Hi,

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 6:53 AM, Wilhelmina Randtke <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> There's not a lock-in issue with LibGuides, because it's used to host
> pathfinders.  Those are supposed to be periodically revisited.  One of the
> big problems is that librarians will start a guide and never finish, or
> make one then never maintain it.  Periodically deleting everything is a
> good thing for pathfinders and subject guides, and people should do it
> anyway.  No one's talking about tools for digital archives, which have lock
> in issues and are way more expensive.
>

Lock-in doesn't have to be absolute to be effective, it just has to has
raise the bar sufficiently high to make users think twice about migrating
away.

This applies even if the data to be moved is transitory and constantly
changing.   For example, if a library has been diligently updating their
pathfinders, but wants to switch platforms, if there were no way to export
them to load into the successor system, the effort of redoing them or doing
a lot of copy-and-pasting could be prohibitive.

As a general statement -- and I know that this battle has been bitterly
fought in the ILS space -- I believe that *all* library software services,
whether based on F/LOSS software or proprietary software, should provide a
way for the library to obtain a full dump of their data, in an accessible
format, at no additional charge.

I see that LibGuides advertises the ability to make local backups of
individual pages and also provides (via a paid add-on module) an XML export
function.  I don't know if SpringShare will also provide free one-time
exports on request, but I would hope they do.

Of course, even if one has the data in hand, data migrations can still take
a lot of time, effort, and expertise.

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
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