Blog

Dear CORAL User Community,

On behalf of the CORAL Steering Committee (CORAL SC), I’m really pleased to announce that we recently voted unanimously to accept an invitation to join the Open Library Foundation (OLF). A final agreement or memorandum of understanding is currently being drafted. This marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the life of the CORAL project!

Our decision was not made lightly; we invested in months of collaborative discussion with the OLF before making it. As you know, we also engaged you as the user community in that discussion – see more details at http://coral-erm.org/olf-discussion/. Thank you so much for sharing your feedback, to which both parties paid careful attention, and which was critical to our decision-making.

The OLF supports other significant open source communities including FOLIO, VuFind, and GoKB. We feel like we’ll be in good company. More information about the OLF can be found at http://www.openlibraryfoundation.org.

Several factors guided our thinking, but our primary vision is to ensure the longevity and viability of CORAL. Joining the OLF gives us greater visibility, and also gives us important benefits to help us continue to grow CORAL’s capabilities. Our desire is for CORAL and its user community to continue to thrive and provide value for all types of libraries for many years to come. Furthermore, our project and our engaged user community are seen as tremendous examples for other projects. CORAL’s impact is already significant, and will continue to grow as we partner with the OLF.

Although CORAL has accepted the invitation to join the OLF, the process for joining is ongoing. Over the coming weeks, the Steering Committee will be working on the following:

Formalizing an agreement – The OLF is composing a membership agreement for the Steering Committee. Based on your feedback, the Steering Committee is pursuing:

A permissive exit clause – CORAL will be able to leave the OLF for any reason (in case fees are too high or the partnerships become demanding, for example)

Preservation of the GNU license – CORAL must keep the GNU license, which has been the license since the beginning of CORAL

Gathering feedback – As the Steering Committee is looking at the agreement, your input on the terms or considerations would be very helpful, especially if you have concerns about membership or just enjoy license review. Depending on the terms of the agreement and sharing, that discussion will be announced on the user list soon.

Making public announcements – When the agreement is signed, the committees will work with the OLF to publicize the news, i.e., make press releases, contact relevant library bodies, create some materials regarding the news. Please let the Steering Committee know if you’d like to help with that.

Again, members of the CORAL SC warmly welcome your ongoing input, either individually or via the coral-user discussion list.

Steve Oberg, Chair of CORAL Steering Committee