Posted: January 11, 2010
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has approved a $2.38 million grant for the development of the Kuali Open Library Environment. Kuali OLE will be an open source platform for scholarly support and knowledge management, intended as a replacement for today’s library automation systems, using state-of-the-art design and software engineering principles and practices. The Project will enable libraries worldwide to join a community dedicated to improving management of rapidly expanding digital resources and collections.
The Kuali OLE Project is a partnership of research libraries, including the University of Chicago Library, dedicated to managing increasingly digital resources and collections. Together, these libraries will develop "community source" software that will be made available to libraries worldwide.
Kuali OLE (pronounced Oh-LAY) partners include Indiana University (lead); University of Chicago; Florida Consortium (University of Florida representing Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, Rollins College, University of Central Florida, University of Miami, University of South Florida, the Florida Center for Library Automation); Lehigh University; Triangle Research Libraries Network, represented by Duke University and North Carolina State University; University of Maryland; University of Michigan; and the University of Pennsylvania.
Large academic research libraries such as these manage and provide access to millions of items, using software to track interrelated transactions that range from ordering and paying for items to loaning materials to library patrons. Kuali OLE project researchers will now work to create a next-generation library system that breaks away from print-based workflows and reflects the changing nature of library materials and new approaches to scholarly work.
“As a build partner in this community sourced project, the University of Chicago Library continues to take a leading role in the development and adoption of cutting-edge library technology,” said Judith Nadler, Director and University Librarian at the University of Chicago. “We have a long history of such innovation going back to the creation of one of the first library automation systems in the 1970s and have been active in implementing new user services to meet the growing demand for virtual access ever since.”
“These efforts have made us acutely aware of the difficulties of integrating proprietary applications of different generations and the duplication of effort and additional costs required by a “stand alone” integrated library system (ILS) in a campus computing environment,” said Nadler. We envision the replacement of our existing ILS with a product like Kuali OLE as an essential step for enabling online services to meet current and future users’ expectations.”
“A community-sourced system such as the Kuali OLE Project is the most promising path now available to enable the Library to develop and offer cost-effective new services in the future,” said James Mouw, Assistant Director for Technical and Electronic Services at the University of Chicago Library.
“We see the Project as an investment that will allow us to take the disparate systems that have grown in response to user needs and move them forward in a coordinated manner, while enabling the rapid addition and development of new services,” Mouw said. “A Kuali implementation would allow us to integrate library systems with campus systems for course management, portals, identity, and finance if desired by those units. Kuali also provides a platform to integrate the Library’s systems with scholarly research systems such as Borrow Direct and HathiTrust.”
More than 200 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations and businesses laid the groundwork for the Kuali OLE project by participating in the original OLE project, a design phase that was supported by an earlier grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Duke University.
OLE became an official project of the Kuali Foundation in November. Kuali is a community of universities, colleges, businesses and other organizations that have partnered to build and sustain community-source software for higher education. This affiliation gives Kuali OLE tremendous expertise in developing and sustaining community-based software.
"The Mellon Foundation has a distinguished history of supporting transformative projects for education and cultural preservation," said Brad Wheeler, Kuali Foundation board chair. "We are grateful for their support of this open, extensible and deeply collaborative work among the OLE investing libraries."
Media Contact: Rachel Rosenberg, ra-rosenberg@uchicago.edu, 773-834-1519
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