Since its launch in June, there has been growing excitement around creating an open source, community-driven library services platform for libraries. Librarians, developers and vendors have all become part of the community, contributing in various ways to the growth of the initiative. FOLIO marked a series of milestones in 2016:
- It was first introduced in March at Code4Lib, where Sebastian Hammer from Index Data introduced the project.
- It was officially launched on June 24th.
- The first online community forum was held on July 13th. The goal was to answer questions about FOLIO and provide attendees with information about how to participate.
- In late August, the FOLIO repositories containing the initial base code were made available on GitHub.
- In September, the Open Library Foundation was established to foster, develop and sustain open technologies and innovation to support libraries, learning, research and teaching.
- Throughout the year, a series of meetups were held to bring the community together, including at MIT, in New York City, Charleston, South Carolina, and in Copenhagen, Denmark.
FOLIO relies on the community to grow and succeed. There are a myriad of ways to become involved in the project:
- Become an advocate: spread the word about the initiative and encourage others to participate. Maybe even pass this email along….
- Join webinars and in person events to learn more about the project and meet fellow community members.
- Follow and interact with FOLIO on Twitter.
- Ask questions, post thoughts, and follow FOLIO discussion and topics.
- Learn about the latest developments, events and webinars in our community updates.
- Access FOLIO code and documentation.
- Chat with us in real time on Slack. Request access at slack-invitation.folio.org.
- Join or form a Special Interest Group (SIG) around any functional area or interest.
