On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Dan Scott <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> "Rainwater, Jean" <[email protected]> 1/27/2012 6:14 AM >>> >> We've used a home-grown course reserves system for text, audio, and video >> since 2003. That system is showing its age and we're exploring whether to >> replace or completely overhaul it. We know of ReservesDirect - are there >> other open source applications out there? If folks have experience with >> ReservesDirect and are willing to share that would be useful too. > > Hi Jean: > > Syrup (source repo visible at > http://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=Syrup.git;a=summary - most recent commit 3 > weeks ago, so it's a going concern) is a Django-based reserves system that > Art Rhyno and Graham Fawcett built over the past few years. It's in use at a > few institutions, I believe, including the University of Windsor; it has good > integration with Evergreen but was built to be ILS-agnostic, communicating > with an ILS via SIP and Z39.50 (when communication with an ILS is necessary > at all). It was inspired by ReservesDirect, and so enables uploading digital > objects, although I don't think it offers the fax gateway that ReservesDirect > did / does.
I'm curious, as the one who originally put in the fax support for ReservesDirect (which I cribbed from eRes), do people still think this is useful? It was written about 10 years ago -- scanners were neither commonplace nor terribly easy to use. All that's changed, while fax machines are probably becoming less common. My point is that the fax part was kind of a pain to set up and maintain, but the enthusiasm that it received from faculty made it worthwhile. If (as I assume) every academic has a scanner nowadays, is there any justification to run a fax gateway? I ask because I'm about to embark on a similar project. -Ross. > > It can hook into LDAP to provide authentication and authorization > (restricting visibility to courses via class lists if your IT infrastructure > is that sophisticated; giving certain accounts access to upload materials / > edit courses so profs can delegate permissions to TAs and the like), and > allows pretty deep structuring of course content. > > That said, I haven't actually installed or admin'ed Syrup myself, so take my > description for what it's worth :) > > Dan Scott
