Primary Research Group, (www.PrimaryResearch.com), publisher of research reports about libraries and higher education, is seeking assistance in developing a questionnaire on open source software use for 1) public libraries and 2) academic and special libraries and museums. The questionnaires should cover defining the most fertile areas for open source use, the best open source use decisions and reason why they were such good decisions, making contacts and managing relationships in the open source community, quantifying savings from open source use, dealing with open source licenses, modifying open source programs, and other issues related to optimizing open source use behavior by libraries. The aim of the report is to give libraries the answer to the following questions: what kinds of open source programs should I be using or considering? What are other libraries using or considering? What kind of talent do I need to adjust open source programs to my specific needs? How d! o I benefit from the broader open source community in making these adjustments? What are the benefits of open source use vs the alternatives? How do I quantify these benefits and promote open source use in my library? How do I control staff costs related to using open source programs? How do I best conduct internal training? What are the licensing and copyright issues involved, if any? The assignment should take a few hours for someone highly familiar with open source software use by libraries and the assignment is compensated. Interested parties should email us at [email protected] with your cv.
