"Late in 2001, the Nelsonville Public Library became interested in exploring the possibility of doing away with our commercial integrated library system (ILS) and replacing it with open source software. While I am sure cost (or rather, the lack of cost) was part of the allure of open source, if I recall correctly Joshua F., the library's systems administrator, was aware of open source software, was new to libraries, felt that librarians should be able to easily sympathize with the philosophy of open source, and was shocked at how much libraries were willing to pay for their commercial--and very specialized--software.
"At some point Joshua convinced me to look into Koha, an open source ILS, and I eventually convened a committee of library staff to investigate..."
