This are my speaking notes for the keynote presentation I gave at Evergreen International 2012. Here's a link to the Prezi Presentation: http://prezi.com/hdnwdkgqrd-7/evergreen-keynote-2012/

1. Evergreen International 2012, Indianapolis, IN
Keynote, April 27, 2012
Greeting
Good morning!
I'm delighted to be here with you for this
year’s Evergreen International, and I would like
to thank Emily Kruse Schaber, Shauna Borger,
and members of the conference planning
committee for the invitation to join you and for
taking care of all the little and big logistics to
make sure that I am here right now.
Introduction
On this, lovely April morning, I would like to
invite you to join me on a short adventure
where we explore the importance of open
source systems for libraries.
But before we venture too far down the path,
and so that you won't be following a stranger
into these woods...
Who am I? And why am I such a proponent of
open source systems for libraries?
As a technology user, I use open source
systems and software such as Ubuntu, Libre
Office, Open Office, GIMP, and thanks to
Connecticut’s largest library consortium –
Bibliomation – I use Evergreen at my public
library.
But, my work with, and realization of the
importance of, open source tools for libraries
began with ERMes - an accidental open source
e-resource management system that I co-
developed in 2008.
I say accidental, because ERMes began simply
as a home-grown e-resource management
system to help me manage the University of

2. Wisconsin - La Crosse's e-resource collection.
I gave a blue print for a relational database to
Bill Doering, and in a month he had the initial
version of ERMes functional.
Then, at the request of another e-resources
librarian, we put ERMes up on the web, wrote
documentation, and now, two releases leater,
ERMes is used by 60 small-medium sized
libraries around the world.
While ERMes helped other libraries manage
their e-resources, ERMes also built a
community of e-resource libraries that helped
me with my work.
Last August I became the e-resources
management librarian at the University of
Connecticut, and as I pursue options to
streamline my e-resource management work
there, I again focusing on open source e-
resource management systems such as ERMes
and CORAL.
Why? Because e-resource management
workflows change and evolve daily if not
hourly, and I need systems that are flexible and
easily to adapt on the fly.
Plus e-resources are expensive, and it is better
for my library’s users to invest library funds
into information resources instead of
proprietary systems to manage them.
In short, my experience with open source
systems for libraries is analogous to a sapling in
the forest of evergreens.
So why is open source so important for
libraries right now?
Let's begin our adventure and investigation of
this question with a few definitions of our
world...

3. What is a library?
Library as collection of physical items...
Let’s focus on this part of the definition; the
idea of a library that renders information
available to those who need and want it…
Now, let’s grow, mature, evolve this
definition…
Organism = Society

4. ...into a habitat of information representing our
society.
And now, what is a librarian, and by librarian I
refer to those that work in libraries, school
media centers, etc....
A keeper of libraries.
Librarians as a Species
Librarians are a class of individuals having
common attributes and designation of being
specialists, keepers, custodians of libraries.
{Library users too!}
So, we have a library as a habitat and then
librarians *AND* our users as species relying
on this habitat…
Which begets questions:
If a library is a collection of material that must be
maintained as a representation of our
society and such a library is charged with the
care accessibility of such materials,
And if a librarian is the specialist, the custodian
of a library then how do we make sure we are
rendering materials accessible?
And…
What is the state of our habitat?

5. Threatened Habitat
Right now, the library as a habitat for librarians
and pursuers of information -- is threatened
which is a bit of a problem for our species but a
huge problem for the long-term existence of a
suitable environments – libraries – as
representations of the organism that is our
society.
If our means of acquiring materials increasingly
diminishes, and if our means of making materials
accessible is
a. costing an increasing amount and/or
b. not fulfilling the obligation of accessibility,
then the environment is no longer a healthy
environment for the organism that is society’s
information,
…than libraries as a habitat, librarians and users
as species depending on said habitat all suffer.
Thus our society is suffering.
Does this mean that librarians
are endangered?

6. What does this mean?
Some might say we are endangered, and at the
very least we're feeling the effects of
information evolution.
How will libraries survive?
We've all heard Herbert Spencer's adage
"survival of the fittest." that he used to describe
Darwin's natural selection. [image of robust,
strength].
What does strength mean in our economy, our
society? [money]
Well, we know that money is a perpetual
problem for libraries.
But what if survival of the fittest doesn't mean
that the library with the biggest budget wins?

7. Let’s take a side path for a moment and look
at survival of the fittest in the non-human
animal world for a moment….
Marc Bekoff...
 Quote
 White Pelicans
 Three Quotes
 Ants
What about human animals?
 Quote from His Holiness the Dalai Lama
And Libraries…
Competition or Cooperation
For our species, the importance of cooperation
shouldn’t come as a surprise for cooperation is
intrinsic to libraries….
They have a long record of cooperating when it
comes to the sharing of their collections.
However, with our emerging definition of a
library, survival of the fittest through
cooperation necessitates more than
interlibrary loan and shared collections.
It means that the infrastructure of our library
habitat needs to be built by cooperation,
community need and support, as well as
transparency.

8. It means open source systems to make the
information we steward accessible.
It means coming together to create, share, and
maintain the fundamental systems that are our
libraries because such systems will be less
expensive, have scalability, and reflect the
essence of our habitat so that the library as an
organism – not just a place - will be accessible.
For when I compare my experience in other
industries to that of librarianship, I know those
that work in libraries to be fiercely passionate
about their work; a bunch a talented folks that
are good at sharing, good at cooperating and
have the ability to keep changing the world –
the world of information access.
I believe that having the right tools to do our
jobs will helps us survive, and that if the people
who work in libraries create the systems and
the tools they need, then we’ll end up exactly
what we need to not only survive, but thrive –
This means becoming a big fish made of many
little fish in the sea of information just like
Swimmy suggested.