Our task in the future will be to establish a strong FOLIO Community to ensure a stable and ongoing development of FOLIO, so that we can offer libraries an alternative to the traditional ILS.
PHILADELPHIA (PRWEB) March 23, 2021
The results are in. The FOLIO project has held project-wide elections for the first time to initiate FOLIO’s new Community Council. The Community Council’s role is to foster a healthy and productive community ecosystem of sustainable collaboration for the FOLIO project. Among the responsibilities of the Community Council are to ensure a strong community by onboarding new members to the FOLIO project and making sure that the community is collaborative and inclusive.
The new council represents both new and previous member organizations/institutions and individuals. The following community members have been voted onto the inaugural FOLIO Community Council:
- Kathleen Berry, University of Massachusetts/Five Colleges
- Rachel Besara, Missouri State University
- Tom Cramer, Stanford University
- Mike Gorrell, Index Data
- Dracine Hodges, Duke University
- Ian Ibbotson, Knowledge Integration
- Harry Kaplanian, EBSCO Information Services
- Kirstin Kemner-Heek, GBV|VZG
- Marko Knepper, University Library Mainz
- Keven Liu, Shanghai Library
- Boaz Nadav Manes, Lehigh University
- Maike Osters, hbz
- Leander Seige, Leipzig University
- Paula Sullenger, Texas A&M University
- Simeon Warner, Cornell University
Simeon Warner from Cornell University says the project is at an important point as an increasing number of sites go live and librarians around the world are introduced to the platform. “As we communicate the work of the FOLIO community in creating this new library service platform, we are also looking toward what’s next. Those who have implemented FOLIO have unique perspectives to share as we work to ensure the long-term sustainability of the project and the community, and to help new member institutions of all sizes join.”
Maike Osters is the FOLIO Project Lead at hbz Cologne and Head of hbz’s Library Management Department. She says this new governance model will help all members shape the project. “As we onboard new members, it is important to make sure we are open but that we also reach out to organizations that would be a good fit to innovate off the FOLIO platform. Our task in the future will be to establish a strong FOLIO Community to ensure a stable and ongoing development of FOLIO, so that we can offer libraries an alternative to the traditional ILS.”
The new governance model is designed to grow with the project as sites around the world implement the FOLIO platform, and as libraries and organizations innovate off the platform. The changing governance model will allow the open source project to be even more open.
The Community Council will coordinate closely with the Product Council and the Technical Council. One of the first tasks the Community Council will manage will be an election for new members of these other councils, expected in May.
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 http://www.folio.org.
For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Media Relations, FOLIO
978-223-0438
kathleen@folio.org