I have been following the admirable efforts of the folks at open-ils.org since the beginning of their work, and I am excited by all that they have accomplished in a relatively short timeframe.  One of the things I noted at the outset was the lack of necessary “backend” functionality relating to acquisitions and serials (or as they are more officially labelled now, continuing resources).  This has been true of other open source ILS efforts such as the well-known Koha system, although I think progress has been made on this front there in the past few years.

From this post at their blog, it appears that the open-ils.org folks are tackling this hornet’s nest with their usual enthusiasm and creativity.  I don’t know anyone in the group personally but I know by reputation that every one of them is very good at what he (or she) does.  However, I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem like there is a serials expert on their team.  If I am wrong and there is someone involved who is a serials expert, please correct me!  In this area of systems (acq/serials), just about more than any other area, I think subject expertise is vital.  And I’m not talking just about someone having the techie skills but also having a broad understanding of this entire area of technical services librarianship and how it is changing.  So, folks, may I suggest you try to find someone to fill this gap asap (if you haven’t done so already)?  And no, I am not angling for the task; I’m merely making a suggestion.