Changes

Open source software and cloud computing have shown that they systems are perceived as enticing technologies for both IT staff and IT/Academic administrators. The ability to implement open source software or adopt cloud services is often met with resistance however not because of lack of interest but because of lack of technical expertise in smaller organizations or lack of perceived benefit in larger organizations. Although these technologies are not neccesarily necessarily related , they offer the combined ability to offer easy to deploy and maintain deployment of services without significant organization investment or local expertise[http://cloud.lib.wfu.edu/blog/gazette/2010/11/04/finding-ways-to-combine-cloud-computing-and-open-source-software/]. This ability would allow organizations to leverage open source systems without the overhead typically associated with "free as in a free kitten." While there are some large national projects looking at using cloud platforms to deliver new services there is an opportunity for a grassroots effort to deploy pre-configured application servers that are simple to deploy and maintain. These 'disposable' servers would serve the needs of both small and large libraries by enabling them to adopt open source software without taking on the requirement of local infrastructure, configuration, or detailed support.