Leading open source with Pytheas

There is no doubt that if libraries are to regain some authority over the quality of information being disseminated to the online information user, headway into more flexible instant information sharing is going to have to be implemented. University libraries and progressive public libraries are becoming aware of this and starting to experiment with open source software and integrating these tools into existing web presences or rebuilding whole sections of the web sites to accommodate more web 2 applications. The University of South Caroline has used free open source wiki software to build what looks like a normal university library web site. This site allows staff and registered public to edit material. More exciting is the work being carried out by the University of Virginia which has developed an open source OPAC which is calls Project Blacklight and has been build as an open source initiative that will be available to all libraries who dare to cut the strings to more established vendor OPAC systems.

DSpace a free open source software solution for accessing, managing, and preserving scholarly works is being used by a plethora of institutions to foster open source knowledge sharing and information networking.

Pytheas is one application which is attempting through XML code to integrate open source software into the library environment. Although the graphic interface leaves a lot to be desired the code paths protocols that pytheas is using look very interesting. Here they are marrying Marc, RDF, HTML, XML, WorldNet and Google API into one searchable user interface.