WILMINGTON, Delaware — October 31, 2017 — FOLIO, a community collaboration to develop an open source Library Services Platform (LSP), has today announced a partnership with Jisc, the United Kingdom’s leader in digital technologies for education and research. Jisc will bring their expertise to the project while looking to leverage FOLIO’s technologies in their own projects where appropriate.
Jisc’s Head of Library Analytics Services, Ross MacIntyre, said, “Jisc is interested in being directly involved with FOLIO to contribute to its innovative efforts to shape the future of libraries. As a champion of the future of digital technologies, we believe that FOLIO is an important initiative for libraries. We are in favour of increasing the choice available to our members and would like to see more competition in the library management system marketplace. We welcome an open and community-driven approach to developing services for libraries, and we appreciate the efforts of the global FOLIO Community to solve problems of need and scale.”
Since being introduced in June 2016, FOLIO has gained significant backing from libraries looking to use it to run their libraries. By having the financial backing of large organizations, and by leveraging the Apache v2 license, libraries understand that FOLIO is a long-term, open solution to their ILS/LSP needs. FOLIO is being designed to meet the current needs of libraries while also providing a platform ecosystem that will allow for growth and innovation beyond traditional library workflows.
Because FOLIO will allow for libraries to run the platform themselves or rely on hosting and support from vendor partners and consortia, FOLIO will be able to meet the needs of libraries of all sizes and expand the adoption of open source solutions beyond libraries with large technical staffs. This new business model means libraries are not locked into a single vendor offering a monolithic option. Instead, choice is increased and budgetary savings can be realized because libraries can choose from the various apps provided by current service providers, library consortia or new players interested in innovating in the library space. FOLIO is designed with a microservices architecture which ensures that legacy issues don’t slow down future development, as no part of the project will be too big to replace.
How to Join the Community
Community members may participate in a variety of ways, by contributing their knowledge of specific workflows and functional areas, contributing their vision of how library technology must evolve in the years to come, contributing code, and helping to build out applications for the new extensible platform.
Interested participants can sign up at www.folio.org and click on Join the Community to take part in FOLIO, including future FOLIO Days and conference presentations around the world.
About FOLIO
FOLIO is a collaborative effort among libraries, vendors, developers and consortia that leverages open source technology and a community-based effort to redefine library services and innovate based on library futures. By building on what libraries need and by leveraging library expertise as well as vendor capacity and velocity, FOLIO is designed to move libraries forward, build on the services they provide and redefine the role libraries play within their institution. FOLIO also levels the playing field and makes open source technology available to all institutions regardless of size or staffing. FOLIO brings vendors together to innovate and host services for customers and introduces open source as a service to libraries. To sign up to participate or receive more information go to www.folio.org.
About the Open Library Foundation
The Open Library Foundation is a not-for-profit where the library community can organize, contribute to and sustain the output of open source projects. The Open Library Foundation supports open collaboration and ensures that these projects can sustain their operations and the availability of their output. The Open Library Foundation uses an Apache v2 license to ensure the widest availability of the code for use and reuse. Find out more at www.openlibraryfoundation.org.
About Jisc
Jisc is the UK’s expert member organisation for digital technology and digital resources in higher education, further education, skills and research. Our vision is to make the UK the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world.
We play a pivotal role in the development, adoption and use of technology by UK universities and colleges. Supporting them to improve learning, teaching, the student experience and institutional efficiency, as well as enabling more powerful research.
At the heart of Jisc’s support is Janet – the UK’s world-class National Research and Education Network (NREN). Owned, managed and operated by Jisc, Janet comprises a secure state-of-the-art network infrastructure spanning all four nations of the UK.
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