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> Are any currently existing open source ILSs flexible enough to support this > model? I kind of doubt it. What are you are doing sounds neat, but is not typical library workflow. Tell me if I'm re-describing what you're talking about correctly: Every book in the library essentially belongs to one of the patrons. Patrons can both borrow books, and loan books to other patrons. The "library" is basically just a facilitator of patron-to-patron lending. So you need to know what books are out that are "owned" by a certain patron, as well as what books are being borrowed by a certain patron. You need to know what books are over-due that are owned by a certain patron, etc. Creating a "location", "branch" or "collection" code for each patron is going to be un-manageable with more than a few dozen patrons. I don't think most existing ILS systems -- open source or not -- are going to be set up to handle that system. On the other hand, many existing ILS systems are going to have all sorts of stuff you _don't_ need, like acquisitions, and serials tracking, and such. I wonder if you are better served looking for software that is NOT library software to handle the actual "circulation". Maybe there is some non-library software that is designed for "a network of people lending stuff to each other"? And then you could always put a Solr-based discovery system on top of that for actual _finding_ of books available to be borrowed, perhaps using VuFind or Blacklight or rolling your own. But the underlying tracking of "circulation" is actually the tricky part -- perhaps write your own custom software for that, if nothing open source can be found, but then export all items to a seperate Solr-based component for the actual search engine. Jonathan ... wrote: > Reading my original post, perhaps I should have made the important point > more clear. > > My question is about an ILS suitable for a library that does not own its > books, but is borrowing those books from patrons. The books all have lease > end dates associated with them. Book lenders are very similar to book > borrowers, and they require end of day processing to see if any of the > library's books are due back to them, in the same way borrower's books are > due back to the library. > > So, in the last two posts which mentioned "simple borrowing", that is what I > am wanting, but for the library to be simply borrowing the books AND for > patron to simply borrow those same books out of the library. > > Book lenders and book borrowers are essentially the same, except lenders > first check a book in, and the due date is when the book leaves the library, > and book borrowers check books out and then back in again. Of course, many > book borrowers are also lenders. > > Are any currently existing open source ILSs flexible enough to support this > model? > > Sorry for the confusion, > Elliot > >