser, P. Dekeyser, J. Desitter, J. Rademakers, E. de Smet)

P. Dekeyser (MARC-format) and E. de Smet (general supervision) made direct contributions

First international ABCD workshop held in Brussels (March 2009) with 20+ participants from 12 countries

DOCBIBLAS II approved : assistance with at least 5 VLIR/UOS partner university libraries for implementation of ABCD

BACKGROUND INFO IV

Therefore : mission of ABCD = To provide integrated library automation solution for

ISIS-users To serve as an alternative to KOHA /PMB (etc.) To try the impossible : combine typical 'low-end' users'

profile with high-end technology, e.g. allowing any database structure using ISIS Formatting Language for librarian-

oriented data-management including university library standards (MARC,

Z39.50, OAI...)

BACKGROUND INFO V

Development steps : Preparation/selection etc. from end of 2007 Announcement ISIS 3 Conference Rio 2008 Release 0.5 tested from October 2008 Actual release : 0.9 1st full release 1.0 : presented 3/12/2009

Workshops in Brussels (3/2009) and Buenos Aires (9/2009), Sao Paulo (12/2009), many more to follow

Product Presentation 0

Basic idea : University Libraries in the South deserve a suitable tool allowing them to fully serve their institutions and join the Information Society

Specifications for ABCD set by VLIR/UOS Experts group : FOSS, Multiplatform (Windows+Linux),

multilingual (English/French/Spanish/Portuguese) ISIS- and WWW-based MARC-compatible (+ other formats supported) Other standards : OAI, MODS/METS, Z39.50... Installer and full documentation + training

materials UNICODE (not yet fully implemented)

ABCD Product Presentation 1

Actual development : FOSS-team lead by BIREME (OPS/WHO Brazil)

Technology used in ABCD :

WWW (web-server, web-browser, Apache/PHP, CGI) ISIS (full-text retrieval, run-time relational, semi-

structured 'scheme-less' records) Javascript, AJAX for optimal local processing of data

and less data traffic Windows + Linux platforms Java, Webservices, MySQL (advanced loans), YAZ

(Z39.50)

ABCD Suite scheme :

ABCD MODULES : Database Administration

Allows creation/editing, selection of ANY structure

Pre-configured for MARC21 and CEPAL

Easy migration from ISIS-db's

Edit/translate all (help)screens

ABCD MODULES : Cataloging

Every-day's cataloger's toolbar with browsing, searching, listing, record editing, Z-39.50, reports, statistics and utilities

Authority control and validation

ABCD MODULES : Acquisitions

Deals with all steps in administrative procurement of objects

Creates 'inventory' DB from which loan-objects are created

ABCD MODULES : Loans Central

Allows multiple catalogs + high parametrization

ABCD MODULES : Statistics

Can create tables and graphs on ANY ISIS-database (incl. loans)

ABCD MODULES : OPAC and meta-search

Simple and advanced interfaces

ABCD MODULES : ABCD Site

Highly customizable portal

ABCD MODULES : Site Manager (CMS)

Allows editing of ALL Site elements, including structure of the Site page

ABCD MODULES : Serials Control System

1800 pre-defined titles

Titles : ISSN Title+ : admin.

management 200 pre-defined

publication templates

Search function Union-catalog

ABCD MODULES : Advanced Loans Empweb

allows multi-server and -policies, JDBC, SQL-databases

based on 'pipe-lined' rules (no limits)

Practical info on ABCD

Download page : http://bvsmodelo.bvsalud.org/php/level.php?lang=en&component=31&item=13

DOCBIBLAS project contact :

egbert.desmet@ua.ac.be

ABCD FOSS platform (trac/svn/wiki) available at http://reddes.bvsalud.org/projects/abcd (will be fully opened end of September after release 1.0)

What's next ?

DOCBIBLAS II approved by VLIR/UOS : 2 years + budget to guide 5 partner univ. libraries in the implementation of ABCD

Many libraries in L.A and Africa have announced migration to ABCD

Further development to be embedded into new ISIS-FOSS community (lead by ICCI)

Many basic challenges remain... (connectivity, electr. power, staff capacity building)

FINALLY...

Some ideas for further discussion – actions: Interest for ABCD in Flanders/Belgium/Holland

?? Should Southern libraries automate ?

is it indeed viable ? or to be skipped all along ? (virtual libraries...)

Automation only by computer experts or also by librarians?

THANKS for your kind attention !