If I may summarize and dissect:

* The communication problem: conveying to people that MyLibrary is a
toolset
* The adoption problem: shortage of knowledgable tool-users in Library
Land, ie perl coders, impedes adoption
* Supply/Demand problem: as others have noted, some people want turnkey
instead of toolset

Creating a turnkey solution can address all three problems.
In the first case, it could eliminate the problem. It might also
exacerbate the problem, in that people might become "blind" to the tools
and focus entirely on the turnkey option. In the second case, you could
either promote Perl within Library Land, or you could "sell" MyLibrary
in other communities. Selling in other communities would certainly be
aided by a simple turnkey solution demonstrating what the toolset can
do. And the third case is self-explanatory.

Now that I've said with extra verbiage what others have already said
concisely, I have achieved a noteworthy and admirable pinnacle,
redundant superfluosness.

/dev
--
Devon Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Senior Software Engineer, Office of Research
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc
http://www.oclc.org/research/
http://www.oclc.org/research/staff/smith.htm





-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Eric Lease Morgan
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 10:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] toolbox versus turnkey

One of the biggest problems we have been having with MyLibrary 3.0 is
getting across to people that MyLibrary is more like a toolbox and not a
turnkey system. It is a set of Perl modules used to create digital
library collections and services. It is not a program.

One one hand, by turning the system into purely object-oriented Perl
modules we have been able to exploit all sorts of cool things with
MyLibrary: SRU interfaces, OAI interfaces, importing and exporting in
various formats (MARC, RSS, email, RDF, etc.). At the same time people
seem to be expecting a turn-key application. A similar discussion seems
to be happening on one of the DSpace lists.

Given the low numbers of people in Library Land who can write (Perl)
scripts, this could be a serious impediment to adoption.

In your opinions, what might be some resolutions or work-arounds to this
problem?

--
Eric Lease Morgan
University Libraries of Notre Dame