The goal of the Kuali Open Library Environment Project is to define a next-generation technology environment based on a thoroughly re-examined model of library business operations. The model will then be used to develop specifications for a next generation community-sourced library management system, Kuali OLE (pronounced oh-LAY). This software system will be a part of the academic enterprise technology framework and will scale up to connect with other enterprise technology systems within the academic and administrative computing environment. The software system will also be capable of scaling down for stand-alone library use.
The Kuali OLE Project has its beginnings in the Open Library Environment Project (OLE), a planning project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for 2009-2010 that investigated the scope, scale, governance, and community building opportunities involved in developing an open source software management system specifically designed to meet the needs of the academic and research library community.
The OLE Project Design Team made many recommendations concerning the feasibility of building a community-sourced academic library management system, and these recommendations are the primary basis for the Kuali OLE build phase. The recommendations can be found in the OLE Project Final Report, available for comment on the OLE Project website.
Building on these recommendations, Kuali OLE intends to deliver nothing less than an enterprise-ready, community source software package for academic and research libraries and a governance model in which the entire library community can collaborate to own and govern the resulting intellectual property. Kuali OLE also intends to attract a thriving marketplace of independent vendors to deliver services and support to its active community. The new governance entity, Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment), will be supported by the Kuali OLE Founding Partners.
The Kuali OLE Project will be made possible by generous contributions of the Kuali OLE Founding Partners. The initial two-year development cycle of the Kuali OLE Project (2009-2011) will be made possible with additional funding being sought from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. When Phase I of Kuali OLE is complete, (2009-2011), Kuali OLE will allow libraries to discontinue their current library automation systems for managing scholarly information, and manage their business functions through the Kuali OLE software or (at the institution’s discretion) through the enterprise integration of Kuali OLE with Kuali-based or existing enterprise management systems.
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To learn more about OLE, see the OLE Project Final Report to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.