Koha: Is an Open Source ILS viable in a large public library system?

Although open source ILS has been successful in many small to medium sized systems – the Nelsonville Public library being the most noteworthy – the fact remains that a system as large as TPL might be ill equipped to deal with many of the unknown factors. For example, the estimation of the TCO for Koha is approximately $1M. However, this does not take into consideration the many factors, such as: bugs in the source coding, the amount of time needed to debug the software, create patches, or design software updates. Furthermore, an effective ILS would not be complete without a backup ILS. Unfortunately, there is little information to even suggest such a precautionary measure, nor whether the current backup ILS at TPL, PC Reliance, would be compatible with Koha. This recommendation then, is basically a question of sustainability over time. It is common knowledge that the City of Toronto is forcing budget cuts to the TPL system. While the idea of implementing an open source ILS has the appearance of meeting the requirements of an ILS, as well as being cost effective, there is not enough known about adopting this type of software for an organization the size of TPL. In saying this, it would also be counterproductive to ignore the possibilities and opportunities that Koha offers, specifically where the discussion of Library 2.0 is concerned. It is recommended, then, that TPL form a pilot program to better gage the possibilities of adopting open source ILS in the future.